#WWWWednesday – 26th October 2022

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

Mother of ValorMother of Valor (Valorie Dawes Thriller #4) by Gary Corbin (eARC, Double Diamond Publishing)

As part of a prostitution sting operation, rookie cop Val Dawes uncovers a national sex trafficking ring operating out of Clayton, one with ties to a violent shadowy right-wing splinter group. Her investigation reveals the group may be planning a violent attack in a matter of days.

Just when the investigation heats up, her estranged mother, who left without a trace a decade before, suddenly reappears on the scene, with a nine-year-old brother Val never knew she had. Manipulative and cunning, her mother divides Val’s attention and loyalties, seemingly intent on disrupting both Val’s promising career and her rekindled relationship with her father.

As the group’s violent plans near, Val tries to safeguard her family, leading to shocking discoveries about why her mother returned – and why she left in the first place.

Can Val keep her community safe without destroying her family?

Best of FriendsBest of Friends by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury via Readers First)

Fourteen-year-old Maryam and Zahra have always been the best of friends, despite their different backgrounds. Maryam takes for granted that she will stay in Karachi and inherit the family business; while Zahra keeps her desires secret, and dreams of escaping abroad.

This year, 1988, anything seems possible for the girls; and for Pakistan, emerging from the darkness of dictatorship into a bright future under another young woman, Benazir Bhutto. But a snap decision at a party celebrating the return of democracy brings the girls’ childhoods abruptly to an end. Its consequences will shape their futures in ways they cannot imagine.

Three decades later, in London, Zahra and Maryam are still best friends despite living very different lives. But when unwelcome ghosts from their shared past re-enter their world, both women find themselves driven to act in ways that will stretch and twist their bond beyond all recognition.


Recently finished

Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn (Abacus)

Rivals of the Republic by Annelise Friesenbruch (Duckworth)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Coming DarknessThe Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse (ARC, Moonflower)

Paris, 2037. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service is hunting for eco-terrorists. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust – not his secretive lover Mariam, not even his old mentor, Professor Fayard, the man at the centre of the web. He is ready to give up. But he can’t.

In search of the truth, Alex must follow the trail through an ominous spiral of events, from a string of brutal child murders to a chaotic coup in North Africa. He rapidly finds himself in a heart-thumping race against chaos and destruction. He could be the world’s only hope of preventing THE COMING DARKNESS . . .

 

My Week in Books – 23rd October 2022

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Favourite Words and I focused on words and phrases often used (or overused depending on your point of view) in relation to books.  

WednesdayWWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Friday – I shared my review of crime mystery House of Tigers along with a ‘Lucky Dip’ Q&A with its author William Burton McCormick.


New arrivals

BellatrixBellatrix (Legion XXII #2) by Simon Turney (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Titus Cervianus is no ordinary soldier. And the Twenty Second is no ordinary legion…

Egypt, 25 BC. Titus Cervianus marches into the unknown as he and the Twenty Second Legion contend with the armies of the Bellatrix: the Warrior Queen of Kush. The Kushites and the Egyptians are united against the Roman presence in their lands – but there are complex political and military forces at work. Deep in the deserts, Cervianus and his comrades must brace themselves for a furious onslaught as they take on the might of the Bellatrix.

ResurrectionResurrection (The Englishman #3) by David Gilman (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley) 

Somewhere in the Sahara, on the desolate border between Sudan and Chad, a P51 Mustang with long-range drop tanks slowly emerges from the dunes. Inside, the skeletalized remains of a man missing for three decades. His flying jacket bears no insignia, a worn leather attaché case lies by his side, held securely by a manacle around his left wrist. Inside a document men will kill for. Die for.

The sands of time have shifted, and whoever finds that aircraft finds information that could expose the most valuable spy the UK intelligence service has ever known. The British, the French, and the Russians are on the trail.

And so is Raglan.

Death to the EmperorDeath to the Emperor (Eagle #21) by Simon Scarrow (eARC, Headline via NetGalley)

It is AD 60. The hard-won province of Britannia is a thorn in the side of the Roman Empire, its tribes swift to anger, and relentless in their bloody harassment of the Roman military. Far from being a peaceful northern enclave, Britannia is a seething mass of bitter rebels and unlikely alliances against the common enemy. Corruption amongst greedy officials diverts resources from the locals who need them. For the military, it’s a never-ending fight to maintain a fragile peace.

Now it’s time to quell the most dangerous enemy tribes. Two of Rome’s finest commanders – Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro – are charged with a mission as deadly as any they have faced in their long careers. Can they win the day, or could this be the last battle?


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn
  • Book Review: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph