I am back for more organising fun!! Still not quite there in being as streamlined as I want to be, so the process continues and I’m sure I’ll be uncovering more books that I had completely forgotten about! Beginning to wonder if I should be a little concerned about how many books I add that I have no recollection of when I look back!!
Very grateful to Lia @ Lost In A Story for thinking this little exercise up to help us all keep our growing TBR lists in some kind of order and under control!! Let’s see what goodies/awful titles I’d wiped from my memory this time round……
Here is how it all works….
- Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
THE DAY I LOST YOU by FIONNUALA KEARNEY
When Jess’s daughter, Anna, is reported lost in an avalanche, everything changes.
Left to explain her mother’s absence to Anna’s five-year-old daughter, Rose, Jess isn’t yet ready to admit to herself that her daughter might not be coming back. But Anna’s disappearance dredges up some life changing questions: Jess must uncover her daughter’s secret life – and unearth a secret that changes her world irrevocably.
The day I lost you was the day I discovered your secret life.
The day I lost you was the day you tore our family apart.
Really love the cover of this one, and the story does sound like a bit of an emotional rollercoaster! Might be a good read for a dark winter night!
Verdict – KEEP!!
THE TRIALS OF THE KING OF HAMPSHIRE by ELIZABETH FOYSTER
Every family has its skeletons, but in 1823 the grand Wallop family was about to share theirs with the world. The 3rd earl of Portsmouth was a peculiar man but, by most accounts, a harmless one. An aristocrat of enormous wealth, he kept company with England’s most famous names, inviting Jane Austen to balls and having Lord Byron as chief witness to his second marriage. For the first fifty years of his life he had moved with ease in high society, but at the age of fifty-five his own family set out to have him declared insane.
Elizabeth Foyster invites us into Freemasons’ Hall for the most extraordinary, expensive and controversial British insanity trial ever heard. Amid accusations of abductions, sodomy, blackmail and violence, jurors have to decide if Portsmouth is just a shy, stammering eccentric with foolish habits or a sinister madman attempting to mask his dangerous and immoral nature. Both provocative and heart-rending, The Trials of the King of Hampshire goes beyond the fate of a single man to question Georgian society and examine the treatment of the mentally ill and disabled both then and now
During Non-fiction November, I have rediscovered my love for non-fiction so spotting this one on my shelves has sparked my interest again!
Verdict – KEEP!!
THE GIRL FROM THE SAVOY by HAZEL GAYNOR
Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.
When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor—she must remain invisible and unimportant.
But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.
Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind
I do like the sound of this but there doesn’t seem to be enough to get me to read it anytime soon.
VERDICT – GO!!
THE LITTLE PIECES OF YOU AND ME by VANESSA GREENE
When life as you know it changes, will it define you, destroy you or make you stronger?
Best friends Isla and Sophie made each other a promise a long time ago: to never let life pass them by. Years later, Isla is in love, living abroad and fulfilling her dreams. But for Sophie, things haven’t turned out the way she was expecting and she hasn’t achieved any of the things she and Isla talked about. And then, in one sudden moment, life irrevocably changes for both women.
Isla and Sophie have hard decisions to make but above all else they must face up to the uncertainty that lies ahead. It’s only when they realise that this is easier together, two friends standing side by side, that each woman can embrace whatever the future holds for them.
This has a few mixed reviews but I have read others from this author and enjoy her writing style.
VERDICT – KEEP!!
INVASION by LUKE RHINEHART
Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they’ve come to earth to have fun. “Louie” follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day and he and his family come quickly to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, and steal millions from banks to give to others, they realize that Louie and his friends mean trouble. Billy, his wife and two sons begin a roller-coaster ride of fame, fortune, jail, death, resurrection, and a distinguished ranking high on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” List. The Government soon decides that all these aliens are terrorists. They must be eliminated. The aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems. But the Powers that Be don’t play games: they make war.
I enjoyed The DiceMan by this author, and this sounds just as mad so might be good for a change despite more mixed reviews!
VERDICT – KEEP!!
THE HOUSE ON SUNSET LAKE by TASMINA PERRY
1995. Savannah, Georgia, where the sunsets are long and golden and the air is hot and heavy with promise. Student Jim Johnson isn’t happy when he has to abandon his plans of a carefree month of inter-railing to spend the summer in the Deep South with his mother and his father, a down-on-his luck author who has been sent to Savannah to rediscover his muse. But when Jim meets the beguiling Jennifer Wyatt, the daughter of the owners of Casa Seta, the mysterious plantation house on the shores of a lake, Jim knows he has made the right decision in coming along. Until an event happens that shatters Jim and Jennifer’s lives for ever and sets both their lives on a different course.
2015. Twenty Years later Casa Seta stands abandoned and neglected, a victim of tragic events that everyone wants to keep buried. But when Jim Johnson’s boss buys it as the latest acquisition to his hotel chain, Jim is forced to return to the house and restore it to its former glory. Fate throws him back into the orbit of Jennifer Wyatt, the woman his heart has never truly got over, but as he tries to put the ghosts of the past behind him, he unearths a chilling secret that makes him wonder what he has ever really known about the people he loves
The cover is very pretty but the blurb has left me feeling a little flat…
VERDICT – GO!!
WAKE IN WINTER by NADEZHDA BELENKAYA
Nina’s graduate program at Moscow University isn’t exactly cheap. So when she is offered work translating for Spanish families looking to adopt orphans from the provincial town of Rogozhin, she quickly agrees. Besides the much-needed money it brings, the job is a great opportunity for Nina to use her education to help people in hardship.
But soon she finds that nothing is as it seems. By the time Nina realizes that all too often the business of international adoption is not a humanitarian enterprise, she’s in too deep. Will she be able to navigate a world of exploitation and political corruption in order to help the children? Or should she return to the much simpler world of academia and leave the orphans behind?
Wake in Winter is a captivating story of one woman’s choice in the face of a shattering discovery
Not sure why this was on my list! I think there must be gremlins adding books to my TBR list!!
VERDICT – GO!!
THE WHITE CAMELLIA by JULIET GREENWOOD
Cornwall. 1909
The great Tressillion family is ruined. As Bea is forced to leave Tressillion House, self-made businesswoman Sybil moves in. In a world where the old rules are starting to break down, this one choice will change both their lives forever…
Sybil buys the abandoned great house even though she is tempted to tear it down. The village sees only a rich American hotel-owner. Nobody recognises the young girl who left years ago with nothing but a desperate need for revenge. Buying the house is her triumph — but now what? As the house casts its spell over her, as she starts to make friends in the village despite herself, will she be able to build a new life here, or will her old ghosts and hatred always rule her heart?
Bea finds herself in London, responsible for her mother and sister’s security. Her only hope is to marry Jonathon, the new heir. He seems kind, but is he hiding something? Desperate for options, she stumbles into the White Camellia tearoom, a gathering place for the growing suffrage movement. For Bea it’s life-changing, introducing her to new friends, new ideas, maybe love, maybe even a chance to work and support herself. But it’s dangerous, risking arrest or worse. Can she follow her dreams without bringing yet more scandal on her family?
When those very dangers send the White Camellia friends back to Cornwall, Bea and Sybil must finally confront each other. Will long buried family secrets on both sides now destroy them both?
This sounds a fabulous historical fiction book and one that I need to get reading very soon!!
VERDICT – KEEP!!
THE LONELY LIFE OF BIDDY WEIR by LESLEY ALLEN
A stark but uplifting story of bullying and redemption, for anyone who’s ever been a weirdo.
Almost too terrified to grip the phone, Biddy Weir calls a daytime television show.
The subject is bullying, and Biddy has a story to tell.
Abandoned by her mother as a baby, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time watching the birds – until Alison Fleming joins her school.
Popular and beautiful, but with a dangerous, malevolent streak, Alison quickly secures the admiration of her fellow students. All except one. And Alison doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t fit her mould . . .
A story of abuse and survival, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman’s battle to learn to love herself for who she is, The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is Lesley Allen’s startlingly honest debut novel, perfect for fans of Rowan Coleman and Julie Cohen
I really love the sound of this story and the cover is rather beautiful too!
VERDICT – KEEP!!
SILENCE IS GOLDFISH by ANNABEL PITCHER
‘I have a voice but it isn’t mine. It used to say things so I’d fit in – to please my parents, to please my teachers. It used to tell the universe I was something I wasn’t. It lied.’ Fifteen-year-old Tess doesn’t mean to become mute. At first, she’s just too shocked to speak. And who wouldn’t be? Discovering your whole life has been a lie because your dad isn’t your real father is a pretty big deal. Tess sets out to find the truth of her identity, and uncovers a secret that could ruin multiple lives. But can she ask for help when she’s forgotten how to use her voice?
Intrigued by the cover, but not enough to read more!
VERDICT – GO!!
Fairly productive then today with 4 off the list! Only a billion more to wipe off the list and all will be well in the world of my TBR mountain organising! Or should I have kept more?! Or should more go?! Would love your feedback if you have read any of the above titles!
HAPPY READING!!
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