It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

After another week of appalling weather where the temperature rarely dropped below 30C, even at midnight, I am over summer! I couldn’t stand to be in my office after about midday – its the only room with no insulation , too far from the air conditioner for it to be any help and temperatures were often close to 50 in here so I didn’t get quite as many reviews done as usual.

The week was actually fairly quiet -mundane chores kept us busy enough but I enjoyed several sleep ins, except for the Scout sleepover camp on Saturday night which I helped chaperone and during which I didn’t sleep at all.

This coming week it is Australia Day and we are going camping over the long weekend which I am looking forward to! Over the Australia Day long weekend I will be offering Book’d Out’s readers, both Aussie and international,  the chance to win an Australian authored book  with the first Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop. Don’t miss it!

What I Read Last Week

A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aronson

The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee

The Goblin King (Shadowlands #1) by Shona Husk

Kiss of a Goblin Prince (Shadowlands #2) by Shone Husk

For the Love of a Goblin Warrior (Shadowlands #3) by Shona Husk

Losing It by Cora Cormack

Two Evils by PJ Tracy

Posts this week

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Fifty Bales of Hay by Rachael Treasure ★★★1/2

Review: Seduction by Kate Foster ★★★

Review: The Killing II by David Hewson ★★★★1/2

Review: The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier ★★

Stuff on Sundays: Bookshelf Bounty

What I Am Reading Today

Funny, romantic, and action-packed, Rough Diamond introduces Australia’s own Stephanie Plum – the unforgettable Erica Jewell. The shock ending to Erica Jewell’s marriage left a huge hole in her bank balance and a bigger one in her heart. And now her life goals make a very short list: no surprises, no debt and, definitely, no men. That is, until she finds one bleeding to death in her Melbourne garden one stormy Friday night. Jack Jones is a man whose emotional wounds are more life-threatening than the bullet in his shoulder. Under orders, he recruits Erica to his secret team of vigilantes, and Erica suspects her safe, predictable world is about to be turned upside down. And she’s absolutely right.

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at Cancer Kid Support Group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide. The first few hours following Nora’s devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them. Unraveling her late husband’s final days, Nora searches for an explanation—but finds a bewildering resistance from Brendan’s best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown . . . and its darkest secrets hidden.

As a world-class equestrienne and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at age 18, a tragic accident destroyed both her riding career and Harry, her beloved and distinctively marked horse. Now, many years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father’s New Hampshire horse farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her troubled teenaged daughter to this place of pain and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth still haunt the fields and stables, and where hope lives in the eyes of the gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl, and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch.
But everything will change yet again with one glimpse of a red and white striped gelding startlingly similar to the one Annemarie lost in another lifetime. And an obsession is born that could shatter her fragile world.

Twenty years after her competitive riding career finished tragically, anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer’s days — the fear that her relationship with the man she loves is going nowhere and the worry that her daughter Eva’s own dreams of Olympic glory will end in a repetition of Annemarie’s traumatic circumstances. When the teenage Eva is invited to audition for a world-class trainer, Annemarie realises that she must give Eva a chance to soar. But when Eva falls in love with a spectacular blue roan Nokota who hasn’t let anyone ride him since his arrival at the barn, Annemarie’s doubts come crashing back. It is a time of turmoil at Maple Brook: when loves must be confronted head-on and fears must be saddled and broken to allow this one remarkable family to pull together and meet headlong the changes coming their way.

Ikal is a student at Muhammadiyah Elementary, on the Indonesian island of Belitong, where graduating from sixth grade is considered a major achievement. His school is under constant threat of closure. In fact, Ikal and his friends – a group called The Rainbow Troops – face threats from every angle: pessimistic, corrupt government officials; greedy corporations hardly distinguishable from the colonialism they’ve replaced; deepening poverty and crumbling infrastructure; and their own faltering self-confidence. But in the form of two extraordinary teachers, they also have hope, and Ikal’s education is an uplifting one, in and out of the classroom.  You will cheer for Ikal and his friends as they defy the town’s powerful tin miners. Meet his first love – a hand with half-moon fingernails that passes him the chalk his teacher sent him to buy. You will roar in support of Lintang, the class’s barefoot maths genius, as he bests the rich company children in an academic challenge.

While you are here…

Win a Personal Planner – (Aust only)

If you are an Aussie blogger or author, join the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be along to visit you shortly!

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