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!
What I’m Currently Reading
The Eagle & the Wolf (Age of Attila #1) by Gordon Doherty (HarperCollins via NetGalley)
As Hun hordes and Germanic tribes maraud through Imperial lands, two legendary men – Attila the Hun and the “Last of the Romans” General Flavius Aetius find their fortunes entangled with the chaos.
Flavius Aetius, a noble Roman son, is an outsider in a savage land. He has been banished, given as hostage to the barbaric Huns and sent to the edge of the world.
What the Huns do not know, however, is that his father and mother have been murdered in a coup. He is an orphan, with no value at all. His life hangs on a lie.
In this new harsh world, he manages to find one grudging ally, a young boy named Attila.
A brotherhood is formed. One that, the shamans foretell, will shatter the world.
Little Spark by Jess Kidd (Canongate via NetGalley)
A secret cannot stay locked away forever
Bodkin Bell, orphan, pickpocket and survivor, doesn’t know where she came from, but she knows she’s different. Gaslights flare as she walks past. Cutlery spins. Shocks fly from her fingertips.
For years, she was ‘Little Spark’, the star of an electrifying travelling act – until it went too far and she ended up in a London gaol.
Now she’s been offered a way out. A chance to serve at Point Mote, a vast, desolate house marooned on the misty Kent marshes. There, she will assist a reclusive family of cunning inventors in the creation of automata: miraculous, lifelike machines for which gentlemen collectors will pay handsomely.
But this house of wonders hides mysteries too. As Bodkin starts to question why she is really there, she unearths secrets that have been buried bone-deep for years – and a truth beyond all imagining. One that was never meant to be found.
The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir (Aurum)
The ocean fires our imagination, provides joy, solace and play but also wields immense destructive power. The Draw of the Sea explores communities whose lives revolve around the coast of Cornwall and the Isle of Sciily. In the specifics of these livelihoods and their rich histories and traditions, Wyl Menmuir captures the universal human connection to the sea.
Into this seductive tapestry, Wyl weaves the story of how the sea has beckoned, consoled and restored him. Funny and uplifting, personal and profound, The Draw of the Sea will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and inescapable pull of the sea.
What I’ve Just Read
Invitation from a Dictator by Rory Clements (Viking)
The Millionaire Waltz by Anthony Quinn (Abacus)
London in the 1920s: a young woman treads the path between danger and desire.
Against a backdrop of thuggish blackmail, constricting high society and a London still fragile from the war, Edie Greenlaw is trying to decide what she wants from the world. The closer the prospect of marriage with her handsome war hero fiance becomes, the less fulfilling it seems.
Defying caution she goes to the aid of a friend and entangles herself in a dangerous demi-monde of sexual extortion and violence.(Review to follow)
What I’ll Be Reading Next
The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman (Head of Zeus via NetGalley)
1604. As pirates seeking slaves to sell in the markets of North Africa terrorise the coasts of Europe, headstrong Richard Sheriff and his sister Elizabeth are torn from their Devonshire home and thrust into a waking nightmare.
Richard’s skills as a blacksmith see him fetch a high price, but the pirate captain has other plans for Elizabeth and once they are separated, Richard has no idea of his sister’s fate. They must both learn to survive on a deadly voyage into the unknown.
Sold into servitude in Venice: glittering, vicious city of secrets, he is apprenticed to a knife maker. Richard’s talents soon win him renown… but haunted by his sister’s absence, he vows never to stop looking for her, knowing she would do the same for him.
First he must survive that city of ghosts. Will the siblings live to see each other again, or will they join the myriads lost to Venice, where life is cheap, profit is all, and escape nigh-on impossible?
What Cathy Read Next... 