I can’t put The Girl on the Train down and I really don’t know why it has taken me so long to read. A Crown of Swords is going really well at the moment.
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
I have only bought one book this week and it was a book that I had preordered so it was a nice surprise when it arrived.
I started the Joubert Family Chronicles whilst on holiday last year and really enjoyed the books so I am looking forward to continuing with the series.
My chosen poem today is by the American poet, essayist and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
A Clear Midnight
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars
Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s all it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of a brutal abduction,Ted is now a free man—and public enemy number one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.
There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced Amanda is a cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past. The residents of Crimson Lake are watching the pair’s every move… and the town offers no place to hide.
Review
I came across this book because my husband and myself really enjoy the TV series Troppo and when I found out it is based on a series of books I knew I needed to read them.
It took me a little while to get into this book and at first I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it but I am glad that I persevered because I soon really started to enjoy it and started to really like the characters.
Ted and Amanda were quite different in the book to the TV series but I think I actually liked them more in the book once I got used to the differences and their quirks. I really liked how you got to see Ted and Amanda’s vulnerabilities as the story goes on and how much they really do need each other. Ted’s lawyer really knew what he was doing when he threw Ted and Amanda together.
Ted and Amanda are working on a case together and their every move is being watched by the people of Crimson Lake. However, as they work on the case Ted begins to realise that something is also not quite right with the murder that Amanda was convicted for when she was a teenager.
I really liked how this book was written with the different threads of the story weaving together. We see flashbacks of Ted’s trial, and the events leading up to Claire Bingley going missing. We see flashbacks of Amanda’s crime and events leading up to it. I really liked how it all worked together and started to give the reader an idea of the bigger picture.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series as I want to see what Amanda and Ted get up to next. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-, adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
My chosen quote today is by the American author, motivational speaker and a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California Felice Leonardo Buscaglia (1924-1998).
“Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”
Leo F. Buscaglia
Happy Reading
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What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I’ve been doing really well with my reading this week and it feels really good to actually have time to sit and read for a while.
What I am Currently Reading
I have dug out my old Kindle and have been reading some of the books I have on there between teaching which is why I’m reading the book of short stories by Rosamunde Pilcher. I have about 30 pages of Crimson Lake left and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. A Crown of Swords is going really well and I’m making excellent progress.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
Thoroughly enjoyed this and can’t wait to read the next book in the series. Here is my review.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I have no idea what I will read next but these are some of the contenders.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders…
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die
Review
I am very late to the party with Fourth Wing but I won’t be making that mistake with the Iron Flame and and the rest of the books from the series. This is definitely one of my favourite reads of 2024. I’m always wary about books that get a lot of social media attention as I’m usually very disappointed in them but thankfully this was not the case with Fourth Wing.
There was never a dull moment with this book and it was full of twists and turns. I also loved the pacing of the book. However, the best thing about this book has got to be that it has dragons in it!
The story resolves around Violet who is the daughter of a formidable general and a scribe. Violet was meant to be a scribe, it was what she had spent years of her life preparing for but then her mother has other ideas and makes her daughter join the Riders Quadrant. Even though it could mean the death of Violet.
During the book we see Violet take on each challenge that a rider faces and the challenges are brutal. It is possibly the scariest school imaginable! The challenges Violet faces aren’t just ones set by the Riders Quadrant, she also faces challenges of fellow cadets trying to kill her and to top it all her body is fragile and can easily be hurt.
I loved how strong Violet was, she never looked too far ahead but faced every challenge or danger head on. She was also a fierce friend to those loyal to her and I loved to see her friendships develop and people to see that she wasn’t weak or a liability but strong and clever. I also loved the humour that came through and the joking around between friends.
Obviously my favourite characters were the dragons and Tairn was just brilliant. I also have a soft spot for Andarna and can’t wait to see what happens with Andarna in the next book. I absolutely loved this book and give it 5 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing, The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.
Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have had a busy day teaching but I have also managed a bit of reading.
My chosen book to feature this week is one by my favourite author and historian Alison Weir.
Mary I Queen of Sorrows by Alison Weir
Adored only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, young Princess Mary grows up as the sole heiress to the English throne. But her father wants a son, and soon Mary’s world begins to fall apart.
With her parents’ marriage – and England – in crisis, Mary is banished from the court and kept apart from the mother she adores. The King promises to restore his daughter to favour, but first Mary must do something for which she will never forgive herself.
She seeks solace in her faith. But when her brother Edward VI dies, she finds herself fighting for the crown – and for her life. Emerging triumphant, all seems fair for the reign of Queen Mary. And then, very quickly, things began to go badly wrong…
MARY I. HER STORY.
Alison Weir’s new Tudor novel, a tale full of drama and tragedy, tells the story of how a princess with such promise, loved by all who knew her, becomes the infamous Bloody Mary.
I hope everyone has had a nice weekend so far. Blogging and reading have gone well this week which is good. However, I am really annoyed as for some reason my scheduled post for Friday did not post and I never noticed until the Saturday morning. This is really annoying as I am taking part in Blogtober! I’m planning on continuing with my Blogtober plan for the rest of the month though and checking that any scheduled posts actually post!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I have been doing really well with my reading this week and I have so many books that I want to read before the end of the year. Sadly, I didn’t read any of the books on my September TBR but I hope to do better this month.
Here are the books I really want to read this month.
I’m really looking forward to reading these books.
Lady Book Dragon 