2017 Reading Challenges - My Wrap Up Post

Here is my wrap-up post for the various challenges I participated in during 2017. Not a very satisfactory result overall due to reviews not being posted though I will catch up on some of them over the coming months. While 2017 was not a good year for my reviews, I'm happy to

Book Review: Remember, Remember the 6th of November by Tony Morgan

Tony Morgan's debut novel retells the events that took place 412 years ago, at the beginning of November 1605, when English Catholics, Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and their co-conspirators planned to blow up England's Houses of Parliament along with the King, James I, who was also James VI of Scotland.

History records that their plans were thwarted and James I reigned for another 20 years, but what if there had been a different outcome?

I don't read novels with alternate endings to what actually happened in history, but I was intrigued by the title of this one. Why remember the 6th of

Blog Tour and Book Review: Illusion by Stephanie Elmas

I'm pleased to welcome you to today's stop on the blog tour for Stephanie Elmas' wonderful book, Illusion, published by Endeavour Press and available for purchase from Amazon.

Synopsis

London, 1873. Returning home from his travels with a stowaway named Kayan, Walter Balanchine is noted for the charms, potions and locket hanging from his neck. Finding his friend Tom Winter’s mother unwell, he gives her a potion he learned to brew in the Far East. Lucid and free from pain, the old woman remembers something about Walter’s mother. Walter is intrigued, for he has never known his family or even his own name – he christened himself upon leaving the workhouse.

Living in a cemetery with his pet panther Sinbad to keep the body snatchers away, word soon spreads of

Book Review: Parthena's Promise by Valerie Holmes

In 1815, after five years fighting the French, London barrister and gentleman, Jerome Fender, returns to England intent on starting a new life, far from London and not in the profession for which he is trained.

Outside an inn while taking a quiet moment to reflect on his future and his family's reaction to his decision, he is approached by Parthena Munro in distress. She misconstrues his offer of help and rejects it, but steals his money instead before disappearing into the night.

Angry, yet intrigued by the identity of the thief, Jerome is determined to recover his money and sets off across the Yorkshire Moors in pursuit. After learning the reason behind the theft and unable to deny his

Stacking the Shelves #12

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews and, as of May 2017, co-hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. This meme is about sharing the books you are adding to your physical or virtual shelves. This means you can include books you buy in a physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and, of

Book Review: Perseverance: Book Two of the Garth Trilogy by L.F.McDermott

Perseverance continues the story of two convict families, the Garths and their friends, the Belletts, which began in Of Angels and Eagles. It spans the years 1809-1864 and focuses on the next generation, primarily James Garth and Mary Belletts.

When the Government decides to close the penal settlement of Norfolk Island, the two families are forced to leave and resettle in Van Diemen's Land.

Perseverance opens with the Belletts arriving in Hobart Town to take up their land grants and to be reunited with the Garths.

Stacking the Shelves #11

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews and, as of May 2017, co-hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. This meme is about sharing the books you are adding to your physical or virtual shelves. This means you can include books you buy in a physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and, of

Book Review: Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

Lucy Treloar’s debut novel is a wonderful exploration of colonial life, set in the ruggedly beautiful coastal region of the Coorong, South Australia, which encompasses the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people.

In 1874, from her home in Chichester, England, Hester Finch’s memories of her years spent on the Coorong are evoked by the arrival of letters and an old tin trunk from Australia. The items inside the trunk take her back to when she was fifteen: to March 1855 when her father, Stanton Finch, due to several failed business ventures, removes his large family from Adelaide to the isolation of Salt Creek Station.

Stacking the Shelves #10

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews and, as of May 2017, co-hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. This meme is about sharing the books you are adding to your physical or virtual shelves. This means you can include books you buy in a physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and, of

Book Review: For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell

For Two Cents I'll Go With You follows Walter "Pat" Lusk from his role as a shipping clerk for a chemical company in Michigan, through his training in the Army Medical Corps to his posting as a surgeon's assistant with Evacuation Hospital No.4 in France during World War I.

Pat, his imagination fired up by his grandfather's stories of his time in the First Michigan Volunteer Cavalry during the American Civil War, yearns for glory and similar stories to tell his own grandchildren. When America declares war on Germany, it takes only a little cajoling from his friend, Aubrey, before he decides to enlist.

Book Review: The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Keneally

The Unmourned is the second book in the crime series set in colonial Australia from daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Keneally.

I enjoyed their first collaboration, The Soldier’s Curse, which takes place in Port Macquarie, a penal settlement for reoffenders, and introduced Mrs. Mulrooney, an Irish housekeeper, and Hugh Monsarrat, an English gentleman convict.

In The Unmourned, Monsarrat, with his ticket of leave regained, is in Parramatta, with Mrs. Mulrooney, now employed as his housekeeper and unofficial assistant.

Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye Book Review

Shadow of the Moon, set in India before and during the Sepoy rebellion of 1857, was one of those books that I'd been meaning to read but never got around to. So when I saw that Helen was joining Cirtnecce and Cleo in a Read Along, I decided to join them.

At the start of the Read Along, additional background on the Company Raj and an overview of how the mutiny spread was supplied by Cirtnecce, which gave me a better grasp of the situation in India at the time of the novel.

Shadow of the Moon was first published in 1957, but was not as popular as M.M. Kaye's other novel