new arrivals

My Week in Books – 2nd May 2021

May 2, 2021May 1, 2021 whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of Charity by Madeline Dewhurst as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Animals From Books and I went on a bookish safari to round up some titles from my bookshelves. I also shared my review of The Ice House by Laura Lee Smith.

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 review of To The Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I joined the blog tour for The Ends of the Earth with a wonderful guest post from its author, Abbie Greaves.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme.

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

Is it a bad sign when even your postman asks whether you really need more books?

The Serpent King (The Whale Road Chronicles #4) by Tim Hodkinson (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

The fight for vengeance has no victors…

AD 936. The great warrior, Einar Unnsson, wants revenge. His mother’s assassin has stolen her severed head and Einar is hungry for his blood. Only one thing holds him back. He is a newly sworn in Wolf Coat, and must accompany them on their latest quest.

The Wolf Coats are a band of fearsome bloodthirsty warriors, who roam the seas, killing any enemies who get in their way. Now they’re determined to destroy their biggest enemy, King Eirik, as he attempts to take the throne of Norway.

Yet, for Einar, the urge to return to Iceland is growing every day. Only there, in his homeland, can he avenge his mother and salve his grief. But what Einar doesn’t know is that this is where an old enemy lurks, and his thirst for vengeance equals Einar’s…

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii’s brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den…

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father’s death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii’s infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara’s spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learnt that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

The Distant Dead (The Detective’s Daughter #8) by Lesley Thomson (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

London, 1940. A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. It looks like she’s another tragic casualty of the Blitz, until police pathologist Aleck Northcote proves she was strangled and placed at the scene. But Northcote himself has something to hide. And when his past catches up with him, he too is murdered.

Tewkesbury, 2020. Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man has been fatally stabbed. He is Roddy March, an investigative journalist for a podcast series uncovering miscarriages of justice. He was looking into the murder of police pathologist Dr Aleck Northcote – and was certain he had uncovered Northcote’s real killer.

Stella Darnell used to run a detective agency alongside her cleaning business. She’s moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it – but Roddy died in her arms, and Stella is someone impelled to root out evil when she finds it. Now she is determined to hunt down Roddy’s killer – but then she finds another body…

Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan (eARC, courtesy of Corvus via NetGalley)

In the Eternal City, no secret stays hidden forever…

Lottie Archer arrives in Rome excited to begin her new job as an archivist. When she discovers a valuable fifteenth-century painting, she is drawn to find out more about the woman who left it behind, Nina Lawrence.

Nina seems to have led a rewarding and useful life, restoring Italian gardens to their full glory following the destruction of World War Two. So why did no one attend her funeral in 1978?

In exploring Nina’s past, Lottie unravels a tragic love story beset by the political turmoil of post-war Italy. And as she edges closer to understanding Nina, she begins to confront the losses in her own life.

The Wrecking Storm (Thomas Tallant Mysteries #2) by Michael Ward (eARC, courtesy of the author)

London, 1641. The poisonous dispute pushing King Charles and Parliament towards Civil War is reaching the point of no return. Law and order in the city are collapsing as Puritan radicals demand more concessions from the King. Bishops and lords are attacked in the streets as the Apprentice Boys run amok. Criminal gangs use the disorder to mask their activities while the people of London lock their doors and pray for deliverance.

No one is immune from the contagion. Two Jesuit priests are discovered in hiding and brutally executed – and soon the family of spice merchant Thomas Tallant is drawn into the spiral of violence. Tallant’s home is ransacked, his warehouse raided and his sister seized by kidnappers.

Thomas struggles to discover who is responsible, aided by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, a devotee of science, maths and tobacco in equal measure. Together they enter a murky world of court politics, street violence, secret codes and poisoned letters, and confront a vicious gang leader who will stop at nothing to satisfy his greed.

Can Elizabeth use her skills to unpick the mass of contradictory evidence before the Tallants are ruined – both as a business and a family?

And as the fight for London between King and Parliament hurtles to its dramatic conclusion, can the Tallants survive the personal and political maelstrom?

Everyday Magic by Charlie Laidlaw (eARC, courtesy of the author)

Carole Gunn leads an unfulfilled life and knows it. She’s married to someone who may, or may not, be in New York on business and, to make things worse, the family’s deaf cat has been run over by an electric car.

But something has been changing in Carole’s mind. She’s decided to revisit places that hold special significance for her. She wants to better understand herself, and whether the person she is now is simply an older version of the person she once was.

Instead, she’s taken on an unlikely journey to confront her past, present and future.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (audiobook)

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realizes that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

The Ends of the Earth by Abbie Greaves (review copy, courtesy of Century)

Mary O’Connor has been keeping a vigil for her first love for the past seven years.

Every evening without fail, Mary arrives at Ealing Broadway station and sets herself up among the commuters. In her hands Mary holds a sign which bears the words: ‘Come Home Jim.’

Call her mad, call her a nuisance, call her a drain on society – Mary isn’t going anywhere.

That is, until an unexpected call turns her world on its head. In spite of all her efforts, Mary can no longer find the strength to hold herself together. She must finally face what happened all those years ago, and answer the question – where on earth is Jim?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Heretic’s Mark by S. W. Perry
Top Ten Tuesday
Blog Tour/Book Review: Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Waiting on Wednesday
My Five Favourite April Reads
Blog Tour/Book Review: Wayward Voyage by Anna M. Holmes
Book Review: My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Blog Tour/Book Review: A Ration Book Daughter by Jean Fullerton

My Week in Books – 25th April 2021

April 25, 2021 whatcathyreadnext

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Colourful Book Covers and I conjured up a rainbow. I also shared my review of Lost Property by Helen Paris as part of the blog tour.

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 books others have plucked from their shelves.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of The Night Train to Berlin by Melanie Hudson.

Friday – I published my review of dual time historical novel Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham as part of the blog tour.

Saturday – As part of the blog tour, I shared my review of Together, a book of wonderful illustrations by Luke Adam Hawker with words by Marianne Laidlaw.

Sunday – It was my turn on the blog tour to review historical crime mystery Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders by David Stafford.

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

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev Hardcover

New arrivals

More fabulous sounding titles have found their way on to my bookshelves (real or virtual) this week

The Late Train to Gipsy Hill by Alan Johnson (eARC, courtesy of Headline via NetGalley)

Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He’s never dared to strike up a conversation… but maybe one day. Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words ‘HELP ME’ scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.

From that moment, Gary’s life is turned on its head. He finds himself on the run from the Russian mafia, the FSB and even the Metropolitan Police – all because of what this mysterious young woman may have witnessed. In the race to find out the truth, Gary discovers that there is a lot more to her than meets the eye…

This Shining Life by Harriet Kline (eARC, courtesy of Doubleday)

For Rich, life is golden. He fizzes with happiness and love. But Rich has an incurable brain tumour.

After Rich dies, his wife Ruth can’t see how to how to keep living, and their young son Ollie is intent on working out the meaning of life. Because everything happens for a reason. Doesn’t it?

Rich leaves behind a family without a father, a husband, a son and a best friend. And he also leaves behind a present for each of them. But while Ollie tries to understand the message within each present, Ruth finds herself adrift. The grief that is threatening to drown her has also unearthed long buried pain. Pain she has to face if she is to have any chance of moving on..

Love and Miss Harris by Peter Maughan (eARC, courtesy of Farrago Books and Random Things Tours)

Titus Llewellyn-Gwlynne, actor/manager of the Red Lion Theatre, has lost a backer who was going to fund a theatrical tour – when unexpected salvation appears. Their home theatre in the East End of London having been bombed during the war, The Red Lion Touring Company embarks on a tour of Britain to take a play written by their new benefactress into the provinces.

As they make their vagabond, singing way, they remain unaware that they leave behind in London a man consumed with thoughts of revenge. Revenge which follows them obsessively from town to town, ending in its final act before the last curtain.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1972, when a boat pulls up to the Maiden Rock lighthouse with relief for the keepers. But no one greets them. When the entrance door, locked from the inside, is battered down, rescuers find an empty tower. A table is laid for a meal not eaten. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a storm raging round the tower, but the skies have been clear all week. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45.

Two decades later, the wives who were left behind are visited by a writer who is determined to find the truth about the men’s disappearance. Moving between the women’s stories and the men’s last weeks together in the lighthouse, long-held secrets surface and truths twist into lies as we piece together what happened, why, and who to believe.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies.

Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.

The Hiding Place by Jenny Quintana

Some houses have their secrets. But so do some people…

Abandoned as a baby in the hallway of a shared house in London, Marina has never known her parents, and the circumstances of her birth still remain a mystery. Now an adult, Marina has returned to the house where it all started, determined to find out who she really is. But the walls of this house hold more than memories, and Marina’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by the other tenants.

Someone is watching Marina. Someone who knows the truth…

Those I Have Lost by Sharon Maas (eARC, courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley)

A secret love affair on a faraway island. Seas crawling with Japanese spies. A terrible war creeping ever closer…

India, 1940. and Rosie is devastated by the sudden death of her beloved mother. The parties, smiles and games disappear, and although Rosie is desperate to stay in her home, her father cannot look after her. All alone in the world, she is sent to Sri Lanka, to live with her mother’s friend Silvia and her three sons. Time passes and Rosie flourishes in her new home amongst the mango trees and canna lilies. And one day, under the heat of the Sri Lankan sun, she falls in love for the first time. But her happiness is short lived, for the brutal war that has devastated families and torn Europe apart is creeping closer to their island. One by one the men depart Sri Lanka leaving Rosie with just memories and a broken heart she must hide.

As Rosie waits for letters that never come, tortured by stories of torpedoed ships and massacres of innocent families, she realises that she cannot just sit and wait for news. She volunteers to help the army, working in military intelligence to protect her island paradise. But then her work brings shocking news that makes her blood run cold. The man she loved is missing, feared dead. Yet Rosie cannot lose hope – even as more women are left widows, more children left without fathers. But when the much longed-for news comes that the war is ended, and a limping wasted figure returns home, will one final devastating revelation tear Rosie’s world apart?

Scandalous Alchemy by Katy Moran (ARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus)

In the palace of Fontainebleau, intrigue and scandal stalk the salons. Princess Sophia of England is on her way there to meet a prospective husband. In Russia, she was known as Nadezhda and rode fearlessly across the steppes with Captain Kitto Helford at her side. Now, he’s escorting her to Fontainebleau, but no one must suspect the love they once shared.

Cornish Clemency Arwenak is in France as the poor relation of an uncle she has come to fear. It’s a relief to be seconded to the princess’s entourage. But soon, long-ago childhood friends, Clemency and Kit Helford, must face a frightening truth. Someone is trying to kill the princess, and Nadezhda, herself, is playing a game that will endanger them all.