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.