This week...

I'm reading

It is really annoying when work gets in the way of reading time. It has definitely been one of those weeks for me. By the time I finish work every day I am too brain dead to even think about reading too much. 

I did finish The Stolen Sister by Jan Baynham, because I had committed to a date for a blog tour.  I reviewed the book here. 

I then started The Strawberry House by Rachel Burton. My review for this one isn't due until later this week but I am trying to get a bit ahead of the game. I don't have any more blog tours in March, but I do have a lot in early April. 

What do you do when you have some reading space? Why, of course, you overcommit yourself to other books. I need to read my book club book, my Classics Spin book and now I have gone through and selected my Goodreads challenge books. I think I am expecting too much of myself but we will see how it goes.

The first book I started for the Goodreads Challenge is Lovelight Farms by B K Borison, which fits the Swoony prompt!

It's hard to believe that it is the end of February already. I only read 6 books in February which is the least I have read for a while. However, of those 6, there were 2 books that I rated 5 stars. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters was an excellent own voices read and The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann was a WWII story set in Norway. Both were fantastic reads. I haven't reviewed The Berry Pickers yet, but here is my review of The Silent Resistance. 

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot - Nora Nguyen

Bookish travel

Here's where I travelled too through the pages of books during February

Europe

France - The Resistance Knitting Club
Norway - The Silent Resistance
Germany - The Wartime Affair
UK - The Cottage at the Edge of the Woods
Greece - The Stolen Sister

North America

Canada/Maine - The Berry Pickers

I'm watching


I went and watched an amazing movie this week. I Swear is a British film which tells the story of John Davidson, who is a campaigner for Tourettes education. It is a powerful and inspiring story about facing head first into adversity and finding a way. If you get a chance to see it, it's worth the time.

Here's the trailer

Life

It is crazy busy at work, and I don't see it dying off over the next couple of weeks, especially seeing as I am going on an overseas work trip next week! I am very excited about it, although I suspect I am going to be exhausted at the end of it, but more about that in the next couple of weeks

We did take some time out this weekend and went for afternoon tea at what is one of our favourite tea locations. Once again the food was absolutely gorgeous and tasted amazing. The koala at the top of the post is a macadamia, maple, mango and strawberry gum flavours! And yes, it tasted as good as it looks.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Books!

Blog Tour: The Cottage at the Edge of the Woods by Jane Lovering

Blog Tour: The Stolen Sister by Jan Baynham

Weekend Cooking: The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: March links

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Blog Tour: The Stolen Sister by Jan Baynham

When Zoë Carter's mother, Greta passes away at a relatively young age, she is left alone. Zoë was an only child, and her father had died in a car accident when she was three. As far as she knows, her mother had lived a very closed life in Wales, so it was a complete shock when she receives a sealed letter asking that she spread Greta's ashes in Crete. Zoë had no idea that her mother had even visited Crete.

Determined to try and put all the pieces together, Zoë decides to visit the island, and slowly she begins to put the story together. Not only had Greta visited but she had lived there for a period of time during the 1960s

In one time line of the book we follow Greta as she arrives in the picturesque town of Fáros Limáni and joins an art commune. There she meets Andreas and begins a passionate love affair. When she finds out that she is pregnant, Greta is torn because she is concerned that her parents will be ashamed of her but she loves Andreas. 

In the other time line which is set in 1984, Zoë tries to find out the truth. She is a silversmith and she is drawn to the jewellery shops in the town. She is surprised when she is called by another name, and even more surprised when it happens again. Why do people keep on mistaking her for someone else. 

Along the way, Zoë also gets to meet some of the people who were important to her mother, and they in turn help bring Zoë's truth to life. However, along the way, it is not only Zoë who needs to learn the truth about who they are. Family secrets are revealed, and the truth is quite shocking, to think that things like the key events in the historical story could truly have happened.

I hadn't read Jan Baynham before but i am glad that I took a chance with a new . I found myself getting lost in the world that Baynham has created. While I have travelled quite a bit in Europe, Greece is one of the places I have not yet visited and when I read books like this, it really makes me want to do so! Crete does seem of particular interest given ancient history and more recent history, as well as gorgeous beaches and food and so much more.

I am sharing this review with New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.  Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Zooloo's Book Tours for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the blog tour below.

About the book:

Lost letters. A secret Greek love affair. A daughter's search for the truth. 

Crete, 1963. Young artist Greta Ellis arrives at the sun-soaked port of Fáros Limáni, ready to paint and explore the beautiful Greek island. 

 When she meets passionate local Andreas Papadakis, she is swept up in a world of colour, freedom and forbidden love. But when tragedy strikes, Greta is forced to make an impossible choice that will echo for decades. 

 Wales, 1984. After her mother Greta’s death, silversmith Zoë Carter receives a sealed letter that upends everything she thought she knew. Greta’s dying wish is for her ashes to be scattered in Crete, a place precious to her . . . but somewhere she had never spoken of.

 Searching through her mother’s belongings, Zoë uncovers a series of letters. Written in Greek and dated the year before she was born, they reveal a passionate love affair. And a tragedy that tore it apart. 

 Determined to know the truth, Zoë travels to Crete to follow the trail left behind in her mother’s letters. Through the olive groves and whitewashed villages of Crete, she begins to piece together a story of love, betrayal and loss — and discovers that her family was never what it seemed.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246324063-the-stolen-sister 

Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/stolensister-zbt

About the author:

Fascinated by family secrets and ‘skeletons lurking in cupboards’, Jan’s dual narrative, dual timeline novels explore how decisions and actions made by family members from one generation impact on the lives of the next. Her first three novels look at the bond between mothers and daughters as well as forbidden love. Setting and a sense of place plays an important part in all Jan’s stories and as well as her native mid-Wales, there is always a contrasting location - Greece, Sicily and northern France. Her next books will involve secrets and sibling relationships; the first set in 1943 and 1968 takes the reader back to beautiful Sicily where two sisters work together to prove their father’s innocence of a wrongdoing. 

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanBayLit

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/janbaynham/ 

 X (formerly Twitter) https://x.com/JanBaynham 

 Website https://janbaynham.blogspot.com/

This week....

I'm reading

At the beginning of last week I suddenly realised that I had four books to read in a very short period in order to meet blog tour commitments. I am on the last of those books now!

I read and really enjoyed The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann which tells a WWII story set in Norway. My review is here.

Then it was another WWII with The Wartime Affair by Victoria Cornwall which I reviewed here

Another very enjoyable read The Cottage at the Edge of the Woods by Jane Lovering. I always enjoy her books and I think this is one of her best yet. My review will be up later this week.

My final read for the week is The Stolen Sister by Jan Baynham, which I am about a third of the way through. 

I'm watching


I was home by myself on Saturday night which is a very unusual turn of events. I had to finish my book, and then I watched the first half of the first episode of Heated Rivalry. I definitely intend to read more.

We watched quite a lot of the Olympics this time, but now it is has come to an end. I hope to watch some of the Paralympics when they start in a few weeks. 



Life


Last time I went to get my nails done I got them done in  a mint green pastelly colour. This weekend it was time for a change and I chose purple cats eyes. My husband said I see you chose a grown up colour this time. What does that even mean? lol 

We went on a Sunset Penguin cruise last night. The weather wasn't great but it was still a fun night.

I did come home to a bit of drama tonight. Somehow the kitchen sink flooded and nobody who was home heard it so there was water everywhere. Unfortunately some of the carpet was affected too so we will see what happens with that.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Armchair Travelling

Blog Tour: The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann

Blog Tour: The Wartime Affair by Victoria Cornwall

Weekend Cooking: Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt by Donna Hay

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings