My Week in Books – 18th February 2024

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of How to be Brave by Louise Beech.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie on the theme of love. My list was Books for Lovers… of Gardens.  I also shared my review of thriller, The Shadow Network by Tony Kent.

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. 

Friday – I published my review of His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.


New arrivals

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. 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.

The Story CollectorThe Story Collector by Iris Costello (ARC, Penguin UK)

London, 1915: Tarot reader Katerina is trying to hold her life together amid the wartime chaos. When she opens a bakery that offers divination alongside sweet treats, she is hailed as a beacon of hope. But Katerina is hiding a dark truth that could cost her everything.

Germany, 1918: A mute British soldier is taken to a prisoner of war camp where he meets Miriam, a researcher. She is drawn to his gentle manner and secretly vows to help him. But soon she will have to make an impossible will she save the one she loves, or herself?

Cornwall, Present Recently widowed Edie is astonished to discover a mysterious box hidden in the wall of her newly renovated cottage. As Edie starts to investigate, she uncovers a secret that has lain hidden for over a century…

A Place Without PainA Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke (review copy, courtesy of the author)

Aidan Collins has always been an outsider, a weirdo, an oddball. But the arrival of his worldly, urbane cousin Dan, changes his life completely. Dan introduces Aidan to alcohol, to girls, to a life beyond the four walls of his bedroom, and eventually, to the night out to end all nights out in Dublin.

What he sees in the capital, what he’s exposed to, also changes Aidan’s life, but not in a good way. A scene behind a closed door haunts him, torments him, leaving behind scars which may never heal.

In the Garden of SorrowsIn the Garden of Sorrows by Karen Jewell (eARC, courtesy of the author)

Isabel Fuller, a strong, once passionate woman, is deadened with grief by the death of her oldest son in the First World War, haunted by visions of him dying alone, and bitter at her husband for encouraging him to enlist.

When a young, charismatic preacher arrives for a revival one summer, he awakens in Isabel an intense attraction and feelings long forgotten. When she finally succumbs to his seduction, their affair pushes Isabel’s marriage to the breaking point. 


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Remember, Remember by Elle Machray
  • Book Review: The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller

My Week in Books – 11th February 2024

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – I published my review of The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy. And this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Quick Reads/Books to Read in a Day.

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 published my review of Other Worlds Were Possible by Joss Sheldon

Friday – In advance of the announcement of the longlist for this year’s The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in a few weeks’ time, I picked five novels shortlisted in previous years that didn’t go on to win. 


New arrivals

Invader (Agricola #1)Invader (Agricola #1) by Simon Turney (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

58 AD, Rome. Agricola, teenage son of an impoverished yet distinguished noble family, has staked all his resources and reputation on a military career. His reward? A posting as tribune in the far-off northern province of Britannia.

Serving under renowned general Suetonius Paulinus, Agricola soon learns the brutality of life on the very edges of the empire, for the Celtic tribes of Britannia are far from vanquished.

To take control of the province, the Romans must defeat the ancient might of the druids – and the fury of the Iceni, warriors in their thousands led by a redoubtable queen named Boudicca…

Death on the ThamesDeath on the Thames (Louise Mangan #3) by Alan Johnson (eARC, Wildfire via NetGalley)

1999. A young Detective Constable Louise Mangan crosses the Thames one misty morning in pursuit of a killer. She finds a tranquil community on a leafy island close to Hampton Court Palace, but soon realises that all is not as it seems. There is something evil at play in this quiet suburb, and this junior detective’s questions seem only to scratch the surface.

Twenty years later, a horrific fire brings Detective Chief Superintendent Mangan back to that same island. Soon, she discovers that murder was just a drop in these dark waters.

The river runs deep, and the tide is rising at last. Will the truth rise with it?

The Other PrincessThe Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce (eARC, Allison & Busby via NetGalley)

By the time she was seven years old, Aina had been born into life as an Egbado princess, witnessed the brutal killing of her entire family, and had been enslaved to a rival chieftain. With a death sentence hanging over her head, she would also face being bartered as an exotic trophy, renamed and presented to the distant Queen Victoria as a ‘gift’.

From traumatic beginnings, Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s will to survive led her to negotiate Her Majesty’s court, cultivate friends in high places and to flourish in a world far removed from her rural African upbringing.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
  • Book Review: How to be Brave by Louise Beech
  • Book Review: The Shadow Network by Tony Kent