myweekinbooks – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical true crime novel, The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – I shared my review of thriller, No Way To Die by Tony Kent.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading. Plus, I published my review of dual-time historical novel, The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable as part of the blog tour.

Thursday – I gave an update on my progress with the NetGalley November reading challenge.

Friday – As part of NetGalley November, I published my review of Violets by Alex Hyde.

Saturday – I published my review of psychological thriller, Girl A by Abigail Dean.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

The Cornish Captive by Nicola Pryce (ARC, Corvus via Readers First)

Cornwall, 1800. Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can’t quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine determines to discover the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Unsure who to trust and alone in the world, Madeleine strikes a tentative friendship with a French prisoner on parole, Captain Pierre de la Croix. But as she learns more about the reasons behind her imprisonment, and about those who schemed to hide her away for so long, she starts to wonder if Pierre is in fact the man he says he is. As Madeleine’s past collides with her present, can she find the strength to follow her heart, no matter the personal cost?

The Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch (ARC, Allison & Busby)

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land…

Rosie lived peacefully in Moscow and her mother told fairy tales at bedtime. Then one summer night, all that came abruptly to an end when her father and sister were gunned down. Now Rosie’s only inheritance from her reclusive mother is a book of Russian fairy tales, but there is another story lurking between the lines.

Currently a doctoral student at Oxford, Rosie has a fiancé who knows nothing of her former life and an ailing, alcoholic mother lost to a notebook full of eerie, handwritten little stories. Desperate for answers to the questions that have tormented her, Rosie returns to her homeland and uncovers a devastating family history which spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges and beyond. At the heart of those answers stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions reverberate across the century…

Bad Relations by Cressida Connolly (eARC, Viking via NetGalley)

On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William’s experience of war is to bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries.

In the 1970s, William’s English descendants invite Stephen, a distant Australian cousin, to stay in their bohemian house in Cornwall – but their golden summer entanglements will end in a dramatic fall from grace.

Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family culminates in a terrible reckoning.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal
Book Review: A Three Dog Problem by S. J. Bennett
Book Review: Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
#6Degrees of Separation: From Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton to…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – As part of NetGalley November, I published my review of Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller.

Tuesday – I shared my review of historical crime mystery, The Custard Corpses by M J Porter, as part of the blog tour.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of The Red Monarch by Bella Ellis.

Friday – As part of NetGalley November, I published my review of what was my oldest approval –Eureka by Anthony Quinn.

Saturday – I published a spotlight feature on the forthcoming book, Christmas Past by John Adcox.

Sunday – I published my review of White Dog by Rupert Whewell as part of the blog tour.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

Make yourself comfortable…

Resistance by Eilidh Mcginness (eARC)

Bravery, courage, fear, treachery and love in a time of war.

A chance meeting draws Sabine Faure into the shadowy world of the French Resistance where she meets the charismatic Hérisson and his intriguing comrade Loup. Set in Dordogne in South-west France during World War II, the friends’ relationships and strengths are tested to the very limits as life changes in unbelievably horrific ways.

The friends find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs (eARC, Simon & Schuster)

England 1837. Eliza Acton is a poet who dreams of seeing her words in print. But when she takes her new manuscript to a publisher, she’s told that ‘poetry is not the business of a lady’. Instead, they want her to write a cookery book. England is awash with exciting new ingredients, from spices to exotic fruits. That’s what readers really want from women.

Eliza leaves the offices appalled. But when her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy, she has no choice but to consider the proposal. Never having cooked before in her life, she is determined to learn and to discover, if she can, the poetry in recipe writing. To assist her, she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby, the impoverished daughter of a war-crippled father and a mother with dementia.

Over the course of ten years, Eliza and Ann developed an unusual friendship – one that crossed social classes and divides – and, together, they broke the mould of traditional cookbooks and changed the course of cookery writing forever.

A Three Dog Problem by S. J. Bennett (eARC, Zaffre via Readers First)

In the wake of a referendum which has divided the nation, the last thing the Queen needs is any more problems to worry about. But when an oil painting of the Royal Yacht Britannia – first given to the Queen in the 1960s – shows up unexpectedly in a Royal Navy exhibition, she begins to realise that something is up.

When a body is found in the Palace swimming pool, she finds herself once again in the middle of an investigation which has more twists and turns than she could ever have suspected. With her trusted secretary Rozie by her side, the Queen is determined to solve the case. But will she be able to do it before the murderer strikes again?

Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen (eARC)

In March 1920 Icelandic days are short and cold, but the nights are long. For most, on those nights, funny, sad, and dramatic stories are told around the fire. But there is nothing dramatic about Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith who barely manages to make ends meet. He knows nobody will remember his existence – they already don’t. All he wants is peace, the company of his animals, and a steady supply of his medication. Sometimes he wonders what it would feel like to have a story of his own. He’s about to find out.

Sigurd – a man with a plan, a broken ankle, and shocking amounts of money – won’t talk about himself, but is happy to tell a story that just might get Gunnar killed. The blacksmith’s other “friends” are just as eager to write him into stories of their own – from Brynhildur who wants to fix Gunnar, then marry him, his doctor who is on the precipice of calling for an intervention, The Conservative Women of Iceland who want to rehabilitate Gunnar’s “heathen ways” – even that wicked elf has plans for the blacksmith.

As his defenses begin to crumble, Gunnar decides that perhaps his life is due for a change – on his own terms. But can he avoid the endings others have in mind for him, and forge his own?

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

Berlin, November 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silbermann must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence: it is Kristallnacht, and synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed.

Turned away from establishments he had long patronised, betrayed by friends and colleagues, Otto finds his life as a respected businessman has dissolved overnight. Desperately trying to conceal his Jewish identity, he takes train after train across Germany in a race to escape this homeland that is no longer home.

Betrayal (The Englishman #2) by David Gilman (ARC, Head of Zeus)

Someone’s going to start a war. And Raglan’s just walked into the kill zone.

It has been many years since Dan Raglan served in the French Foreign Legion, but the bonds forged in adversity are unbreakable and when one of his comrades calls for help, Raglan is duty-bound to answer.

An ex-legionnaire, now an intelligence officer at the Pentagon, disappears. He leaves only this message: should he ever go missing, contact Raglan. But Raglan’s not the only one looking for the missing man. From the backstreets of Marseilles, Raglan finds himself following a trail of death that will lead him to Florida, to the camaraderie of a Vietnam vet in Washington D.C., and into the heart of a bitter battle in the upper echelons of the US intelligence community.

Pursued by both the CIA and a rogue female FBI agent, Raglan’s search will place him in the cross hairs of an altogether more lethal organisation. Tracking his old comrade, he finds himself in the midst of deadly conspiracy, and on a journey to a fatal confrontation deep in the Honduran rainforest.

The Perfect Find by Tia Williams
Tell Me Everything by Laura Kay
Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman (Proof copies, courtesy of Quercus)