It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Last week I read three books: Dacre's War by Rosemary Goring, Lord Somerton's Heir by Alison Stuart, an Australian author I'd not read before, and The Right-Hand Man by K.M. Peyton, an historical novel for young adults. While all three were good reads, my favourite was The Right-Hand Man, a story about an unusual friendship involving horses and carriage driving. Once started, I couldn't put it down. You can read my review here.

This week I'm reading The Tailor's Girl by Fiona McIntosh and The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte by James Tully, which is an interesting take on the lives of the Bronte family.

Up next will be another book written for young adults, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I've seen good reviews of this book set during World War II and can't wait to read it.

What I Read Last Week

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.

The Right-hand Man by K.M. Peyton

It's 1818, and reckless Ned Rowlands is the fastest stagecoach driver for miles around. Ned attracts the attention of the young Lord Ironminster - determined to win a racing wager against his wealthy cousins, the Savilles, and desperate for Ned's help.

Ned is quickly drawn into a strange partnership with Ironminster; as his new friend's right hand man, Ned has an important role to play in helping him outwit the Savilles and preventing his title and estate from passing to them.

Lord Somerton's Heir by Alison Stuart

From the battlefield of Waterloo to the drawing rooms of Brantstone Hall, Sebastian Alder’s elevation from penniless army captain to Viscount Somerton is the stuff of dreams. But the cold reality of an inherited estate in wretched condition, and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his cousin’s death, provide Sebastian with no time for dreams — only a mystery to solve and a murderer to bring to justice.

Isabel, widow of the late Lord Somerton, is desperate to bury the memory of her unhappy marriage by founding the charity school she has always dreamed of. Except, her dreams are soon shattered from beyond the grave when she is not only left penniless, but once more bound to the whims of a Somerton.

But this Somerton is unlike any man she has met. Can the love of an honourable man heal her broken heart or will suspicion tear them apart?

What I'm Reading Today

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 Crimes of Charlotte Bronte

The story of the lives of the Bronte family is as haunting and tragic as their novels: three sisters and an alcoholic brother shut in the bleak and claustrophobic parsonage at Haworth.
Noted criminologist James Tully became fascinated by inconsistencies he found in the accounts of the lives and deaths of the Brontes, and soon became enmeshed in seeking out the mysteries of Haworth. So dark and unexpected were the results of his researches, he decided to tell the story in the form of a novel which brings to the fore many disturbing questions ... All of which leads to one final question: Was there a cold-blooded and calculating murderer at the heart of the Bronte household?

What I Hope to Read Next

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.
That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again. He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two. We are a sensational team.