Weekly Reading Round-Up
So many thanks to Carly for mentioning The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope in the Facebook comments on last week’s Weekly Reading Round-Up!
Where has this book been all my life?
Short answer: on my bookshelf. A friend gave it to me years ago, but it languished with the other “I’ll get to this someday” books. So I’m so grateful to Carly for reminding me of it and making me finally go read it. It’s… How to describe? It’s very Pink Carnation-y, in that there’s a modern heroine solving a mystery involving a lost set of papers and a dashing marauder during the American Revolution. We get the historical story told in the first person by the actors themselves, with wonderful deadpan humor and a couple of interwoven romances. Highly, highly recommended.
And now I’m in that book mourning period that you enter into when you’ve just finished something very, very good and aren’t quite sure what to read next.
Fortunately, I saw Jennifer Robson the other day, and she was kind enough to give me an ARC of Goodnight from London, her upcoming World War II novel. So I don’t think my book slump will last long!
What have you been reading this week?
Rhys Bowen’s In Farleigh Fields. Another WWII story – spies, romance and shady characters. Haven’t finished it quite yet – probably will tonight. Also re-read Janet Evanovich’s Pursuit, the last (so far) in the O’Hare and Fox series. Also for the historian in you, Lauren, you’ll probably enjoy Clementine by Sonia Purnell. Very interesting.
I’m reading The Wicked C ity. So good! I just finished an ARC of MJ Carter: The Devil’s Feast. Really liked it. For you Victoria fans it takes place right after she had her first or second baby.
I just finished Karen White’s The Night the Lights Went Out, which I started last week. Could not put it down. Definite book mourning. Can’t wait for it to come out so I can buy it and read it again! So glad I got this galley because I’ve been in a reading slump, not really enthusiastic about anything.
I finished the rather dissatisfying The Uninvited Guests by Cat Winter, was supposed to be Gothic, was a little bit to WWI Sixth Sense… now I’m reading a book for book club, A Darker Shade of Magic, which I’m really liking, because while it might be fantasy it’s in my favorite time period, Regency England!
Lauren, have you ever come across Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard which is best described as a book I loved even more than The Sherwood Ring and that that is saying something? It has Tam Lin undertones and another great heroine.
For research purposes, I am reading lengthy tomes on debates on luxury and its corrupting influences in the eighteenth century, for me, I just finished Jackie Bennett’s Shakespeare’s Gardens which is a perfect blend of travel reading, gardens and Shakespeare.
I can’t tell you how much I loved I Let You Go by Clare Macintosh: A little bit romance, a lot of police procedural and some psychology, but nothing like the horrid Girl On a Train.
All the Weyrs Of Pern. I love The Dragonriders series. Pern is my home away from home planet.
The Sherwood Ring has been languishing in my TBR pile for years! I bought it because Perilous Gard is my favorite retelling of Tam Lin. I’m moving it up the list, now.
Deanna Raybourne’s (author of the Lady Julia series) 2nd Veronica Speedwell book ” A Perilous Undertaking”… if you haven’t read the first one it is ” A Curious Beginning”.
Public service announcement: The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams is currently $1.99 for Kindle. I read it a few weeks ago and absolutely one of my favorite Williams books!
Reading The Confidant by Helene Gremillon 🙂
Just started That Summer. Loving it already.