It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

I had an enjoyable and productive reading week with four novels gone from my reading pile, not that it looks any smaller. The weather is still cold so it was easy to hunker down on the couch with a blanket and a pile of books. All four were great reads, but the one that stood out was Amy Snow. It is 551 pages of absolute delight and, despite its length, a very quick read.

This week I'm still reading The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins, but have also started Homeland by Clare Francis. I haven't read a Clare Francis novel since her first, Night Sky, came out in 1983. I thought it was time I read another.

As to what's up next, I have quite a few books I'm eager to get to, but awaiting me at the library are two children's novels by Nicola Morgan, The Highway Man's Footsteps and its sequel,The Highwayman's Curse. Both of these novels were inspired by Alfred Noyes' famous poem The Highwayman.

And because of the whimsical nature of their covers, I've added three of Carola Dunn's Regency novels that make up the Rothschild Trilogy to my reading pile. These look to be quick and cheerful reads.

What I Read Last Week

Spilt Milk by Amanda Hodgkinson

1913. Unmarried sisters Nellie and Vivian Marsh live an impoverished existence in a tiny cottage on the banks of the Little River in Suffolk. Their life is quiet and predictable, until a sudden flood throws up a strange fish on their doorstep and a travelling man who will change them forever. 

1939. Eighteen-year-old Birdie Farr is working as a barmaid in the family pub in London. When she realises she is pregnant she turns to her mother Nellie, who asks her sister to arrange an adoption for Birdie's new born daughter. But as the years pass Birdie discovers she cannot escape the Marsh sisters' shadowy past - and her own troubling obsession with finding her lost daughter will have deep consequences for all of them...

Amy Snow by Tracy Rees

Abandoned on a bank of snow as a baby, Amy is taken in at nearby Hatville Court. But the masters and servants of the grand estate prove cold and unwelcoming. Amy's only friend and ally is the sparkling young heiress Aurelia Vennaway. So when Aurelia tragically dies young, Amy is devastated. But Aurelia leaves Amy one last gift. A bundle of letters with a coded key. A treasure hunt that only Amy can follow. A life-changing discovery awaits ...if only she can unlock the secret.

Different Tides by Janet Woods

A young woman becomes a governess to two grieving orphans in the latest powerful historical romance from Janet Woods 1835. Clementine Morris, despite her youth and inexperience, is hired by Zachariah Fleet to care for his recently orphaned niece and nephew. He tells her he wishes the young children to have more than a governess, and her heart goes out to the grieving infants. Clementine, too, is an orphan, and all alone in the world. But little does she know that Zachariah Fleet is interested in her for more than just her usefulness as a governess. He believes she is a distant relation of his by marriage, and there is a chance she is a legatee for a useful amount of money. There are troubles ahead, though, when another young woman turns up with a claim to the inheritance ...and troubles for Zachariah too. The self-possessed, wealthy businessman has never allowed himself to fall in love, but as he grows to trust Clementine he realises that he may be falling for her.

We Shall Remember by Emma Fraser

1939. Irena is a young medical student living in Warsaw when the German army invade Poland. Those closest to her are dying and when Irena realises that no one is coming to Poland's aid, it's clear that she is alone. Forced to flee to Britain, Irena meets Richard, a RAF pilot who she's instantly drawn to and there's a glimmer of happiness on the horizon. And then the war becomes more brutal and in order to right a never-forgotten wrong Irena must make an impossible decision. 1989. Decades later, Sarah's mother is left a home in Skye and another in Edinburgh following the death of Lord Glendale, a man she's never met, and only on the condition that Magdalena Drobnik, a woman she's never heard of, is no longer alive. Sarah's only clues to this mystery are two photographs she doesn't understand but she's determined to discover the truth, not knowing that she's about to begin a journey that will change her life. Gripping, poignant and honest, We Shall Remember is an incredibly powerful story about the choices we make under fire. It will stay with you long after you've turned the final page.

What I'm Reading Today

Homeland by Clare Francis

It is 1946, and the eve of the harshest winter for a hundred years. Servicemen are pouring home from the war to a Britain beset by stringent shortages and a desperate housing crisis. Anxieties are heightened by the unexpected arrival of the soldiers of the Second Polish Corps, whose refusal to go back to Poland is regarded with impatience and suspicion. As anti-Polish propaganda reaches its height, newly demobbed Billy Greer reluctantly agrees to take on a young Polish veteran named Wladyslaw Malinowski as a labourer on his uncle's withy farm in the heart of the Somerset wetlands. Stella, the local schoolteacher, has been waiting for the return of Lyndon Hanley, a hero of the Burma Campaign, but increasingly finds herself drawn to the beguiling Wladyslaw. As the country is brought to its knees by blizzards and hardships, the tensions of post-war life lead to mistrust, accusation and ultimately death.

The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins was the first great detective novelist. His dark and complex mysteries influenced the work of other writers, such as Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens, with whom he developed a close personal friendship. Swinburne found his work worthy of serious criticism, and T. S. Eliot credits him even more than Poe with the invention of the modern detective novel and the popular thriller. Before such works as "The Woman in White," "The Moonstone," "Armadale," and "No Name," Collins demonstrates the full range of his talents for intricate plot and dramatic suspense in "The Dead Secret," one of his earliest novels. Like much of Collins's work, "The Dead Secret" explores the consequences of a single, hidden act. The Cornish mansion Porthgenna harbors the secret of such an act, one that has ruined the life of the servant girl Sarah Leeson. This same secret lies hidden for fifteen years until the heiress to Porthgenna, Rosamund Treverton, returns and exposes it. Her detective work may reveal the truth, but her revelation of a long-forgotten crime could mean disaster for her and the entire estate. Wilkie Collins's brilliant characters, suspenseful plots, and piercing look into Victorian-era society are on full display in "The Dead Secret."

What I Hope to Read Next

The Highwayman's Footsteps and The Highwayman's Curse by Nicola Morgan

Young William de Lacey is high born, the son of a gentleman. But he's on the run, having stolen money and a horse, and has taken up with a highwayman. It's enough to hang him three times over. Despite struggling with his conscience, Will feels free for the first time in his life - and it's all down to the mysterious Bess. Now can they survive the risks of the eighteenth-century highwayman's harsh life?

On the run from the redcoats, the two young highwaymen, Will and Bess, find themselves in Galloway, Scotland, blamed for a murder they did not commit. Here, they are captured by smugglers and become embroiled in a story of hatred and revenge that goes back for generations, to the days of the Killing Times. Whose side will they take? Can anything they do end the cycle of religious hatred? And will their own friendship survive?

Miss Jacobson's Journey, Lord Roworth's Reward and Captain Ingram's Inheritance by Carola Dunn

'Improper and impious!' her family crimes, but in most unladylike fashion, Miriam Jacobson defies her parents. Finding the thought of marriage horrifying, she rejects their suitable choice of bridegroom, choosing instead a life of adventure and travelling to the continent to join her physician uncle in his work. Following on from his death and the outbreak of war, Miriam decides it's time to go home. To secure passage to England, she accepts a patriotic mission from the Rothschild banking family, though it means enduring a lengthy journey through France and Spain in the company of two insufferable gentlemen - one an intolerant aristocrat and the second a member of her own faith who seems to dislike her and yet is somehow disturbingly familiar...

Love can entrap the most guarded of hearts! The distinguished Viscount Roworth can only hope his clandestine activities on behalf of the British Army will restore his family fortune and gain him entry into Brussels' high society. But the only fly in the ointment is the young woman with whom necessity has forced the penurious peer to share lodgings. The lovely, fiercely independent Miss Fanny Ingram seems to care not a whit for matters of rank and social standing. And although good sense tells Roworth he must resist her uncommon charms, nothing can protect his heart against the slings and arrows of Cupid's unerring aim!

When love takes command...hearts must obey! Lady Constantia Roworth has no fortune and doesn't give a fig about rank. But her father, the Earl of Westwood, expects his offspring to make matches that benefit their station - or enrich the family coffers. Alas, Captain Frank Ingram has neither blue blood or money - only dashing good looks. The wounded soldier has accepted a kind invitation to recover at the Westwood estate...and it takes only the meeting of eyes, the touch of hands and the mingling of sighs before the handsome war hero and Lady Connie begin to lose their hearts!