Kindle books are great and I do appreciate them. However there is nothing like an actual book in hand for me. This past week there has been a feast of books landing at my door. Finally the post is moving from international sources. However… maybe I am not so delighted about other aspects on reflection.
My one problem was – which one to pick up first to read! And what a great problem to have.
This one came from the Book Depository UK. This one was a bit of a shot in the dark because I had seen so many good reviews for it. See my next book – postage is free although I guess may have a little added to book cost I bet. Cost of book $20 NZ. Best of bunch cost wise.
Dance Away With Me I had pre-ordered from Amazon USA months ago. And then to be sent my CC had to be changed to pay for it and whatever I did, didn’t work. So.. after about an hour I decided to cancel it and re-order. Bingo – back in business. And imagine my surprise when it turned up on my doorstep a week later. Of course the postage cost was a big ouch. No… a huge ouch. How did that happen. Just looking again. No wonder it came in a week. It cost way more than the hardback book itself. Did I tick a wrong box!! I do need my head examined. Just pretended to buy another book. No! No box to tick, they just put in the one way of sending. Oh well a bit wiser now! Okay I’ll tell you $30.98 USA. That’s about $55 NZ. Looks like I may have to part ways with more than my money. Bye bye books from Amazon by post.
Alpha Night I had pre-ordered here from online shop Mighty Ape. There was a lag because the publisher was having trouble getting things transported. I know because I asked them on Twitter! Anyway it landed on my door on the same day as Dance Away With Me. Cost of courier was I $3.90. Out of the five books that arrived this week, this was the one I am choosing to read first. It’s one of my favourite series and well Nalini Singh lives in NZ.
The following post My Pear Shaped Life was sitting there. This is by an Irish author that I am now obsessed by and this is her latest book. I’d ordered it from the Book Depository UK months ago but there were problems and then they couldn’t post the version I had pre-ordered. So then… I ordered another one and after a long lag this one began its journey across the world. Just so happy to have it now to even look at happily. Cost of book $30.51 NZ
Just when I thought book life couldn’t get any better this one turned up yesterday. From Mighty Ape NZ so cost $3.90 by courier. Cost of paperback in NZ dollars was $36. Books are expensive here. That’s pretty normal for a paperback. $30 if you are lucky to buy it on a slightly dropped price.
So all books in the hand but leaving quite a big hole in my book budget. Lucky for me there are not many books this season that I really want as actual books. Well as far as I know anyway! But post has turned out to be somewhat a revelation to myself!
Why don’t I buy these from the walk in local book stores? They don’t carry books like these, except maybe a small shelf of Nalini Singh. Very toffee nosed readers in NZ.
A Week in Winter. 11hrs 34 min. Narrated by Caroline Lennon. Added to my library 2019. The Sheedy sisters had lived in Stone House for as long as anyone could remember. Set high on the cliffs on the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the windswept Atlantic ocean, it was falling into disrepair – until one woman, with a past she needed to forget, breathed new life into the place. Now a hotel, with a big, warm kitchen and log fires, it provides a welcome few can resist.
The Idea of You. 10hrs. Narrated by the author. Added to my library in 2017. With her 40th birthday approaching, Lucy Carpenter dares to hope that she finally has it all: a wonderful new husband, Jonah, a successful career and the chance of a precious baby of her own. Life couldn’t be more perfect.
The Sun Sister. 26 hrs 14 min. Narrated by Weruche Opia, Sophie Roberts. Added 2020. To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous.
Code Name Hélène: The White Mouse. 17hrs 17min. Narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Peter Ganim. Added 2020. In 1936 Nancy Wake is living in Paris after bluffing her way into a job as a foreign correspondent and witnessing firsthand the terror of Hitler’s rise in Europe, firing her determination to do anything she could to fight the Nazis. When Nancy falls unexpectedly in love with handsome French industrialist and playboy Henri Fiocca in Marseilles, no sooner has she agreed to become Mrs Fiocca than the Germans invade France and Nancy takes yet another name, a code name – the first of many.
The Hideaway. 15hrs 45 min. Narrated by January LaVoy. Added 2020. Caitlyn Sullivan is just nine years old when a game of hide-and-seek at a family party will change her life forever.
At present I am reading and really enjoying this first one at the moment. Almost finished. The heroine lost her mother when she was very young and was brought up by a very ungracious aunt. Her heart is hungry for family. Jack is the Dad of two girls who lost their mother a year ago. One of the girls takes to Flora but Izzy, the other daughter, has huge issues and there is tension. The author’s intention I would hazard a guess at is to model really good openness and discussion within relationships.
This one explores what happens when a young aunt takes on the care of two nieces while there Dad is in a submarine and their mother is missing. And within the book there is mystery, shocks and an absorbing family story.
A single mother and her son and three children wo have been abandoned by their mother and their father is a wreck. Can a new blended family form?
For the Guinness family a happy ending looks out of reach. Olly and Mae’s marriage is crumbling, their teenage daughter Evie is on a mission to self-destruct and their beloved Pops is dying of cancer. Their once strong family unit is slowly falling apart. Yes that is the opening and it sure just is a wonderful journey of family.
It is complicated family relationships at its best. It made me waver back and forth about all the characters – did I like them, did I agree with them, could I accept them for all their flaws? Final verdict is that I did hold them in my heart – wept at times and smiled at times. Cheered them on.
This series started out in the 1980’s and they were in our shops and so accessible to me. I read them all except for the last one which didn’t seem to be that successful. I don’t have this book any longer but three of the later ones I do.
I read a number of books by this author, not sure how I came to find out about them. Usually romance and mystery with a Catholic/religious flavour. Haven’t read one for years, should try one to see how I go with them these days.
