Howdy! How are we?! Keeping well and safe I hope! Had a wobble or two this week as not seen my brother and his family now for a few months with them not living close by, and not knowing when we’ll get a chance to meet up again is taking its’ toll! Starting to consider the lady from the local cafe who delivers us lunch every week as part of the family now!! Time to just keep hoping that ‘normality’ gets a little closer with every passing day…
And my wobble has taken its’ toll on my reading this week with just 1 book finished! Shock!! I’ve been really fidgety and my brain hasn’t been concentrating so hoping I get back on track soon! It hasn’t stopped my ability to visit Netgalley though – oops!!
Here’s my look back!
BOOKS FINISHED
Sunset over the Cherry Orchard by Jo Thomas – 4 stars
BOOKHAUL
To Netgalley we go….
THE RAILWAY GIRLS by MAISIE THOMAS
publication date – 28th May 2020
The first novel in the utterly brilliant Railway Girls series. Perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Ellie Dean.
In February, 1922, at the western-most entrance to Victoria Station in Manchester, a massive plaque was unveiled. Beneath a vast tiled map showing the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway network, a series of seven bronze panels recorded the names of the men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who gave their lives for King and Country in the Great War – a total of 1,460 names.
In March, 1940, a group of women of varying ages and backgrounds, stand in front of the memorial, ready to do their bit in this new World War…
_________________________________________
Mabel is determined to make a fresh start as a railway girl where no one will know the terrible thing she did and she can put her guilt behind her… Or is she just running away?
Meanwhile Joan will never be as good as her sister, or so her Gran keeps telling her. A new job as a station clerk could be just the thing she needs to forget her troubles at home.
And Dot is further into her forties than she cares to admit. Her beloved sons are away fighting and her husband – well, the less said about him the better. Ratty old sod. She is anxious to become a railway girl just like her dear mam – anything to feel she is supporting the sons she prays for every night.
The three women start off as strangers, but soon form an unbreakable bond that will get them through the toughest of times…
FEATHERTIDE by BETH CARTWRIGHT
publication date – 30th July 2020
And there has been some lovely book post too!
A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AND A DAY by JEAN-BAPTISTE ANDREA
copy sent via Gallic Books for review
publication date – 20th June 2020
‘On the mountain, the only monsters are the ones you take with you.’
Summer 1954. Stan has been hunting for fossils since the age of six. Now, having made a career out of studying the remains of tiny lifeforms, he hears a story he cannot forget: the skeleton of a huge creature, a veritable dragon, lies deep in an Alpine glacier. And he is determined to find it.
Leaving his life in Paris behind, Stan sets out in pursuit of a legend. But he is no mountaineer, and to attempt his dangerous expedition he must call on loyal friend and colleague Umberto, who arrives with an eccentric young assistant, and expert guide Gio. Time is short: the four men must descend before the weather turns. Bonds are forged and tested as the hazardous quest for the earth’s lost creatures becomes a journey into Stan’s own past.
IN THE SWEEP OF THE BAY by CATH BARTON
copy sent from Louise Walters Books
publication date – November 2020
This lyrical, warm-hearted tale explores marriage, love, and longing, set against the majestic backdrop of Morecambe Bay, the Lakeland Fells, and the faded splendour of the Midland Hotel.
Ted Marshall meets Rene in the dance halls of Morecambe and they marry during the frail optimism of the 1950s. They adopt the roles expected of man and wife at the time: he the breadwinner at the family ceramics firm, and she the loyal housewife, but as the years go by, they both find themselves wishing for more…
After Ted survives a heart attack, both see it as a new beginning… but can a faded love like theirs ever be rekindled?
Cath Barton lives in Abergavenny. She won the New Welsh Writing AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella in 2017 for The Plankton Collector, which was published in September 2018 by New Welsh Review under their Rarebyte imprint. She also writes short stories and flash fiction and, with her critical writing, is a regular contributor to Wales Arts Review. In the Sweep of the Bay is her second novella.
CURRENTLY READING
COMING HOME TO HERITAGE COVE by HELEN J ROLFE
HAPPY READING!!
Books and Me! 
Lovely haul which hopefully makes up for the wobbly week xx
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Thank you! Books are always good therapy whatever the problem!! 😉 xx
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