#WWWWednesday – 3rd April 2024

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

Sword of the War GodSword of the War God by Tim Hodkinson (ARC, Head of Zeus) 

436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome’s legions, for the Empire is weak. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before. But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.

Many years later, the Huns, led by the fearsome Attila, have become the deadliest enemies of Rome. Attila seeks the Burgundars’ treasure, for it includes the legendary Sword of the War God, said to make the bearer unbeatable.

No alliance can defeat Attila by conventional means. With Rome desperate for help, a one-eyed old warlord from distant lands and his strange band of warriors may have the answers… but oaths will be broken and the plains of Europe will run with blood before the end.

Bonjour, SophieBonjour, Sophie by Elizabeth Buchan (eARC, Corvus via NetGalley)

It’s 1959 and eighteen-year-old Sophie is determined that now is the time for her real life to start. Her existence in the village of Poynsdean, Sussex, with her austere foster-father, the Reverend Osbert Knox, and his frustrated wife Alice, is stultifying. She finds brief excitement in an illicit love affair, but soon realizes that if she wants to live life on a bigger canvas she must take matters into her own hands.

She dreams of escape to Paris, the wartime home her mother fled before her birth. Getting there will take spirit and ingenuity, but also offers the chance to discover more about her family background, and perhaps find a place where she can finally belong.

When Sophie eventually arrives in the city of her dreams it’s both everything she imagined, and not at all what she expected.


Recently finished

A Better PlaceA Better Place by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing) Longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024

The old people in the district would often say that Roy was not quite the same after he come back. There was a brother. A twin brother, Tony. Tony Mitchell, different boy but a good rugby player. Bit of a mental case, they said, but Roy would have none of it. He always stayed close to Tony when they were growing up. They both went off to fight, must have been 1940. Only the one come back, though.

Crete, they thought. We lost Tony over there. (Review to follow)


What Cathy Will Read Next

Girl Friends NewGirl Friends by Alex Dahl (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

THEY CAN BUILD YOU UP

Charlotte has it all: the successful career, the loving family. But, secretly, she is dangerously bored of her life. So when she meets free-spirited Bianka, it feels like fate – Bianka is exactly the person that Charlotte needs.

OR TEAR YOU DOWN

On a girls’ trip to Ibiza, home is forgotten as Charlotte dives head first into a life that is looser, wilder. She feels free, but there are devastating consequences: someone doesn’t return home.

As the aftermath of the holiday rips through her life back in London, Charlotte soon regrets ever breaking out of her carefully constructed routine – and begins to wonder whether meeting Bianka was really an accident at all…

My Week in Books – 31st March 2024

My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of crime novel, Death on the Thames by Alan Johnson.

Tuesday – I shared my publication day Q&A with Maria McDonald, author of historical romance, The Keeper of Secrets.  I went slightly off-topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic with a list some of my favourite book to film adaptations.   

Wednesday – As always WWW 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. 

Thursday – I shared an extract from Kill All the Dogs by Rick Berry, the author’s debut novel described as ‘part psychological drama, part political satire‘.

Friday – I published my review of Diva by Daisy Goodwin.

Saturday – I shared my review of The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola.


New arrivals

The Montford ManiacThe Montford Maniac by M.R.C. Kasasian (ARC, Canelo) 

A crazed killer. A town in terror. A mystery ten years in the making…

Lady Violet Thorn’s awful Aunt Igitha arrives uninvited to stay, wreaking havoc in the household. When Violet plucks up courage to ask her to leave, Igitha’s chilling threats are soon realised with deadly effect.

In a devastating series of events, a woman is impaled, another is hanged outside Violet’s window, and a wild beast is delivered to her house.

Violet is soon struck by the similarities between these events, and the unsolved murders committed ten years earlier by the sadistic serial killer known as the Montford Maniac.

Could he have returned? Is Igitha behind the crimes? Or could there be someone even more terrifying on the prowl? The horrors have only just begun.

The Paris PeacemakersThe Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston (ARC, Allison & Busby)

Paris, 1919. As the fragile negotiations of the International Peace Conference get underway, typist Stella Rutherford throws herself into her work and the mixture of glamour and devastation the City of Light reveals. She will do anything to escape the grief coming in waves for her beloved brother Jack, buried near Arras.

Her sister Corran is about to put her academic career to use teaching the troops in France, a chance to see what the experience was like for countless men, including her fiancé Rob Campbell.

Rob was part of the celebrated Scottish rugby team who were swept up in war fever and mown down in battle. He has been profoundly marked by his time as a surgeon on the front line, devastated by the incessant grind of the injured, dying and dead.

The Paris Peacemakers follows three Scots as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives while the fabric of Europe is stitched together for good or ill.

Possible HappinessPossible Happiness by David Ebenbach (eARC, Fitzroy Books)

Eleventh-grader Jacob Wasserman is just trying to get by.

Under the radar, he spends his weekends at home by himself, leaning on TV and video games to distract himself from the weight — these days we would call it depression — inside him.

But he’s secretly got a quirky sense of humor, and, when he starts letting it show, he finally gets noticed. In fact, before he knows it, Jacob’s ability to keep people entertained has drawn him into a full-time social life, complete with a circle of friends, parties, and even a girlfriend.

But is this newfound acceptance enough to unlock meaningful well-being? Is this entertainer even the real Jacob?

Possible Happiness is a funny and tender coming-of-age story about developing the courage to face and understand yourself.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • My Five Favourite March Reads
  • Book Review: A Better Place by Stephen Daisley
  • Author Q&A: Sardines by Angel Dionne
  • #6Degrees of Separation
  • Author Q&A: A Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke