It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Two books (A Paris Secret and The Paris Time Capsule) that I hadn't intended to read last week bumped up my total for the week to five. Rather than return them to the library tomorrow unread, I decided to make them my weekend reads. These books were inspired by the discovery of a Paris apartment that had been left undisturbed for over 70 years. Two very different imaginings of the story behind this apartment and the treasures it contained, but both very credible and enjoyable reads.

I also enjoyed The Sculthorpe Murder, but not sure I liked the partnership of Lavender and Woods enough to seek out the first two books of the series. The other mystery read last week was Ann Granger's A Better Quality of Murder. I have now read all the books currently available in her Victorian mystery series and hope there is a new one soon.

My final book for the week was Lydia Syson's World War II novel, That Burning Summer. This was a very interesting read as it is told from the perspective of three young people rather than adults.

This week I'm still reading Barnaby Rudge. I don't remember other books by Dickens that I've read being so hard to get into. I can only manage a chapter or two before I set it aside. At this rate it will be marked "currently reading" for quite a while. On the other hand, The Bishop's Girl is off to a great start and I'm racing through it.

Next on my list is Michelle Gable's, A Paris Apartment, because I'm still captivated by that abandoned apartment! Then I'm hoping to read The Currency Lass by Tea Cooper set in Australia and From this Valley by Murray Harvey set in Canada.

What I Read Last Week

The Sculthorpe Murder by Karen Charlton

Northamptonshire, 1810: As a new canal network snakes across the landscape, a vicious mob stakes its claim to the county. Every local constable is out on the hunt for the ruthless Panther Gang. When an elderly man is robbed and murdered in sleepy Middleton, the beleaguered magistrates send for help from London’s Bow Street Police Office.
Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Ned Woods soon discover there’s more to William Sculthorpe’s demise than meets the eye. Mystery surrounds the old man and his family, and the stench of revenge hangs heavy in the air. Are the Panther Gang really responsible or is something more sinister afoot? As Lavender delves further into long-hidden secrets, Woods has demons of his own to contend with: ghosts from his past that stalk him through the investigation.
Uncovering decades of simmering hatred and deceit, Lavender and Woods must use all their wit and cunning to solve this evil crime.

The Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey

In 2010, New York photographer Cat Jordan fights against her difficult past. But when a stranger dies in Paris, Cat finds herself the sole inheritor of an apartment in the ninth arrondissement that has been abandoned for seventy years since its mysterious owner, Madame de Florian, fled on the eve of the German invasion in 1940.
A stash of love letters belonging to the owner’s grandmother, the infamous Belle Epoque courtesan Marthe de Florian, and the appearance of the beautiful and mysterious Isabelle de Florian’s grandson, Loic Archer, leads Cat in search of the reasons why Isabelle kept her Paris apartment a secret until her death, and why she left her entire estate to Cat.
As Cat unravels the story, she too embarks on her own journey, realizing that the secrets in the apartment may finally unlock the future…

A Paris Secret by Karen Swan

Somewhere along the cobbled streets of Paris, an apartment lies thick with dust and secrets: full of priceless artworks hidden away for decades.
High-flying Fine Art Agent Flora from London, more comfortable with the tension of a million-pound auction than a cosy candlelit dinner for two, is called in to asses these suddenly discovered treasures. As an expert in her field, she must trace the history of each painting and just who has concealed them for so long.
Thrown in amongst the glamorous Vermeil family as they move between Paris and Antibes, Flora begins to discover that things aren't all that they seem, while back at home her own family is recoiling from a seismic shock. The terse and brooding Xavier Vermeil seems intent on forcing Flora out of his family's affairs - but just what is he hiding?

A Better Quality of Murder by Ann Granger

London is shrouded in a pea-souper fog. Wandering in that fog, for reasons not fully established, was the beautiful Allegra Benedict, wife of an art dealer. When the fog clears, her murdered body is discovered in Green Park. How much does frightened little Miss Marchwood know? Is there any connection with charismatic preacher, Joshua Fawcett? Who - or what - is the River Wraith who preys on the prostitutes working the riverside on foggy nights?
Lizzie Martin and Ben Ross are now married and have set up home near to Waterloo Station. Ben, officially, and Lizzie, unofficially, must investigate.

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

Romney Marsh, July 1940. When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, but now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are changing all the time. Staying on the right side of the law proves harder than she expects when a plane crash-lands in the Marsh: it's Peggy who finds its pathetic, broken pilot; a young Polish man, Henryk, who stays hidden in a remote church, secretly cared for by Peggy. As something more blossoms between the two, Peggy's brother Ernest's curiosity peaks and other secrets come to light, forcing Peggy and Henryk to question all the loyalties and beliefs they thought they held dear.

What I'm Reading Today

Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.

The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns

The body had no name. It was not supposed to be there...
Jess is a researcher on a quest to give the one-hundred-year-old skeleton, discovered in the exhumed grave of a prominent bishop, an identity. But she's not sure of her own - her career is stalling, her marriage is failing. She doesn't want to spend hours in the archives, rifling through dusty papers in an endless search for a name. And when a young man named Hayden makes clear his interest in her, Jess has to decide what is most important to her.



What I Hope To Read Next

The Currency Lass by Tea Cooper

As her father's only heir, Catherine Cottingham expects to inherit their sprawling property in the Hunter Valley. What she doesn't understand is why her father is trying to push her into a marriage to the pompous and repulsive Sydney businessman Henry W. Bartholomew.
When the will is read it becomes clear money, or the lack of it, lay behind her father's plans. Catherine is mortified — as a married woman all her possessions will pass to her husband, the overbearing Bartholomew. Her only alternative is to wait until her twenty-first birthday and inherit the property in her own right, but can she elude such a determined man until then?
A chance encounter with a travelling circus and its fiery lead performer, Sergey Petrov, offers the perfect solution and Catherine escapes to the goldfields. But there is more to the circus than spangles and sawdust and Catherine finds herself drawn into a far-reaching web of fraud and forgery...

From This Valley by Murray Harvey

The year is 1876, and Trooper Ryan Price Meade is a deserter from the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment who strikes north, fleeing the Montana Territory just as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer closes in on Little Bighorn. A deeply troubled young man, Meade finds himself in Canada’s Northwest Territory, only to be confronted with all he has lost and come face to face with a ghost from the past—one that will alter the course of the rest of his life.




A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable

When April Vogt's boss tells her about an apartment in the ninth arrondissement that has been discovered after being shuttered for the past seventy years, the Sotheby's continental furniture specialist does not hear the words “dust” or “rats” or “decrepit.” She hears Paris. She hears escape.
Once in France, April quickly learns the apartment is not merely some rich hoarder's repository. Beneath the cobwebs and stale perfumed air is a goldmine, and not because of the actual gold (or painted ostrich eggs or mounted rhinoceros horns or bronze bathtub). First, there's a portrait by one of the masters of the Belle Epoque, Giovanni Boldini. And then there are letters and journals written by the very woman in the painting, Marthe de Florian. These documents reveal that she was more than a renowned courtesan with enviable decolletage. Suddenly April's quest is no longer about the bureaux plats and Louis-style armchairs that will fetch millions at auction. It's about discovering the story behind this charismatic woman.
It's about discovering two women, actually.
With the help of a salty (and annoyingly sexy) Parisian solicitor and the courtesan's private diaries, April tries to uncover the many secrets buried in the apartment. As she digs into Marthe's life, April can't help but take a deeper look into her own. Having left behind in the States a cheating husband, a family crisis about to erupt, and a career she's been using as the crutch to simply get by, she feels compelled to sort out her own life too. When the things she left bubbling back home begin to boil over, and Parisian delicacies beyond flaky pâtisseries tempt her better judgment, April knows that both she and Marthe deserve happy finales.

Book Review: Coachman by Sue Millard

A while ago I read a gem of a book by K.M. Peyton entitled The Right-Hand Man, about a four-in-hand driver (my review here). A four in hand is a carriage pulled by a team of four horses with the reins arranged in such a way that a single driver can handle them. The excitement and romance of it captured my imagination and when I came across Sue Millard’s book dealing with the same subject, I knew this was one I had to read as well. This was the book that launched my 2017 reading year.

Young coachman, George Davenport, when jobs become scarce in Carlisle, seeks employment in London and is hired as a stage coachman by William Chaplin, one of the largest coaching business proprietors based in the capital.

George is cheeky, confident, good at what he does, but also a little naive, which makes him very endearing. Coaching is in his blood and the thought of driving anything other than a four in hand is unthinkable.

George’s ambition is to drive a mail coach and participate in the annual Mail Coach Procession. But it is 1838, the year of Queen Victoria’s coronation, and a time when the railways are slowly taking business from the coaching trade, heralding the demise of an industry.

When his fiancée, Lucy, joins him in London, George finds himself with all the problems inherent with providing for a family, at a time when he is in danger of losing his position as a coachman. Not only does he have to deal with these worries, but also with the unwelcome advances of his employer’s frustrated daughter, Sarah.

Sue Millard has a long association with horses and carriage driving and has used her expertise to create an informative and entertaining narrative around a mode of transport that is long gone. Coachman is a fascinating insight into the organisation and resources needed to run such an enterprise, and the calibre of the men required to drive the coaches. I didn’t envy them working in all types of weather, night or day, dealing with disgruntled passengers, bad roads or any mishaps that occurred.

I enjoyed everything about this novel. The dialogue, often filled with banter, added humour and a sense of camaraderie, but most memorable are the historical details that enriched it and transported me to Victorian England, into the everyday lives of the characters. George's games of cribbage with Cherry, his friend and fellow coachman, and the coach's guard tootling a few bars of a bawdy song, The Young Coachman, on his key-bugle when he realises that Sarah Chaplin is flirting with George, particularly spring to mind. Sue Millard also includes more serious issues in her tale, which reflect the attitudes and prejudices of the era.

Coachman is a wonderful snapshot of life in Victorian England at a time of change and how a young man learns some valuable lessons regarding the importance of honesty, love and friendship!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Conjunctivitis scuppered my reading last week. While I was able to read print books, I found it difficult to read ebooks comfortably so set A Burning Summer and The Sculthorpe Murder, my current reads, aside for the time being. Likewise Barnaby Rudge, due to its tiny print. 

The two books I did complete were from Ann Granger's Victorian mystery series. I'd started this series at book five, followed by books four and six, and decided that it would be a good idea to read the first three books as I was enjoying this series so much. After book three, it's back to my ebooks and Barnaby Rudge now that my eyes are getting better.

What I hope to read next is a book that has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while and is another mystery, The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns

What I Read Last Week

The Companion by Ann Granger

When Lizzie Martin arrives in London in 1864 to become a lady's companion, her first impressions are disturbing. She's barely out of the station when her cab encounters a wagon carrying the remains of a young woman recently dead.
 At her new home, Lizzie learns that her predecessor, Madeleine Hexham, disappeared without a word of warning. Despite rumors of immoral behavior surrounding the girl's departure, Lizzie is soon persuaded that there's a deeper mystery here. Her suspicions are tragically confirmed when Inspector Benjamin Ross delivers shocking tidings.
 Lizzie is determined to unravel the truth about the lost Miss Hexham. As, too, is Ben Ross: a man who cares about justice, whatever the class of victim. But they must tread carefully, as a cornered killer is the most dangerous of all...

A Mortal Curiousity by Ann Granger

It’s 1864 and Lizzie Martin is leaving London for the south coast of England to be the companion of Lucy Craven, a teenager who lives in seclusion with her aunts and has recently lost an infant daughter to illness. En route, Lizzie meets Doctor Lefebre, a slightly off-putting gentleman headed for the same destination. Lefebre, it turns out, is an alienist hired by Lucy’s family to determine whether the young woman is mad. And he discloses something shocking: Lucy Craven doesn’t believe her daughter is dead; she insists the baby was stolen from her.
In Hampshire, complications mount. Late at night, Lizzie hears furtive voices outside, there’s a gentleman farmer whose demeanor with Lucy seems unusually familiar, and, while Lucy proves a bit moody, she hardly seems deranged. The girl’s aunts are clearly withholding something. . . . These tensions come to a head when a man is found dead in the garden, stabbed with a knife from the aunts’ home.
Lizzie calls upon her beau, Inspector Benjamin Ross. Together, they find themselves entangled in a mystery as bewildering as any they’ve faced.

What I'm Reading Today

A Better Quality of Murder by Ann Granger

London is shrouded in a pea-souper fog. Wandering in that fog, for reasons not fully established, was the beautiful Allegra Benedict, wife of an art dealer. When the fog clears, her murdered body is discovered in Green Park. How much does frightened little Miss Marchwood know? Is there any connection with charismatic preacher, Joshua Fawcett? Who - or what - is the River Wraith who preys on the prostitutes working the riverside on foggy nights?
Lizzie Martin and Ben Ross are now married and have set up home near to Waterloo Station. Ben, officially, and Lizzie, unofficially, must investigate.

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

Romney Marsh, July 1940. When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, but now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are changing all the time. Staying on the right side of the law proves harder than she expects when a plane crash-lands in the Marsh: it's Peggy who finds its pathetic, broken pilot; a young Polish man, Henryk, who stays hidden in a remote church, secretly cared for by Peggy. As something more blossoms between the two, Peggy's brother Ernest's curiosity peaks and other secrets come to light, forcing Peggy and Henryk to question all the loyalties and beliefs they thought they held dear.

Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.

The Sculthorpe Murder by Karen Charlton

Northamptonshire, 1810: As a new canal network snakes across the landscape, a vicious mob stakes its claim to the county. Every local constable is out on the hunt for the ruthless Panther Gang. When an elderly man is robbed and murdered in sleepy Middleton, the beleaguered magistrates send for help from London’s Bow Street Police Office.
Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Ned Woods soon discover there’s more to William Sculthorpe’s demise than meets the eye. Mystery surrounds the old man and his family, and the stench of revenge hangs heavy in the air. Are the Panther Gang really responsible or is something more sinister afoot? As Lavender delves further into long-hidden secrets, Woods has demons of his own to contend with: ghosts from his past that stalk him through the investigation.
Uncovering decades of simmering hatred and deceit, Lavender and Woods must use all their wit and cunning to solve this evil crime.

What I Hope To Read Next

The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns

The body had no name. It was not supposed to be there...
Jess is a researcher on a quest to give the one-hundred-year-old skeleton, discovered in the exhumed grave of a prominent bishop, an identity. But she's not sure of her own - her career is stalling, her marriage is failing. She doesn't want to spend hours in the archives, rifling through dusty papers in an endless search for a name. And when a young man named Hayden makes clear his interest in her, Jess has to decide what is most important to her.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Another sweltering week where I kept inside with the air conditioner on and some great books for company. A grand total of five books read, but they were all quick reads.

Two weeks ago I was hooked on Georgian mysteries, last week it was Victorian ones. The cover of The Testimony of the Hanged Man by Ann Granger caught my eye at the library and as is usually the case, the first books in the series weren't available. Normally, I don't begin a series at book five, but found that once I'd checked out the first chapter I was hooked, then followed books 4 and 6. The great thing about these mysteries is that they are stand alone novels and there is enough back story in each of them to bring you up to speed with the main characters.

I also finished Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall. This is one of those stories that stays in your head long after the book is finished. It is sad and deeply moving.

On a brighter note, I also read The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham. What a delightful Georgian romance this was. Just what I needed to clear my mind.

This week I'm reading That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson, set in one of my favourite periods in history. I'm also struggling with Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge. It's been ages since I've read any Dickens so I'm still reacquainting myself with his style of writing. I think it will take me awhile to get through this book.

After this, as I'm still in the mood for mysteries, I'll be reading a Regency one that's been sitting in my TBR pile for quite a long time, The Sculthorpe Murder by Karen Charlton. This is the third of a series and once again I'm taking a chance by not starting with the first book.

What I Read Last Week

Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall

Kate and Harriet are best friends, growing up together on an isolated Australian cape in the 1880s. As daughters of the lighthouse keepers, the two girls share everything, until a fisherman, McPhail, arrives in their small community. When Kate witnesses the desire that flares between him and Harriet, she is torn by her feelings of envy and longing. But one moment in McPhail’s hut will change the course of their lives forever.




The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham

Scotland, 1795. When the coach carrying Alice Ingram and her niece, Beth, to Edinburgh is attacked, they're grateful for the intervention of two mysterious highwaymen who ride to their rescue. Beth is thrilled by the romance of it all, but Alice, fleeing her brutish husband, has had more than enough drama in her life.
As the women find sanctuary in a tavern on the Great North Road, Beth is thrilled to meet Edward Hogan, the roguish publican. Despite the difference in ages and backgrounds, the couple have instant chemistry and when Ed invited Beth to visit his Edinburgh tavern, she resolves to get to know him even better. Yet Beth is also taken with the highwayman who rescued her; after all, there's something irresistible about a rogue.
Shaken from the attack, Alice grudgingly allows herself to be seen by Doctor James Dillingham, Ed's best friend. Though Dillingham sees the telltale signs of physical abuse on Alice, she refuses to speak of it. Dillingham is dour and Alice frosty, and the two take an instant dislike to each other, so why does their shared coach journey to Edinburgh the following day seem to sizzle?
Once in Edinburgh, Beth starts secretly spending time with Ed, who she begins to think might know more about those highwaymen than he is letting on. By day, Alice sorts Dillingham's paperwork at the charity hospital he runs yet by night she sneaks off to meet her own highwayman, travelling the backroads of the city with the masked figure. Slowly, Alice is coming back to life. But will the husband she is fleeing find her out? And will her highwayman come to her rescue again

The Testimony of the Hanged Man by Ann Granger

A hanged man would say anything to save his life. But what if his testimony is true? When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over seventeen years ago is so utterly believable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true. It's too late to save the man's life, but it's not too late to investigate a murder that has gone undetected for all these years, though convincing his superiors to allow him to investigate 'a cold case' proves difficult.
However, Lizzie is determined that she will look into it and what she discovers persuades Scotland Yard to take the matter seriously. But Lizzie, in making her enquiries, has entered dangerous territory.

A Particular Eye for Villainy by Ann Granger

When Mr Thomas Tapley, a respectable but down-at-heel gentleman, is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room, his neighbour Inspector Benjamin Ross of Scotland Yard rushes to the scene. Tapley had recently returned from abroad but little else is known about the elusive man. Then, on hearing the news of Thomas's death, Mr Jonathan Tapley, QC, comes forward and the truth about his cousin's tragic past slowly begins to emerge.
Meanwhile, Ben's wife Lizzie is convinced that Tapley was being followed on the day he died and, with a bit of surreptitious questioning, she discovers that he received a mysterious visitor in a beautiful carriage a few days before his death.
As the list of suspects begins to mount, Ben can't help wondering how much of the truth is being revealed and who would benefit most from Tapley's unfortunate demise?

The Dead Woman of Deptford by Ann Granger

On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed, middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing.
Meanwhile, Ben's wife Lizzie is trying to suppress a scandal: family friend Edgar Wellings has a gambling addiction and no means of repaying his debts. Reluctantly, Lizzie agrees to visit his debt collector's house in Deptford, but when she arrives she finds her husband is investigating the murder of the woman in question. Edgar was the last man to see Mrs Clifford alive and he has good reason to want her dead, but Ben and Lizzie both know that a case like this is rarely as simple as it appears...

What I'm Reading Today

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

Romney Marsh, July 1940. When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, but now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are changing all the time. Staying on the right side of the law proves harder than she expects when a plane crash-lands in the Marsh: it's Peggy who finds its pathetic, broken pilot; a young Polish man, Henryk, who stays hidden in a remote church, secretly cared for by Peggy. As something more blossoms between the two, Peggy's brother Ernest's curiosity peaks and other secrets come to light, forcing Peggy and Henryk to question all the loyalties and beliefs they thought they held dear.

Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful, disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.

What I Hope To Read Next

The Sculthorpe Murder by Karen Charlton

Northamptonshire, 1810: As a new canal network snakes across the landscape, a vicious mob stakes its claim to the county. Every local constable is out on the hunt for the ruthless Panther Gang. When an elderly man is robbed and murdered in sleepy Middleton, the beleaguered magistrates send for help from London’s Bow Street Police Office.
Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Ned Woods soon discover there’s more to William Sculthorpe’s demise than meets the eye. Mystery surrounds the old man and his family, and the stench of revenge hangs heavy in the air. Are the Panther Gang really responsible or is something more sinister afoot? As Lavender delves further into long-hidden secrets, Woods has demons of his own to contend with: ghosts from his past that stalk him through the investigation.
Uncovering decades of simmering hatred and deceit, Lavender and Woods must use all their wit and cunning to solve this evil crime.

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2017

Challenge period: 1st January to 31st December, 2017
Sign-up: no official sign up, just download the checklist

I did this challenge last year and checked off 17 books from a list of 41. This year the list is similar in length (40 books), plus there is an Advanced section which will add another 12 books. If you check off both lists, you will have read a total of 52 books, which averages out to a book a week! I hope to improve on last year's result.

So visit the page, download the printable check list and get started. The details are HERE.

Historical Fiction Challenge 2017 - My Sign Up Post

Hosted by: Passages to the Past.
Challenge period: 1st January to 31st December, 2017
Sign up: anytime during the year

All the details are available on the sign-up page.

There are six different reading levels: 20th Century Reader (2 books), Victorian Reader (5 books), Renaissance Reader (10 books), Medieval (15 books), Ancient History (25 books) and Prehistoric (50+ books).

Any sub-genre is acceptable: Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Family Sagas, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult Historical Fiction, Military and Nautical Historical Fiction etc.

I'm signing up for the Prehistoric level (50+ books) and these are some of the books I intend to read for this challenge.

*Read but not reviewed.


01.Coachman by Sue Millard
02. Late Harvest by Fiona Buckley*
03. The Hourglass by Tracy Rees*
04. The Vanishing by Sophia Tobin*
05. The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor*
06. The Morning Gift by Diana Norman*
07. Secrets in Time by Alison Stuart*
08. Theft of Life by Imogen Robertson*
09. Circle of Shadows by Imogen Robertson*
10. The Infidel Stain by M.J.Carter*
11. The Strangler Vine by M.J.Carter*
12. Daughter of the Murray by Darry Fraser*
13. The Testimony of th Hanged Man by Ann Granger*
14. The Dead Woman of Deptford by Ann Granger*
15. A Particular Eye for Viillainy by Ann Granger*
16. My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
17. And Then Mine Enemy by Alison Stuart
18. The Currency Lass by Tea Cooper*
19. The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham
20. My Love Must Wait by Ernestine Hill
21. Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall
22. Armistice by Nick Stafford*
23. Ambulance Girls by Deborah Burrows*
24. Whispers in the Wind by Janet Woods*
25. The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns
26. The Keeper of Secrets by Judith Cutler*
27. The Duke's Agent by Rebecca Jenkins*
28. In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen*
29. Spindrift by Tamara McKinley*
30. The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Keneally
31. Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye
32. Land of Golden Wattle by J.H. Fletcher
33. From This Valley by Murray Harvey
34. Map of Stars by Catherine Law*
35. For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell
36. Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
37. Perseverance by L.F. McDermott
38. Indiscretion by Jude Morgan
39. Season of Light by Katherine McMahon*
40. Shoes for Anthony by Emma Kennedy*
41. Nor the Years Condemn by Justin Sheedy*
42. The Lighthorseman's Daughter by David Crookes*
43. Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff*
44. The Woolgrower's Companion by Joy Rhoades*
45. We That Are Left by Clare Clark*
46. Golden HIll by Francis Spufford*
47. The Convict and The Soldier by John P.F. Lynch*
48. Soot by Andrew Martin*
49. Eureka Run by Bruce Venables*
50. The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley*
51. Mackenzie Crossing by Kaye Dobbie (Re-read)*
52. Troubadour by Isolde Martyn* 53. Bluebirds by Margaret Mayhew*
54. The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan*
55. The Unseen by Katherine Webb*
56. House of Shadows by Pamela Hartshorne*
57. Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman*
58. The Silk Weaver by Liz Trenow*
59. Cast No Shadows by E.V. Thompson*
60. A Time of Secrets by Deborah Burrows*
61. Cassie by E.V. Thompson*
62. We That Are Left by Lisa Bigelow*
63. A Stranger In My Street by Deborah Burrows*
64. Illusion by Stephanie Elmas
65. Remember Remember the 6th of November by Tony Morgan
66. In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard (Re-read)*
67. Slipstream by Alan Judd*
68. The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go*
69. The Sixteen Trees at the Somme by Lars Mytting
70. The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia Quinn
71. Brown on Resolution by C.S. Forester
72. A Person of No Consequence by Allison Stuart
73. Woman in the Mirror by Winston Graham
74. The Distant Summer by Sarah Patterson
75. The Ugly Sister by Winston Graham
76. Coming Home to Island House by Erica James
77. Island in the East by Jenny Ashcroft
78. The Rose in Winter by Sarah Harrison
79. A Humble Companion by Laurie Graham

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

I had an excellent reading week due to having some time off work and hot weather keeping me indoors. Four books finished, two historical mysteries, one historical romance and one paranormal romance/timeslip novel. The latter two were short, a combined total of 500 pages, making them quick reads.

Once again I enjoyed the Georgian world of Crowther and Westerman, Imogen Robertson's sleuths. Now I'm eagerly awaiting book number six in this excellent series.

I also enjoyed The Morning Gift by Diana Norman. I'm making my way through her back list of books, many of which are out of print. As yet I've not read any of her Mistress in the Art of Death medieval mystery series written under her pseudonym of Ariana Franklin.

My final book for the week was Alison Stuart's Secrets in Time. I've read a couple of her books and found them entertaining and easy reads. Secrets in Time was no exception.

Skylarking, Kate Mildenhall's debut novel, is what I'm currently reading and nearing the end. It is a sad story, based on a true one, about two girls growing up in an isolated community and how their relationship changes as they become young women.

I'm not sure what I'll be reading next. I'm finding it hard to make a selection from my TBR pile, but I keep coming back to two titles, That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson and The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham.

What I Read Last Week

Circle of Shadows by Imogen Robertson

Death at the Carnival: riddle, ritual and murder.
Shrove Tuesday, 1784. While the nobility dance at a masked ball, beautiful Lady Martesen is murdered. Daniel Clode is found by her body, his wrists slit and his memories nightmarish. What has he done? Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther race to the Duchy of Maulberg to save Daniel from the executioner's axe. There they find a capricious Duke on the point of marriage, a court consumed by luxury and intrigue, and a bitter enemy from the past. After another cruel death, they must discover the truth, no matter how horrific it is. Does the answer lie with the alchemist seeking the elixir of life? With the automata makers in the Duke's fake rural idyll? Or in the poisonous lies oozing around the court as the elite strive for power?

Theft of Life by Imogen Robertson

London, 1785. When the body of a West Indies planter is found pegged out in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral, suspicion falls on one of the victim's former slaves, who was found with his watch on the London streets. But it seems the answer is not that simple. The impact of the planter's death brings tragedy for Francis Glass, a freed slave now working as a bookseller and printer in the city, and a painful reminder of the past for William Geddings, Harriet Westerman's senior footman. Harriet is reluctant to be drawn in to the difficult and powerful world of the slave trade, but she and her friend, reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther, begin to understand the dark secrets hidden by the respectable reputation of London's slave owners. Together, they negotiate the interests of the British government, the secrets of the plantation owners, and a network of alliances stretching across the Atlantic. And they must confront the uncomfortable truth that some people are willing to do great evil when they believe their cause to be just.

The Morning Gift by Diana Norman

A Norman heiress was a chattel to be sold in marriage to the highest bidder. If one husband died she was up for sale again. Only the first of Matilda de Risle's husbands gives her anything back. His is the customary Saxon morning gift - the present to a wife if her lord finds her sexually pleasing on their wedding night. Matilda's morning gift was Dungesey in the Fens ... "a bolt hole, my dear, somewhere to hide should trouble come." And come it does. As the war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda in the 1140s tears England apart, Matilda de Risle has to fight for her land, her son's safety and her own life.

Secrets in Time by Alison Stuart

England 1995: Dr. Jessica Shepherd's peaceful summer afternoon is shattered by the abrupt arrival of a wounded soldier claiming to be from the seventeenth century.
If he is to be believed, Nathaniel Preston has crossed three hundred years bringing with him the turmoil of civil war and a request for help that Jess can’t ignore.
Falling in love with this dashing cavalier is destined to end in heartbreak as Jess discovers the price of his love is the knowledge that he will die in battle in just a few short days.
Can their love survive a bloody battle…and overcome time?

What I'm Reading Today

Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall

Kate and Harriet are best friends, growing up together on an isolated Australian cape in the 1880s. As daughters of the lighthouse keepers, the two girls share everything, until a fisherman, McPhail, arrives in their small community. When Kate witnesses the desire that flares between him and Harriet, she is torn by her feelings of envy and longing. But one moment in McPhail’s hut will change the course of their lives forever.




What I Hope To Read Next

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

Romney Marsh, July 1940. When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, but now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are changing all the time. Staying on the right side of the law proves harder than she expects when a plane crash-lands in the Marsh: it's Peggy who finds its pathetic, broken pilot; a young Polish man, Henryk, who stays hidden in a remote church, secretly cared for by Peggy. As something more blossoms between the two, Peggy's brother Ernest's curiosity peaks and other secrets come to light, forcing Peggy and Henryk to question all the loyalties and beliefs they thought they held dear.

The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham

Scotland, 1795. When the coach carrying Alice Ingram and her niece, Beth, to Edinburgh is attacked, they're grateful for the intervention of two mysterious highwaymen who ride to their rescue. Beth is thrilled by the romance of it all, but Alice, fleeing her brutish husband, has had more than enough drama in her life.
As the women find sanctuary in a tavern on the Great North Road, Beth is thrilled to meet Edward Hogan, the roguish publican. Despite the difference in ages and backgrounds, the couple have instant chemistry and when Ed invited Beth to visit his Edinburgh tavern, she resolves to get to know him even better. Yet Beth is also taken with the highwayman who rescued her; after all, there's something irresistible about a rogue.
Shaken from the attack, Alice grudgingly allows herself to be seen by Doctor James Dillingham, Ed's best friend. Though Dillingham sees the telltale signs of physical abuse on Alice, she refuses to speak of it. Dillingham is dour and Alice frosty, and the two take an instant dislike to each other, so why does their shared coach journey to Edinburgh the following day seem to sizzle?
Once in Edinburgh, Beth starts secretly spending time with Ed, who she begins to think might know more about those highwaymen than he is letting on. By day, Alice sorts Dillingham's paperwork at the charity hospital he runs yet by night she sneaks off to meet her own highwayman, travelling the backroads of the city with the masked figure. Slowly, Alice is coming back to life. But will the husband she is fleeing find her out? And will her highwayman come to her rescue again?

British Books Challenge 2017 - My Sign Up Post

Hosted by: Chelley at Tales of Yesterday.
Challenge period: 1st January to 31st December, 2017
Sign Up: Anytime during the year
Aim: To read and review at least 12 books by British authors throughout the year (a book a month)

For this challenge you can read any genre, for any age group, old and new titles, out of print books; whatever you fancy as long as they are by British authors. There are prizes too! 

All the details are here on the sign-up page.

These are the 12 books I'd like to read for this challenge, all in my favourite genre of historical fiction. I've tried to mix them up a bit by selecting some old and new titles, some yet to be released, some by male authors and some by female authors. I'm not going to read them in any particular order and my list may change during the year.

01. Coachman by Sue Millard
02. Late Harvest by Fiona Buckley
03. The Hourglass by Tracy Rees
04. The Vanishing by Sophia Tobins
05. Crimson and Bone by Marina Fiorato
06. Beyond the Wild River by Sarah Maine
07. The Witchfinders' Sister by Beth Underdown
08. May 1812 by M.M. Bennetts
09. A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
10. The Devil's Feast by M.J. Carter
11. The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor
12. Set in Stone by Robert Goddard
13. The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns
14. The Crown Spire by Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham
15. Parthena's Promise by Valerie Holmes
16. Illusion by Stephanie Elmas
17. Remember, Remember the 6th of November by Tony Morgan