Hello all! Happy Saturday!! No Dinosaurs near you I hope?! Did make me smile seeing this one this week! It’s the little things in life, and with the way 2020 is working out I wouldn’t be surprised in seeing some rock up somewhere!!
On to books, and I’ve had a pretty good reading week! Needed more rest this week which has worked out well for getting through a few books as I got 5 finished this week. The TBR pile is still overwhelming though! 2 newbies on my netgalley shelves this week, a digital download from the library and a book to review in the post! I’ve had worse weeks!!
Here’s my look back…
BOOKS FINISHED
Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe by Morton S.Gray – 5 stars
Three Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson – 5 stars
A Kiss in the Snow (Little Duck Pond Cafe) by Rosie Green – 5 stars
Lost Connections by Johann Hari – 4 stars
The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan – 2 stars (audiobook)
BOOKHAUL
What did Netgalley tempt me with this week??!!
CUNNING WOMEN by ELIZABETH LEE
out April 2020
Lee is a magnetic new voice in historical fiction and CUNNING WOMEN is sure to be loved by fans of The Essex Serpent and The Mercies.
Spring of 1620 in a Lancashire fishing community and the memory of the slaughter at Pendle is tight around the neck of Sarah Haworth. A birthmark reveals that Sarah, like her mother, is a witch. Torn between yearning for an ordinary life and desire to discover what dark power she might possess, Sarah’s one hope is that her young sister Annie will be spared this fate.
The Haworth family eke out a meagre existence in the old plague village adjoining a God-fearing community presided over by a seedy magistrate. A society built upon looking the other way, the villagers’ godliness is merely a veneer. But the Haworth women, with their salves and poultices, are judged the real threat to morality.
When Sarah meets lonely farmer’s son Daniel, she begins to dream of a better future. Daniel is in thrall to the wild girl with storms in her eyes, but their bond is tested when a zealous new magistrate vows to root out sins and sinners. In a frenzy of fear and fury, the community begins to turn on one another, and it’s not long before they direct their gaze towards the old plague village … and does Daniel trust that the power Sarah wields over him is truly love, or could it be mere sorcery?
THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by CATRIONA WARD
out March 2021
This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies…
You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. That’s where you’re wrong.
In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it’s not what you think…
CURRENTLY READING
THE BELOVED CHILDREN by TINA JACKSON
“There is some really atmospheric storytelling and joyful language at play here, with Jackson as an entertaining mistress of ceremonies.” – Ben East, The Observer
What can we say about this book from Tina Jackson except that it’s something very special indeed.
Three young women; Chrysanthemum, Rose & Orage are thrown together on the stage of Fankes’ Theatre during the closing days of the Second World War performing as The Three Graces.
It’s there they come under the spell of wardrobe mistresses Dolores and Janna – a chance encounter that will guide and change all of their fates forever.
Set in the dying days of vaudeville theatre and laced with mysticism, fortune tellers, ghosts, and evocative descriptions of the closing days of the War – The Beloved Children will literally make you laugh out loud and perhaps even shed the odd tear.
The Beloved Children is wise, funny, heart-breaking, joyous, poignant, and entirely entirely enthralling.
Tina Jackson has conjured characters that you will fall unapologetically in love with and placed them in a world that you won’t want to leave.
If any Fahrenheit book is ever going to be nominated for The Booker Prize it’ll be this one.
Books and Me! 
What a fantastic bookish week you’ve had! I’ve just read a fab review of Three Women in a Boat, and saw a Tweet about The Last House on Threadneedle Street being the best book they’d read in a decade!! No pressure! 😂 x
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ooh blimey! I will have my pen at the ready then for when I read Threadneedle Street so I can wax lyrical about it too haha! x
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