A family secret and the setting, Victoria's Western District, were the two things that drew me to this novel, in a genre I don't usually read. While the opening chapters didn’t pull me in immediately, I’m glad I persevered as this turned out to be a great family drama with a very satisfactory conclusion.
Synopsis
When your world falls apart the only person you can depend on is your sister. The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria's Western District -- but could a long-held secret threaten their family? Harriett Chirnwell has a
For the rest of this month and July I'm very excited to be participating in my first ever Read Along with a book that I've been meaning to read for ages but never got around to, The Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye, set in India during the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
First published in 1957 with sections deleted, it was re-issued in 1979 to take advantage of the popularity of her other British-Indian historical epic, The Far Pavilions, which had been released the previous year and became the
The late twelfth century was a time of unrest between the English and the Welsh. So long ago that it is easy to envisage a time of myth, magic and superstition, as well as one of bloody battles and violent deaths.
Seren is a sixteen-year-old gentlewoman able to see and communicate with spirits. When her home, Painscastle, is besieged by the Welsh, Seren is plunged into the chaos of war, assisting her mother in the treatment of the wounded and giving comfort to the dying.
Seren believes her gift to be a curse. Many of the dead refuse to acknowledge they are dead, some cursing and railing at their fate. The simple act of
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
Yet another couple of slow reading weeks for me. This statement is becoming the norm, although I did have a slight improvement and actually finished two books. But then I began two more instead of carrying on with the
Georgian adventure and romance abound in this collaboration from Catherine Curzon and Willow Winsham. Just the tonic to raise those flagging spirits!
Synopsis
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.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
I'm super late with my post this week due to internet problems and was in two minds whether to post it or not, but as it was written and ready to go, here it is.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
I hope those who celebrated Mother's Day had a lovely day. Mine was spent very quietly with a bit of gardening in the morning, once the day had warmed up a bit, and the afternoon spent on the couch with one of my
The Bishop's Girl is Rebecca Burns' debut novel and is one of the best historical mysteries I've read this year.
Bishop Anthony Shacklock was killed in France during World War I and buried in the graveyard of a church near the field hospital where he ministered to the injured and dying soldiers. At the end of 1919 when the Bishop’s body is exhumed for re-burial in England, a skeleton wrapped in a canvas bag is found on top of the coffin. The bones are that of a female and DNA tests on a finger bone reveal a familial link to the Bishop. Other than that there are no other clues as to who she was or how she came to be buried in the same grave.
Wild Island, influenced by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, asks the reader to forget the outcome of Jane Eyre and to imagine another ending where Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester didn't marry, and his wife, Bertha, is still alive ...
Harriet Adair, a widow, artist and nurse, is accompanying Anna Rochester (Bertha), Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester to Tasmania (or Van Diemen’s Land as it was known at the time the novel is set) in search of a lost relative.
The decline of Edward Rochester’s health part way into the voyage results in his and Jane Eyre’s transfer
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
Not much achieved over the past week. One book read, Season of Light by Katherine McMahon. Again one that I hadn't intended to read just yet. It happened to be downstairs while all my current reads were upstairs and
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
I hope you all had a lovely Easter break and had some quality reading time.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
Sadly not a great week on the reading front with only two books finished, Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor and Lost Among the Living by Simone St. James.
Kate Mildenhall’s debut novel is based on a true story, a tragedy that occurred on Cape St George, New South Wales, Australia, in the late 1880s.
Harriet and Kate are lighthouse keepers’ daughters. Inseparable, they share their daily lives and their inner most secrets. Harriet, the elder by two years, looks forward to a future which involves marriage and motherhood, while Kate yearns for adventures beyond the restrictive world of the tiny community in which they live. Their friendship is tested when McPhail, a fisherman, takes up residence in a hut on the beach, becoming the romantic focus of the two girls.
Life on the Cape is idyllic when the girls are younger.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
In my part of the world the clocks went back an hour over the week-end as daylight saving ended. Winter is on the way. I'm already missing that extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
This week I did a little better than last with two books finished, one set in World War I and the other in World War II. For Two Cents I'll Go With You is based on the author's great-grandfather's World War I letters and his
Only one book finished last week. Not a great result, but an understandable one as my casual job of two days a week has suddenly become a seven-day job. Physically demanding and coupled with the heat and humidity, it has drastically affected my reading and blogging time. I've not been able to focus and find after attempting to read a few pages I'm nodding off. My weekly visits to the library have also been postponed, but due to a kind neighbour my holds are still being collected and my TBR continues to grow.
Also not having the time to visit any blogs over the past few weeks, I've missed not seeing what you've all been up to and what books you are reading. Hopefully, after this week I'll be back to working two days a week and able to resume my regular routine.
The Unmourned by daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Keneally, was the book I finished last week. This is the second in a series set in colonial Australia which I'm enjoying very much and looking forward to the next book. I'd read/heard somewhere that there would be only three books in this series. I'm hoping this is not the case and they go on to write many more featuring Hugh Monsarrat and Mrs. Mulrooney, the expert tea maker and tea towel flicker.
I'm still progressing with the books I carried over from last week and did manage the first two chapters of Shoes for Anthony before the slump hit.
I'm looking forward to my next books Nor the Years Condemn and We That Are Left. Just not sure how long it will be before I get to them.
What I Read Last Week
The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Keneally
Not all murder victims are mourned, but the perpetrator must always be punished ...
For Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women.Inmate Grace O'Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she becomes the chief suspect.
Recently arrived from Port Macquarie, ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat now lives in Parramatta with his ever-loyal housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney. Monsarrat, as an unofficial advisor on criminal and legal matters to the governor's secretary, is charged with uncovering the truth of Church's murder. Mrs Mulrooney accompanies him to the Female Factory, where he is taking depositions from prisoners, including Grace, and there the housekeeper strikes up friendships with certain women, which prove most intriguing.
Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney both believe that Grace is innocent, but in this they are alone, so to exonerate her they must find the murderer. Many hated Church and are relieved by his death, but who would go as far as killing him
What I'm Reading Today
For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell
In the spring of 1917, Walter "Pat" Lusk sits at his desk shuffling papers and dreaming of glory on the battlefield. Frustrated, he's convinced the Great War will remain forever out of reach until one day his friend Aubrey arrives with the thrilling news that the United States has finally declared war on Germany! With his path to adventure now clear, Pat immediately enlists in the Army, where he trains as a surgeon's assistant. Sent to France with Evacuation Hospital No. 4, will Pat finally attain the glory he seeks treating desperately wounded soldiers through the war's darkest days? Will he ever win over the redoubtable Nurse Oberholtzer? Will the Armistice bring peace to the boys of Evac 4, or does a time of even greater testing await Pat and his friends?
Daughter of Mine by Fiona Lowe
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
Harriett Chirnwell has a perfect life — a husband who loves her, a successful career and a daughter who is destined to become a doctor just like her.
Xara has always lived in Harriet’s shadow; her chaotic life with her family on their sheep farm falls far short of her older sister’s standards of perfection and prestige.
Georgie, the youngest sister and a passionate teacher, is the only one of the three to have left Billawarre. But is her life in Melbourne happy?
Despite all three sisters having a different and sometimes strained bond with their mother, Edwina, they come together to organise a party for her milestone birthday — the first since their father’s death. But when Edwina arrives at her party on the arm of another man, the tumult is like a dam finally breaking. Suddenly the lives of the Chirnwell sisters are flooded by scandal. Criminal accusations, a daughter in crisis, and a secret over fifty years in the making start to crack the perfect façade of the prominent pastoral family.
Shoes for Anthony by Emma Kennedy
The idea of the war coming to their small, impoverished Welsh mining village always seemed remote, but with one explosive event and the arrival of the Americans preparing for the invasion of France, the people of Treherbert find their world turned upside down.
But war brings distrust, lies and danger. And as the villagers find themselves hopelessly divided, Anthony, an 11-year-old who hasn’t had a pair of shoes in years, is going to have to choose between what is popular and what is right.
What I Hope To Read Next
Nor the Years Condemn
“Nor the Years Condemn” is based on the incredible true story of the amazing breed of young men who answered the call of Britain in her darkest hour. They learnt to fly bone-shatteringly high-performance combat aircraft in which they fought for freedom against the so far unstoppable might of Nazi Germany. In their teens and early-20s, they were the ‘top guns’ of their era, out of pure necessity for the job at hand the best and brightest, physically and mentally, of a generation. This fact will render the death of so many of them doubly heart-rending for the reader, albeit that they were sacrificed in so noble a cause.
“Nor the Years Condemn” portrays the gripping saga of doomed, brilliant youth through the eyes of 20-year-old Australian law student and rugby star, Daniel Quinn. Flanked by the highly intelligent, sometimes hilarious young men of his elite ilk, he leaves his peacetime life behind and crosses the Planet to fight tyranny. Flying the iconic Supermarine Spitfire (to this day a stirring symbol of the resistance of Good against Evil), Quinn’s personality is transformed from his peacetime self into a professional killer.
With in-the-cockpit-seat flying sequences that readers have described as cinematic, “Nor the Years Condemn” is also a story of the grieving mothers cursed to relinquish their wonderful sons to war, of first love, of strategic deception and betrayal, of brotherhood and once-in-a-lifetime friendship on a knife’s edge. It is a story of shining young men destined never to become old, and of those who do: the survivors condemned by the years, and to their memory of friends who remain forever young.
We That Are Left by Clare Clark
It is 1910 and to ten-year-old Oskar Grunewald, the Melville family is impossibly, incomprehensibly glamorous. Born into privilege, their certainties are as unshakeable as the walls of their Victorian castle. It is a world to which Oskar, mathematics prodigy and son of a penniless German composer, has no wish to belong.
But when Theo Melville is killed in the Great War, shattering his family’s lives, Oskar finds himself drawn reluctantly into the gaping hole his death has left behind. As Theo’s two sisters struggle to forge their paths in a world that no longer plays by the old rules, Oskar’s life becomes entwined with theirs in a way that will change all of their futures.
Another quiet week for me with only two books finished, from authors I'd not read before. I enjoyed them both.
Print books dominated my week, though I did read a few more chapters of my current ebook, Daughter of Mine. This book is not grabbing my attention as I thought it would given its setting and the temptation of a secret. My other current reads are going well.
My next read will be Shoes for Anthony. This book piqued my interest not only because it is set during World War II, but also that it is set in Wales, offering a different perspective of the war.
What I Read Last Week
Map of Stars by Catherine Law
Kent, 1939. Eliza is to be married to Nicholas, her companion since she was a child. But when the pair are involved in a car crash, Eliza is rescued by a stranger, Lewis Harper, whose stunning green eyes she will never forget.
As the war begins, Eliza's world begins to fall apart: her beloved brother Martyn is killed in action, and her once-beloved husband grows increasingly distant. And then, when her efforts to help the Dunkirk evacuees take her to the south coast, she spots a familiar pair of eyes.
Armistice by Nick Stafford
Philomena Bligh's fiancé Dan, has been shot. The First World War claimed many lives and so his death is not, in its own way, surprising. But Dan was shot in the minutes after the Armistice. The war was over.
She cannot understand how this could have happened, or why they were still fighting that morning anyway. So, in March 1919, over Dan's birthday, Philomena travels to London to meet the men who were with him when he died. What she discovers is more shocking than she'd ever imagined. Dan's best friend, Jonathan, tells her that Dan was shot by a British officer over a gambling debt. There is no proof and all records of Jonathan's accusation have been destroyed.
Refusing to accept anything less than justice for the man she loved, Philomena decides to take on the Establishment. Worried that she may cause his own downfall and feeling guilty for his mysterious part in Dan's death, Jonathan decides to accompany her on her mission.
Set against a backdrop of London in the aftermath of the Great War, a time of upheaval, grief and wanton escapism, this is not just an inspirational book about what it means to be a hero, but also a breathtaking love story.
What I'm Reading Today
For Two Cents I'll Go With You by Marcia Maxwell
In the spring of 1917, Walter "Pat" Lusk sits at his desk shuffling papers and dreaming of glory on the battlefield. Frustrated, he's convinced the Great War will remain forever out of reach until one day his friend Aubrey arrives with the thrilling news that the United States has finally declared war on Germany! With his path to adventure now clear, Pat immediately enlists in the Army, where he trains as a surgeon's assistant. Sent to France with Evacuation Hospital No. 4, will Pat finally attain the glory he seeks treating desperately wounded soldiers through the war's darkest days? Will he ever win over the redoubtable Nurse Oberholtzer? Will the Armistice bring peace to the boys of Evac 4, or does a time of even greater testing await Pat and his friends?
Daughter of Mine by Fiona Lowe
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
Harriett Chirnwell has a perfect life — a husband who loves her, a successful career and a daughter who is destined to become a doctor just like her.
Xara has always lived in Harriet’s shadow; her chaotic life with her family on their sheep farm falls far short of her older sister’s standards of perfection and prestige.
Georgie, the youngest sister and a passionate teacher, is the only one of the three to have left Billawarre. But is her life in Melbourne happy?
Despite all three sisters having a different and sometimes strained bond with their mother, Edwina, they come together to organise a party for her milestone birthday — the first since their father’s death. But when Edwina arrives at her party on the arm of another man, the tumult is like a dam finally breaking. Suddenly the lives of the Chirnwell sisters are flooded by scandal. Criminal accusations, a daughter in crisis, and a secret over fifty years in the making start to crack the perfect façade of the prominent pastoral family.
The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Kneally
Not all murder victims are mourned, but the perpetrator must always be punished ...
For Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women.Inmate Grace O'Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she becomes the chief suspect.
Recently arrived from Port Macquarie, ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat now lives in Parramatta with his ever-loyal housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney. Monsarrat, as an unofficial advisor on criminal and legal matters to the governor's secretary, is charged with uncovering the truth of Church's murder. Mrs Mulrooney accompanies him to the Female Factory, where he is taking depositions from prisoners, including Grace, and there the housekeeper strikes up friendships with certain women, which prove most intriguing.
Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney both believe that Grace is innocent, but in this they are alone, so to exonerate her they must find the murderer. Many hated Church and are relieved by his death, but who would go as far as killing him
What I Hope To Read Next
Shoes for Anthony by Emma Kennedy
The idea of the war coming to their small, impoverished Welsh mining village always seemed remote, but with one explosive event and the arrival of the Americans preparing for the invasion of France, the people of Treherbert find their world turned upside down.
But war brings distrust, lies and danger. And as the villagers find themselves hopelessly divided, Anthony, an 11-year-old who hasn’t had a pair of shoes in years, is going to have to choose between what is popular and what is right.
This weekly meme is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date and is a place to share what you've been reading over the past week, what you are currently reading and what you hope to read next.
Not all murder victims are mourned, but the perpetrator must always be punished ...
The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria’s Western District — but could a long-held secret threaten their family?
Kent, 1939. Eliza is to be married to Nicholas, her companion since she was a child. But when the pair are involved in a car crash, Eliza is rescued by a stranger, Lewis Harper, whose stunning green eyes she will never forget.
