Watching what I’m reading . . .

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I certainly haven’t been lying on the beach reading this weekend. We’ve had a chilly high of 16C today and yesterday, and today thunderstorms and heavy rain. We had planned on going to Speedway this afternoon with friends, but it has been postponed until tomorrow, weather permitting. Fingers crossed it fines up – and gets warmer! We have a long weekend this weekend – Auckland anniversary. Next weekend is even better – there is another public holiday on the Tuesday, so Pete has taken Monday as annual leave, and we are having four days at the beach. He is going to fish, and I plan to sit on the beach under the umbrella, read and swim.

Currently I am reading Secrets of Whitewater Creek by Sarah Barrie. She is the featured author for the January Aussie Readers Challenge. I enjoyed the book I read by her so much that when I saw another by her at the library, I picked it up. I am loving this one too.

Jordan must save her farm from debt and sabotage – can she place her trust in a man from out of town?

Born and bred on the land, Jordan Windcroft is brave and independent. She’s had to be. Her life revolves around running her property almost single-handedly on next to no money, and waiting out her four years of probation — a rap that she took for one of her closest friends for a crime she didn’t commit.

Thankfully there’s an end to her problems in sight. Jordan’s probation period is almost up, and if she can just make the cattle sale, there’s a chance she can pull herself out of more than ten years of serious debt and keep her precious farm. The last thing she needs is for Reid Easton to start monitoring her.

Detective Senior Sergeant Reid Easton drives into Whitewater Creek on a mission to wrap up a three-year drug investigation; his only lead, Jordan Windcroft. The attraction between the two is immediate, but Reid is undercover and Jordan has a secret she can’t risk him discovering. Will either jeopardise their cause, for something as transitory as love – or will they keep their secrets to themselves?

The Last Stars in the Sky by Kate Hewitt. This is very different to what she usually writes and initially I didn’t think I was going to like it. But I am enjoying it and eager to see how it all pans out.

A

n unforgettable and heartbreaking story about one woman’s determination to keep her family together when their world falls apart…

“Mom, why are you so mad at Dad?”

“I’m not,” I say, which isn’t exactly true. Putting on a brave face for my two young daughters—pretending everything is fine in my marriage—has been hard. That, and losing the house after Daniel lied to me.

I never expected to have to uproot my family to go live in my parents’ isolated cottage on Lost Lake. It’s twenty miles to the nearest town, an insignificant speck in endless pine forests. Nobody’s lived here for a decade.

Now, I pick up a rusty pail from its nest of autumn leaves and turn to my daughter. Suddenly, I recall how I used to help my own mother pick wild strawberries up here as a little girl. Maybe, this isn’t a punishment. Maybe this place will be the making of our family.

I’m still thinking it when my daughter rests her silky head on my shoulder that evening in the flickering firelight. And when, over a steaming cup of coffee at dawn, I watch a single loon cut a course through the mirrored surface of Lost Lake.

Later, I’ll hold on to these memories—ghostly shreds of another life. Because just eight hours after I sat on that sofa, feeling so hopeful, the world as I knew it—as anyone knew it—was gone for good.

And I am almost finished listening to Finding Claire Fletcher by Lisa Regan. This is a title from my 2017 backlist.

With his career on thin ice and fresh ink on his divorce papers, Sacramento PD Detective Connor Parks goes searching for solace at the bottom of a bottle…and winds up in the arms of a beautiful woman. By morning she’s gone, and the one clue she left behind sends Connor on a desperate mission to unravel a decade-old mystery—her abduction.

Presumed dead for the last ten years, Claire Fletcher has been living her life as “Lynn,” a woman in the terrifying grip of her captor. After her unforgettable night with Connor, Claire clings to the hope that she’ll see him again, that he’ll follow her into the dark. But anyone who gets close to Claire has a way of turning up dead…and she’s unwittingly made Connor next on the list.

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear: finding Claire Fletcher isn’t just going to be dangerous—it could be deadly.

I have nine NetGalley ARCs to read in the coming week – 😬 I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself. I should know better at this age! My only excuse is that they were mostly requested BEFORE I set my 2024 reading goal of just TWO NetGalley ARCs per week.

True Crime by Georgina Lees. I have read several of her other books with mixed results.

A missing girl. An angry mother. A true crime documentary.

Ten years ago, Katy, a promising young journalist, left her desk and was never seen again.

Someone knows what happened to her…

The controlling boyfriend? The inappropriate professor? The clingy colleague?

When Katy went missing, it wasn’t just her devastated mother, Grace, whose life was ruined. Now, a new documentary delving into the missing person case threatens to open old wounds.

As Grace gets closer to the truth, she discovers just how far people are willing to go to keep the past hidden.

Tidelines by Sarah Sasson, an Australian author. This is her debut novel although she has previously published poetry, short stories and non-fiction.

It’s Sydney in the early 2000s, and Grub is spending the summer with her universally adored older brother, Elijah, and his magnetic but troubled best friend, Zed. Their days are filled with surfing, swimming and hanging out; life couldn’t be better.

But years later, Elijah disappears and Grub’s family unravels. At first, Grub blames Zed: he was the one who derailed Elijah from a bright future in the arts. But as Grub looks back at those dreamy summer days, the sanctuary of her certainty crumbles. Was Zed really responsible for her brother’s disappearance? Was anyone?

Tidelines is a tender coming-of-age novel about growing up in the face of unimaginable loss. It examines the stories we subconsciously write for ourselves, and what remains later, when we have the courage to tear them apart. 

Snowy Mountains Dawn by Alissa Callan, a new-to-me Australian author.

Horsewoman Brenna Lancaster has no time for relationships. Unless a man looks good on a horse and lets her call the shots, she isn’t interested. She’d rather wear a dress and heels than give someone else power over her life.

Finance guru Wyatt Killian is a self-made man who has left the train wreck of his childhood behind. There is zero room in his workaholic world for downtime and distractions, let alone emotions or country girls.

When Wyatt’s corporate horse-riding retreat is led by a woman determined to unplug him from his urban life, it isn’t just his laser focus that becomes compromised. Being in a saddle unlocks a part of himself that he’d long ago discarded. In a rare moment of nostalgia, he prolongs his stay in the high country.

After Brenna becomes mired in a family secret that involves a historic feud and bushrangers, she has no choice but to involve Wyatt in the search for answers. But as Wyatt’s past collides with his future, and the only home Brenna has known comes under threat, both must decide what they need to let go of and what is worth fighting for.

The Good Dog by Simon Rowell, another new-to-me Australian author.

After gunshots echo through the summer night on Mount Macedon, Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer and her loyal service dog Harry race to the summit at first light. What they find looks like a grisly murder-suicide: an alleged fraudster named Piers Johnson, and his lawyer Antony Peterson, both dead from bullet wounds, a gun lying nearby.

Something about the scene doesn’t stack up. There are plenty of suspects, but no one seems to be telling the truth. Zoe’s instincts are ignited, as the pressure to find and charge the culprit becomes intense. And that’s when Peterson’s teenage daughter Sarah is snatched off the street. The Good Dog is Zoe’s toughest assignment yet, a murderous conspiracy of greed, deceit and violence. She knows that Harry may be her only chance to crack the case.

Tipping Point by Dinuka Mckenzie, another new to me Australian author. She has a few back titles I’ll be catching up with if this is as good as it sounds.

Weeks from Christmas in the sweltering heat of summer, Detective Kate Miles’ estranged brother, Luke Grayling, returns home to Esserton to farewell a childhood friend – Ant Reed, dead by suicide. Within days of the funeral, another young man, Marcus Rowntree, is found shot dead in the back paddock of his property.

Almost twenty years ago, Luke, Ant and Marcus were best mates in high school and now two of the three friends are dead. A tragic coincidence? Or is there something more sinister connecting the three men?

When Luke is identified as a person of interest in Marcus’s death, Kate once again finds herself in the middle of a media storm, sidelined from the case and battling accusations of conflict of interest. As press attention deepens, and uncomfortable truths about Luke’s personal life and past events come to light, Kate is forced to contend between loyalty to the police force, and the bonds of friendship and blood.

I received a widget for Quercus Books for The Winter Visitor by James Henry, another new-to-me author – not Australian this time.

Essex, February, 1991. The weather is biting cold. Everyone would rather be somewhere warmer, which is why it’s a big surprise when a wanted drug smuggler, Bruce Hopkins, risks a return to his old haunts in Colchester after a decade long exile on the Costa del Sol. Lured back by a letter from the wife Hopkins left behind, no one is more surprised than him when he finds himself abducted and stripped bare only to be sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. The police wonder if it could be retaliation from a Spanish gang, sending a warning to their English counterparts?

DS Daniel Kenton is teamed up with the unorthodox DS Brazier to investigate a crime wave which takes in not only the murder of an expat dope smuggler, but a sophisticated arson attack on a Norman church and the unexpected suicide of an ageing florist. Could there possibly be a thread that connects them?

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Brown by Freya North.

Eadie Browne is an odd child with unusual parents, living in a strange house neighbouring the local cemetery. Bullied at school – but protected by her two best friends, Celeste and Josh, and her many imaginary friends lying six feet under next door – Eadie muddles her way through.

Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie confronts a busy, gritty Victorian metropolis a far cry from the small Garden City she’s left behind. Soon enough she experiences a novel freedom she never imagined and it’s seductive. She can be who she wants to be, do as she pleases, and no one back home needs to know. As Manchester embraces the dizzying, colourful euphoria of Rave counterculture, Eadie is swept along, blithely ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with ramifications which will continue into her adult life.

Now, as the new millennium beckons, Eadie is turning thirty with a marriage in tatters. She must travel back to where she once lived for a funeral she can’t quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then – and all that is now.

Last Night by Luane Rice

A fierce blizzard is burying the eastern seaboard, but on the icy Rhode Island shore renowned artist Maddie Morrison finds warm sanctuary from a contentious divorce at the legendary Ocean House. Hours later, her body is found buried under a blanket of snow and her little daughter, CeCe, has disappeared without a trace.

For Detective Conor Reid; his brother, Tom, a coast guard commander; and Maddie’s grieving sister, Hadley, the posh hotel becomes ground zero for an investigation. Trapped by the blizzard, they must hunker down and determine who in the young mother’s life could have possibly wanted her dead. There are stories of a twisted romantic past. Of old jealousies and resentments that still cut to the bone. And a history of greed, rage, and revenge that created the perfect storm for murder. A storm that has just begun.

And finally, A Chance to Believe by Fiona Marsden, another Australian author, one I have read previously.

Can a fling turn into a family?

After a chance meeting in Brisbane, Shayne Smith and Cassie Long had a perfect fortnight together. But when Shayne returned to his historic sheep property, they both assumed there was no future in a relationship between a city girl and a grazier.

Six months later, Cassie arrives at Maiden’s Landing to let Shayne know they made more than memories in their brief idyll. She has no expectations, only a duty to let him know.

Shayne’s life is already complicated with a property to run and a sixteen-year-old daughter growing up fast. He never expected the woman he can’t forget to turn up on his doorstep bringing news that is all too familiar.

Fiercely independent Cassie isn’t asking anything of him, but he persuades her to stay at his homestead until the babies are born. Cassie’s difficult pregnancy means that any possibility of romance must be put on hold – despite the intense attraction they feel for each other. How long can they resist? And will each of them overcome their own baggage so they can build a future together?

Where have I been virtually travelling to this week? Currently I am in the mountains in South-Eastern Australia, rural Ontario, Canada, and Sacramento, California. I have been to Sandycove near Dublin, Ireland; Beaufort, South Carolina; Essex, England and the Scottish Highlands; and Montauk, Long Island, NY.

I’m not expecting to get much reading done until I get to the beach. We have builders here replacing our rotten deck and I seem to be forever feeding and watering them! It took me all day Saturday to clean the house. You would not believe how much sawdust I vacuumed up! Pete took away a whole truckload of the old decking timber and support beams. The new support beams are in. They have started on the joists, and the actual decking is due to be delivered this week. The glass people will be coming to do the final measure for the balustrade this week, but I doubt we will see that for six weeks or so. I am missing my deck. I like to breakfast out there, even in winter if it is fine. And read of course. I usually have a day bed tucked in behind a windbreak out there, a lovely spot for reading.

I had best go do the veges for dinner. Roast lamb and veges tonight; cold lamb and salad tomorrow night.

Happy rading my friends, and thanks for stopping by. 💕📚