Oh boy, this week ended up a lot busier that I thought it would. And the reading has suffered. I was still quite post nightshift-y at the start of the week – so reading was slow and gentle, and then I did a lot of work and didn’t have a lot of free time. All this made me tired and find it slow to settle to anything.
Read:
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries by Various Authors
The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne
Sweet Tomorrows by Debbie Macomber
A Killer Closet by Paula Paul
The Crepes of Wrath by Sarah Fox
The Canal Boat Cafe by Cresside McLaughlin
Started:
What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long
The Man on Top of the World by Vanessa Clark
Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
On the brightside, I didn’t buy any books. So progress there even if I didn’t read as much as I wanted.
I did five nightshifts last week, my brain had hit a go-slow by Wednesday morning and so I didn’t get as much read as I wanted. Fingers crossed I’m back in normal working order soon!
Read:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
The Herring Seller’s Apprentice by L C Tyler
Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler
Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander
Buzz Books 2016: Romance by Various Authors
Started:
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries by Various Authors
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Those among you who’ve been coming here a while will know that Nightshifts = book purchasing. I was fairly restrained this time out – two Kindle sequels bought in the early hours and 3 books at the supermarket on Friday after I’d finished when my defences were low…
A bit of a struggle in the middle of this week – no idea why. And as I started a run of five nightshifts on Sunday evening, expect light, non-taxing reading next week!
Read:
Trouble at Melville Manor by Mabel Esther Allen
Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander
A Demon Summer by GM Malliet
Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeild
Man on a Rock by Grant Sutherland
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
Started:
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Still reading:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
3 second hand books bought – one to replace a book I lost a while back, two to read.
A fair mix (for me) of reading this week – romances contemporary and historical, mysteries contemporary and historical, non-fiction, a children’s book and a comedy of society and manners. But as you’ll notice, I’m still mostly on books with resolutions and happy endings. And expect I will be until silly season finally gets underway – if it ever does.
Read:
Only a Kiss by Mary Balogh
Sunset on Central Park by Sarah Morgan
The Secret by Lorna Hill
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
Dead is Best by Jo Perry
Death of an Avid Reader by Frances Brody
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Started:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Still reading:
n/a
One ebook bought – and Gail Carriger’s next Custard Protocol novel (Imprudence, out on Thursday this week) pre-ordered along with a cookbook to get myself free postage!
A lovely week of reading – there’s some really charming romance in there, some relatively undiscovered classic children’s stories and a fast-moving thriller. It’s all good.
Read:
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Can’t Buy Me Love by Jane Lovering
The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts by Annie Darling
A Gentleman Never Tells by Eloisa James
Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan
The Escape by Mary Balogh
The Wild Lorings – Detectives by Gwendoline Courtney
The MacIains of Glen Gillean by Mabel Esther Allen
Started:
Total D*ck by Christina Saunders
Still reading:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Hmmm. I may have bought three books and a trade comic on Thursday. But that was still June – so my resolution to do better in July still stands!
I retreated into the world of happy endings this week – and treated myself by letting myself read the new (well relatively new) Sarah MacLean which I have been saving for a Time Of Real Need.
This is the first in her new series – Scandal and Scoundrel – and after the massive high of the surprise reveal and general excitement of the final book of the Rules of Scoundrels, I wasn’t sure this could live up to my massive expectations. And then I found out that the new series was inspired by celebrity scandals of today and got a bit worried. But I really didn’t need to. Sarah MacLean knows exactly what she’s doing.
The cover model is just a bit to… meh. All downcast eyes and no personality – completely un-Sophie like!
Sophie Talbot is the youngest of a line of scandalous daughters of a noveau riche peer. Her sisters revel in their notorious reputations, but she’s not keen. She’s the most retiring member of the family right up until she pushes her elder sister’s cheating husband into a pond at a party. He’s a duke – old family, old money – she’s not. Suddenly she’s the biggest scandal in society and facing being an outcast. So she makes a run for it. But she makes her escape it using the carriage belonging to the Marquess of Eversley, who’s fairly scandalous himself. He thinks she’s trying to trap him into marriage. She knows she definitely isn’t. But then Things Happen.
I enjoyed this so much. The characters are engaging, the dialogue is witty and fun. There’s lots of proper plot – no wishy-washy misunderstandings that could be solved by one person asking the other a question. And just when you think it’s nearly fixed, MacLean throws in another twist to the tail. I was a little hesitant about one of these which happened towards the end of the book, but it was dealt with so neatly and resolved so satisfactorily that by the time the book was over I’d almost forgotten it had annoyed me. I was also desperate to read the next in the series which isn’t out until August, but I’ll try and contain my impatience.
I still prefer the US cover to the UK one – cheesy thought the American romance covers are, they have no shame about what they are – there’s heaving bosoms, unlaced corsets that improbably reveal no under garments, ridiculous muscles and flowing locks, but they’re unapologetic about it, where as the ones here are misty and coy and undersell the contents. But hey, at least with a British edition we don’t have to pay silly money to get them shipped in anymore. Although – full disclosure – I got my copy from the publisher who gave them to everyone who went to Sarah MacLean’s London teaparty (she’s lovely) so I may yet buy a US version to match the rest of my books of hers…
Get your copy from Amazon, Foyles or Waterstones, or for Kindle or on Audible. If you’re in the States, it should be everywhere fine, fine romances are sold (to quote Sarah Wendell.). Happy Romancing!
I gave up on the Elizabeth Jane Howard this week. I’ve been hanging in there trying to plough through because I love the Cazalets so much, then my Mum said I didn’t have to keep reading it if I wasn’t enjoying it – and that if she was trying to read something she wasn’t enjoying, I would be the first person to tell her to give up and move on so she was returning the favour for me. I have a great mum.
Read:
Once a Soldier by Mary-Jo Putney
Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger
Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie
An American Airman in Paris (short story) by Beatriz Williams
Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
Started:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Still reading:
n/a
I bought six books on Friday. It was very naughty of me, but I don’t regret it at all. I’ll try and restrain myself this week though.
I can’t work out whether I did well this week or not. Ok in numbers, the amount of books I read is not that big, but several of them were quite chunky books so I’ve actually done a lot of pages – over 2500 pages in fact. But is that good or not? I don’t usually add up pages, so I have no idea, and I don’t have the time (or inclination) to go back and add it up for a representative number of weeks. My Goodread stats average out at just over 2000 pages a week for this year so far, and just over 2100 a week for the whole of last year – but I know that there are always some books that I’ve read that don’t have a good reads page count so won’t have made it into the total. But hey, on that basis, I’ve done well – because the 2500+ figure doesn’t include the half of the Mary-Jo Putney that I read on the train on Sunday evening…
Read:
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Tumbling Turner Sisters by Juliette Fay
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Stormswept by Sabrina Jeffries writing as Deborah Martin
From Pasta to Pigfoot: Second Helpings by Frances Mensah Williams
Wedding Bells for Nurse Connie by Jean Fullerton
Started:
Once a Soldier by Mary-Jo Putney
Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie
Still reading:
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
I pre-ordered Eloisa James’s upcoming novella, but that’s it. I’m trying to be restrained…
On holiday this week (and last week for that matter) but family wedding, visiting more family and sightseeing means not a lot of reading done by my standards – and certainly not as much as I’d’ve done on a beach holiday!
Read:
Wildflower Bay Part 1 by Rachel Lucas
Goodbye Mrs Chips by Dorothy Cannell
Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant
Naked in Death by (Nora Roberts writing as) J D Robb
Bury Her Deep by Catriona McPherson
Unnatural Fire by Fidelis Morgan
Started:
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Still reading:
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
I pre-ordered Gail Carriger’s first self-published novella and a copy of Vita Sackville-West’s The Edwardians…
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 