WWW Wednesdays – 28th June 2017

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words, WWW Wednesdays is a fantastic meme 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? Leave a comment with your link on the WWW Wednesdays post at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

DarkDawnoverSteepHouseDark Dawn over Steep House by M R C Kasasian (review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus)

London, 1884: 125 Gower Street, the residence of Sidney Grice, London’s foremost personal detective, and his ward March Middleton, is at peace. Midnight discussions between the great man and his charge have led to a harmony unseen in these hallowed halls since the great frog disaster of 1878. But harmony cannot last for long. A knock on the door brings mystery and murder once more to their home. A mystery that involves a Prussian Count, two damsels in distress, a Chinaman from Wales, a gangster looking for love and the shadowy ruin of a once-loved family home, Steep House…

DidYouWhisperBackDid You Whisper Back? by Kate Rigby (review courtesy of the author & Neverland Book Tours)

Set in the nineteen-seventies, Did You Whisper Back? begins with Amanda Court’s longing to be reunited with her estranged twin sister Jo. Following a false lead, Amanda leaves her Merseyside home and family and goes to Devon to work as a chambermaid where she believes Jo now lives. Gradually it emerges that Jo is, seemingly, just a figment of Amanda’s imagination arising from distorted childhood truths. Did You Whisper Back? is a psychological novel about family secrets and a disturbing portrayal of the fragility of the mind.


Recently finished

Wake Me When I'm GoneWake Me When I’m Gone by Odafe Atogun (eARC, courtesy of NetGalley & Canongate Books)

Everyone says that Ese is the most beautiful woman in the region, but a fool. A young widow, she lives in a village, where the crops grow tall and the people are ruled over by a Chief on a white horse. She married for love, but now her husband is dead, leaving her with nothing but a market stall and a young son to feed. When the Chief knocks on Ese’s door demanding that she marry again, as the laws of the land dictate she must, Ese is a fool once more. There is a high price for breaking the law, and an even greater cost for breaking the heart of a Chief. Ese will face the wrath of gods and men in the fight to preserve her heart, to keep her son and to right centuries of wrongs. She will change the lives of many on the road to freedom, and she will face the greatest pain a mother ever can.

HouseofNamesHouse of Names by Colm Toibin (review copy courtesy of NetGalley & Viking)

On the day of his daughter’s wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory.  Three years later, he returns home and his murderous action has set the entire family – mother, brother, sister – on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace’s dungeons and bedchambers. As his wife seeks his death, his daughter, Electra, is the silent observer to the family’s game of innocence while his son, Orestes, is sent into bewildering, frightening exile where survival is far from certain. Out of their desolating loss, Electra and Orestes must find a way to right these wrongs of the past even if it means committing themselves to a terrible, barbarous act.


What Cathy (will) Read Next

AReluctantWarriorA Reluctant Warrior by Kelly Brooke Nicholls (review copy courtesy of the author & Xpresso Book Tours)

When Luzma’s brother, Jair, unwittingly uncovers the plan by Colombia’s most notorious drug cartel to smuggle an unprecedented cocaine shipment into the US, it puts their family in grave danger. Jair’s kidnapping by the cartel forces Luzma to go face to face with vicious paramilitary leader, El Cubano, and General Ordonez, ruthless head of the military – men who will stop at nothing to protect their empires. But for Luzma, nothing is more important than saving her family – not even her own life.

CitizenKillCitizen Kill by Stephen Clark (review copy courtesy of the author)

When a devastating explosion kills the new President’s young son, her administration seeks to finally end the war on terror. CIA black-ops agent Justin Raines is among the recruits in a new program that targets for assassination U.S. citizens suspected of radicalizing Muslims. Haunted by a botched assignment overseas, Justin is determined to redeem himself through the program. But when he is assigned to kill a mysterious Muslim educator that he believes is innocent, he grows disillusioned. Now he must find a way to prove her innocence and derail the program before they both are assassinated.


BookConnector

My Week in Books

calendar

New arrivals

A few review copies received and I (almost) managed to keep to my self-imposed rule of not purchasing books unless they’re titles already on my Goodreads wishlist.

CourtofLionsCourt of Lions by Jane Johnson (hardback, ARC courtesy of Head of Zeus)

Kate Fordham, escaping terrible trauma, has fled to the beautiful sunlit city of Granada, the ancient capital of the Moors in Spain, where she is scraping by with an unfulfilling job in a busy bar. One day in the glorious gardens of the Alhambra, once home to Sultan Abu Abdullah Mohammed, also known as Boabdil, Kate finds a scrap of paper hidden in one of the ancient walls. Upon it, in strange symbols, has been inscribed a message from another age. It has lain undiscovered since before the Fall of Granada in 1492, when the city was surrendered to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Born of love, in a time of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate’s life forever.

TheThirteenthGateThe Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Winter 1888. At a private asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland—who’s interviewed their patient and isn’t sure he’s a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she’s ever encountered. As Jack rampages through London, this time targeting rare book collectors, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he’s looking for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Julius Sabelline’s death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker? As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamour of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?

ArminiusArminius: The Limits of Empire by Robert Fabbri (ebook, 99p)

AD9: In the depths of the Teutoburg Wald, in a landscape riven by ravines, darkened by ancient oak and bisected by fast-flowing streams, Arminius of the Cherusci led a confederation of six Germanic tribes in the annihilation of three Roman legions. Deep in the forest almost twenty thousand men were massacred without mercy; fewer than two hundred of them ever made it back across the Rhine. To Rome’s shame, three sacred Eagles were lost that day. But Arminius wasn’t brought up in Germania Magna – he had been raised as a Roman. This is the story of how Arminius came to turn his back on the people who raised him and went on to commit a betrayal so great and so deep, it echoed through the ages.

TheWatchHouseThe Watch House by Bernie McGill (eARC, courtesy of NetGalley & Tinder Press)

As the twentieth century dawns on the island of Rathlin, a place ravaged by storms and haunted by past tragedies, Nuala Byrne is faced with a difficult decision. Abandoned by her family for the new world, she receives a proposal from the island’s aging tailor. For the price of a roof over her head, she accepts. Meanwhile the island is alive with gossip about the strangers who have arrived from the mainland, armed with mysterious equipment which can reportedly steal a person’s words and transmit them through thin air. When Nuala is sent to cook for these men – engineers, who have been sent to Rathlin by Marconi to conduct experiments in the use of wireless telegraphy – she encounters an Italian named Gabriel, who offers her the chance to equip herself with new skills and knowledge. As her friendship with Gabriel opens up horizons beyond the rocky and treacherous cliffs of her island home, Nuala begins to realise that her deal with the tailor was a bargain she should never have struck.


On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Thursday, I published my review of Broken Branches by M. Jonathan Lee and on Friday the next comparison post in my From Page to Screen challenge. This time the film adaptation under the spotlight was The Sense of an Ending from the novel of the same name by Julian Barnes.

Other posts

On Monday, I hosted a guest post from Lucy Appadoo as part of the blog tour for her book, Dancing in the Rain. The following day I took part in the book blitz for Shades of the Gods by Erin Hayes.   Wednesday is WWW Wednesday, where I and other book bloggers share what we’ve been reading, are currently reading and plan to read next. I find it fascinating to see what other book bloggers have been up to and it’s a great way to find amazing new blogs to follow. Also on my blog that day was a Q&A with first time author, Ed Duncan, about his thriller, Pigeon-Blood Red. Finally, on Saturday the spotlight was on Master of Alaska by Roger Seiler, a historical fiction novel based on the life of the first governor of Alaska.

Challenge updates

  • Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 75 out of 78 books read (3 more than last week)
  • Classics Club Challenge– 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
  • NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 (Gold) – 38 ARCs reviewed out of 50 (2 more than last week)
  • From Page to Screen 2017– 7 book/film comparisons out of 12 completed (1 more than last week)
  • The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – completed

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: City of Masks by S D Sykes
  • Blog Tour/Review: Dark Dawn over Steep House by M R C Kasasian
  • Blog Tour/Review: Exquisite by Sarah Stovell
  • Blog Tour/Review: Wolves in the Dark by Gunnar Staalesen
  • Blog Tour/Review: Did You Whisper Back? by Kate Rigby
  • Meme: WWW Wednesday
  • Book Review: House of Names by Colm Toibin

Reviews to be added to NetGalley

  • House of Names by Colm Toibin