It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

Hope you are all hanging in there. The days seem to fly by. Take care everyone and stay virus free.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

 

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Last Week’s Posts

What You Wish For Katherine Center

Jane Austen Spin Offs

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Jane Austen Spin Offs.

For a reader who is not that into Jane Austen I seem to have read or plan to read ones by authors who obviously have a fondness for Jane that I have not been able to engender within myself.

This one I have in audiobook and I plan to listen to it next. I’ve never read anything before by Natalie Jenner but have seen some good reviews for this book.

 

 

 

I listened to Recipe for Persuasion  a little while ago and really enjoyed it.

Unmarriageable is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Another audiobook in my play list all ready to go.

 

 

 

I read Ayesha at Last in 2019 and really enjoyed it as well. Another Pride and Prejudice retelling.

 

 

I read Pride Prejudice and Other Flavours last year as well and really enjoyed it. It follows up the other book I mentioned above by Sonali Dev.

It looks like Pride and Prejudice is the favourite book authors pick.

 

 

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What You Wish For. Katherine Center

Published: St Martin’s Press
Date: 14th July 2020
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living.
But she wasn’t always that way.
Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen.
But he wasn’t always that way.

Set within school life, What You Wish For did hook me and keep me reading. possibly because of my teaching career.  It has two main characters who had known each other a few years back and now meet up again at a different school.

Sam has just lost her beloved Principal and the whole staff are still grieving his loss. Duncan appears and he comes in with a bang. He is completely different to what Sam knew of him before. And so for awhile there I was totally horrified by his actions. However when we get to know Duncan more we come to understand.

There are minor characters who are rather sweet, especially the nine year old boy with the very remote and rather unlikeable Dad who also happens to be chairman of the board at the school.

I liked the emphasis on however life is going, take the moments you can, to celebrate and to choose joy – even be a little wacky at times. I also loved Sam’s library set up.

It’s a pleasant story, and if you are looking for a light summer read and you like Katherine Center’s work you can pass a few happy hours with it.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

And another Monday, first one in July. The year is going fast which is maybe a good thing. I am enjoying being lazy by the fire with a little reading and TV.  Hope you are all keeping well.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

And I’ll be listening to The Sun Sister for a few weeks yet!

 

Up next:

 

Last Week’s Posts

Looking Back at June Reading

Looking at the Library Again

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Looking at the Library Again

Well I have been away from the library for months. I cancelled any reserves I had and went library free during Covid19 months. Now that we are having a “so they say” Covid19 free time here in NZ, I have tentatively put my feet back in the water by reserving five books online, and now await them.

I love the reserve feature and I know I can put a “delay” kind of thing on them, but when they are available I feel a bit of pressure to read them. A bit like a review book really, and I read best when there is total no pressure for anything!

Here are the five books I’ve reserved!

A review by Mary reminded me of this book, although in the USA it is called How the Penguins Saved Veronica.

I see this book is already on the reserve shelf for me at the library and I need to pick up by the 12th.

Beach Read – I am not sure if this is for me or not. But good to make a small investment in it and get it from the library. Was on Anne Bogel’s summer reading list and I have seen a number of reviews from it. A DNF from one GR reviewer I respect so will check it out at the least.

 

The Cake Maker’s Wish – I have read this Australian author before and this is her recently published one. I do admit though I have her last year book on my shelf and haven’t read it!

Murder in the East End is a cozy mystery series I enjoy and recently I was alerted to the fact that this one is out.

 

Maybe One Day is a shot in the dark. I like the Irish author Carmel Harrington and I saw this author on a Zoom presentation along with her. I think she is English but just thought I’d give her a whirl.

 

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Looking back at June Reading

Total books read this month: 8

New to me authors:

No new to me authors this month.

Outside Reading Highlights

Meeting up again with family and friends, after there has been no community transmission of COVID-19 for awhile. Just at the border and that has two weeks quarantine and testing, how well done I am not sure! So a little caution doesn’t go amiss.

Top Book for June

No hesitation about this. I really enjoy a Susan Elizabeth Phillips book, and this one more women’s fiction with a touch of romance was very readable.

Looking forward to reading in July

I have a few review books to read but here are the ones I am really looking forward to off my own shelf.

Main Reading Goals for July

Just to continue to read slowly and really enjoy what I am reading. Get back to using the library.

Incoming Books for June

Purchased

From NetGalley

 

Linking up with Nicole from Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

Last week I visited around to see what everyone was up to. It’s always dangerous of course because books get added to the TBR. However it is so good to see what everyone is reading and doing. It makes me learn a little, enjoy your happy news and have my heart ache at the sad news.

So last week I looked up the map to see where Montana is exactly is in the USA and while I was there I looked for New Mexico. I did stay for about 10 months in Washington state, but my geography is somewhat hazy. Anyway there you are Montana, sitting right up on the border next to Washington.

And of course so many different books, while we are all readers we have such a wide variety of tastes and that is just great, pointing to our uniqueness in reading. Keep on enjoying those books.

What I read last week:

I had a great reading week, not a lot of reading but the book I read I loved. I finished also listening to a very enjoyable read by Jenny Colgan.

What I am reading now:

From an Irish author I’ve come to really like

And I started listening to this one, it’s very long so I was putting it off, it will most likely take me all of July to get through it but it will be good.

Up next:

 

 

Last Week’s Posts

Daring and the Duke. Sarah MacLean

Half Year Favourites of 2020

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Half Year Favourites 2020

Some books are just so readable and satisfying, I watch anxiously where I am in the book because I don’t want it to end. When I am going “oh I am only at 31%” then that’s the opposite and I know I don’t really like it.

Here are five I really liked so far this year and gave 5 stars. One New Zealand author, two from the USA, one British and one Australian.  That wasn’t planned but that’s how it worked out. Two were audiobooks and  two I have in paperback. One was a review book from NetGalley. Oh and I have Becoming in hardback as well as audio!  So if I could only save five books from the first half of 2020, these are the ones!

All these authors would now be auto reads/listens now.

It’s no secret I love this series and this book was filled with the beauty and compassion Nalini Singh brings to this pay/changeling series.

Such an inspiring memoir and narrated so well by herself.

 

 

 

Jenny Colgan brings very likeable characters and her settings are part of it. Excellent on audio.

 

 

A complicated family story that just glued me to the book.

 

Loved the characters, the garden, the writing.

 

 

 

 

 

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Daring and The Duke

Published: HarperCollins – Avon

Date:30th June 2020

Publicist via NetGalley

Grace Condry has spent a lifetime running from her past. Betrayed as a child by her only love and raised on the streets, she now hides in plain sight as queen of London’s darkest corners. Grace has a sharp mind and a powerful right hook and has never met an enemy she could not best…until the man she once loved returns.

Single-minded and ruthless, Ewan, Duke of Marwick, has spent a decade searching for the woman he never stopped loving. A long-ago gamble may have lost her forever, but Ewan will go to any lengths to win Grace back…and make her his duchess.

Reconciliation is the last thing Grace desires. Unable to forgive the past, she vows to take her revenge. But revenge requires keeping Ewan close, and soon her enemy seems to be something else altogether—something she can’t resist, even as he threatens the world she’s built, the life she’s claimed…and the heart she swore he’d never steal again.

Daring and the Duke is the third book in the series and gives us the story of Ewan and Grace. They had both been childhood friends, but both of them along with Ewan’s two half brothers, had been under the thrall of a wicked and ruthless Duke.

Cast out the brothers Devil and Whit and Grace had made a life for themselves in the tough side of London. They’d fought there way to being rich and wealthy and with all their beings hated their brother Ewan who had turned on them all.

Or did he? We now have more of a view of his side of the story and Grace – who is not related to the brothers – must acknowledge that despite her success, her heart, body and soul still resides with the boy she lost. Now she is called to re-examine the events of the past and find where she wants to go next.

Sarah MacLean writes strong, smart women, her books are sexy and spicy, and while this book wasn’t quite as strong as her first book of the series it was very enjoyable and satisfying to see how it all worked out.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

A quiet week, lots of rain! And then we met our shortest day yesterday. Yay.

Well a little bit of a kerfuffle this week because we found out our quarantining at the border has been not that stringent and then two people from the UK were let out with the virus without testing on compassionate grounds, and there tended to be some large holes in their story. Hmm things then turned to custard!  We’ve had more coming in too as more NZers come home. So I am back to being cautious because I can’t trust what is going on at the border.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

And still listening to and enjoying Five Hundred Miles From You. by Jenny Colgan. Enjoying catching up with little cameos of past characters in the series.

Up next:

 

Last Week’s Posts

Book Delights Cost.

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