My Week in Books – 3rd July 2022

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of Nothing Else by Louise Beech as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – I published my review of historical crime mystery, Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books on my Summer 2022 To-Read List.

WednesdayWWW Wednesday is my 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 dual time novel, The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy as part of the blog tour. 

Friday – I shared My Five Favourite June 2022 Reads

Saturday – I took part in the monthly #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Wintering by Katherine May to On the Beach by Nevil Shute. 


New arrivals

The Night ShipThe Night Ship by Jess Kidd (ARC, Canongate)

1629. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.

1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a teenager struggling with a dark past and Gil’s actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.

After She'd GoneAfter She’d Gone by Alex Dahl (eARC, Head of Zeus)

Liv loves her son, Adrian. That’s why she keeps a low profile in Sandefjord, Norway: just another tired single mother, trying to make ends meet. She has never told her son about the secrets she carries or the life she lived before he was born. She will do anything to keep him safe.

Anastasia’s life is transformed when she moves from Russia to Milan and starts modelling. Suddenly, she’s rich. She’s desired. But then she begins to see the dark side of her new life: the high-pressure catwalk shows; the glamorous, drink-fuelled after-parties; the sun-baked Italian palazzos owned by powerful men. She will do anything to escape

Selma is a feature journalist in Oslo. She’s horrified to uncover an unsavoury and dangerous underworld when she writes an article looking into the modelling industry. Then, a woman goes missing in Sandefjord…


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Storyland by Amy Jeffs
  • Book Review: Think of Me by Frances Liardet
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Katastrophe by Graham Hurley

My Week in Books – 26th June 2022

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of Seek The Singing Fish by Roma Wells.

Tuesday – I published my review of Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz as part of the blog tour. 

WednesdayWWW Wednesday is my 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 made another visit Down the TBR Hole challenging more books on my Goodreads To-Read shelf to fight for their survival.  

Friday – I shared my review of the winner of this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, News of the Dead by James Robertson.

Saturday – I published my review of Kezia and Rosie by Rebecca Burns.


New arrivals

Twelve NightsTwelve Nights (The Heavenly Charmers #1) by Penny Ingham (eARC)

London, 1592. When a player is murdered, suspicion falls on the wardrobe mistress, Magdalen Bisset, because everyone knows poison is a woman’s weapon. The scandal-pamphlets vilify her. The coroner is convinced of her guilt.

Magdalen is innocent, although few are willing to help her prove it. Her much-loved grandmother is too old and sick. Will Shakespeare is benignly detached, and her friend Christopher Marlowe is wholly unreliable. Only one man offers his assistance, but dare she trust him when nothing about him rings true?

With just two weeks until the inquest, Magdalen ignores anonymous threats to ‘leave it be’, and delves into the dangerous underworld of a city seething with religious and racial tension. As time runs out, she must risk everything in her search for the true killer – for all other roads lead to the gallows.

A Possible LifeA Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks (Vintage)

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son.

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection – some key to understanding what makes us the people we become.

Instances of the Number 3Instances of the Number 3 by Salley Vickers (4th Estate)

Bridget Hansome and Frances Slater have only one thing in common. And that’s Peter Hansome, who has died suddenly.

Without their husband or lover, the women find that before they can rebuild their lives they must look to themselves and unravel mysteries that they had never before even suspected.

So begins an unlikely alliance between wife and mistress and a voyage of discovery that is as comic as it is profound.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Nothing Else by Louise Beech
  • Book Review: Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy
  • My Five Favourite June Reads
  • #6Degrees of Separation