it's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Once again due to the incessant hot weather I'm confined indoors with the air conditioner and my books. I did take some photographs today to share. Rather than add them to this post they can be found here if anyone would like to look.

After a slow start to my reading this year, last week I read two books in quick succession, started two and continued with one I had previously started but set aside. This is the upside of having to remain indoors.

The Lake House by Kate Morton proved once again that her books are worth waiting for. Despite being lengthy, it was a quick read and kept me guessing until the end.

I'd enjoyed Anna Romer's Thornwood House so much that I wasn't going to leave her latest book in my TBR pile for long. I set aside my plans to read Now Face to Face and picked up, Lyrebird Hill. However, I set this book aside too when I received a reminder from the library that Sweet Wattle Creek by Kaye Dobbie was due back on the 19th January and had "unsatisifed holds". Not knowing how long it would be before this book came my way again, I decided that the best thing to do was to read it immediately.

Kaye Dobbie is one of my favourite dual-time authors. I always find her books easy to read and engrossing. Sweet Wattle Creek was no exception. Being set in Australia, especially in areas I know, added extra enjoyment. Though the town of Sweet Wattle Creek is fictional, it could be based on any small Victorian country town.

This week I'm still reading The Mind's Own Place by Ian Reid. This is a slow-paced novel and one I can't decide whether I like or not. 

Lyrebird Hill is proving to be just as good as Thornwood House and Michael Arnold's novella, Highwayman Ironside, has also started well. 

I'm still planning to read Now Face to Face as this is due back to the library very soon.

What I Read Last Week

The Lake House by Kate Morton

Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…
One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.
Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever.

Sweet Wattle Creek by Kaye Dobbie

The chance discovery of an antique wedding dress weaves together the fascinating stories of three women from different eras: Sophie, in hiding from a troubled past; Belle, who must lose everything to learn what really matters; and Martha, forced to give up those she loves in order to avoid exposure.
It’s 1931 and Belle Bartholomew has arrived in rural Sweet Wattle Creek to claim her inheritance – a run-down grand hotel formerly owned by Martha Ambrose. Determined to solve the mystery of her birth and the reason why she was bequeathed the hotel Belle runs into difficulties with the townsfolk and their desire to keep their secrets safe.
Sixty years later Sophie Matheson is on a quest to find Belle and her family after discovering the wedding dress. The Sweet Wattle Creek Centenary brings more challenges when her past catches up and she must fight for all that matters to her. Who were Belle and Martha and what links their lives together?

What I'm Reading Today

The Mind's Own Place by Ian Reid

Two women and three men, displaced in different ways by the rapid transformation of Victorian England, travel separately to a small settlement on Australia’s western rim. With them they carry social ambitions and psychological wounds. As their lives intersect in the Swan River Colony, what they encounter is not quite what they expect.
Though fictional, The Mind’s Own Place is partly based on the actual experiences of historical figures: a pair of convicts from respectable backgrounds, talented and enterprising but troubled; two female immigrants, free settlers, not equally fortunate or resilient; and the first detective in Western Australia, who eventually uncovers more than he intends.

Lyrebird Hill by Anna Romer

When all that you know comes crashing down, do you run? Or face the truth?
Ruby Cardel has the semblance of a normal life – a loving boyfriend, a fulfilling career – but in one terrible moment, her life unravels. The discovery that the death of her sister, Jamie, was not an accident makes her question all she’s known about herself and her past.
Traveling back home to Lyrebird Hill, Ruby begins to remember the year that has been forever blocked in her memory . . . Snatches of her childhood with beautiful Jamie, and Ruby’s only friendship with the boy from the next property, a troubled foster kid. Then Ruby uncovers a cache of ancient letters from a long-lost relative, Brenna Magavin, written from her cell in a Tasmanian gaol where she is imprisoned for murder. As she reads, Ruby discovers that her family line is littered with tragedy and violence.
Slowly, the gaps in Ruby’s memory come to her. And as she pieces together the shards of truth, what she finally discovers will shock her to the core – about what happened to Jamie that fateful day, and how she died. A thrilling tale about family secrets and trusting yourself...

Highwayman Ironside by Michael Arnold

England: 1655. A nation reeling from the turmoil of bloody civil war. An island in the iron grip of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate.The forces of King Charles have been utterly defeated. The sovereign is dead, his supporters beaten, humiliated and scattered. But it is not just former Cavaliers who find themselves hounded by the new regime. Many of those who fought for Parliament have fallen foul of the oppressive rule of the Major-Generals. One such man is Major Samson Lyle: Roundhead, outlaw, fugitive. Forced into exile after a dispute with the ruling elite, he has returned, intent on waging war against those now in command. Skilled with pistol and blade, Lyle takes the fight onto the busy roads south of the capital, forging a formidable reputation as a notorious highwayman. Along with his trusted young ward Bella, and Eustace Grumm, an irascible former smuggler, Lyle dodges the ever-present threat of capture to menace those against whom he has sworn revenge. But when the robbery of a powerful lawyer alerts Lyle to the imprisonment of a former comrade, the Major is plunged into a dangerous game of intrigue and deceit that may finally prove his undoing. And he must tread carefully, for Parliament have dispatched their own man to hunt the elusive outlaw. The villainous Colonel John Maddocks is tracking Lyle's every move, and soon he will come face to face with the Ironside Highwayman.

What I Hope to Read Next

Now Face to face by Karleen Koen

The beloved heroine from Koen's bestselling Through a Glass Darkly returns in a passionate, unforgettable, romantic tapestry. A widow at age 20, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by the death of her husband in scandalous circumstances, Barbara Devane leaves colonial Virginia for London to confront her enemies and to pursue a deeply satisfying yet dangerous clandestine love.