It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

I went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 during the week with my BFF, oldest daughter and her friend. I’m a little sad that the saga has finished really. The collective in drawn breath of the movie audience followed by several whistles of appreciation, as Jacob stripped was hilarious and my friend was near tears during the battle scene (she hasn’t read the books). Yesterday I lazed on the beach for a few hours with family since the sun finally made an appearance, it was very windy though and a storm rolled in late afternoon cutting the day short.

What I Read Last Week

The Essential Leunig by Michael Leunig

Elza’s Kitchen by Marc Fitten

Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears

Being Anti-Social by Leigh K Cunningham

Bridie’s Choice by Karly Lane

The Happy Housewife by Kate Couch

Bedpan Blues by Sandy Thorne

Reviews Posted

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Kiss River by Diane Chamberlain ★★

Hannah and Emil by Belinda Castles ★★★★

Reflected in You by Sylvia Day ★★★

The Essential Leunig by Michale Leunig

Chaos Born by Rebekah Turner ★★★1/2

What I Am Reading Today

In 1923 nineteen-year-old Jack Manning watches the construction of the mighty Harbour Bridge and dreams of being more than just a grocer’s son. So when he’s offered the chance to manage Absolution Creek, a sheep property 800 miles from Sydney, he seizes the opportunity. But outback life is tough, particularly if you’re young, inexperienced and have only a few textbooks to guide you. Then a thirteen-year-old girl, Squib Hamilton, quite literally washes up on his doorstep – setting in motion a devastating chain of events… Forty years later and Cora Hamilton is waging a constant battle to keep Absolution Creek in business. She’s ostracized by the local community and hindered by her inability to move on from the terrible events of her past, which haunt her both physically and emotionally. Only one man knows what really happened in 1923. A dying man who is riding towards Absolution Creek, seeking his own salvation…

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Trehan Daciano, known as the Prince of Shadows, has spent his life serving his people, striking in the night, quietly executing any threat to their realm. The coldly disciplined swordsman has never desired anything for himself — until he beholds Bettina, the sheltered ward of two of the Lore’s most fearsome villains. Desperate to earn her guardians’ approval after a life-shattering mistake, young Bettina has no choice but to marry whichever suitor prevails — even though she’s lost her heart to another. Yet one lethal competitor, a mysterious cloaked swordsman, invades her dreams, tempting her with forbidden pleasure. Even if Trehan can survive the punishing contests to claim her as his wife, the true battle for Bettina’s heart is yet to come. And unleashing a millennium’s worth of savage need will either frighten his Bride away — or stoke Bettina’s own desires to a fever pitch..

Meg May can’t remember anything about her early childhood but her cookery-obsessed, fairytale-telling mother has filled her in on all the important details. Meg knows that her father was a French chef who died in a tragic pastry-making accident; that as a premature baby she was put on a sunny windowsill to ripen; and that the scar on her cheek was the result of a nasty nip from one of her mother’s crab cakes. But, at eight years old, Meg rebels against this fictional life and decides there and then to turn her back on the world of stories, determined to let logic rule every thought and deed. Now on the verge of a respected scientific career with a scientist boyfriend who believes only in facts, Meg is called home. Her mother is ill and as Meg spends one last beautiful summer baking, gardening and talking with her mother, rediscovering what’s important, she longs to know the reality of her life–but Meg may not discover the truth in time. A poignant, funny and heartwarming novel of mothers and daughters, families and secrets, this is a book to lose–and find yourself–in.

Retirement can be murder! The adventures of a former Sydney detective from 21 Division who, in his prime, collared some of the most murderous criminals in Australian history yet, on retiring to the Gold Coast in Queensland, along with half of the criminal milieu he once pursued, is shot, king-hit, tortured, and thrown from buildings in his relentless pursuit of justice.

He looked to the sky, praying for rain, a downpour, some sign from the heavens that he should refuse the abomination contained in that flask. But all he saw was the bloated white face of the moon smiling down on him … And the sky around it was cold and clear and black … They made their circle of blood. And only the moon witnessed the slaughter that followed. For Jamie Mackie, summer holidays in the coastal town of Rocky Head mean surfing, making money, and good times at the local music festival. But this year, vampires are on the festival’s line-up … fulfilling a pact made on the wreck of the Batavia, four hundred years ago. If their plans succeed, nobody in Rocky Head will survive to see out the new year.

Susan and Ed Middleton are perfectly content with their lives. Two kids, two cars, a solid brick bungalow in a respectable Northern beaches suburb. But when Susan’s older sister, who vanished as a teenager, reappears to claim an inheritance, everything is set to change.

While you are here…

Congratulations to

Marcia who won a copy of Feral Bells by Peta Jo

Don’t Miss…

Q & A with Rebekah Turner – author of Chaos Born

Exclusive clues to the mystery surrounding Dance of Shadows

Bookshelf Bounty

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