My Week in Books – 12th December 2021

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical crime mystery The Room of the Dead (Betty Church Mystery #2) by M. R. C. Kasasian.

Tuesday I took part in the publication day push for Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M. K. Wiseman.

Wednesday – I shared my review of historical novel, The Visitors by Caroline Scott as part of the blog tour. 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 publication day review of historical thriller Where God Does Not Walk (Gregor Reinhardt #4) by Luke McCallin

Friday – I shared my review of The Golden Girls’ Getaway by Judy Leigh as part of the  blog tour, 

Saturday – I published my review of 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

Love in a Time of WarLove in a Time of War by Adrienne Chinn (eARC, One More Chapter)

Three sisters
The Great War
The end of innocence…

In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts their innocence is shattered and a new era of uncertainty begins.

Cecelia loves Max but his soldier’s uniform is German, not British, and suddenly the one man she loves is the one man she can’t have. Jessie enlists in the army as a nurse and finally finds the adventure she’s craved when she’s sent to Gallipoli and Egypt, but it comes with an unimaginable cost. Etta elopes to Capri with her Italian love, Carlo, but though her growing bump is real, her marriage certificate is a lie.

As the three sisters embark on journeys they never could have imagined, their mother Christina worries about the harsh new realities they face, and what their exposure to the wider world means for the secrets she’s been keeping…

Being Edith PinsentFinding Edith Pinsent (Netta Wilde #2) by Hazel Ward (eARC, Hope St Press)

Netta Wilde has a task to complete.

She’s agreed to go through the late Edith Pinsent’s diaries and possessions personally. The problem is, she’s been busy sorting out her own life.  But she’s in a better place now. She’s free of her manipulative ex, has a new love in neighbour, Frank and has reunited with her kids. What better time to begin Edie’s story?

But the path to discovery is not easy. There are missing diaries to contend with, boxes of memories to uncover and revelations that turn everything on its head. Revelations that make Netta question if her own life really is sorted.

Delving deeper into Edith’s history, Netta is overtaken by a need to revisit her own past and put things right, but to do that she has to find the two people who once meant everything to her. As her two challenges intertwine, Netta realises that Edith had a purpose for her. One that she must fulfil. Bit by bit, the house yields a lifetime of secrets and the real Edith Pinsent begins to emerge.

But will it be the Edith everyone thought they knew?

The City of TearsThe City of Tears by Kate Mosse  (eARC, Pan MacMillan)

May 1572: for ten violent years the Wars of Religion have raged across France. Neighbours have become enemies, countless lives have been lost, and the country has been torn apart over matters of religion, citizenship and sovereignty. But now a precarious peace is in the balance and a royal wedding has been negotiated. It is a marriage that could see France reunited at last.

An invitation has arrived for Minou Joubert and her family to attend this historic wedding in Paris in August. But what Minou does not know is that the Joubert family’s oldest enemy, Vidal, will also be there. Nor that, within days of the marriage, on the eve of the Feast Day of St Bartholomew, her family will be scattered to the four winds and one of her beloved children will have disappeared without trace . . .

Sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the City of Tears itself – the great refugee city of Amsterdam – this is a story of one family’s fight to stay together and survive against the devastating tides of history . . .


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Winter 2021 To-Read List
  • Book Review: The Alphabet of Heart’s Desire by Brian Keaney

My Week in Books – 5th December 2021

MyWeekinBooks

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.

WednesdayWWW 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 DaysThese 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 WitchesThe 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 EndThey 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