Weekly Reading Round-Up

There have been a lot of flights in my life recently. Which, on the plus side, means lots of reading time!

Among other things, I’ve read:

— Susanna Kearsley’s upcoming A Desperate Fortune, which is, if possible, even better than her previous books (and I hadn’t thought anything could ever top The Shadowy Horses for me, so there you go);

— S.K. Rizzolo’s Die I Will Not, a Regency mystery very much in the spirit of C.S. Harris’s novels;

— B.J. Daniels’s Atonement, a Western-set contemporary romance that made me think a little of Longmire, most likely because the hero is a sheriff;

— and Margery Allingham’s Death of a Ghost, a Campion novel set in the art world.

As you can see, it’s been an eclectic and happy reading week. And I have another two flights coming up over the next two days, so….

What have you been reading this week?

30 Comments

  1. Liz on August 1, 2014 at 8:16 am

    I’m reading The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams–really loving it so far. Vivian’s witty banter is my favorite.

    • SuzanneH on August 3, 2014 at 7:41 am

      Liz, I have just finished reading Violet Grant too, and I loved it. I wanted to try and stretch it out until Midnight Manzanilla comes out on Tuesday but I couldn’t do it. It got so exciting at the end that I couldn’t put it down and finished it at midnight last night.

  2. Christine on August 1, 2014 at 9:40 am

    I’m trying to make my way through The Book of Life before Midnight Manzanilla comes out. It’s entertaining, but no the MUST READ NOW feeling like I got with the first two.

    • Alice on August 1, 2014 at 5:43 pm

      I completely agree. I just finished reading The Book of Life and it was a total letdown. Lots and lots and lots of dialogue, not very much excitement and I thought the ending was just plain bizarre. Hugely disappointing.

      • Miss Eliza on August 1, 2014 at 11:15 pm

        Ditto. She didn’t end the series well at all.

    • mel burns on August 2, 2014 at 11:35 am

      It took me two weeks to finish reading The Book of Life. What a bore.

    • Christine on August 2, 2014 at 4:46 pm

      I think I’m enjoying it more than most other people here, but there’s a lot of running around like it’s a madcap adventure. Reminds me of “Clue.”

  3. Sheila on August 1, 2014 at 11:49 am

    I read a time travel trilogy starting with The Lost Highlander, by Cassidy Cayman, which I quite enjoyed. Also Flat water
    Tuesday by Ron Irwin, which excellent.

    I started on the re read of That Summer for the Readalong. and am enjoying it quite a bit.

  4. Ella on August 1, 2014 at 11:57 am

    Just started my first Heyer book, Faro’s Daughter and loving it so far.
    Just finished The Splendor Falls, Mariana and The Rose Garden from Kearsley… LOVE her books.
    Then there was both of Donna Thorland’s novels, which were a lot of fun and well written.
    It’s been a great week and a bit.

    • mel burns on August 2, 2014 at 11:39 am

      I just re-read Heyer’s The Unknown Ajax…it’s so funny. Faro’s Daughter is good, but try Frederica or Venetia next…they are wonderful and lively….Heyer at her best!

      • SuzanneH on August 3, 2014 at 7:43 am

        I agree Mel. Frederica, Venetia and The Reluctant Widow are my favourites.

        • jeffrey on August 3, 2014 at 4:09 pm

          Add to the above excellent recommendations A Lady of Quality, Venetia, Friday’s Child, and The Grand Sophy.

          • Ella on August 4, 2014 at 11:44 am

            Thanks guys for the recommendations! They are on my list.



  5. Pat D on August 1, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    I finished The Book of Life and then jumped straight into the Midnight Manzanilla. Loved it.
    Claribelle? Really? I’m about to finish The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee. I’m enjoying it very much. I love Susanna Kearsley; I can’t wait for her latest.

  6. Paige on August 1, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    I am halfway through A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. I started the Outlander series recently for the first time. I am feeling a bit impatient and like I am slogging through much of it.

    There are so many books in my TBR pile that I think I will love. A Desperate Fortune is going on my want-to-read list!

    I read Summer is for Lovers by Jennifer McQuiston because I wanted a little break between Outlander books. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was a historical romance with a wonderful unique heroine who…swims. this was the second book in a series, so I immediately read the next, Moonlight on My Mind, which had a murder mystery. And a completely different type of heroine that I fell in love with. I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t then read the first book in the series, What Happens in Scotland.

    Truth is, I am kind of biding time until Midnight Manzanilla. 🙂

  7. Sue Luce on August 1, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    I finished Coulter’s Power Play which wasn’t as good as her oldies.

    • mel burns on August 2, 2014 at 11:42 am

      It felt like she dialed it in and I am so tired of Sherlock getting shot, maimed or tortured in every book!

  8. Christina on August 1, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    I’ve been on a Julia Quinn Bridgerton series spree all month so this week I read When He Was Wicked & It’s In His Kiss. I also read The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg which is the first non Plum Evanovich book I liked. Now I’m about 1/3 into The Silkworm by J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith. So far it’s really good.

  9. Linda on August 1, 2014 at 4:11 pm

    As a matter of fact, I’ve just started That Summer ! Yesterday I finished The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon (a novella) and loved it. And before that, I finished book 7 in the very entertaining time travel series by Monique Martin: Out of Time. Highly recommended. But there is a new Susanna Kearsley book forthcoming? When I saw that the release date is a whopping 8 months away, I was depressed. Can you lend me YOUR copy? ???

    • Alice on August 1, 2014 at 5:47 pm

      I am in complete agreement. Can we do some sort of lending program where we just mail it to everyone here and we all get a chance to read it? Spring 2015 is so far away.

      • mel burns on August 2, 2014 at 11:43 am

        I’d like to be on the hold list please. 🙂

  10. Kristen Allen-Vogel on August 1, 2014 at 5:20 pm

    I was in a bit of a reading slump last weekend but fortunately Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla shipped early and arrived to save me.

  11. Miss Eliza on August 1, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    After reading A LOT of crappy books with characters I’ve wanted to kill it’s kind of cathartic to be reading American Psycho.

  12. Alice on August 1, 2014 at 5:50 pm

    After forcing myself to finish The Book of Life – A week of my life I will never get back….., I then read Murder in Retribution by Anne Cleeland. The second in her Scotland Yard detective series. It was fantastic! Really love the characters as they are very different. It restored my faith in the power of the written word. Also read Courtney Milans newest, The Suffragette Scandal, which doubly reaffirmed my faith in books. It was wonderful.

  13. Betty S. on August 1, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    Finished reading Treachery – the 4th book in S.J. Parris’s (Stephanie Merritt)series set in Elizabethan England – this was historical fiction and mystery at its best!

    Now about to finish Steeped in Evil for something quick and light, and am participating in the That Summer readalong.

  14. Pam on August 1, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    I get to buy The a Book of Life and That Summer as rewards when I finish writing this chapter, which I’ve not managed yet. So for now it’s The Withdrawing a Room by Charlotte MacLeod. Good times, especially now that we have a body.

  15. AngieC on August 2, 2014 at 8:55 am

    I read Jo Walton’s My Real Children and really liked it. It’s about a woman near the end of her life looking back and remembering that she has lived two, very different lives. The interesting thing is how different the world is in each life, one world is fairly decent and peaceful and the other is full of nuclear conflict and Big Brother-ness.

  16. mel burns on August 2, 2014 at 11:49 am

    I’ve got Magic Breaks and Julie Garwood’s latest on deck for the weekend. Both are library books. I’ve bought so many books that I ended up not liking so I’ve decided to stick to the library for awhile.

  17. jeffrey on August 3, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    I just finished Loving Miss Darcy by Nancy Kelley, a selection in her Brides of Pemberley trilogy. I enjoyed it very much because not only is it a romance but since someone is trying to ruin Miss Darcy’s reputation, it is also a mystery. The author plays it pretty close to the vest unlike some of the more outlandish P & P sequels that are out there and I appreciated that.

  18. Trish on August 5, 2014 at 5:41 pm

    I just read What She Left Behind by Ellen Wiseman. It was really really good! The gist is that (it goes back & forth in time) there is an old Asylum that that has been closed down Willard in NY and a local museum is granted access in case there is anything they might want – well they find 100s of old suitcases/luggage….couldn’t put it down.
    I also read That Summer, literally snagged it out of someone else’s hands who was returning it to the library. Another couldn’t put down (good thing I’m on holidays!) Loved it (of course). I thought I’d mention this though – I don’t know if anyone else caught this or has mentioned it before but on the copy I had, on the leaf it says that Julia’s cousin is Natasha. So I’m reading through and of course its Natalie and I’m thinking who’s Natalie…went back re-read the cover, sure enough its says Natasha!

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