It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

This week I will be celebrating Australia Day on January 26th , my oldest daughter is performing at our local festivities and then then hopefully we will spend rest of the day at the beach with a BBQ and a swim!

What I Read Last Week

I have had a stellar reading week, both out of necessity and because my stars must have aligned or something.

The Girl In The Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill

Maine by Courtney Sullivan

Cold Wind by CJ Box

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn

Me of the Never Never by Fiona O’Loughlin

Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic HitWoman by JB Lynn

DNF: The Marriage Club by Kate Legge

Reviews Posted

read them by clicking on the title

Call Me Cruel by Michael Duffy ★★★ 1/2

Under The Influence by Jacqueline Lunn ★★★ 1/2

The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole by Stephanie Doyon ★★★

The Girl in The Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill ★★★ ★

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell ★★★ ★

What I Am Reading Today

Free-Falling is a tragic-romantic comedy – of heartbreak and heroism, grief and ghostly dreams… Belinda is not coping well with her fiancé Andy’s death – and that is before she realises she is pregnant … with twins.  When out of the blue she starts receiving gifts that were so typical of Andy, and when problems around the apartment are mysteriously fixed, Belinda decides she now believes in ghosts. Meanwhile Evelyn, Andy’s mother, is also struggling with her loss. Her coping strategies include blaming Belinda, shop-lifting, hating Belinda even more, and taking up sky-diving. And it is Baz, her instructor, who helps her look to the future. So why is he so twitchy when he hears how Andy died?  Cutting between the past and present, Nicola Moriarty cleverly weaves the heart-warming story of two women and the man they loved and lost

What I Plan To Read This Week

{click the cover to view at Goodreads}

Losing a husband is virtually unbearable. Losing your children to the birth mother who abandoned them, whilst you are still grieving, is one heartbreak too far. It must not be allowed to happen … Ella counts as her blessings her wonderful husband, two animated kids and an extended family who regard her as one of their own. Yet when her soulmate Joe tragically drowns, her life is turned upside down without warning, and she finds that the luck, which she had thought would last forever, has run out. When Joe’s beautiful ex-wife, who deserted their children three years earlier, arrives at the funeral, Ella fears the worst. And she may well be right to.  Ella discovers she must struggle with her own grief, while battling to remain with the children and the life which she loves. Questioning her own role as a mother, and trying to do what is right, all she is sure of is that she needs her family to make it through each day. Yet when pushed to the limits of love, Ella must decide whether she is, after all, the best mother for her children.

On a searing summer’s day paramedic Holly Garland rushes to an emergency to find a man collapsed with a bullet wound in the back of his head, CPR being performed by two bystanders, and her long-estranged brother Seth watching it all unfold.  Seth claims to be the dying man’s best friend, but Holly knows better than to believe anything he says and fears that his re-appearance will reveal the bleak secrets of her past – secrets which both her fiance Norris and her colleagues have no idea exist, and which if exposed could cause her to lose everything.  Detective Ella Marconi suspects Seth too, but she’s also sure the dead man’s wife is lying, and the deceased’s boss seems just too helpful. But then a shocking double homicide related to the case makes Ella realise that her investigations are getting closer to the killer, but also increasing the risk of an even higher body count.

During the four years of physician Margaret Overton’s acrimonious divorce, she dated widely and indiscriminately, determined to find her soul mate and live happily ever after. But then she discovered she had a brain aneurysm. She discovered it at a particularly awkward moment on a date with one of many Mr. Wrongs. Good in a Crisis is Overton’s laugh-out-loud funny story of dealing with the most serious of life’s problems: loss of life, loss of love, loss of innocence. It’s about spirituality, self-delusion, even sheer stupidity. It’s written from a physician’s perspective, but it’s not about medicine, per se; it’s about coming of age in adulthood, an effort to help others through the awful events that can cluster in midlife. She does this with laughter and the recognition that you may come out the other end, as Overton did, definitely humbled… and only slightly smarter.

Old Loves Die Hard…and in the worst places. In Old Loves Die Hard, Lauren Carr continues the rags-to-riches story of Mac Faraday, an underpaid homicide detective who inherits two-hundred-and-seventy million dollars and an estate on Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, from his birth mother on the day his divorce becomes final. Mac is settling nicely into his new life at Spencer Manor when his ex-wife Christine shows up—and she wants him back! Before Mac can send her packing, Christine and her estranged lover are murdered in Mac’s private penthouse suite at the Spencer Inn, the five-star resort built by his ancestors. The investigation leads to the discovery of cases files for some of Mac’s murder cases in the room of the man responsible for destroying his marriage. Why would his ex-wife’s lover come to Spencer to dig into Mac’s old cases? With the help of his new friends on Deep Creek Lake, Mac must use all of his detective skills to clear his name and the Spencer Inn’s reputation, before its five-stars—and more bodies—start dropping!

While you are here…

This week I was featured in the biweekly Scene of the Blog feature at Kittling: Books, come and visit and get a glimpse into my blogging space.

Are you a fast, or slow reader? That has been the topic of an interesting discussion taking place here at Book’d Out this week. I’d like to know what you think – add your comments to the discussion and answer the poll.

Thank you for dropping by today, I’ll be visiting you soon!