Home, Family and Friends

Spent some time with our family over Easter. Spent some fun days walking along the beach at Lennox Head, having picnics and having fun with granddaughters.

Finished reading a mystery thriller Our House by Louise Candish This novel was set in London in 2017. Fiona Lawson arrives home early after a weekend away and finds strangers moving into her house. The contents and personal items have vanished. Her husband Bram is not answering his phone and she does not know where her children are. What a nightmare.

The story switches between Fiona and Bram telling their versions of events during 2016 leading up to the nightmare. Fiona’s neighbor, Merle arrives and helps Fiona work through the issues of identity theft and reporting Bram a missing person. Full of twists and turns and an unexpected ending.

I was really busy all of April 2018 the weeks went fast no time to write about what I was reading. Another book about families I enjoyed reading Miss Mary's Book of Dreams by Sohi Nicholls - 

this was a story about a young woman, Ella who runs a book shop and also writes novels. The story is set in New York. Bryony visits Ella’s shop and buys a special book. Ella and Bryony help each other with encouragement and stories from Ella’s mother and grandmother.

This book is about magic, dreams, families and relationships.

Also finished reading The House at Sunset Lake by Tasmina Perry - 

two young people meet one summer. They fall in love but go their separate ways. Twenty years later they meet again. Old memories and secrets will be revealed.

This was a story about an old plantation mansion, and the family who lived in it and their secrets. It is about writers, musicians and property developers. It is set in the present time and also twenty years earlier, Jim and Jennifer meet one summer but are destined to live different lives, twenty years later they are drawn together again at Jennifer’s families summer house where the ghosts of the past are revealed.

More Holidays and Travels

March was a very busy month, lots reading, three books at the same time. I was reading books about travel, history and murder. A book that I enjoyed about travel and using a journal to follow a grandfather's footsteps was The Map that Leads to You by J.P.Monninger. Mostly set in Europe and New York in the present time. Heather and two best friends Amy and Constance are travelling around Europe after graduating and before she starts a job in finance at New York.

Heather meets Jack on a train. Jack is following the footsteps of his grandfather from a journal his grandfather wrote after the 2^nd World War. Jack and Heather spend some time together doing some of the things Jack’s grandfather did. Gradually heather falls in love with Jack and is torn between Jack and her new job in New York,

I loved the characters in this book and how they resolved their issues.

We had a few more days camping and I was able to relax and do lots of reading, we were in Queensland, went to Fraser Island and then headed towards Toowoomba staying at Lake Barambah and also Storm King Dam, enjoyed looking at an old cottage in Warwick - Pringle Cottage.

Pringle Cottage 

A book that was about fashion design, families, travel and history was The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester. This romance was set in the 1940’s and the present time. It switches back and forward from Estella’s life in Paris and New York in the 1940’s and to Fabienne’s life in New York and Australia in 2015.

It is about fashion and designers. World War 2, spies, grief, romance and family relationships.

Estella lives with her mother in Paris at the beginning of World War 2. She has a passion for designing and making clothes. Estella leaves Paris on a ship bound for New York and works in various fashion jobs.

Fabienne travels from Australia to New York to curate an exhibition of Estella’s fashion designs in 2015 and tries to unravel the secrets of her father’s birth and Estella’s life.

I loved the way Fabienne gradually discovered her grandmother’s history and the descriptions of places in Paris that she visits.

This was a quick easy read, lots of action and romance.

To finish of my reading for March I enjoyed The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan. I thought I would enjoy it because it started out in an old derelict house in Ireland an I love books about secrets and old houses. The novel starts in 1993 in a derelict old house in Mayo, Ireland. Cormac arrives to investigate a domestic but instead Cormac finds 2 children on their own and in a room upstairs Cormac find their dead mother.

The image of the two neglected children haunt Cormac. Twenty years later Cormac is in Galaway investigating cold cases and trying to work out the pecking order at the Mill Street Garda Station and who he can trust. Other detectives are investigating a murder and the Garda are dealing with the death of a young man.

While Cormac is trying to find out what is going on at the Garda Station Aisling, is striving to gain a training position as a paediatric surgeon and trying to prove she is available and focused on her career path.

This novel grabbed my attention from the beginning. I liked the way the old derelict house was described, and the description of the two children Cormac found.

I also liked the way Cormac and Aisling deal with their issues while trying to prove they are reliable and capable.

Summer Holidays

It has been really busy at work and to make things annoying the ferry has been off so I have had to drive the long way around to go to work so I was listening to an audio book while driving. Pastures Noaveaux by Wendy Holden set in the present time in the UK in a small village near London. Lots of humor about life in a small village, journalists, artists, musicians, relationships and romance. 

Took a few days off work and went camping it was really hot, too hot to read but we did lots of swimming. Finished reading a book about summer holidays The Summer of Serendipity by Ali McNamara. Ren and Kiki travel to the West Coast of Ireland looking for a house for a client. They stay at the Stag Hotel in the small town of Ballykiltara. Ren and Kiki visit some houses for sale and also look at some of the local tourist attractions and scenery. They find the perfect house and called “The Welcome House” but can’t find out who owns it. While searching for the owner Ren also researchers the history of “The Welcome House”. This novel is set in the present time on the West Coast of Ireland. It is about friendships, relationships and the history of “The Welcome House”.

While I was on holiday we had time to visit with family and friends and had some good laughs.

 A book I was reading late in February was about a woman who finds a way to travel through time. The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cormick. This is an historical novel about time travel and was set in the present time and in the mid sixteenth century in the Tudor times in the Wiltshire locality.

Mary and Alison were Royal orphans living at Wolf Hall in the late 1550’s. Alison has a son, Arthur in 1560 and her son is taken away and she is sent to Middlecote Hall with Mary.

Alison had discovered a way to travel through time and with Mary’s help she escapes on the way to Middlecote Hall at Marlborough, before she escapes she asks Mary to help her find Arthur, so that when she is able she will come back for Him.

Alison gets trapped in the present time and Mary gathers clues to help Alison find her son. After ten years Alison finds a painting of Mary in an art gallery. There are objects in the painting that Alison is convinced are clues to where she can find Arthur if she can only find her way back to 1560.

Catching Up 
It has been a while since I have written anything about the books I have been reading.
I did a lot of reading in 2018 also had lots of holidays and time with family and friends. In January we met some old friends and went to a New Years Eve Show. Lots of good old music and a fun night out with friends.
In January I was reading books about families, friendships, crime and murder.
I got my authors mixed up and chose to read a book by Anthony Horowitz but it was Greg Hurwitz that I prefer but i still enjoyed the book and finished reading it.
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. This was about secrets, murder and an author writing about a freelance detective investigating a murder.

Another book I finished reading was a young adult fantasy fiction about families. It was an E-Book from NetGalley. The Keeper by Natalie Star. Billie turns 16 and is given a charm with a gemstone that has been in the family for years. It is meant to be given to the oldest daughter to wear on her 16th birthday.
The charm has power and turns hot or cold depending who is nearby. This was a fantasy novel with lots of action, good and evil forces a bit like virtual Pokemon.

Early in January I finished reading Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak. I loved this book. A good Christmas book it was an E-Book from NetGalley. Olivia is going home for Christmas, she has been working as a doctor in Liberia and has been looking after patients with a communicable disease. She will need to be in quarantine for seven days and will spend her time with her parents and sister in their family holiday home in Norfolk over Christmas.
Olivia has a secret but so does her mother and father. Anyone who has contact with them will have to stay in quarantine with them.
I loved the way each of the family members interacted. This was a good feel good story about families, secrets and identity. Set in Norfolk and the present time.

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown was set in Chicago in 1999 and Paris in 1925. Madeleine is unhappy in her marriage and escapes to her hometown and helps her mother prepare to move to a smaller house. Madeleine finds her grandmother Margie's notebook and diary revealing Margie's trip to Paris in 1925. This novel is about families, relationships, artists and writers.

Early in January we had lunch with some old friends. We had lots of laughs remembering days gone by.

I spent a lot of time early in January trying to update my mobile data and upgrading windows 10 on my laptop.  Computers, access to data and social media can be a headache sometimes. I read a book about a person using skype  sees something disturbing.The book was Without a Word by Kate McQuaile. It was set in Ireland and was about friendships, relationships, families, missing persons and murder. Orla is talking on skype with her best friend Lillian. Lillian goes to answer a knocking at the door and never comes back, suddenly the house is on fire and figure looms on the computer screen. Ned Moynihan is investigating Lillian's disappearance.

Another book about murders I finished was False Pride by Veronica Heley. This was an Abbot Agency Mystery about families, relationships and hidden jewels with a few murders to add a bit of interest and confusion.

Bea Abbot and her ex-husband accidentally get involved in a robbery and murder plot. Magda is given precious jewels to keep safe from would be thieves. She hides them but someone else hides them in a better place. People are murdered and injured during the hunt for the jewels.

This novel kept me guessing to the last pages. Everyone was confused and did not know who they could trust. Lots of humor. 

We spent Australia Day camping with family and friends.Jamie cooked roast lamb, roast pork and vegetables in camp ovens, delicious.