Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week it is a freebie, but related to love! When I was deciding what books to choose, I decided to share the last ten romances I read which I rated as either 4.5 or 5 out of 5.
Snowy Mountains Daughter by Alissa Callen - I really enjoyed this book and I am super excited that the follow up has just been released.
Red White and Royal blue by Casey McQuiston - Despite loving this book I still haven't read the follow up book.
The Prenup by Lauren Layne - This was so much fun!
Beach Read by Emily Henry - Another really fun read. I liked The People We Meet on Vacation too and I am very much looking forward to Book Lovers which is out in May.
Something to Talk About by Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is one of my go to authors and has been for many years
Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare - Once upon a time I read a lot of historical romance, but not so much anymore. Tessa Dare is an exception as she makes me laugh.
Hearts on Hold by Charish Reid - A sexy librarian features in this interracial romance.
Last Bridge Before Home by Lily Malone - I enjoyed this one and I am looking forward to the new Lily Malone novel.
The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary - I mentioned before that I used to read a lot of historical romance, but I didn't read a lot of contemporary romance. This book is an example of why my reading has swung around, along with several other books on this list.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - My final choice is old school and a book I have listened to mulitple times on audio.
This week's This Week post comes from the deck of a lovely hotel room in Hepburn Springs which is a couple of hours outside Melbourne. I can hear all sorts of birds and insects as I sit here and write this which is lovely. I can hear birds at home, but these ones are different! It's also a very pleasant way to start a Monday morning. Much nicer than being at work.
Yesterday afternoon, not long after we arrived there was a visitor on the lawn just outside the room.
I'm reading....
I am giving my Paris/France based reads a temporary break this week, and have started a couple of books. The first was With the Fire on High which I picked up from the library last week. I am only a couple of chapters in but I already love the writing style. Unfortunately I forgot to bring it with me so won't be making any progress on it for a couple more days.
I did, however, bring my Kindle with me so I started reading Hearts On Hold by Charish Reid. This is a steamy interracial romance featuring a college professor (her) and a sexy librarian (him). It's a lot of fun, and perfect for reading on a relaxing weekend away!
I'm watching....
Last year when To All The Boys I Loved Before we were absolutely charmed by the movie, despite the fact that we are both well and truly outside the target demographic. The hotel we are staying at has Netflix so we watched the follow up movie To All the Boys 2: PS I Still Love You. It wasn't quite as charming as the first one, but I still enjoyed it.
We have a number of series that we are still working our way through. We are about half way through The Stranger on Netflix and have one episode to go in the first season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. We are also watching each new episode of Picard as it comes out. I can live with the weekly release of episodes, but this is one series I wouldn't mind binge watching.
In life...
It's been a busy week. As I have mentioned we are away this weekend, so we are getting in some good chill time and some good food. There is a small town not far from here that we like to visit to eat vanilla slices so we stopped there on the way up, wandered up and down the main street, visited a country market (lots of local food, but also a fair bit of trash and treasure style junk) and then went all out and cheese and baguette for dinner before relaxing in the spa with champagne or more precisely Blanc de blanc sparkling wine. Living the dream!
Whilst eating our vanilla slice (yum) we started putting a plan together as to what we will be doing with the front garden this year. We need another parking space for a car, and the garden that is there now is a bit overgrown, so we are thinking about how to modernise it and create a car space at the same time. This is in addition to renovating two bathrooms this year as well.
We went to see Queen and Adam Lambert on Thursday night! What a show, what an experience, what a voice! I saw them about 5 years ago and they were just as fabulous this time with the added bonus that our seats looked straight at the stage, whereas last time I more heard them rather than saw them as I was sitting next to the stage, almost to the point where I felt like I was practically behind the stage.
I love that Adam Lambert doesn't try to be Freddie Mercury. Yes, he is fronting Queen, but he does it his own way, and it works. He plays up to the crowd and the cameras and the setl ist is full of the songs that we all know and love.
Must confess that we struggled getting up on Friday night. Going out on a school night was absolutely worth it, but we were tired the next day!
In other news, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the husband was reconfiguring our walk in robe, and it is pretty much done now. Below are before and afters. He's so clever. The after includes slide out shoe shelves, which were made because before there was always shoes everywhere in a very small space, but I am not sure if it also means that we (or more precisely me) have to limit the number of shoes that we/I buy. It's not like I am Imelda Marcos, but I do have a few pairs that I have bought and never actually wear!
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