Category: week in books

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 19 – March 25

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Some progress on the long-runners, but over all not as much progress this week as I would have liked.  Roll on next week.

Read:

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Emily Windsnap and the Falls of Forgotten Island by Liz Kessler

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

Devil’s Breath by GM Malliet

Uneasy Prey by Annette Dashovy

Started:

The Girls of Dancey Dene by MB Manwell

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

And I bought a couple of books – well three – this week as well, but one of them was the paperback version of something I already have read (to complete the set on my bookshelves) so that doesn’t count!

Book of the Week, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: A Princess in Theory

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Normal service is nearly resumed here this week – real life is still super busy, but I read some really good stuff last week and I have an excellent BotW pick in Alyssa Cole’s latest book, A Princess in Theory.  After a few weeks of crime picks, I’m back on a romance reading spree, and this one is one of the best that I’ve read in a long time.  And it’s on offer at the moment as an ebook in the UK – so I’m all about enabling your book-buying habit as well!

Cover of A Princess in Theory

A Princess in Theory’s heroine is Ledi, a smart, fiercely independent orphan who’s come through the foster care system and built her own life.  She’s an epidemiologist – aka someone who studies diseeases – and is really fed up with getting taken advantage of at work.  She just doesn’t have time to deal with these weird scam emails claiming that she’s betrothed to an African prince. Prince Thabiso is one of Africa’s most eligible bachelors, sole heir to the kingdom of Thesolo, so why is he so hung up on the idea that the girl he was betrothed to when he was a child is the one for him? When he tracks her down, she ends up thinking he’s just another normal guy – could this be the best way to find out if they could be the real thing? Ledi really likes this clueless new guy who’s moved in across the hall, but what will happen when she finds out who he really is?

This is full of some of my favourite tropes – secret identities, fake relationships and most of all: a Super Competent Heroine. Ledi is such an engaging character – you really feel like you understand who she is, and what she wants and what her hopes are. She’s so used to being let down – describing herself as “defective Velcro” that people just don’t stick around to – that she’s put up big walls to keep people out and stop her from being hurt any more. She’s clever and driven, but she’s used to not being taken seriously and to people not treating her fairly – as a black woman in a male-dominated STEM field, she’s used to trying to get what she’s due whilst trying to avoid being labelled troublesome. One of the things I liked most about the resolution to this was that it didn’t diminish Ledi’s own accomplishments and skills in her finding her happy ever after. She and Thabiso are going to be a team, and he’s on her side.

I usually have a limited tolerance for princes as heroes, but actually Thabiso is kinda charming in his clueless way. Of course he should have told Ledi who he was straight away (although the book wouldn’t be the same at all if he had!) but he knows that and if he starts to look like forgetting that, he has his super efficient, super sarcastic assistant Likotsi to remind him. And Likotsi is a lot of fun too – she’s not going to let Thabiso get away with taking away Ledi’s decision making power and she’s firmly on Ledi’s side later in the book. I really liked that for once in this sort of book, the prince’s advisor/friend who was trying to sabotage his relationship.

I had a few concerns at the midpoint about whether this was all going to be resolved in a totally satisfactory manner, but I shouldn’t have been worrying. This is a fun, smart contemporary romance, with a great voice and that’s diverse and inclusive and bringing something different to the genre. This is my first Alyssa Cole – but it definitely won’t be the last, because I’ve already got the next book in this series preordered! I’ve heard Alyssa interviewed a couple of times on The Smart Bitches, Trashy Books podcast and not only does she seem like great fun and someone you’d really like to go out for a meal with, but she’s a great advocate for her genre and for the need for more books representing people other than white women. Oh and she lives in the Caribbean and it all sounds super exciting.

Anyway, I think I’ve gone on about how much I enjoyed this enough – so here are the links: I bought my copy on Kindle (it’s only £1.99!), but it’s also available on Kobo. There is a paperback edition, but I suspect if you want it, you’re going to have to order it in, either from Amazon or Foyles or Big Green Bookshop.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 12 – March 18

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Ok, so it might not look like the long-runners shelf has improved much this week, it really has – I’ve done some serious time on the non-fiction entries and I’m hoping to get some more done this week coming.  I will sort this out!

Read:

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

A Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferris

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

Full Speed by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes

Started:

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Blame it on the Duke by Leonora Bell

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

If I didn’t get many long-runners finished, I didn’t buy any books either.  Small victories!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week…

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So, there’s no BotW this week.  I know, I’m sorry.  But after a very strange week last week, I finally figured out that there wasn’t anything that I had finished by Sunday night that I could whole-heartedly recommend that wasn’t going to be a big old repeat or somewhat less than sincere.

The best thing that I read last week was the Peter Grant novella, The Furthest Station, which came out in paperback on the 8th.  But it’s not that long since I wrote about my love of the Rivers of London series, and as we’re now 7 books in, and I don’t like doing spoilers, I didn’t think there was much new to add to my previous posts about them. You’d be better off reading my BotW post about the first book or my mutterings about The Hanging Tree.  I’m also a big fan of the graphic novel series – I read the latest installment (part 4 of Cry Fox) last week too – and the first novel from one of the writers on that, Andrew Cartmel, was BotW too, if you fancy reading something a bit similar to Peter’s adventures.

And apart from that, there was an OK romance, a not so OK romance, a cozy crime where I’ve liked others in the series better, and a novella that’s a teaser for a novel that I want to read.  I sat down and tried to write about a couple of them, but it all felt very feeble.  So instead, you get an apology from me, a promise to do better next week* and some more links to other good books I’ve read that you might have missed if you’re new to my blog, like The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Roanoke Girls, Nancy Parker’s Diary of Detection and Black Roses.

Happy Reading!

*And I’ve already finished one book with BotW potential, so that’s a good omen.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: March 5 – March 11

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It’s been a bit of a week.  And the Still Reading list grows ever longer.  I really must do better, but weekend working doesn’t lend itself to reading time.

Read:

Hopjoy was Here by Colin Watson

First Kiss of Spring by Emily March

Rivers of London: Cry Fox 4 by Ben Aaronovitch et al

Stiff Competition by Micah Persell

Where There’s Smoke by Peter Murphy

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

Started:

Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

A couple of ebooks bought – there were some good deals and I was at work at the weekend, it leads to book buying…

Authors I love, Book of the Week, new releases, women's fiction

Book of the Week: The House of Hopes and Dreams

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In a change from recent form, it’s not a crime pick this week – but perhaps the pick won’t be a surprise to regular readers with an eye on the new release lists. I’m a long-time Trisha Ashley fan, and she has a new novel out this week and I was lucky enough to have an advance copy sent to me by the publishers. If you follow me on Litsy (I’m @Verity there) you’ll have seen me get excited about this when it arrived and it’s taken a lot of willpower to save it until close to release to read it.

Proof copy of The House of Hopes and Dreams

The House of Hope and Dreams follows Carey and Angel, who’ve been friends since art college, although life has taken them in slightly different directions. At the start of the novel TV interior designer Carey is in hospital recovering after nearly losing his leg after being knocked off his bike. He’s been dumped from his show, but when a lawyer arrives to tell him that he’s inherited a minor historic house in Lancashire it looks like he may have a new project. Angel’s life had been turned upside down after the death of her partner – who she’d been working with at his stained glass company for more than a decade. She’s lost her job and her home, but luckily her skills are exactly what her old friend is looking for and there’s space for her at Mossby. Soon Angel is setting up a workshop so she can repair Mossby’s unique windows and Carey is working on a new TV series about the renovation of the house and the secrets that it’s hiding. But how long will it take the two of them to work out that there’s more to their relationship than just friendship?

If you were to ask me about my book catnip, high on the list are old houses, competency porn (aka heroines who are really good at what they do) and friends to lovers stories, so straight away this ticks a lot of boxes for me. And this is back in a corner of Lancashire that has a lot of old friends from previous visits to TrishaWorld – Carey’s house is just up the road from Middlemoss so you get a few glimpses at old friends from novels gone by. This is a little sadder in the backstory and less funny than some of her other books, but I relaxed happily back into it and although I always had a very fair idea where everything was going, it was an enjoyable ride to get there.

If you’re very familiar with Ashley’s books (and I speak as someone who has read everything she’s published except her historical novel) then this may feel a bit like a Greatest Hits album – which I found a bit of a mixed blessing. But I think there’s a lot here for newer fans to love, especially people who’ve only started reading her in her last couple of novels and haven’t come across this part of her imaginary corner of England before. And they’ll be able to go away and discover more of it with the side characters in this, which in turn may lead them to my absolute favour of Ashley’s novels, A Winter’s Tale (another story about an old house with secrets) .

The House of Hopes and Dreams is out on Thursday – you should be able to find it in supermarkets (that’s where I picked up my first Trisha) and bookshops, or if you can’t wait here are the preorder links for Amazon and Kindle. I’ll be buying one too – because my preview copy doesn’t have the recipes in the back!

if you want to go and read some of my previous ramblings about Trisha’s world, try here, here and here.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 26 – March 4

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The ongoing list seems to be getting longer rather than shorter – despite all my best efforts.  I think it’s because I’ve got so many non-fiction books on there and they take me longer to read than the lighter fiction does – and I’ve often got them as hardbacks, which means I don’t take them to work with me.

Read:

The New Girl and Nancy by Dorita Fairley Bruce

Murder on the Pilgrims Way by Julie Wassmer

Make Me Want by Katee Robert

On the Edge of Scandal by Tamsen Parker

On the Brink of Passion by Tamsen Parker

Maybe This Time by Nicole McLaughlin

The House of Hopes and Dreams by Trisha Ashley

A Killing in C Sharp by Alexia Gordon

A Country Escape by Katie Fforde

Started:

Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

One ebook bought.  That’s it. Progress!

Book of the Week, children's books, detective, new releases

Book of the Week: A Spoonful of Murder

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This week’s BotW is the latest Wells and Wong mystery, A Spoonful of Murder, which makes three mystery books in a row, but I don’t see a problem with that.  The only surprise here is that I managed to pace myself and take two and a half weeks to read this, rather than glomming it on the day it came out, which is what I usually do and what nearly happened.

Cover of A Spoonful of Murder

Anyway, this is the sixth instalment in the Wells and Wong series and sees Hazel sent for by her father after the death of her grandfather.  Hazel heads back home to Hong Kong, accompanied by Daisy for moral support.  And she needs the support when she gets home and discovers that more has changed than just the death of her beloved Ah Yeh.  As always with this series, the mystery is clever, the action is fast-paced and you just keep turning the pages.  The stories are getting more mature as we go through the series – not unlike the Harry Potter books did – so the murder is a little bit more gruesome, the girls see a little bit more and are in a bit more danger, but there’s nothing here that should give a middle grader nightmares.  Or at least not in the way that I scared myself with Miss Marple books when I was about 10 any way.

The big change in this book from the others, is that although we are still seeing the action through Hazel’s eyes, for once it is Daisy who is the fish-out-of-water and Hazel is on her home turf.  One of the things that I have always loved about this series is the way that it takes classic boarding school stories and adds in new layers and gives you a different viewpoint.  The reader has always been aware that Hazel is seen as an outsider and that she doesn’t always know how things work in Britain, but it’s only really in this book, where Hazel is back at home and Daisy is her guest that you really realise how different her life is at home and how much she’s had to adapt to be accepted in England.  The way that you see Daisy struggle to work out a world she doesn’t understand and to figure out where she fits in and accept (well sort of) that here she isn’t seen as important the way she is in Britain is so cleverly done.  Daisy is still Daisy, but she’s realising that there’s more to Hazel’s life than she thought and that she has hidden skills that Daisy hadn’t appreciated.  And this is all done without meanness or cruelty and seamlessly with everything that we already know about the two girls.

And there’s obviously been a huge amount of research done into this.  The picture that Robin Stevens paints of high society in interwar Hong Kong in this feels grounded in research and facts, but it wears it very lightly.  I came away wanting to know more about Hong Kong’s history and what it was like as well as wanting to read more books set there.  It worked for me on every level – it’s a great mystery, with great characters and a great setting that just happens to be aimed at 8 to 11 year olds.  Perfect.  And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if you liked St Clares or Mallory Towers or (my beloved) Chalet School when you were little and like Agatha Christie and other Golden Age crime authors – then you should read this.  And if you have a middle grader in your house, this makes a great chapter book to read with them.  It has maps and everything.

You should be able to get this from any bookshop with a children’s section and I’ve seen them in the supermarkets too.   For best effect, start at the beginning with Murder Most Unladylike, especially if you’re giving to a child at the younger end of the age spectrum as it’s less for them to cope with on the death and violence spectrum.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 19 – February 25

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Actually a better week’s reading than I was expecting  – the Deborah Cadbury was 400 pages long so for a while there wasn’t a lot on this list at all, but in the end it all came together when I finished off a few books that had been lingering on the Goodreads shelf.

Read:

The Pajama Frame by Diane Vallere

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury

Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh

England Expects by Sara Sheridan

Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

A Spoonful of Murder by Robin Stevens

Bright Young Things by Alison Maloney

Started:

The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood

The New Girl and Nancy by Dorita Fairley Bruce

Still reading:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson

The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell

Two ebooks bought – and one book acquired at an author teaparty on Sunday.  So not bad at all.

Adventure, Book of the Week, detective, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith

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There were a few options for this week’s BotW pick, but I have plans for some of them, but also this was my favourite book that I read last week and makes a nice companion or compliment to last week’s choice. Last week I picked A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia, which was a book set in the interwar period but written now, this week it’s The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith, which is a genuine forgotten Golden Age mystery. It was also another book from the massive unread pile on my Kindle and I’m so pleased I impulse bought it at some point in the distant past.

The cover of The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith

Patrica Wentworth’s The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith was originally published in 1923 and tells the story of a young woman who is swept into an adventure after a chance meeting when she’s down on her luck, with nowhere to stay and be t to no money. In one of those astonishing coincidences that you find in some books, it transpires that a Jane has a cousin who is practically her double and who is being held hostage by her father and a shadowy group that he is associated with. The cousin has a fiancé who is desperate to elope with her and run off to foreign climes and Jane ends up switching places with Renata and taking over her identity. What follows is a breathless espionage adventure thriller with a dash of romance and a dollop of murder.

It rattles along at a breathless pace that doesn’t really give you a chance to notice the bonkersness until you’ve finished and stop to think. I raced through it once I actually sat down properly to read it and then went off to trawl Kindle for more books by Patricia Wentworth in my budget. A certain amount of suspension of belief is necessary – there are anarchists and secret passages and shadowy forces at work as well as the lookalike cousins – but you liked The 39 Steps, or the more adventure-y Albert Campion novels, then you need to read this.

The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith is included in Kindle Unlimited if you’re part of that scheme, or you can buy it on Kindle or as a paperback. At time of writing it’s £1.99 on Kindle, but I’m fairly sure I picked it up for free, so it might be worth adding to your watch list to see if the price drops.

Happy Reading!