WWW Wednesday (January 8)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Watching Over You by Mel Sherratt

Blurb

Following the death of her husband and unborn child, Charley Belington sells the family home and bravely starts life over again. On moving into a new flat, she is befriended by her landlady, Ella, who seems like the perfect friend and confidante.
But, unbeknown to Charley, Ella is fighting her own dark and dirty demons as the fallout from a horrific childhood sends her spiralling down into madness—and unspeakable obsessions.
As Ella’s mind splinters, her increasingly bizarre attentions make Charley uneasy. But with every step Charley tries to take to distance herself, Ella moves in a tightening lockstep with her, closer and closer and closer… Goodreads

A psychological thriller featuring one very damaged woman who picks up men and women for entertainment. Perhaps not the place for a grieving widow to move to? A real page-turner!

I have just finished Martyr by Rory Clements the first of the John Shakespeare series set in Elizabethan England which I enjoyed so much I want to read the rest of the series. click on the cover to read my review.

Historical Fiction
4*’s

Next I am going to read Wake by Anna Hope , due to be published 16 January 2014.

Blurb

As the body of the Unknown Soldier makes its way home from the fields of Northern France, three women are dealing with loss in their own way: Hettie, who dances for sixpence a waltz at the Hammersmith Palais; Evelyn, who toils at a job in the pensions office, and Ada, a housewife who is beset by visions of her dead son. One day a young man comes to her door. He carries with him a wartime mystery that will bind these women together and will both mend and tear their hearts.
A portrait of three intertwining lives caught at the faultline between empire and modernity, Wake captures the beginnings of a new era, and the day the mood of the nation changed for ever Goodreads

So this week has seen quite a mixture of books, although two of them have one word titles! What are you reading

Martyr – Rory Clements

Historical Fiction
4*’s

What do you know about the Spanish Armada or Queen Elizabeth I?
Ask me about Henry VIII and I can tell you loads including the helpful rhyme for remembering the fate of his six wives, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived! But his second daughter Elizabeth, well I knew very little apart from she was the Virgin Queen and there was a big battle involving a huge number of Ships, Francis Drake was involved and there were lots of politics. And there is my gripe, I’m not a political person which is why although I love history, and yes probably knew a little bit more than I have stated here, I have never been motivated to learn more about this period.
So why did I choose this book? Well 2014 is the year when I am going to read more widely and so I took a chance!

This book by Rory Clements grabbed me from the start, this isn’t just a book about the endless politics, or the Spanish Armada it is about people, and I love reading about people and the lives they live, their hopes and their fears.

John Shakespeare is an investigator and we meet him investigating the murder a well-connected young woman, the mystery of which he delves into throughout the book. The Setting is Elizabethan England where the likeable John Shakespeare is supposed to be working with the notorious Richard Topcliffe. Shakespeare doesn’t approve of Topcliffe’s vicious methods and there is already bad-blood between the two men. This only increases as they are both chasing the same Jesuit priest around the web of London safe houses.

This is not a book for the squeamish, there is plenty of violence within the pages as I’m sure in such uncertain times this was indeed a reality of life. Within the pages there are whores, a stolen baby, the Queen vacillating whether to order Mary Queen of Scots to death and a determination to stamp out and the Catholics still brave enough to follow their faith in England.

This book is the first in a series of six books (the latest, The Queen’s Men is due to be published in January 2014) I will certainly continue reading as I enjoy a tautly plotted novel with plenty of action and as a bonus it is a fantastic way to learn more about this period of history.

I received a free copy of this book from lovereading.co.uk as I am part of their reader review panel, please use the link to see other reviewers opinions or to read an extract from the book.
Books by Rory Clements

Martyr
Revenger
Prince
Traitor
The Heretics (published in paperback February 2014)
The Queen’s Men (published in hardback January 2014)

Spanish Armada

WWW Wednesday (December 18)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Blurb

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favours with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media–as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents–the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behaviour. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter–but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet? Goodreads

I have just finished the enjoyable novel by Lisa Jewell, The Truth About Melody Browne

Click on the book cover to read my review

Next I am going to read something totally different Martyr by Rory Clements

Blurb

England is close to war. Within days the axe could fall on the neck of Mary Queen of Scots, and Spain is already gathering a battle fleet to avenge her.
Tensions in Elizabeth I’s government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham. When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate England’s ‘sea dragon’, Francis Drake, Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. With Drake on land fitting out his ships, he is frighteningly vulnerable. If he dies, England will be open to invasion.
In a London rife with rumour, Shakespeare must decide which leads to follow, which to ignore. When a high-born young woman is found mutilated and murdered at an illicit printing house, it is political gunpowder – and he has no option but to investigate.
But why is Shakespeare shadowed at every turn by the brutal Richard Topcliffe, the blood-drenched priest-hunter who claims intimacy with Queen Elizabeth herself? What is Topcliffe’s interest in a housemaid, whose baby has been stolen? And where do two fugitive Jesuit priests fit into the puzzle, one happy to die for God, the other to kill for Him?
From the splendour and intrigue of the royal court, to the sleek warships of Her Majesty’s Navy and the teeming brothels of Southwark, Shakespeare soon learns that nothing is as it seems . . .Goodreads