I didn’t post yesterday as I was struggling with a migraine all day. We were meant to be going out for lunch with friends, but that never happened. Feeling better today, but sluggish.
My posts over the next few weeks will be sporadic. I have my grandson arriving this afternoon for the first week of the NZ school holidays. There are a few activities at our local library that he will enjoy, so I will take him to those. Whatever else we decide to do will be dependent on the weather.
After he goes home, I have my replacement starting at work so that will be pretty intensive for the first couple of weeks. After that I will gradually withdraw and hopefully my time will be my own again. đ¤ this one works out.
Currently I am reading Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths
The Party Guest by Amanda Robson
And listening to On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass
Who wouldnât want to live in Brighton Hills? This exclusive community on the Oregon coast is the perfect mix of luxury and natural beauty. Stunning houses nestle beneath mighty Douglas firs, and lush backyards roll down to the lakefront. Itâs the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another. Sometimes a little too closelyâŚ
Cora thinks her husband, Finn, is cheatingâshe just needs to catch him in the act. Thatâs where Paige comes in. Paige lost her son to a hit-and-run last year, and sheâs drowning in the kind of grief that makes people do reckless things. Like spying on the locals, searching for proof that her sonâs death was no accident. And agreeing to Coraâs plan to reveal what kind of man Finn really is. All the while, their reclusive new neighbor, Georgia, is acting more strangely every day. But what could such a lovely young mother possibly be hiding?
When you really start to look beyond the airy open floor plans and marble counters, Brighton Hills is filled with secrets. Some big, some little, some deadly. And one by one, theyâre about to be revealedâŚ
This week I have the following books to read for review:
Bernice Runs Away by Talya Tate Boerner
Life hasnât always been easy for Bernice, but she is reasonably content at the ripe age of eighty-one. She has raised two children, buried both her husband and son, and is doing okay despite a few minor health issues. When Berniceâs daughter, Sarah, insists the time has come for Bernice to forfeit her independence and move into her backyard carriage house, Bernice refuses.
âI have a perfectly good house in Arkansas. Why on earth would I move to Atlanta?â
Despite Berniceâs protestations, Sarah moves forward with death cleaning and estate sale planning as though Bernice has no say in the matter.
Bernice has plenty to say about a variety of things.
With Miss Fiona packed stem to stern with only those things that spark joy (thank you, Marie Kondo) and inspired by an old black-and-white photograph of her first true love, Bernice leaves her cozy home in Savage Crossing without a glance in the rearview mirror. And without a word to her family.
Once Bernice decides to run away, there is no telling what might happen next.
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But how many will die before Twelfth Night?
The annual Christmas Game is afoot at Endgame House, the Armitages’ grand family home. This year’s prize is to die for–deeds to the house itself–but Lily Armitage has no intention of returning. She hasn’t been back to Endgame since her mother died, twenty-one years ago, and she has no intention of claiming the house that haunts her dreams.
Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game’s riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother’s murderer.
Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her, because not everyone is playing fair, and there’s no telling how many will die before the winner is declared.
The Stranger Vanishes by Wendy Corsi Staub
In the quirky, picturesque lakeside community of Lily Dale, where the residents can talk to the dead, young widow Bella Jordan is the lone skeptic among believers. She doesn’t believe in ghosts . . . but after a year in the village, she would admit that her new friends do sometimes seem to know impossible things.
Still, when a Black stranger dressed in old-fashioned clothing arrives unexpectedly at Bella’s guesthouse at midnight on Juneteenth, only to vanish the next day as if he’d never existed, Bella’s sure there has to be a logical explanation. One that has nothing to do with the strange warning Odelia, the medium next door, delivers from the Spirits: Beware of . . . Barry?!
Bella doesn’t know a Barry, and she has enough people in her life already, what with her young son Max and their two kitties, handsome vet Drew, a plethora of kind but nosy neighbors and a full house of summer guests. But as the mystery of the missing stranger deepens, she starts to wonder: did the Spirits really mean Barry? Or did they mean bury . . .
Keeping Up Appearances by Tricia Stringer
Privacy is hard to maintain in Badara, the kind of small Australian country town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So discovers single mum Paige when she and her three children arrive from the city seeking refuge. Paige’s only respite from child care and loneliness is the Tuesday gym club, where she had feared the judgement of the town matriarchs, but she is met only with generosity and a plethora of baked goods. Besides, both the brusque Marion and her polished sister-in-law Briony are too busy dealing with their own dramas to examine hers.
Well-to-do farmer’s wife and proud mother Briony is in full denial of her family’s troubles. Even with her eldest daughter’s marriage in ruins and her son Blake’s recent bombshell. Suddenly Briony and husband Vince have a full house again – and the piles of laundry aren’t the only dirty linen that’s about to be aired.
For Marion, the unearthing of a time capsule – its contents to be read at the Celebrate Badara weekend – is a disaster. She was only a teenager when she wrote down those poisonous words, but that doesn’t mean she won’t lose friends and family if they hear what she really thinks of them – especially as the letter reveals their darkest secrets to the world.
When the truth comes out for Badara, keeping up appearances may no longer be an option for anyone …
Wolf Pack by Will Dean
A closed community
Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, completely cut off from the outside world. Until now.
A missing person
A young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her story?
A frantic search
As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she finds herself in danger of the pack turning against her â will she make her way back to safety so she can expose the truth?
Will Deanâs most heart-pounding Tuva Moodyson thriller yet takes Tuva to her absolute limits in exposing a heinous crime, and in her own personal life. Can she, and will she, do the right thing?
We Spread Iain Reid
Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many âincidents.â
Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Pennyâwith a growing sense of unrest and distrustâstarts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?
Winter People by GrĂĄinne Murphy
Sis Cotter has lived her whole life in a small house by her beloved beach. Here, she grew up, reared her family, and buried her husband. Now her children are far away and, in three days, her house will be taken from her.
Next door, Lydia has withdrawn from her husband, her friends, her life. She watches the sea as her own private penance for a wrong she can never put right.
Peterâs best friend is dying, and his long-time foster mother is slowly forgetting who he is. Adrift without his two anchors, and struggling with the ethics of displacing people for a living, he looks for something to remind him of who he is and who he wants to be.
I received twelve (yes 12 – stop laughing Susan and Carla!) new ARCs for review. They are:
The Locked Attic by B.P. Walter
The Hemsworth Effect by James Weir
Where They Lie by Joe Hart
The Devil Stone by Caro Ramsay
A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith
When We Were Friends by Nancy Yeager
Hidden Scars (DI Kim Stone #17) by Angela Marsons
Death at an Auction by E.C. Bateman
A Body at Lavender Cottage by Dee MacDonald
A Cast of Falcons by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
And the audiobook Dead Man’s Grave, written by Neil Lancaster and narrated by Angus King. This is the only book in the series that I haven’t yet read.
I went to an annual charity book sale earlier this afternoon – encouraged by my lovely husband because he thought it might make me feel better. He even drove me there as I didn’t feel up to driving – and came home with fourteen new books for me and one for him. I will write a post about them at a later date. But you can tell that I still wasn’t feeling great – last year I came home with 30!
Have a wonderful week’s reading!
Sandy's Book a Day Blog 