Watching what I’m reading . . .

Happy Matariki! Matariki is the New Zealand Maori New Year. Matariki has nine visible stars. Each star holds a certain significance over our wellbeing and environment, as seen from the Māori view of the world. This is the first year New Zealand has celebrated Matariki with public holiday.

I’ve had a good reading week. When I have finished two of my current reads, I will have read all five books I had scheduled for read for review for week.

Currently I am reading The Guilty Couple by C.L. Taylor. I’m not yet sure what to think.

I am almost half way through Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter. This is #2 in the Andrea Oliver series and so far I am enjoying this a lot more than the first.

Those were the tail end of my read for reviews. The audiobook I am currently listening to is a backtitle from 2020, Stolen Children by Michael Wood, #6 in the DCI Matilda Darke series. I have enjoyed this whole series and Stolen Children is no exception.

I have five reads for review scheduled in the coming week. They are:

The Precious Jules by Shawn Nocher

After nearly two hundred years of housing retardants, as they were once known, the Beechwood Institute is closing the doors on its dark history, and the complicated task of reassigning residents has begun. Ella Jules, having arrived at Beechwood at the tender age of eight, must now rely on the state to decide her future. Ella’s aging parents have requested that she be returned to her childhood home, much to the distress of Ella’s siblings, but more so to Lynetta, her beloved caretaker who has been by her side for decades. The five adult Jules children, haunted by their early memories of their sister, and each dealing with the trauma of her banishment in their own flawed way, are converging on the family home, arriving from the far corners of the country—secrets in tow—to talk some sense into their aging parents and get to the root of this inexplicable change of heart.

A Summer Love Affair by Holly Chamberlain

Sometimes you sense something, deep inside, long before it’s proven true. Thirty-year-old Petra Quirk has always felt as if a vital element of her life is missing. It’s not until she moves back to the small town of Eliot’s Corner for the summer that she learns why. Rummaging in the attic, Petra comes across a diary. The discovery prompts her mother, Elizabeth, to make a confession to her three daughters. Decades ago, she fell in love with her husband’s best friend, Chris—and Petra is Chris’s child . . .

Elizabeth ended the affair before she learned she was pregnant, and Chris has no idea he’s a father. Hugh, who Petra believed to be her dad, was a good-natured but self-centered, blustering man. He and Chris seemed to have little in common, though their friendship was genuine. Elizabeth loved Chris deeply yet refused to tear her family apart. Even since Hugh’s death, she’s resisted contacting Chris. But Petra, floundering and unsure of her path, is compelled to search out her biological father, though she knows it will complicate her relationship with her family.

The Saint of Lost Things by Tish Delaney

There was a time when Lindy Morris escaped to London and walked along the Thames in the moonlight. When life was full and exciting.

Decades later, Lindy lives back with her Auntie Bell on the edge: on the edge of Donegal and on the edge of Granda Morris’s land. Granda Morris is a complicated man, a farmer who wanted sons but got two daughters: Auntie Bell and Lindy’s mother, who disappeared long ago.

Now, Lindy and Bell live the smallest of lives, in a cottage filled with unfulfilled dreams. But when the secrets they have kept for thirty years emerge, everything is rewritten. Will Lindy grasp who she is again?

And last is a publisher’s widget for The Lost Children, by Michael Wood, #9 in the DCI Matilda Darke series. As I said earlier, I really enjoy this series.

I received three new ARCs via Netgalley this week. They are:

We All Have Our Secrets by Jane Corry

The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

And, The Other Girlfriend by Alex Stone

I also received two publishers widgets, making a total of five new titles for the week, all of which landed in my inbox on Friday. And there I was thinking I was going to have a 0 new additions week. 🤷‍♀️ The two widgets are:

The Carnival is Over by Greg Woodland

And, A Cornish Recipe for Murder by Fiona Leitch

I hope that you’re all having a wonderful weekend. The sun is poking its head out from behind the clouds so I will take this opportunity to go for a walk while it’s not raining. I haven’t been for a walk since Wednesday so it will be good to blow the cobwebs out and I should be able to finish listening to Stolen Children. Happy reading!❤📚