So, it was my birthday last week and we went to Barcelona to celebrate for a few days. Thus there was reading time on flights, in departure lounges, late at night etc. So a fun week’s reading.
Read:
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
The Girl from the Opera House by Nancy Carson
Geek Drama by Holly Smale
Far in the Wilds by Deanna Raybourn
Black Rubber Dress by Lauren Henderson
The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells by Virginia MacGregor
Charlotte Bronte’s Secret Lover by Jolien Janzing
Stars over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner
Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina
Started:
Death with an Ocean View by Nora Charles
Freeze my Margarita by Lauren Henderson
Still reading:
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams
Queen Lucia by E F Benson
I did have a bit of a spending spree on books though (twice) but it’s my birthday so I’m allowed – right?!
Not a huge list this week – but The Hourglass Factory is 500 pages long – and it’s worth it. Busy week at work too and quick trains both ways several days (often on the way home in rush hour too) reducing the reading time.
Read:
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester
The Chalet School and Rosalie by Elinor M Brent Dyer
The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Started:
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams
Queen Lucia by E F Benson
Still reading:
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
One short story pre-ordered – but I don’t think I’ve actually bought a book so far this year (the Deanna Raybourn spree was before New Year). I’m sure that will change though…
As promised, here is my love letter to the wonderousness that is Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series. As a History and French Grad, who wrote my dissertation on the effect of the French Revolution on the nobility of the Touraine* I have a real affinity (if not always affection – see the footnote) for this period of history. Add into that the fact that I love time-slip novels (you know, books with two connected narratives in two different periods), romances, thrillers and humour, and there’s pretty much everything that I like in these novels that you can managed to combine in the same book.
My Pink Carnation book collection (there are more on the kindle) in Book Central
To set the scene: American Eloise Kelly is history grad student working towards her PhD. At the start of the first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, she has arrived in England to research her dissertation – which is on British spies. She knows all about the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian, but soon stumbles on a document that everyone has missed – one which contains the identity of the Pink Carnation – the most elusive and influential British spy of them all. The books follow Eloise’s research as she uncovers nests of spies – on both sides – starting in 1803 and going all the way through til 1807. The stories take in not just France and England, but Ireland, India and Portugal. There are governesses, spy schools, double agents, triple agents, free agents, soldiers, privateers, ladies seminaries, exploding Christmas puddings, root vegetables, amateur theatricals, not so amateur theatricals, illegitimate children, drug smuggling, jewel theft, good poetry,very bad poetry and much, much more.
And then there’s romance, all types of romance: friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, employer/employee, (slightly) later in life romance, the list continues. In fact I think the only one that is missing is accidentally/secretly pregnant – and that’s my least favourite trope, I’m good with that. Although Eloise is always the modern day strand, the focus of the nineteenth century story changes each book – with the Pink Carnation hovering in the background until you reach the final book. So if you don’t like one heroine, the one in the next book will be someone different (although you’ll probably have met her before).
My distinctly non-matching collection (hardback, US & UK paperbacks) is hard to photograph neatly!
I’ve loved this series. I borrowed the first book from the library, and, as is traditional, it sat in the library book bag for some time. Then I read it and liked it, then the next and the next. As the series has gone on, I’ve loved them more and more. The early books got solid threes on Goodreads then it moved to fours, then fives.**
I don’t actually own the whole series at the current moment – the earlier books were published in the UK and I picked them up at the library or on Kindle. Then they stopped and I started picking up the US editions because it was cheaper than the kindle editions (and we all know I love proper books). So now I’ve read all of them, I want to go back and read again from the beginning and see if I can spot any clues more in the earlier books to what happens in the later ones – and I know they’re there, because I’ve read interviews with Lauren Willig where she says her subconcious puts bits in that she only realises later are key to later events! But as I don’t own hard copies of them all (as you can see from the pictures) I can’t at the moment, so I suspect there’s some purchasing in my future!
I tried to make a funky pile. It was harder than I expected. I’m not cut out for photography.
You can start your Pink Carnation journey with the first book on Kindle, Kobo or ePub, from Amazon or Waterstones or it may even still be in your local library. Foyles don’t have the first book – but they do have some of the later ones as well as Ms Willig’s standalone books. Go! Enjoy! If you start this weekend you could be in Portugal in a few weeks…
* Using primary sources, spending weeks of the sunniest part of my year in France holed up in the departmental archive in Tours because I hadn’t got my act together to do the research earlier, and then discovering when I got home that really I could do with yet more information, not that I really knew where I would have found it or what to do with it if I had it. I still see my 2:1 as something of a miracle!
** It’s at times like these that I think I must either have been a really harsh grader back in the day, or I’ve got soft in my old age, or I’m reading more really good books. In 2012, when I read the first Pink Carnation book I only gave out 7 five star ratings out of 205 books read (3 percent). In 2015 43 from 368 – or 10 percent. This bears investigation. I smell a future post…
You may notice a theme in this week’s reading. Yes I went all out for the end of the Pink Carnation series and read another Lauren Willig I had on the kindle as well. And then while writing about Deanna Raybourn in my 2015 Obsessions post I found that a the book sale gods were smiling on me, and I could reading the rest of the Lady Julia Books safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t get left on a cliff hanger! I’m still trying to ration myself on the new Laurie Graham – by which I mean only letting myself read a bit more every few days to try and stop myself from bingeing. So far it’s working.
Read:
The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig
The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig
Whisper of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn
The Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig
The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn
Bleakly Hall by Elaine di Rollo
Started:
n/a
Still reading:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
Oh dear. Massive Deanna Raybourn spending spree in the Kindle sale (as mentioned in my 2015 Obsessions post), then there was the only Hellions of Halsted Hall book I haven’t read on offer for 99p. How could I resist.
On Good Reads to-reads shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 425
New books read this month: 36*
Books from the Library Book pile: 1
Books from the to-read pile: 13
Ebooks read: 21
Most read author: I’m giving it to Lauren Willig – because I’ve read 2 of her novels and half of a third – as opposed to Debbie Macomber’s 2 books or Julia Williams’s one book and 3 (very) short stories.
Books read this year: 368
Books bought: 15 – all ebooks except 1
Loads of reading done this month – thank you week of tonsillitis – and I managed to resist the urge to buy books until the post-Christmas ebook sales kicked in. As far as the New Year’s Resolutions a library books and a non-fiction started – but not finished.
And thus the year comes to an end. I’ll be doing a more considered look at my reading stats over the last year in a few days – in the meantime, check out my post on my 2015 Obsessions!
*Includes some short stories/novellas (10 this month)
More Christmas-y reading and a few tie-in short stories for last week’s Make a Christmas Wish. I’m trying to make the Laurie Graham last – I love her books so much and I know there’s going to be a longer wait than usual for her next one, so against all my usual behaviour I’m trying to pace myself!
Read:
A Wicked Way to Win an Earl by Anna Bradley
Four Weddings and a White Christmas by Jenny Oliver
My Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Dad’s Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Granny’s Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
Anything for You by Kristan Higgins
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Started:
Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
Still reading:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
No books bought, but several received as gifts – and they were all ones that I had asked for so that’s excellent news. I’m going to try to continue to restrain myself, although if I see some good bargains I may not be able to!
Well this is what a week of Tonsillitis will do for the to-read pile! And a reasonable mix of actual books and ebooks too. I finally called time on Lair of Dreams this week – I tried again to get into it and I couldn’t. It’s been lingering way too long, so I’ve reluctantly given up on it.
Read:
Paint the Town Dead by Sybil Johnson
Bricking It by Nick Spalding
A Talent for Trickery by Alyssa Johnson
311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber
Agatha Raisin and the Blood of an Englishman by MC Beaton
74 Seaside Avenue by Debbie Macomber
Snowed in for Christmas by Clare Sandy
Christmas at Lilac Cottage by Holly Martin
The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham
Make a Christmas Wish by Julia Williams
A Christmas in Disguise by Katie Fforde
Started:
The Night in Question by Laurie Graham
A Wicked Way to Win an Earl by Anna Bradley
Still reading:
n/a
I managed to control myself and no books were ordered from my sickbed. Which is impressive. I did do some shopping – but it wasn’t for me!
I’m really struggling with Lair of Dreams – I just can’t get into it, but I hate giving up on a book, so I’m going to give it one more week and try to break through and see if I can get into it. I developed a cold after last weekend’s nights and thought it was getting better until it struck back with a vengeance on Friday and the weekend, so comfort reading has been the order of the day, rather than the Christmas new releases that I should be looking at!
Read:
Mitzi’s Midwinter Wedding by Christina Jones
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander
One by Sarah Crossan
First Season and Bride to Be (double pack) by Jane Ashford
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days by Christina Jones
A Winterfold Christmas by Harriet Evans
Started:
Paint the Town Dead by Sybil Johnson
Still reading:
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
I didn’t buy me any books this week. I have bought other people books as part of their Christmas presents – but that doesn’t count does it!
Back on track this week! I finished a few books that I’d been reading for a while, and then started on the e-book and physical to-read pile.
Read:
Masquerade by Hannah Fielding
Master of Shadows by Neil Oliver
After You by Jojo Moyes
Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards
Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie
From Bad to Wurst by Maddy Hunter
His Majesty’s Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
Started:
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
Still reading:
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
I have been very restrained and not bought anything at all this week. I’m not sure that it will last though. I’ve been trying to put any books that I want on my Christmas list, but I think I’m running out of people who buy me presents who might get them for me!
On Good Reads to-reads shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 421
New books read this month: 22*
Books from the Library Book pile: 0
Books from the to-read pile: 13
Ebooks read: 5
Most read author: Janet Evanovich and Cathy Bramley level on 2 all
Books read this year: 332
Books bought: 6 books (which have arrived, and orders in with a few more dealers), 3 ebooks
Backsliding on everything – as you might expect if you’ve been reading the last few weeks. Too many books bought, lots of re-reading rather than new reading and as far as the New Year’s Resolutions no library books, although I did read a nonfiction book.
*Includes some short stories/novellas (1 this month)
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 