Six Degrees of Separation: From Second Place to The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Second Place by Rachel Cusk, a novel I haven't read, in which an artist plays a major role.

Art and painting is the obvious way to go for that first link, and indeed that's where I'm heading with this novel by another Rachel, The Glass Painter's Daughter by Rachel Hore. The story does involve painting, but in a different medium: stained glass.

Creating pictures of glass leads me to animals made of glass in Tennessee William's popular play The Glass Menagerie. Whilst I haven't read the play, I do remember the 1950 film

The Merchant and the Rogue by Sarah M. Eden Book Review

Publication Date: August 17, 2021
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Format: Trade paperback, Audiobook and eBook
Length: (368) pages
Series: Book 3 in The Dread Penny Society
Genre: Historical Romance, Historical Mystery/Suspense, Inspirational Fiction

Synopsis

London, 1865

Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often-mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her the freedom and income to employ and protect the poverty-stricken Londoners she's come to care about,

RIP XVI (Readers Imbibing Peril) 01/09/2021 - 31/10/2021

It's that time of year where we rummage through our TBR piles in search of those dark and spooky books suitable for this challenge.

There are no hard and fast rules. Just grab a book or as many as you like which fit any of the following classifications: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror or Supernatural, and read them during September and October.

You can follow along on Instagram or Twitter, and if you post, use the tags @perilreaders and #ripxvi. Even if you're not a social media user, you

The Queen's Spy by Clare Marchant Book Review

Publication Date: 8th July 2021
Publisher: Avon
Format: Print, ebook and audio
Page Length: 400 Pages
Genre: Historical Dual Timeline

Synopsis

1584: Elizabeth I rules England. But a dangerous plot is brewing in court, and Mary Queen of Scots will stop at nothing to take her cousin’s throne. There’s only one thing standing in her way: Tom, the queen’s trusted apothecary, who makes the perfect silent spy…

2021: Travelling the globe in her campervan, Mathilde has never belonged anywhere. So when she receives news of an inheritance, she is shocked to discover she has a family in

The Paris Wife by Meghan Masterson Book Review

Publication Date: August 18, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: Paperback & ebook
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Paris, 1856. In a world ruled by men, one woman holds the fate of a nation in her hands.

When Livia leaves behind the bronzed hills of Italy for the rain-soaked streets of Paris, she feels lost and alone. Trapped in an icy marriage, she longs to return to her life as a doctor’s daughter. To a simpler time when she could use her healing skills to help people. But her husband’s diplomatic work launches her into French high society. And soon she befriends Elisabetta, Napoleon III's clever and beautiful mistress.

The Girls from the Beach by Andie Newton Book Blast

Digital Publication Date: July 8, 2021
Paperback Publication Date: January 2022
Publisher: Aria Fiction
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

'We'd heard stories about the nurses in tent seven. A secret mission, stolen money, and spies...'

In 1944, four American nurses disappeared for five days. No one knew what happened to them. Until now.

When Kit and Red set foot on French soil during the Normandy landings, they know they have to rely on each other. As they head for the battlefield, their aim is simple: save lives. But when they're called away on a top-secret

Beyond the Olive Grove by Kate Hewitt Book Review

Publication Date:13 August , 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: ebook & paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

The place seemed utterly still, the only sound was the wind rustling high in the pines above. Standing there, realizing she didn’t even know which house had belonged to her grandmother, Ava wondered just how crazy and desperate she’d been to come all this way with no hope or plan.

When Ava arrives in Greece, it’s with a heart that’s shattered into a thousand pieces. But as she pulls up in a tiny village nestled on a cliff above the glittering Ionian Sea, and steps out in front of a tumbledown house that once

The Barrister and the Letter of Marque by Todd M. Johnson - Book Review

Publication Date: August 3, 2021
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Length: (416) pages
Format: Hardcover ISBN: 978-0764239137, Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0764212369, eBook ASIN: B08LG91Y95, Audiobook ASIN: B0983VZ6XZ
Genre: Historical Mystery, Suspense, Inspirational Fiction

Synopsis

As a barrister in 1818 London, William Snopes has witnessed firsthand the danger of only the wealthy having their voices heard, and he's a strong advocate who defends the poorer classes against the powerful. That changes the day a struggling heiress, Lady Madeleine Jameson, arrives at his door.

In a last-ditch effort to save her faltering

The Secret Diary by Anna Stuart Book Review

Publication Date: August 3, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: ebook & paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Two women. One house. And a wartime secret that spans decades…

Norfolk, 1945: Only a few months ago Nancy Jones was fighting for her country as a gunner girl. Now she’s struggling to adjust to her responsibilities as a gamekeeper’s wife. After a whirlwind romance, Nancy is deeply in love with her handsome husband Joe but there is still so much they don’t know about each other. When a secret from Nancy’s war years threatens to resurface, will the terrible truth about the worst night of her life shatter their

The Rainbow by Carly Schabowski Book Review

Publication Date: July 28, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: ebook & paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

There, on the dusty floorboards, was a piece of paper, folded neatly. A newspaper article from 1941, written in German, alongside a faded picture of two men in Nazi uniforms staring at the camera. I was about to place it back in the box of forgotten things when something in the text jumped out at me. My breath caught in my chest. I know that name.

London, present day. Isla has grown up hearing her beloved grandad’s stories about his life as a child in pre-war Poland and as a young soldier bravely fighting the Germans to protect his people. So she is shocked and

Footprints and Friendships A Guest Post from Gail Ward Olmsted, author of Landscape of a Marriage

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” 

Eleanor Roosevelt’s words perfectly articulate how I feel about the importance of friendship. I value my friends and try to be worthy of them. I am fortunate to have a select group of loyal friends, ‘my people’, the family that I have chosen to be an integral part of my life. Their

Lying with Lions by Annabel Fielding Book Review

Publication Date: June 21, 2021
Publisher: Anastasia Rydaeva
Format: ebook & paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery/Gothic

Synopsis

Edwardian England. Agnes Ashford knows that her duty is threefold: she needs to work on cataloguing the archive of the titled Bryant family, she needs to keep the wounds of her past tightly under wraps, and she needs to be quietly grateful to her employers for taking her up in her hour of need. However, a dark secret she uncovers due to her work thrusts her into the Bryants’ brilliant orbit - and into the clutch of their ambitions.

They are prepared to take the new century head-on and fight for their preeminent position and political survival tooth and nail -