It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

Not much happened on the reading front over the past week and I can't even blame being outside getting our property bush fire ready. Although this is still ongoing, it didn't take up all of my time.  I did spend quite a few hours on a task that is yet to be completed i.e. sorting my bookshelves on Goodreads, and on Pinterest. Pinning can be very addictive.

The only book finished last week was Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne. While an enjoyable, quick read, I didn't think it was as good as her other time slip novels, Edge of Dark and The Memory of Midnight.

I'm halfway through Dacre's War  by Rosemary Goring and have read a few more chapters of Through a Glass Darkly  by Karleen Koen. The latter is borrowed from the library (inter-library loan) and is due back in a couple of weeks. With no renewals allowed, this book will be my main focus after I finish Dacre's War. I could still be reading it next week. For those not familiar with this novel, it is a big read of 775 pages. I'm also hoping to finish Waratah House by Ann Whitehead.

I'm still looking at Fiona McIntosh's The Tailor's Girl  for my next read or it could be The White Cross  by Richard Masefield which is currently being offered as a free download from Amazon. An offer I took advantage of as I'd not heard of this author before. It is set during the late 12th century around Richard I's crusade to Jerusalem.

What I Read Last Week

Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne

York , 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market, and sets in train a story of obsession and sibling jealousy, of love and hate and warped desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Four and a half centuries later, Grace Trewe, who has travelled the world, is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one. But in York Grace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined. Drawn inexorably into Hawise's life, Grace finds that this time she cannot move on. Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?

What I'm Reading Today

Waratah House by Ann Whitehead

Waratah House, a beautiful mansion in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, is the only home Marina has ever known. Orphaned at a young age, Marina finds a new family in the colourful characters that occupy the bustling servants' quarters of this stately house.
But not every resident of Waratah House has Marina's best interests at heart and she finds herself forced into exile. Years later, Marina's daughter Emily discovers the past has a way of repeating itself. She must fight for her chance at happiness – a chance that some will do anything to prevent . . .

Through A Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

Karleen Koen's sweeping saga contains unforgettable characters consumed with passion: the extraordinarily beautiful fifteen-year-old noblewoman, Barbara Alderley; the man she adores, the wickedly handsome Roger MontGeoffry; her grandmother, the duchess, who rules the family with cunning and wit; and her mother, the ineffably cruel, self-centered and licentious Diana. Like no other work, Through a Glass Darkly is infused with intrigue, sweetened by romance and awash in the black ink of betrayal.



Dacre's War by Rosemary Goring

Dacre's War is a story of personal and political vengeance. Ten years after the battle of Flodden, Adam Crozier, head of his clan and of an increasingly powerful alliance of Borderers, learns for sure that it was Lord Thomas Dacre - now the most powerful man in the north of England - who ordered his father's murder. He determines to take his revenge. As a fighting man, Crozier would like nothing better than to bring Dacre down face to face but his wife Louise advises him that he must use more subtle methods. So he sets out to engineer Dacre's downfall by turning the machinery of the English court against him. A vivid and fast-moving tale of political intrigue and heartache, Dacre's War is set against the backdrop of the Scottish and English borders, a land where there is never any chance of peace.

What I Hope to Read Next

The Tailor's Girl by Fiona McIntosh

A humble soldier, known only as 'Jones', wakes in hospital with no recollection of his past. The few fleeting fragments of memory he glimpses are horrifying moments from the battlefield at Ypres. His very identity becomes a puzzle he must solve. Then Eden Valentine comes gliding into his world, a stunning tailoress who has a dream of her own business in high fashion but whose duty to her family may never permit her to fulfil. Her fiancé resents the intrusion of the disarming Jones who is in desperate need of her help to unravel his past. Surrounding the mystery is Alex Wynter, the influential heir to an industrial empire and country manor Larksfell Hall. With his aristocratic family still reeling from a recent tragedy, he brings news that will further rock the foundations of their privileged lives. When their three very different worlds collide, the pieces of the past finally fall into place and lead them into wildly unexpected futures. What they discover will bring shattering consequences that threaten to tear apart far more than just the heart of the tailor's girl.

The White Cross by Richard Masefield

The White Cross is a whole new reading experience; a book that brings something entirely original to historical fiction. Set in the late twelfth century at the time of King Richard I's crusade to win back Jerusalem from the Saracens, the story deals with timeless issues - with the moralities of warfare and fundamental religion, the abuse of power, the heights of martial fervour and the depths of disillusionment The writing blazes with colour (literally in the case of the printed edition, which makes groundbreaking use of colour throughout). It pulses with life, capturing the sights and sounds, the very smells of medieval life. At the novel's heart is the relationship between Garon and Elise - the story of an arranged marriage which rapidly develops into something deeper, to challenge a young husband's strongly held beliefs and set him on a long and painful journey to self-realisation, to break and finally restore a woman's spirit as she battles for recognition and for justice in a brutal man's world. And then there is the Berge dal becce; a character who is surely more than he appears? The only way to uncover all the secrets of The White Cross is to read it!

18 comments:

  1. I hope you enjoy your week...The Tailor's Girl looks interesting to me. Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fiona McIntosh is an author I've not read before so I'm looking forward to The Tailor's Girl.

      Delete
  2. Through A Glass Darkly is a chunky. Hope you like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've enjoyed what I've read so far, which is a good sign.

      Delete
  3. Ooh, you sold me on the Koen series. I don't like to read a series out of order so I've requested the paperback of book one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did see that Through A Glass Darkly was part of a trilogy, but as the other two books were written much later than this one, I assumed they were all stand alone novels. I hope you enjoy them all.

      Delete
  4. Love the cover on Time's Echo.

    The Tailor's Girl looks very good.

    ENJOY your reading week.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My It's Monday, What Are You Reading

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's an eye catching cover. The story is a little darker than the cover implies.
      I'm looking forward to reading The Tailor's Girl.

      Delete
  5. Can't imagine having to prepare for bush fires, read a book recently called Smoke that gave a little insight to the devastation.
    The Koen book is big! Have heard of it but never read it, hope you are enjoying it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fires came close to us last summer and we were prepared to evacuate. Luckily we didn't have to. Living in country areas you're more aware of the danger, though you're not safe in the cities either. Our capital Canberra was ravaged by bush fires a few years ago.

      I am enjoying Through A Glass Darkly, but not sure if I will read the other two books in the series.

      Delete
    2. Mmm we usually hear about them, I'd hate to be any where near, it's the smoke as well I would imagine. I am not sure where you live in Aus but I remember hearing about big fires around Melbourne a few years back too.

      Delete
    3. I'm in Victoria and lived in Melbourne for many years and remember those fires. They didn't impact on me at the time except for the smoke haze.

      Delete
  6. Nice looking bunch of books. These are all new to me. I hope you enjoy the ones coming up. Here is a summary of my week. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you're tempted to read some of them. I'm looking forward to The Tailor's Girl and The White Cross as I've not read any books by these authors.

      Delete
  7. I really need to spend some time on Goodreads, I haven't been cross posting there or doing much of anything recently. I need to.

    I like historical reads and have been reading a lot more of them lately. Your books all look good and thought provoking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I spend a lot of time on Goodreads. May be too much, but I find lots of interesting books to tempt me, especially older ones that I'd missed first time around.

      I'm pleased the books I've mentioned have piqued your interest and hope you get to read some of them.

      Delete
  8. Nice list of books. I haven't read any of them. I'm more of a contemporary reader than historical, but sometimes I do like historical fiction.

    Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Occasionally I read other genres, but I'm a historical fiction addict from way back.

      Delete