Verity Reads Books (lots of them)
In which our heroine attempts to tame the to-read pile
Well it was a delightful treat from Past Verity when this dropped onto my Kindle on Tuesday morning – because I had completely forgotten that I had preordered the new Alexa Martin novel! I’ve recommended her football romances before, but I think her last novel and this are moving more towards the Rom com than the straight Rom. I shall report back. This promises a reluctant bookstore owner being converted to book lover by a best selling romance author. I can’t wait!
It’s that time again: Kindle deal recommendsday! And once again I’ve spent money while putting this post together. Quelle surprise I hear you say. Anyway: to the books.
As we get closer to Christmas, we have a selection of Christmas books hitting the offers – and all of these are 99p. Let’s start with Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop, which I haven’t read, but her Christmas books are usually fairly reliable. Also in the haven’t read but like their other stuff is Merrily Ever After by Cathy Bramley. I have however read Susan Mallery’s The Christmas Wedding Guest – it was her Christmas book last year. Much older a Trisha Ashley’s Wish Upon a Star which I read way before I started this blog! And if you want a historical romance, the Christmas Desperate Duchesses novel is on offer too: An Affair before Christmas by Eloisa James. And then in not Christmas, but sort of Christmas-y covers we have Walking Back to Happiness by Lucy Dillon – another book that I read looooong before the blog started.
Next up we have previous BotWs (or release day reviewed) books that are on offer: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan, The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis and the much older The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley. There’s also Murder in the Basement by Antony Berkeley (which is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment as well). It’s more expensive (£1.99) but The Feast is also on offer – I really, really enjoyed Margaret Kennedy’s mystery which you can’t say a lot about without giving it too much away!
I’ve recommended a bunch of Christina Lauren books – most recently Something Wilder – but The Soulmate Equation is on offer at the moment – I actually have a paperback copy on the stack by my end of the sofa. This month’s 99p Georgette Heyer is Friday’s Child, which I think is one of my mum’s favourites and the Peter Wimsey is Whose Body. The …In Death is Abandoned In Death (number 54) All of the Lady Hardcastles are on offer for 99p this month (although the whole series is in KU if you’re a member) the first one is A Quiet Life in the Country .
And finally, I haven’t written about it (yet) but I did enjoy The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood when I read it earlier this year – there’s a second book in the series out early next year.
Happy Wednesday everyone.
I know, I know. I’ve already mentioned this a few times, and it was on the reading list for a while, so why is this book of the week now I’ve finally finished it? Well firstly, take a look at it: it’s a hardback. And that should explain why it’s taken me a while to read – I don’t take books in my work rucksack these days because I have a laptop in there but I especially don’t take hardbacks around because they get so battered and also hardbacks are just harder to read than paperbacks are – speaking as an integrate eat-and-read person, you cannot read a hardback while you eat your lunch!
Carrie Soto was the best tennis player in the world. When she retired at the end of the 1980s, she had the all time grand slam record. But just six years later, that record is about to be broken- so she decides to make a comeback to take back her crown and prove that she’s the best of all time. But being the best tennis player in the world is much harder when you’re in your late 30s and harder still when it feels like no one wants you to succeed.
Carrie is not a sweet and fluffy tennis player: the media nicknamed her The Battleaxe basically because she did things that in a man would have been celebrated, but women aren’t meant to do. Like saying you’re going to crush your opponents. And admitting that you were targeting an opponent’s injury. And her singular focus means that she’s not always easy to like as she creates a world where it’s her against everyone else – but you’re shown her history and her family so you get why she is the way she is and you’re hoping that someone will come along and break through her protective shell.
Carrie popped up as a secondary character in Malibu Rising and it’s amazing how much you end up rooting for her in this, given what she was up to in that. Taylor Jenkins Reid has said that is the final book in this particular universe and this is another story about a woman who is unapologetic about her ambition and wants to live life in her own way and on her terms. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the themes across the four books – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising and this – and that’s sort of where I’ve come down: they all look at women challenging the status quo in some way, but they’re all very different stories and told in different ways. Like the first two books, there is a lot here where you can pick which real life tennis players have provided some inspiration for various people and the world feels so real by the end of it you can’t quite believe that none of it is real. Excellent, engrossing reading – perfect for a sun lounger, if only you don’t buy the hardback version!
You should be able to get this basically anywhere. Seriously. I think it’s been front and centre in every book shop I have recently featured. And of course it’s in all the ebook formats too.
Happy reading!
Check it out! I’ve finished some of those long running books. I finally had some time at home with the physical books. And I would have done even better, except that I had a migraine on Thursday last week that basically led to me sleeping for 16 hours and spending as much time as possible in a darkened room. I have another busy week coming up this week, but I am optimistic.
Read:
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph*
My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood
Dashing through the Snowbirds by Donna Andrews
Drumsticks by Charlotte Carter
Murder at the Manor by Catherine Coles
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra*
Started:
Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett*
On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*
Still reading:
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell
The Inverts by Crystal Jeans
The Empire by Michael Ball*
Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*
I don’t think I actually bought anything this week. Unless I bought something I have forgotten about, there’s no evidence of purchases in my inbox either.
Bonus photo: in a massive role reversal, I went to listen to my parents play in a concert with their band on Sunday night. They spent many years coming and listening to me playing with school bands, county bands and community bands and now it’s my turn to watch them! They both took up an instrument when they stopped working full time – and it was really cool to see them in action.
An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
The fourth series is finally available to watch in the UK this week – via Disney + this time sadly and not on the BBC (yet, she says hopefully) and it’s one of my favourite tv shows so of course I’m going to write about it.
The show is a mockumentary spin off of the film of the same name that follows a group of vampires as they navigate life in suburban America rather than New Zealand. I’ve mentioned before that I have a slightly strange relationship with vampire and supernatural stuff but this is exactly on the end of things that I really like.
Lazlo, Nadja, Nandor and Colin Robinson are Staten Island’s resident vampires. With the help of their familiar Guillermo they try to stay inconspicuous and yet keep on top of the supernatural hierarchy. I was trying to pick a favourite character, but I couldn’t because they’re all great and every time I think I’ve picked one, I remember something brilliant one of the others does or says. As the series has gone on (and budgets have increased!) their world has increased in ways that I can’t really explain without giving huge plot spoilers, but I am very excited to see what happens this season given the way the last one ended. Tell you what; have the season four trailer, but seriously only watch this if you’ve seen the first three series and use it to increase your excitement levels. The rest of you don’t spoil it!
So in summary: The Office but actually more Parks and Rec in a way, but with horny vampires who incompetently try to take over the world. It’s very, very funny.
The Christmas displays are out and I’ve had a nosy at what they’re promoting front and centre in the Euston WH Smith…
And it is all about the memoirs! This is the main promo table as you come in. I know some of this is likely to be paid placement but it still sort of fascinates me that a Korean book in translation has made this table. It has also reminded me that I own I Want To Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki and should get around to reading it!
And the other big thing is that a) Bono has a book out and b) it’s half price. Everything else in here was pretty much as I was expecting, with all the usual suspects from my recent bookshop trips, but Bono was new, by the door and explains why he popped up on an NPR podcast in my feed at the weekend (I didn’t listen).
And that’s it – happy Saturday everyone.
As the title says – there is a new Phryne Fisher book! Murder in Williamstown came out in Australia and New Zealand this week. It doesn’t have a UK release date yet – in fact Amazon.co.uk doesn’t even admit it exists at the moment, but it’s a great opportunity to remind you of how much I love Kerry Greenwood’s 1920s Lady Detective via my recent Phryne reread post as well as my original series I love post. Enjoy!
Books read this month: 31*
New books: 25
Re-reads: 6 (all books)
Books from the to-read pile: 7
NetGalley books read: 5
Kindle Unlimited read: 7
Ebooks: 11
Library books: 0
Audiobooks: 0
Non-fiction books: 2
Favourite book this month: Probably Killers of a Certain Age
Most read author: Charlaine Harris – because of the Harper Connelly reread
Books bought: 6 ebooks plus another ebook preorder, and about 3 actual books
Books read in 2022: 320
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 652
A month that started with a holiday and plenty of reading time and had a rocky patch in reading terms in the middle but got back on track at the end of the month with a weekend away in Kent and some extra reading time! Interestingly I only realised putting this together that although I have listened to several audio books this month, they’re all ones that I’ve already counted once this year…
Bonus picture: a two holiday/trip month – here’s another picture from Sicily at the start of October!
*Usually includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – although this month it doesn’t!
As promised yesterday, here is this month’s batch of quick reviews – and stay til the end for the links to the other bits and bobs from this month.
The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Croft
The first of two British Library Crime Classics novels this month, this features a really intriguing series of disappearances. The Hog’s back of the title is a ridge in the North Downs near where Dr James Earl and his wife live. When the doctor disappears from his home, initially it seems like a domestic affair – with a husband giving up on an unhappy marriage, but then other people disappear mysteriously – including one of his house guests. Yesterday I mentioned that the suspense element of When Stars Collide doesn’t follow the rules of mysteries – well this not only follows the rules, at the end when Inspector French is talking you through his solution, it gives you the page numbers for the clues!
Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton
The second BLCC is a variation on the locked room mystery – with the victim in a compartment on a moving train when he is shot. At first it seems like Sir Wilfred Saxonby has shot him self, but there’s no motive and soon inconsistencies appear and a murder investigation is underway. I had the solution- or most of the solution worked out before the end of this but it was still a good read, although if you’re only going to read one of these, maybe make it Hogs Back because that’s a totally baffling one for a long time.
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatio Sancho by Paterson Joseph*
This was the very last book I finished in October and definitely deserves its mention here. This fits into the fictionalised real lives genre – in this case the life of a black writer and composer who lived in Regency London. As you might expect there are significant challenges facing him – and they are presented in this in the guise of a diary designed for his son to read when he is older (and it is suggested that Sancho will not be around to tell him them himself). Sancho was born on a slave ship and was given as a gift to three sisters who brought him up to be their servant before he escaped from them. I won’t say much more than that because it gives too much away – maybe I have already. The author is the actor Paterson Joseph who has spent two decades researching the life of his main character which he turned into a play before he wrote this novel.
And there’s a stack of other books I’ve written about – including older lady killers and other adventure stories, plenty of Halloween options if you still want spooky reading but also a really moving memoir and four series to get into
Happy Humpday!
We’ve made it to November – the year is nearly over. And I’ve got all the usual goodies this week for the end of the month – quick reviews tomorrow, stats later in the week and book of the week today when I’m back in my happy place of romance.
When Stars Collide is the latest in the Chicago Stars series – about players at a (fictional) NFL team in the Windy City. I’ve mentioned these before – as many of them are variants on my favourite enemies to lovers trope and this is no exception. And there’s no actual football in this really as all the action takes off in the off season.
Our football player is Thad, the team’s back up quarterback, who has had been sent out on a publicity tour for a luxury watch brand who sponsor the team. Unfortunately, there is someone else on the tour too: Olivia, an internationally renowned opera singer. He thinks she’s a diva, she thinks he’s an uncultured jock and has a grudge against him. But of course over the course of the tour things change. Because this is a romance!
This has got a bit of a suspense plot line to it – maybe more minor peril than actual romantic suspense but it adds a little extra something to the romance plot, although I would say don’t expect it to follow the Rules of mystery stories if that makes sense and isn’t too much of a spoiler. I really liked that Thad was never rude about opera – in fact he likes Olivia’s singing right from first hearing it – and that both of their careers are taken equally seriously. I’m fed up with romances where one or other of the partnership abandons all their long held career dreams because: love. This is definitely not that. What it is is a well put together romance with an interesting hero and heroine with just enough obstacles in their way for the reader to understand why it takes them a whole book to get together.
When Stars Collide is currently £1.99 on Kindle and Kobo. I suspect you probably won’t be able to get hold of it in a shop without ordering it it as it’s order only on Foyles website and has a two week lead time. But it should be orderable from your local if you want it.
Happy reading!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 