All Good Things Come to An End

Books I was reading in September 2019

 Finished my holiday at end of August and worked a week and then was on another two weeks holiday. We did try to make a booking to go to Binna Burra Mountain Lodge in Queensland but there were bush fires everywhere and our favorite holiday destination was burnt to the ground and everything destroyed. Looks like we will just stay at home instead of travelling too many bush fires.

Enjoying a glass of wine at sunset on the terrace near dinning room at Binna Burra, Queensland, in May 2018

 

Welcome sign at Binna Burra Mountain Lodge in May 2018

At home most of September 2019 so I did a lot of reading.

Heart's Ease by Sarah Harrison

This was about a family and their house. Set between 1977 and the present time with a hint of history about earlier times and families who previously lived in the house.

Marguerite and her husband Hugh and their children live in a happy house called Heart’s Ease by the seaside near Salting Bay in the UK.

Their children grow up happy in their home surrounded by love. It is about families, family life, relationships and a house called Heart’s Ease. I loved the way the family members interact with each other and new relationships.

You Don't Know Me by Sara Foster

This was set in Australia and Thailand in the present time with flashbacks to earlier times. It is about two young people who both have secrets. They meet in Thailand and fall in love.

Noah is on holiday in Thailand having some time out before his family need to attend an inquest about the disappearance of his brother’s girlfriend Lizzie twelve years earlier. Noah and his brother do not get on. Noah’s parents work hard running a restaurant and need Noah to come home and help but Noah wants to stay in Thailand to get to know Alice.

Alice is in Thailand trying to escape memories of a tragedy in Australia involving her family.

This is full of tension. Alice is afraid of returning to Australia, Noah wants to stay with Alice but needs go home to help his parents.

The tension builds up and secrets are revealed. Can Noah and Alice get together?

This was about families, relationships, murder and secrets. I loved the way the secrets were gradually revealed.

Still sitting at home sorting out stuff. We went for a drive and had lunch at Eltham Pantry at Eltham, NSW. Lunch was delicious. Went for a drive through Booyong and Nashua and back through Clunes on Bangalow Road.

Finished reading a few more books in September.

The Memory Tree by Linda Gillard

I loved this book. The history of a house, the people who lived in the house and an old Beech Wood tree that stood for years and witnessed heartache and secrets. Set in the present time, during World War 1 and 1934. Ann is trying to remember something. Phoebe has kept a secret and Connor is trying to find out what secret his grandmother Ivy discovered. Phoebe is an artist who struggles to paint and look after herself. Her daughter Ann tries to help. When the old beech wood tree falls over in a storm a hidden box is found in the trunk containing mysterious empty seed packets.  Ann, Phoebe and Connor try to solve the mystery of why Ivy tried to destroy her family’s archives. This was about families, relationships, identity and romance.

House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild

 Set in 2008 in Cornwall. This grabbed my interest because it was about an old crumbling castle that had been owned by the same family for 800 years. The Earl’s of Trelawney had been very wealthy and owned extensive properties. The Castle Trelawney was enormous with many rooms. Over the years the Earl’s had to sell off land and assets to pay their debts and eventually the Castle fell into disrepair and the present Earl had no money to repair the crumbling castle.

This is about Jane and Kitto Tremayne and their family who are living in the castle that is falling down around them. They might have titles such as Earl, Viscount or Viscountess but they have no heating in their rooms, no staff to cook and clean.

Everything is a drudge for Jane, Viscountess Tremayne and very different to the days when she was young and friends with Anastasia and her sister in-law Blaze.

Jane Tremayne looks after the vegetable gardens, does all the cooking and cares for her in-laws, her husband and three children. The family are tired of eating cottage pie.

Everything changes when a letter arrives from an old friend of Jane’s. Anastasia is dying and asks Jane to provide a home for her daughter, Ayesha.

Blaze lives a comfortable life in London and makes a living from financial markets. Blaze also receives a letter from Anastasia and is financially able to provide a home for Ayesha.

Not everything is as it should be, someone is scheming against the Tremayne’s and Blaze.  Ayesha is also scheming to get what her mother wanted.

This is about families, relationships, stock markets and revenge.

The Secret Hours by Santa Montefiore

 I really enjoyed The Secret Hours. It was the 4th part of a quartet but was still a complete story and able to be read without the first three parts.

I loved the beginning when in a dream Faye sees herself in a castle walking up a stairwell and opening a door where she sees a woman who looks like her. 

I have had similar dreams and they feel so real, like your ancestors are trying to tell you something.

The novel was mostly set in Ireland in 1969 and the 1890's. It switches back and forward to tell Faye's mother's story.

Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

This was a fantastic novel about artists and dealers. Garet James opens an old silver box and her world changes. This was fast paced and full of danger for Garet.

Music and Macabre by Sarah Rayne

Another Phineas Fox mystery set in London in the present time and the 1880’s/1890’s. Phineas Fox is researching background for a music biography on a Franz Listz a music composer.

In an old bookshop near St martin’s Lane Phineas finds some interesting books with references to a music hall performer who had some connections with Listz. In one of the old books there was a mysterious sketch that leads to further research.

Phineas is helped by his friends Toby and Arabella as he sifts through evidence. The documents they find go back to the 1880’s and the time of Jack the Ripper, Music Halls and a performer called Scaramel.

The story is fast paced as it switches between the present time and the 1880’s/1890’s. I loved the way the evil was portrayed in the present time and back in the time of Jack the Ripper. This was a historical murder mystery about composers, music and music hall performers. I have loved reading Sarah Rayne mysteries for many years.

House of Brides by Jane Cockram

My attention was grabbed the moment Barnsley House was mentioned. Many years ago, I saw a picture of Barnsley House in a country gardens book and wanted to know more about the house.

I loved the descriptions of the house and gardens and the people living in the house. Miranda lives with her domineering father and stepmother and two half- sisters. Miranda was very young when her mother died and she only fleeting memories of her mother.

Miranda’s mother lived at Barnsley House as a child and wrote a book about the woman who married into the Summer family. Miranda’s father will not talk about Barnsley House and Miranda knows nothing about her relatives on her mother’s side of the family.

When a mysterious letter arrives from Barnsley House, Miranda decides to go to Barnsley House to find out the family secrets against her father’s wishes.

This was set mostly on the coast of England’s West Country.

I loved the way Miranda stumbles into the developing mysteries of Barnsley House and poses as the advertised Nanny while she tries to find out about the family secrets.