Currently Reading

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!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber)

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season.

As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.

The Lost Girl in Paris by Jina Bacarr (eARC, Boldwood)

‘I will never forget what the Nazi did to me. Never’

1940, Paris. As Nazis patrol the streets of the French capital, Tiena is alone, desperate and on the run. After defending herself against the force of an officer, she must find a new identity in order to survive. An accidental meeting with members of the Resistance gives her a lifeline, as she is offered the chance to reinvent herself as perfumer Angéline De Cadieux.

However Angéline will never forget what happened to her, and will do everything she can to seek revenge. But vengeance can be a dangerous game, and Angeline can only hide her true identity for so long before her past catches up with her, with some devastating consequences…

Paris, 2003. When the opportunity arises for aspiring journalist Emma Keane to interview world renowned perfumer Madame De Cadieux about her life during World War Two, she is determined to take it. There are secrets from her own family history that she hopes Angéline may be able to help unlock.

But nothing can prepare Emma for Angéline’s story, and one thing is for certain – it will change her own life forever…

Recently finished

Links from titles will take you to my review

Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M. K. Wiseman

The Visitors by Caroline Scott (Simon & Schuster)

The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh (Boldwood Books)

Where God Does Not Walk (Gregor Reinhardt #4) by Luke McCallin (Oldcastle Books)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Cornish Captive by Nicola Pryce (ARC, Corvus via Readers First)

Cornwall, 1800. Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can’t quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine determines to discover the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Unsure who to trust and alone in the world, Madeleine strikes a tentative friendship with a French prisoner on parole, Captain Pierre de la Croix. But as she learns more about the reasons behind her imprisonment, and about those who schemed to hide her away for so long, she starts to wonder if Pierre is in fact the man he says he is. As Madeleine’s past collides with her present, can she find the strength to follow her heart, no matter the personal cost?

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of light-hearted crime novel A Three Dog Problem by S. J .Bennett.

Tuesday – I shared my review of historical novel The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal as part of the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading.

Thursday – I shared my Five Favourite November Reads.

Friday – I published my review of historical thriller Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray, another book for the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

Saturday – I took part in the #6DegreesOfSeparation meme and also, as part of the blog tour, shared a promo post for The Lost Girl in Paris by Jina Bacarr.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

These Days by Lucy Caldwell (ARC, Faber & Faber via Readers First)

Two sisters, four nights, one city.

April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war – so far. Over the next two months, it’s going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.

Many won’t make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.

Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey – one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman – as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.

The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore (Granta)

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow.

In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes.

But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins, a mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, takes over The Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge.

The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (Simon & Schuster)

On September 5th, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: they’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but for different reasons, they’re both looking for a new friend on their End Day.

The good news: there’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure – to live a lifetime in a single day.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: The Room of the Dead by M. R. C. Kasasian
Blog Blitz/Book Review: Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M. K. Wiseman
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Visitors by Caroline Scott
Book Review: Where God Does Not Walk by Luke McCallin
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh
Book Review: The Lost Girl in Paris by Jina Bacarr

Tag: Currently Reading

#WWWWednesday – 8th December 2021