One of my most anticipated books of the year came out this week – Sarah MacLean’s first contemporary set novel These Summer Storms. It’s set on a private island off Rhode Island and is about the children of a billionaire who are called back to the island after the death of their father. I have a mixed record with books about billionaires (or the children thereof) but I’ve been a fan of Sarah MacLean’s historical romances for I don’t know how long at this point, so I’m optimistic that this will be my sort of thing when I manage to get hold of a copy. It’s a hardback release, which means that the kindle price is *a lot* so it may be a while before I’m able to report back though!
Happy Wednesday everyone, it’s the second Wednesday of July and so it’s time for the Kindle offers post. There seems to be a bit of a dearth of 99p offers at the moment – I was hoping they were saving them for Prime day deals (that runs until Friday) but nothing much seemed to have changed when I checked back in after the deals started…
In other stuff I’ve written about there’s the third Canon Clement mystery, Murder at the Monastery, the first Shardlake mystery Dissolution, Gabriele Gamez‘s The Next Best Thing, which as I said didn’t really work for me, but clearly has for other people. There are also quite a lot of deals on Alexis Hall books, ranging from £1.99 to £3.99 but also with quite a few of them – and others – in Kindle Unlimited. I haven’t really seen this happen before, so I’m just going to leave the list here so you can have a look and see what the options are. There’s also the fourth Robert Langdon mystery Inferno,
If you’re a Pratchett reader, Mort and Eric from the Discworld series are on offer for 99p this month, as is the first in the Johnny Maxwell series for kids, Only You Can Save Mankind. The Georgette Heyer on offer is My Lord John, which is her novel set in the Wars of the Roses and is one of the few of hers that I’ve never managed to get to the end of (the other two are Simon the Coldheart and Royal Escape). The first in Simon Brett’s new series Major Brickett’s and the Circus Corpse is 99p too, I read this when it came out, and it’s not my end of the Brett oeuvre but it may work for other people better than it did to me.
In things I bought while writing the post, there’s The Last Word, which is the fourth in Elly Griffiths Harbinder Kaur series is 99p, but sadly the deal on one of the books that I bought seems to have been a really short term one – the new Emily Henry Great Big Beautiful Lifewas £1.99 briefly but is now back up to £9.99. It wasn’t marked as a one day only just a limited time deal but the limited time appears to have been less than three days. Sorry guys. In stuff I haven’t read yet, the latest Eloisa James, Hardly a Gentleman is 99p, as is Ali Hazelwood’s The Deep End, as is Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, which has been nominated for a bunch of awards. The second in the Assistant to the Villan series, Apprentice to the Villain, is 99p. I need to try and read the first one to see if I like it before I can take advantage of this offer! Also on the pile waiting to be read is Victoria Levine’s Any Trope But You. And my willpower to resist the Alicia Thompson cover is wavering, as Never Been Shipped is also 99p!
The Formula One season is in full swing at the moment – it was the British Grand Prix just a few miles from my house (even if I wasn’t in it at the time) last weekend and there are are a few motorsport romances on offer: there’s the second in Simone Soltani’s Lights Out F1 driver romance series, this one is called Ride With Me – I still have the first one Cross the Line waiting on the pile to be read. There’s also Slipstream by Madge Maril and Racing into Love by Laney Kate at 99p, and Pole Position by Rebecca J Caffrey and Offtrack by Esha Patel at £1.99 ( Esha Patel’s Overdrive is £2.99 as well).
Yes, I’m breaking one of my own rules this week and writing about a book that’s a long way into a series. No I don’t really care. Last week was one of those weeks, and anything that wasn’t rule breaking wasn’t something that I really felt inspired enough to write about. So here we are.
This is the eighteenth in Rhys Bowen’s series about Georgiana, a fictious granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who is facing all sorts of troubles in the loose orbit of the Royal Family of the 1930s. As I said in my post when this book was released in November, in this book we have finally reached the winter of 1936 and crunch time for Georgie’s cousin David when it comes to choosing between the Crown and Wallis Simpson. And of course Georgie and her husband Darcy are caught up in it with the woman in question hiding away at their estate. As if that wasn’t enough, Georgie’s former stepfather, who owns the house, arrives home unexpectedly and with a film crew in tow to film scenes in the grounds. And on top of all this Georgie’s brother, his wife and their two children have also invited themselves to stay. And did I mention that she’s a new mum?
There is a murder in this, but it actually happens quite a long way through. But there is a lot going on to get to that point, so you don’t feel like you’re missing out on a mystery plot – in fact if i hadn’t read the blurb to know there was going to be one, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there hadn’t been one, although this is obviously a mystery series.
For the last few books I have been wondering if we were nearing the end of the series, especially as there have been a couple of big moments coming up where it would have been possible for Bowen to sign off from Georgie and leave on a satisfying note, but there is a nineteen book coming in the autumn, so it looks like we’re going to be following Georgie and the family into the reign of George VI as the world hurtles towards World War Two. And without giving you any spoilers, there are still a few hanging threads left to tie up, and as long as Bowen can keep coming up with new adventures for Georgie, I’m happy to read them!
This series used to be published in UK paperback editions, but I haven’t seen any of them for some time. So your best bet for this is Kindle or Kobo, although I have a seen some of them occasionally in the Cozy Crime Mass Market shelves at Waterstones Gower Street and Waterstones Piccadilly, but it is a totally lottery which one it is.
Happy Monday everyone. I feel like every week I say that it’s been a busy week but this week really has been. And I’m on a work trip at the moment, so it’s only going to get busier. What can you do. I haven’t made much progress at all on the two new books I started last week because I had so many nights away from home and didn’t take them with me.
After writing about Scamanda a couple of months ago, this week we’re in another one of my special interest/fascination areas – mega churches. And the mega church in question here is Hillsong. Firstly for those of you who haven’t come across them before, Hillsong is a charismatic megachurch that started in Australia and spread through the world. They had a very successful music arm which wrote Christian pop and contributed to the church’s success, and then gained fame when one of their pastors, Carl Lenz became spiritual advisor to celebrities like Justin Bieber.
Hillsong first came to my attention when Vanity Fair ran an article about them in 2021 when a scandal blew up around the church’s charismatic pastor. And soon after a documentary popped up – and then in 2023 a second Vanity Fair article about them after a documentary series on Hulu. And as at the moment I’ve got both Disney+ and Discovery+ I’ve watched both of them and I’m here to give you my thoughts!
So the Discovery+ doc was the first one to come out – and covers the founding of the church, the rise and fall of Carl Lenz and other current day scandals and then the historic child sex abuse allegations. It has a final episode which came out six or so months after the first three and covers the fallout to the original three episodes.
The Secrets of Hillsong came out in 2023 and covers a lot of similar ground in terms of the founding of the church, the Carl Lenz scandal and the historic child sex abuse scandal. But what it has that the Discovery+ one doesn’t is interviews with Carl and his wife as well as the latest on the downfall of the church’s founder Brian Houston.
If you’re only going to watch one of these – and given that each is four parts, we’re talking about eight hours of your life if you watch all of both – then The Secrets of Hillsong is probably the one. And that’s mostly because of actually hearing from Lenz but also the fact that it covers some of the later allegations made against Brian Houston. But each of them had stuff that the other didn’t – so if you’re going to watch both, do it chronologically and watch Mega Church exposed first and then do Secrets of.
And if you’ve got any more documentaries (or podcasts) about mega churches or cults and their scandals, drop them in the comments for me, because I’m still fascinated!
So I wandered into Foyles on the way to a West End theatre last week and spotted a few interesting things and so here I am.
The first was the third in Andrew Cartmel’s Paperback Sleuth series, Like a Bullet, which was out on the shelves a little early. Sidenote: I both love and hate when that happens. I love it when it’s not something I’ve pre-ordered, I hate it when it is, especially when it’s a day or two before release and I’m in London and the pre-ordered copy is going to arrive at my house while I’m away. This has happened more than once. Anyway, this was out on the shelves super early because it’s still not officially out (the publication date is Tuesday coming) and yet I still managed to resist it, despite the fact I love reading something early, because I still haven’t read book two in the series, and I like to read in order as you know.
Next up is the new book from Alicia Thompson, Never Been Shipped. And I want to say that her publishers are doing a great job with her covers because at this point I think I own three of her books and I haven’t read any of them and I had to resist buying this one hard on that front. And it’s because the covers are so gorgeous they just make you pick the books up and then the blurbs are great too. This one came out at the start of June and once again I am tempted!
I also managed to resist this Dan Jones. I hadn’t seen it before; but it looks like Summer of Blood is actually a much older book of his and possibly getting a fresh lease of life because of his successful historical fiction books. And in fact the final book in that trilogy is out at the end of July. Anyway, the fourteenth century is a bit earlier than my main areas of interest when it comes to history, but Dan Jones is so good that I do often make an exception for him. But there are huge numbers of nonfiction books on the tbr pile at the moment so I stayed strong.
As you know, I’m always looking for new mystery series to read (thank you for those recommendations last week by the way) and this was the book that stood out to me in the crime and thriller section this time. It’s got a gorgeous cover and the plot summary is also intriguing: it’s set I. The 1920s and has a bank clerk trying to solve a murder while trying not to get in trouble with the law himself because of his sexuality. The blurb says it’s perfect for fans of Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey series and given that I read the final three of those that I hadn’t read last month that is clearly me.
And finally here’s that new paperback of the first Tuga book in the flesh. It definitely feels like a tropical holiday and it’s a style I like but I also think it’s a better representation of what the vibe of the book is than the original one did, even if that was pretty too. that’s the lot for now. In some ways the bookshop trip was better than the show I went to afterwards. It was certainly cheaper!
Most read author: Nicola Upson with the three Josephine Tey books I hadn’t read because they were on offer and Anne Granger with the last two Mitchell and Markbys and the new Campbell and Carter.
Books bought: 4 ebooks, about four book-books and also a pre-order arrived
Books read in 2025: 188
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 795
A pretty solid month all in. The heatwave made it a bit hard to concentrate towards the end of the month and I’m still behind on the new releases but I read a lot of stuff I enjoyed and at least I finished the Mitchell and Markby reread so there’s a fighting chance I might read some more new stuff in July.
Bonus picture: the crowd (and me) outside the Palladium to watch Rachel Zegler so Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from the balcony. I could see her arm and her side profile at best – but I only got there ten minutes before. When I had walked past an hour earlier there were already more than a hundred people in the prime spots and I wasn’t prepared to wait that long!
*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 3 this month!
Happy New Rivers of London Week! Book 10 in Ben Aaronovitch’s series, Stone and Sky, is out today and I am very, very excited! It’s three years since we last had a full length novel in the series – since Amongst Our Weapons in 2022 we’ve had two novellas, both set in the US but one in the present day with Agent Reynolds, and one in the past with Nightingale in Jazz Age New York. Now they were both great, but I am so excited to see what’s happening to Peter. We’ve had a few hints in the graphic novels because the last three have been beyond the end of Amongst Our Gifts, but it’s not the same as a proper novel. My copy has already arrived – early in fact, except I was staying in London (and it was hot hot hot) and so the only problem is I’m off on a trip for work tomorrow and I don’t dare start it because I’m not sure I’ll get it finished before I have to leave and I don’t want to trek it away with me part finished and when I know I’ll buy books at the airport…
It’s July so I’m back with the quick reviews from last month.
The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym
I love the way that Barbara Pym looks at slices of normal (or normal-ish) women’s lives and relationships in ways that are witty and also sad. Leonora is a middle-aged woman who is attractive and knows it. She’s got a collection of male admirers, but her latest are an antiques dealer and his nephew. She prefers the nephew, James, although the uncle (Humphrey) is more “suitable” and plays the two of them off against each other, whilst trying to detach James from his other relationships. It’s darker than some of Pym’s earlier novels, but it’s very good.
Copper Script by K J Charles
The new book from K J Charles has Aaron, a Met Police Sergeant, who is trying to figure out how Graphologist Joel is able to tell people’s lives and personalities from their handwriting. Aaron is convinced it’s a con, but Joel’s skills are very real. And soon the two of them are trying to solve some crime. I read this in single day and enjoyed it a lot. If you like K J Charles, this will probably work for you.
The Chow Maniac by Vivian Chien
I read the first two in this series a few years back (I bought the first one back when I was in Washington) and spotted this eleventh and most recent in the series in Foyles last week so took the opportunity to check in again as they’re quite hard to get hold of over here. And Lana’s life has moved on quite a bit – she’s still got the boyfriend but she’s much more established in her sleuthing. This sees her investigating whether a series of deaths among the Asian community in Cleveland might actually be murder, and connected to a secret society. Lana is still verging on too stupid to life, but I enjoyed reading it.
Another mystery book this week, this time a new to me author writing mysteries set in the 1930s.
In Death and the Conjurer, a celebrity psychiatrist is found murdered in his study – but the door was locked and there seems to have been no way for anyone to have committed the crime. The Scotland Yard detective calls in magician turned sleuth Joseph Spector to help solve a seemingly impossible murder.
And this really does seem to be an impossible one. The solution when it comes is clever and well worked out and as the book says the clues are there, even if I didn’t believe it when the book said that! Inspector Flint and Spector are a good duo – they both have their strengths so it feels like a pretty equal relationship rather than a stupid cop and a brilliant amateur. It’s also the first of three so there are two more for me to read now too.
This one is in Kindle unlimited at the moment and so if you’ve got a membership it’s worth a look.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 