Count to Ten by Karen Rose. Another very good addition to this series. The bad guy is so bad and far too many murders. Had to skip some of that. Why do I read them though? The good guys – in this case Mia and Reed and the team are so dedicated to their work of bringing justice and putting themselves on the line. And there is such innate goodness in them. Loved seeing the origin of Faith Buchanan who we meet later on in the series.
4.5 stars
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan. 4.5 stars. A really feel good story set in England during WW2. I love these kinds of stories that tell of women doing things that made a difference in their local community. The three characters – Grace, the vicar’s daughter, Violet daughter at the manor and Cressida – Violet’s aunt and well known dress designer all change and grow as the war goes along and various opportunities come their way. The local community and their support was wonderful and it was good seeing class barriers fall. Well worth reading. 4.5 stars
How Hard Can it Be sat on my shelf for three years so good to attend to it. It is set in England and tells the story of an almost fifty year old and her life with a husband, and two teens Ben and Emily.
The best part of this book was the relationship between Emily and her mother Kate. So full of the teen issues of today.
It’s not my style of book really. It is sort of Rom Com style of writing although it’s a women’s fiction novel.That said it is very well written and while the style didn’t appeal to me, the general premise and issues explored did. 3.5 stars
It took me a little while to warm into this story, The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews. I think the Hollywoodish angle put me off a little. I liked Hattie and Cass and I felt they could have had more to say about what went on with the renovation of the house. That said, it was a very good read, I enjoyed the mystery – the unravelling of an old murder. Hattie’s relationship to her father-in-law, her own father and loss of a husband were all low key but provided background. There is a low burn romance and that worked out well in the end. That house would have looked amazing by the end. 4.5 stars
Not quite sure about this book. I did find part of it overly descriptive and slow. Yet there is a charm and pull in to it. There is the library, Hanna finding her own two feet after divorce. Did I like Hanna and her mother Mary? Well in some ways not really. Who wants a gruff “keep quiet” librarian? My least favourite kind! Yet they grow on me and I was wishing them life and growth. My favourite character was Fury, the builder who obviously has a kind heart but isn’t beholden to anyone and rules can be side stepped. He is rather creative. Will I read any more. I don’t know. Our library doesn’t hold any of these books so I’d need to buy them. Will I? Time will tell. 3.5 stars.
Flying Solo Linda Holmes. I really enjoyed Linda Holmes previous book – Evvie Drake Starts Over so this is an automatic buy for me. “Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety”
The Edge of Summer publishes on the 12th of July. I am fortunate to have a NetGalley copy of this one but if I totally fall in love with it I know I’ll want to buy it as well. It’s about a woman seeking out the mystery of her mother who has just died and secrets that have as yet to be revealed. Viola Shipman is a pen name for Wade Rouse. He has recently written a memoir I’d like to read too at some point.
An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan. Well anyone who loves visiting the island of Mure will be waiting for this one. Looks like there are a few relationships happening and Flora and Joel are finding the going and hard and I can’t wait to see how Lorna and Saif are getting on. I love to listen to this series and so looking forward to it.
Another great directions book, In the Middle of Hickory Lane. But this one I think publishes in July so too late for June. 
Well you’d know where to head too with this title. I’ve never been to the East End except via books like this one. All about a below stairs cook and the mysteries she solves. It’s a series! I love the setting and the characters. Murder in the East End.
Well I think this title gives some direction as well. Under the Southern Sky. Another one that I have read though. Kristy Woodson Harvey has written a story that just kept on giving. A story of family, loss, love, new hope. Wonderful to listen to, because the narrators brought the characters alive.
Summer on the Island. Well the directions don’t tell me which island but its on the island. This is the book I will most likely read for the challenge as I have it from Netgalley, by a accident actually but that’s okay. As it happens the island is small and off the coast of Florida and its detailed as a summer of healing, friendship and love and a secret that could change everything!
Flirting With Fifty. Jane Porter
The Wedding dress Sewing Circle. Jennifer Ryan. I have enjoyed her other books and publishes at the end of May. It is set in WW2. I may go for audio or print.
Book Lovers Emily Henry. This too is on audio or may read it in print. I’ve requested this one from the library.
This read confirmed me as a Uzma Jalaluddin reading fan. I very much enjoyed this book. A rom com, not a genre I am that in favour of, but…. this is the kind I like. 
One of my first 2022 reads. If not the first.
A new author to me and I was totally immersed into it. Lucy finds out she has inherited a ‘cottage’ from someone she has never heard of and when she turns up to claim it all kinds of unknowns await her.
The Becoming is the second in a trilogy. I read the first one earlier in the year and I couldn’t resist moving on to the second one. I have to wait for the third one until the end of ’22.
One of my first 2022 published reads from my shelf. May even be the first. It is historical romance as you might guess and written by Eloisa James.
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd was the book I heard a bout on a podcast. It looks like a really mixture of a book, with mystery, thriller, fantasy, magical realism touches. It has links to the New York public library. “A young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history.”
The Librarian by Salley Vickers is already on my TBR print bookshelf so it needs a place here. I can’t remember why I bought it, may have just seen it at the book shop. “In 1958, Sylvia Blackwell, fresh from one of the new post-war Library Schools, takes up a job as children’s librarian in a run down library in the market town of East Mole.” Sounds like she gets herself in a personal relationship that then threatens her job. This will be the first read coming off my shelf in May.
The Library at the Edge of the Word. Felicity Hayes McCoy looks inviting. “Local librarian Hanna Casey is wondering where it all went wrong … Driving her mobile library van through Finfarran’s farms and villages, she tries not to think of the sophisticated London life she abandoned when she left her cheating husband. Or that she’s now stuck in her crotchety mum’s spare bedroom.” Irish setting.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean is non fiction but it has appealed for awhile. It investigates the fire in the Los Angeles Public Library, plus other bits and pieces about libraries and librarians. Even if I don’t read all of it would be interesting to dip into it. I think its at our library so that makes it very possible.
And a cozy mystery with library links never can be passed over.
Well obviously this has a library in it. It’s not really about the library as such, but… it is an important place in that one of the characters finds refuge there. Another loves coming there for book club and the librarian is afraid her job is going because the council are threatening to close the library.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles presents us with the American Library in Paris in the months leading up to WW11 and during the war. Like all stories set in this era at times it is stark and heart breaking. The people suffer so much.
This one The Giver of Stars along with The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – I read both – gives us insight to the courageous librarians of the WPA Packhorse Library in rural Kentucky from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1940’s. The Appalachian mountains were challenging to say the least. I really enjoyed both books set here. Both very worth reading. I listened to The Giver of Stars which was excellent.
I’d forgotten this one has a librarian but it does. 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.
The Book Date 