Another week of hibernation = a good few books read but nothing really exciting to update you all on. As I write this post I am looking out of my window at the blue sky and wondering if I have the inclination to go for a walk. If this post subsequently includes picture of ducks, then the answer is yes. If not, then clearly I couldn’t be bothered. Have the day off work today so I know I will be going walkies at some point after I’ve got the kitty her annual jab done, but where and how far remains to be seen. I got the all clear on LFT testing on Saturday morning. Finally !!! 9 days from the first positive to my final moment of freedom. I have celebrated by going grocery shopping and buying a new feeding station for the birds but that’s about it. What a rebel huh?
Bing stuck indoors does have it’s benefits. One of them was I managed to focus on reading a little better this past week. More on that later. I also had more time to peruse bookshops on line so I’ve quite impressed with how little bought considering … Indulged in an Amazon First Reads title this month – don’t always but this sounded interesting. The Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias. First of two books so we’ll see how I get on. Also pre-ordered A Silent Truth by Rachel Amphlett, the fourth Mark Turpin novel, and Where Demons Hide by Douglas Skelton, the fourth book in the Rebecca Connolly series. Treated myself to a sneaky pre-order of The Botanist by MW Craven – a signed edition from the BooksCumbria website.
Book post wise I have had an awesome week. Firstly I received a signed copy of Bamburgh by LJ Ross along with a scrummy bar of chocolate. Then on Friday I received a lovely envelope packed with Orenda goodness – Nothing Else by Louise Beech; Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir and The Daves Next Door by Will Carver. It’s been an Orenda kind of week really, which you’ll understand when you see my books read list this week.
Two new Netgalley titles – one for a tour, the other because I have zero will power … The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh and A Home At Cornflower Cottage by Tilly Tennant.
Books I have read
Special Delivery by Rachel Amphlett
All Jackson Dark wants to do is get home and surprise his wife with the special gift he’s bought her.
But he’s got one last job to finish first…
Special Delivery forms part of the Case Files series of short crime stories from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.
Heather Harris is a piano teacher and professional musician, whose quiet life revolves around music, whose memories centre on a single song that haunts her. A song she longs to perform again. A song she wrote as a child, to drown out the violence in their home. A song she played with her little sister, Harriet.
But Harriet is gone … she disappeared when their parents died, and Heather never saw her again.
When Heather is offered an opportunity to play piano on a cruise ship, she leaps at the chance. She’ll read her recently released childhood care records by day – searching for clues to her sister’s disappearance – and play piano by night … coming to terms with the truth about a past she’s done everything to forget.
An exquisitely moving novel about surviving devastating trauma, about the unbreakable bond between sisters, Nothing Else is also a story of courage and love, and the power of music to transcend – and change – everything.
The Death of Remembrance by Denzil Meyrick
It’s 1983, and a beat constable walks away from a bar where he knows a crime is about to be committed.
In the present, an old fisherman is found dead by the shoreline and a stranger with a mission moves into a shabby Kinloch flat.
Meanwhile, D.C.I. Jim Daley is trying to help Brian Scott stay sober, and the good people of Kinloch are still mourning the death of one of their own.
As past and present collide, Daley finds himself face to face with old friends and foes. Memories can only last as long as those who keep them, and ghosts will not be silenced.
Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz
Teenager Sally has just run away from a clinic where she to be treated for anorexia. She’s furious with everything and everyone, and wants to be left in peace.
Liss is in her forties, living alone on a large farm that she runs single-handedly. She has little contact with the outside world, and no need for other people.
From their first meeting, Sally realises that Liss isn’t like other adults; she expects nothing of Sally and simply accepts who she is, offering her a bed for the night with no questions asked.
That night becomes weeks and then months, as an unlikely friendship develops and these two damaged women slowly open up – connecting to each other, reconnecting with themselves, and facing the darkness in their pasts through their shared work on the land.
Achingly beautiful, profound, invigorating and uplifting, Tasting Sunlight is a story of friendship across generations, of love and acceptance, of the power of nature to heal and transform, and the goodness that surrounds us, if only we take time to see it…
Bad For Good by Graham Bartlett
How far would you go?
The murder of a promising footballer, son of Brighton’s highest-ranking police officer, means Detective Superintendent Jo Howe has a complicated and sensitive case on her hands. The situation becomes yet more desperate following devastating blackmail threats.
Howe can trust no one as she tracks the brutal killer in a city balanced on a knife edge of vigilante action and a police force riven with corruption.
Are you impressed? Four full length books and a short story. Not bad for a weeks work. Well … I say work, but it wasn’t really. All pleasure, no work involved. Full enough week on the blog – recap below.
#Review – The Bathroom Murders – Mark L Fowler
#Review – The Fields – Erin Young
#Review – Little Liar – Lisa Ballantyne
#Review – Lightseekers – Femi Kayode
#Review – The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont
#Review – First Monday Crime – River Clyde – Simone Buchholz
Busy week again this week. No less than four blog tour reviews this week. Four! Today I’m sharing my thoughts on An English Garden Murder by Katie Gayle, then tomorrow sees me taking a look at See No Evil by David Fennell. Wednesday I’m off to Norway to spend a little time with Frølich and Gunnarstranda with a review of Little Drummer by Kjell Ola Dahl and then I’m a touch nearer to home on Thursday with a publication day review of Angela Marsons’ brand new Kim Stone thriller, Six Graves. What a week! I’ll be rounding it off with a review of another stunning book too, Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister so please make sure to drop in to hear about that one.
I think that’s me about done. Don’t want to overdo it whilst now do I. Travels coming up shortly and I cannot wait. Promise I will share some slightly more exciting photos then.
Unless …
EDIT: I went walkies. What a difference two weeks makes. So many babies on the canal now. Awwwww.
Have a lovely bookish week all and I will see you next time.
Jen
Jen Med's Book Reviews 
That’s quite the post! Lots of books with great looking covers at least. I’ve been enjoying spotting our little neighborhood babies as well–lots of geese. They are so cute.
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I love this time of year.
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