It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

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

As I predicted last Monday most of my reading time for the rest of the week was devoted to  Now Face to Face.  While I enjoyed the continuing story of Barbara, Lady Devane, I was a little disappointed with the ending. The fates of the important characters were made known in the epilogue, but it seemed a little rushed. I'm hoping that there will be another book in this series. After all Barbara is still a young woman and the Jacobite cause is still very much alive. At least I still have the prequel to Through A Glass Darkly, the first book in the series, to read.

The other book I was reading last week, and is still my main read for this, is Heart of the Country by Tricia Stringer. I am enjoying this Australian saga very much. I also managed to read the first chapter of The Orphan Gunner by Sara Knox, but it is still too early to form an opinion of it. Another book I started this week is Mary Anerley: A Yorkshire Tale by R.D. Blackmore. I nominated this book as part of the Reading England/Reading Yorkshire Challenge. Once again I have not read enough to form an opinion but the little I have read has me intrigued as it involves wills, deeds and inheritances. Mary Anerley is yet to make an entrance.

The book I hope to read next is Oliver Twist Investigates by G.M. Best, which uses the premise that  Oliver Twist was a real boy and not just a fictional character created by Charles Dickens.

What I Read Last Week

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.





What I'm Reading Today

Heart of the Country by Tricia Stringer

1846. Newly arrived from England, Thomas Baker is young, penniless and alone. Eager to make his mark on this strange new place called South Australia, he accepts work as an overseer on a distant sheep property, believing this will be the opportunity he seeks. But when Thomas’s path crosses that of ex-convict, Septimus Wiltshire — a grasping con man hell bent on making a new life for himself and his family at any price — trouble is on the horizon.
But Thomas is made of stern stuff and his fortunes take a turn for the better when he meets spirited farmer’s daughter Lizzie Smith, and soon he envisages their future together.
But this land is like no other he has encountered: both harsh and lovely, it breaks all but the strongest. When his nemesis intervenes once more and drought comes, Thomas finds himself tested almost beyond endurance with the risk of losing everything he and Lizzie have worked for… even their lives.

The Orphan Gunner by Sara Knox

The Orphan Gunner is an unconventional romance set in bomber command in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. Evelyn and Olive grew up together in the Canabolas Valley near Orange. They are in England at the outbreak of war: Evelyn as a pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary, Olive in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. They're joined by Evelyn's brother Duncan, a novice gunner in Lancaster L-Love, flying bombing raids over Germany. The raids take their toll on the crew, and the two women are drawn into a plot involving disguise and mistaken identity, to get the exhausted Duncan out of service. The Orphan Gunner explores the seductions of passing, the licence granted by risk, and the selflessness - and selfishness - of sacrifice. The relationship between the two women is portrayed with subtlety and warmth, and an extraordinary sense of historical detail which brings its wartime setting vividly to life.

Mary Anerley: A Yorkshire Tale by R.D. Blackmore

An early 19th century romance set in Yorkshire. Mary Anerley falls in love with smuggler Robin Lyth, but the relationship is discouraged by Mary's family due to Robin's obscure beginnings and his occupation as  a smuggler.







What I Hope to Read Next

Oliver Twist Investigates by G.M. Best

Who killed Nancy? Did Charles Dickens frame Bill Sykes and if so, why? As an adult, Oliver Twist receives deeply unsettling information written years earlier by Fagin while he was awaiting execution. It convinces Oliver that Dickens did not tell the entire truth about the events leading to Nancy's death. Now Oliver must embark on a complex investigation that takes him into the worst slums of London as he seeks out the whereabouts of some of the most memorable figures from his past—Betsy, Noah Claypole, Mr Bumble, and Charley Bates—not forgetting, of course, the Artful Dodger. Oliver's life is set to change dramatically as he uncovers not only what happened to Nancy, but also the astonishing truth about his own identity.