July August September 2021

Spent a lot of time reading, restrictions to prevent spread of Covid kept us home. Did lots of long walks close to home, enjoyed our garden and cleaning and sorting cupboards to get rid of clutter. I started crocheting some shoulder bags using up old wool in my cupboards.

Found a lot of butter containers in kitchen cupboards.

Started using up all the old shampoos and conditioner I had collected while on holidays.

 The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Thriller, Building, History - XXX

Thriller set in the present time in Swiss Alps with flash backs to earlier times. Elin is on holiday with her partner Will and her brother Isac and Isac's fiance Laure. There is a big snow storm and an avalanche. The resort is isolated and people begin to go missing.

Lily's House by Cassandra Parkin

Feelings, Grief, Relationships/Families, Secrets

Jen and her daughter Marianne travel to Lily's house after Jen's grandmother Lily dies. Jen's husband Daniel is not happy for Jen and Marianne to be away for more than a few days.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyersor

Bookshop, books, clues, identity, mystery,feelings

Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan

Writers/Literature, feelings, grief, romance, love story

Set in New York, Oxford and London mostly between 1946 and 1960. Joy Davidman is an author, she is in troubled marriage and has two sons. For many years Joy was corresponding with C. S. Lewis and eventually met him

The Split by Sharon Bolton 

Thriller, Stalking

Felicity works on Antarctica studying glaciers. She is trying to escape her troubled past, but the voices keep following her. Joe is a psychologist trying to help Felicity. Jo also helps homeless people. problems start when three homeless people go missing.

A psychological thriller about relationships, psychologists, mental health, homeless people and Antarctica.

The Art of Persuasion by Susan Midalia

Reading/Books/Literature, Romance, Humour

Set in Australia. Hazel had trained to be a teacher but working as a teacher was not as good as she thought it would be so she left her job and was volunteering to help door knock for a political party.

Hazel loves reading and is especially interested in classical books. By chance Hazel meets Adam who is also doing volunteer work for a political party.

I loved the way books and authors featured in this story. It was about families, relationships and literature.

The department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk

Books/Libraries, Mystery, Secrets

A mystery set in the present time with flash backs to earlier years. Liesl is a Librarian working as Assistant Director for Christopher Wolfe at a University. Liesl is getting ready to retire and takes time off to work on a book she is writing. She is called back to work and take control of Special Collections and Rare Books when Christopher Wolfe has a stroke and is unable to work.

Everything in the Department is in a mess, only the Director knows the password for the safe and he is unable to provide the password. A rare book is missing. It was due to be displayed at a meeting of very important people who regularly donated money to the University Library to purchase rare books.

Liesl is expected to locate the rare book. While doing her investigations she discovers more missing books.

I loved this book. It was full of descriptions about rare books and manuscripts and the workings of a Special Collections Library. I loved the descriptions of the people working in the library and their backgrounds.

Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass

Creepy/Fantasy/Witchcraft, Romance, Humour

This was a fun romantic fantasy about a family of witches that have been banned from practicing witchcraft.

Gwen has her own business Abracadabra Odd Jobs Service where she mostly helps people by cleaning out their garages and attics. She lives in a small town called Zenobia with her new boyfriend Daniel.

Gwen is surrounded by family members, her parents, adopted sister, two cousins and her Aunt. Gwen gets on well with her two cousins but Gwen’s adopted sister Tannith, is always causing trouble.

Tannith sends a letter to Gwen and her two cousins implying that she has left town with one of their partners. This sets off a chain of events that Gwen tries to solve with the help of her eccentric Aunt Esme. 

Missing Words by Loree Weston

Relationships/Families/Working Conditions/Unions, Mystery, Feelings

Set in the UK in 1984. Jenny spends her days sorting mail. Continually being watched for any mistake. She is the only woman in the mail sorting room and her friend Roger is soon to retire. Jenny is unhappy at work and with her family.

One day a postcard ends up on her sorting table, it does not have enough information to deliver it. The post card has the persons name and the name of a cottage on the Isle of Wight.

Jenny decides that she could deliver the postcard quicker than the lost letter department. Jenny takes the postcard and starts on her quest to find the person named on the postcard.

This was a short story about family relationships and working conditions for woman in the 1980’s.

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousins

Romance, Humour, Relationships/Friendships

Set in London mostly in 2020 with flashbacks to earlier years.

Minnie Cooper has a fear that nothing good can happen on New Years Eve or New Years Day because something always goes wrong. All her life her classmates joked about her name Minnie Cooper. She was meant to be named Quinn Cooper but a woman sharing the labour ward with Minnie’s mother named her baby boy Quinn.

On New Years Eve 2019 Minnie meets Quinn and blames him for all the bad luck she has experienced.

This is a romantic comedy about families, friendships and missed opportunities. I loved the way the friendship between Minnie and her best friend Leila developed over the years and the situations they found themselves in.

I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads

Whisper Cottage by Anne Wyn Clark

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

Creepy, Secrets, Relationships/Family

A very creepy story set in 2012 in a small village of Avoncote. Jack and Stina move into a small cottage in Avoncote. Jack has a job as a vet and Stina is pregnant. The cottage they live in is Wisteria Cottage. Another cottage attached to theirs is Rose Cottage.

Mrs Barley lives in Rose Cottage. Everything at Rose Cottage was perfect, a well kept garden and a lovely summer house. Mrs Barley is very friendly (sometimes too friendly) and always helpful.

One day Stina sees a man walking through the garden at Mrs Barley’s. Jack and Mrs Barley did not see him and suggested that Stina might have thought she saw someone.  At night when Jack is sleeping Stina hears a man talking to Mrs Barley through the wall, another night Stina hears someone moving things around in the shared attic. Stina is starting to think she is losing her mind.

As time goes on Stina hears whispers from other people in the village that Mrs Barley is dangerous and has strange ways and likes to dabble in strange customs.

This was a very creepy story. Jack has secrets, Stina has secrets and Mrs Barley has secrets. It was about families, village life and secrets.

The Idea Of Love by Patti Callahan Henry

Romance, Writers, Feelings

And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

Romance, Secrets, Identity

The Angel Tree by Lucinda Riley

Relationships/Family, Identity, Buildings

A family saga over three generations, Greta is a dancer in the 1940's, just after the second World War. She meets an Officer and gets pregnant. Greta is jobless and homeless her friend David lets Greta move into his cottage in Scotland until after she has the baby. The cottage is located on an estate owned by David's uncle. This is about the people living at Marchmont Hall.

The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

History, War, Art/Paintings

Emily inherits an old Chateau and vineyard in France when her mother dies. Sebastion helps Emily get valuations for the works of art and the books in the library. 

Emily falls in love with Sebastion. While visiting the manager of the vineyard Emily is told the story of her Father and Aunt and their difficulties during World War Two.

This was about art, Families,,World War Two, resistance and spies. Set in the 1990's and 1940's in France and Scotland.  

The Lost Secret of Ireland by Susanne O'Leary

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

Writers/Artists, Secrets, Family

This is a second book in the Starlight Cottage Series.

Ella is an artist and lives alone in a small cottage at Sandy Cove near Killarney in Ireland. Ella had a fall from a ladder and has been in bed for two months after breaking her pelvis. Ella’s neighbours have been caring for her. Ella’s friend Lucille coms to visit to help Ella recover.

Lucille has a family home in Tipperary but wants to sell it and move into a cottage in the village close to Ella. Lucille does not want her sons to know she is planning to sell her family home.

Lucille gets caught up in village life and is researching her family history but is keeping secrets from Ella,

Gradually under Lucille’s supervision Ella starts to recover and gets to know her next door neighbour and his young daughter.

Ella starts a new project illustrating a children’s picture book but is distracted by Lucile’s secretiveness and the interruptions by visits from Lucille’s son.

This was about families, friendships and secrets.

Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley

Romance, Humour, Lifestyle

Set in the UK in 2021. Alice Dixon lives in a share house and is constantly interrupted by her housemates. Alice feels she has no space that is totally her own. Her housemates borrow her things and take her food from the fridge, her younger sister Soph is always borrowing her clothes and her ex-boyfriend used to think he was being helpful by decluttering her room and removing her nick knacks.

For a short time, Alice had to work from home during a Covid-19 shut down and she was looking forward to returning to work where she had her own desk and space that was totally hers. Alice loves her private space and loves to keep precious objects on her desk, knowing that they are safe. Disaster strikes and Alice is forced to share her desk with Jamie Lowe.

This was a fun romantic story about secrets, family relationships and friendships. I loved the way the characters were developed and interacted.

Freckles by Cecelia Ahern

Identity, Lifestyle, Secrets

I always enjoy reading books by Cecelia Ahern. Freckles was set in Ireland. Allegra Bird was given the name Freckles the first week she started boarding at a girl’s boarding school when she was 13. Allegra had trouble fitting in and dreamed of joining the Garda of the Irish Police Force. When she failed to be accepted in the Police Force. Allegra took a job as a parking warden in a suburban village close to Dublin.

Allegra loved her job. Everyday was the same routine, coffee at her favourite coffee shop, and a short walk to work where everyday she saw the same people. Allegra rented a small studio flat from a family on condition that she was available to babysit regularly. Once a week Allegra poses nude for an art class.

Everything in Allegra’s life is planned out carefully as Allegra works towards her goal, the reason she has left the Island where her father lives and her friends.

Allegra has a plan. She needs to be living and working in Fingal County Council in the village of Malahide to fulfil her plan. She just needs courage and the right time to put her plans in action. One day she has an incident with an irate man who she has given a parking infringement. They get involved in a nasty discussion and he tells her she is a loser and that she is “… average of five people you spend the most time with…” page 53.

Allegra is upset and her daily routines get mixed up as she tries to discover who are the five people in her life that influence who she is.

This was about friendship and family relationships.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

Relationships/Families, Mystery, Secrets

This is set in Sydney mostly in 2020 with flash backs to late 2019. Joy Delaney is married to Stan Delaney and has four adult children. Joy becomes a missing person in February 2020 leaving her family struggling to work out what happened to her.

Detectives investigating Joy’s disappearance collect information from Joy’s family and neighbours as they try to discover what happened to Joy. Gradually it is revealed that Joy and her family have secrets.

I loved the way everything connected and came together in the investigation of Joy’s disappearance. This was about tennis players, family relationships and secrets.

A Universe of Sufficient Size by Miriam Sved

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

Mathematicians, War, Identity

A fiction about mathematicians, set mostly in Sydney in 2007 and Budapest in 1938. Illy's father has just died and Illy's mother Eszter is trying to get Illy to read a journal written by Eszter.

This was about five friends who were mathematicians living in Budapest in 1938, who are trying to find a way to leave their country for a better life where they can study maths without persecution 

The Book Binder's Daughter by Jessica Thorne

I rated this 4 stars on Goodreads

Books/Literature, Creepy/Haunting's, Buildings

loved this book. Sophie is a bookbinder and works with rare books, she is still bereaved over the death of her father and plagued by dreams of her childhood where she had happy memories when her parents worked at Ayredale Library as bookbinders with the rare book collection. Sophie’s uncle offers her a job at Ayredale Library working with the rare books.

 It was about special libraries, magic and fantasy with a sprinkle of romance and family secrets. I loved the interactions between the characters. The descriptions of some of the rare books were captivating.

This was fast paced and full of action.

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

I rated this 5 stars on Goodreads

Thriller, Haunting's, Stalking

Set in New York, Ruby and Alice go to New York they both arrive the same day and are getting over a failed a failed relationship.

This was a murder mystery told by a young girl who was murdered, It was about families, relationships and friendships.

I loved the way the story developed and the interaction between characters.