#WWWWednesday – 27th January 2021

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

A book for a blog tour and a book from my Classics Club list

Dublin's GirlDublin’s Girl by Eimear Lawlor (eARC, courtesy of Aria via NetGalley)

1917. A farm girl from Cavan, Veronica McDermott is desperate to find more to life than peeling potatoes. Persuading her family to let her stay with her aunt and uncle in Dublin so she can attend secretarial college, she has no idea what she is getting into. Recruited by Fr Michael O’Flanagan to type for Eamon De Valera, Veronica is soon caught up in the danger and intrigue of those fighting for Ireland’s independence from Britain.

The attentions of a handsome British soldier, Major Harry Fairfax, do not go unnoticed by Veronica’s superiors. But when Veronica is tasked with earning his affections to gather intelligence for Sinn Féin, it isn’t long before her loyalty to her countrymen and her feelings for Harry are in conflict. To choose one is to betray the other…

A Tree Grows in BrooklynA Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (paperback)

The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident.

The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience. 


Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my reviews

To The Dark (Simon Westow #3) by Chris Nickson (eARC, courtesy of Severn House)

The Dead of Winter by S.J. Parris

A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements

Mint by S. R. Wilsher

It’s the summer of 1976, and after nine years in prison, James Minter is home to bury his mother. A history of depression and a series of personal issues has seen her death ruled as suicide.

His refusal to accept that conclusion means he must confront his violent stepfather, deal with the gangster who wants his mother’s shop and, of course, face the family of the boy he killed.

But will his search for the truth in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small seaside town, and the unpicking of the peculiar relationship his mother had with the Stonemason next door, put his own life in danger? (Review to follow for blog tour)

Saving the World: Women – The Twenty-First Century’s Factor For Change by Paola Diana (review copy, courtesy of Quartet and Midas PR) 

A passionate call for international gender equality by a leading entrepreneur; this smart, accessible and inspiring book makes the case for why all nations need more women at the top of politics and economics.

“The status of women is a global challenge; it touches every human being without exception. How is it possible that countries where women have achieved political, economic and social rights after exhausting struggles remain seemingly indifferent to the egregiousness of other nations where the status of women is still tragic? The time has come to help those left behind.” (Review to follow)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

When The World Was OursWhen The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler (review copy, courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

Three friends. Two sides. One memory.

Vienna, 1936.
Three young friends – Leo, Elsa and Max – spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness, and that events soon mean that they will be cruelly ripped apart from each other. With their lives taking them across Europe – to Germany, England, Prague and Poland – will they ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?

My Week in Books – 24th January 2021

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of crime thriller, Forgotten Lives by Ray Britain. 

Tuesday –  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Meant To Read in 2020. I also shared an extract from One Chance: Surviving London’s Gangs by Terroll Lewis.

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…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. I also published my review of Artist, Lover, Soldier, Muse by Arthur D. Hittner.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of A Prince and a Spy (Tom Wilde #5) by Rory Clements.

Friday – As part of the blog tour, I shared my review of historical crime mystery, To The Dark (Simon Westow #3) by Chris Nickson.

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


New arrivals

A Lifetime of MenA Lifetime of Men by Ciahnan Darrell (e-book, courtesy of the author and Random Things Tours)

Tolan has always let her mother have one secret – how she got that scar on her face – playing along with her mother’s game of inventing outlandish tales to explain the wound away. But when she finds a manuscript on her mother’s computer that promises to reveal the true story, Tolan only hesitates for a moment before curiosity compels her to read on.

She’s hoping for answers, but instead, she finds more mysteries tucked away in her mother’s past. Her mother appears to be associated with Bo, a feisty photojournalist who flies to Cuba in pursuit of a story and becomes embedded with Castro’s rebels, but Tolan can’t quite work out their connection. She’s more clear about the relationship between her mother and Michael, a man twelve years her senior. They bond over their shared outcast status, and their friendship quickly becomes intimate, but the relationship antagonizes the self-appointed moral watchdogs in their small town, who start to convert their threats into action. Tolan is pretty sure that Michael is her father. Her mother told her he died years ago, but the book suggests their story had a different ending.

Almost overnight, everything Tolan thought she knew about herself and her family has changed. She wants answers, but to find them, she risks destroying her closest relationships.

Saving MissySaving Missy by Beth Morrey (eARC, courtesy of Harper Collins via NetGalley and Random Things Tours) 

Seventy-nine is too late for a second chance. Isn’t it?

Missy Carmichael is prickly, stubborn – and terribly lonely. Until a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new. Something wonderful.

Missy was used to her small, solitary existence, listening to her footsteps echoing around the empty house, the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock. After all, she had made her life her way.

Now another life is beckoning to Missy – if she’s brave enough…

You Let Me GoYou Let Me Go by Eliza Graham (eARC, courtesy of Lake Union Press via NetGalley and Rachel’s Random Resources) 

A secret family history of love, anguish and betrayal.

After her beloved grandmother Rozenn’s death, Morane is heartbroken to learn that her sister is the sole inheritor of the family home in Cornwall – while she herself has been written out of the will. With both her business and her relationship with her sister on the rocks, Morane becomes consumed by one question: what made Rozenn turn her back on her?

When she finds an old letter linking her grandmother to Brittany under German occupation, Morane escapes on the trail of her family’s past. In the coastal village where Rozenn lived in 1941, she uncovers a web of shameful secrets that haunted Rozenn to the end of her days. Was it to protect those she loved that a desperate Rozenn made a heartbreaking decision and changed the course of all their lives forever?

Morane goes in search of the truth but the truth can be painful. Can she make her peace with the past and repair her relationship with her sister?


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Dead of Winter by S. J. Parris
  • Top Ten Tuesday 
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Mint by S. R. Wilsher
  • Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith