Christina here to tell you what the Wenches have been reading this month – an eclectic mix as always! With all of us being in isolation, we’ve had plenty of time to dive into our TBR piles and we hope you have too. Have a look and see if anything appeals to you!
I’ll start off with my own April favourites: First and foremost I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Wench Nicola’s upcoming release, The Forgotten Sister – published tomorrow! – a Tudor mystery and time slip (dual time) novel. I can safely say that this is one of the best books I have read in a long time! It has everything you want from a time slip story and it was utterly, utterly brilliant!!! Nicola has managed to intertwine the story of Amy Robsart (wife of Robert Dudley in Tudor times) so cleverly with the characters in the present. Robert is part of Queen Elizabeth I’s court and Amy doesn’t seem to figure much in his plans. She needs a way out of their loveless marriage and thinks she’s hit on the perfect solution – but has she? The present day heroine Lizzie has her own problems to contend with and when her life begins to echo the happenings of the past, she has to uncover a centuries old secret in order to move forward. I couldn’t put this down and the characters will stay in my mind for a long time.
I don’t often read crime novels, but when I discovered that Clare Chase had a new cozy crime/mystery series out, I immediately read the first two, Mystery on Hidden Lane and Mystery at Apple Tree Cottage. These are set in a fictional village right by the UK’s Suffolk coast and from the lush descriptions I long to go there. The heroine, Eve, has a razor-sharp brain, but a soft manner and an innate kindness, making her the sort of woman you’d love to spend time with. She’s an American living in the UK and for a dog-lover like myself, it didn’t hurt that she has an adorable dachshund too. She’s actually an obituary writer but she keeps stumbling over murders in this quiet backwater. And because she’s doing research for the obituaries she’s working on, she can’t help but put two and two together, which proves rather dangerous for her. Can’t wait for the next book in the series! And if you haven’t discovered Clare’s books already, her Tara Thorpe series, starting with Murder on the Marshes, is also wonderful (and has a little bit of romance too).
For a complete change, I read the latest Steve Berry book, The Warsaw Protocol, which featured his usual hero Cotton Malone, a former secret agent who’s supposed to be retired, but still ends up fighting the bad guys. These stories usually involve ancient treasure of some sort, which really appeals to me, and It’s always fun to see how he’s going to extricate himself from his latest assignment – this book was no exception. Seven precious relics are stolen from museums and sanctuaries around the world and Cotton finds out they are connected with a private auction where incriminating information about the president of Poland will be offered for sale. Great for blackmailing a country situated between east and west, and seven nations all want to get their hands on these documents. I knew very little about Poland and it was great to find out a lot more about its history. Good plot, great pace and well-drawn characters. I really enjoyed it!
Pat here: The Spotted Dog, Kerry Greenwood – I know we’ve recommended Kerry Greenwood (author of the Phryne Fischer mysteries) and her Corinna Chapman series half a dozen times or more, but how can one resist an Aussie baker with a hunky Israeli boyfriend and cats frolicking all over the landscape? This is cozy mystery at its best, with a kidnapped doggie, a ninja burglar, an accidental murder off screen, and lots of lovely food, plus recipes in the back. And even if cozy mysteries aren’t your thing, you can sit back and admire the wordsmithery of an author who can pull off lines like “interpersonal skills of activated mildew.” This is escapism at its finest. Sit back, relax, and just enjoy!
Anne here This month I've found myself reading more "women's fiction" — though there is a romance in each book. In February I talked about Beth O'Leary's The Flat Share, and this month I read her second book, The Switch, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
It's about Leena, a hot-shot London executive, struggling on the verge of a breakdown and ordered to take a two month holiday. Instead of heading off to Corfu or Bali, she ends up swapping places with her 79 year old, village-dwelling widowed grandmother. It's a delightful read about healing, connection, second chances and finding love, funny, touching and insightful.
Next up is Jenny Colgan's — The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris. I've been reading several of her books recently — they're enjoyable, pleasant, escape reads.
In this one, Anna Trent suffers an accident in the chocolate factory in which she works. In hospital she meets up with her old French teacher, Claire who arranges for Anna to work in Paris with her former sweetheart, Thierry, a master chocolatier. It's a story about healing, renewal, second chances, courage, love (old and new) and, of course, chocolate. Well worth reading.
Back in February, Pat inspired me to read Sarah-Kate Lynch's The Wedding Bees, and I went on to read several more books by her — Blessed Are and Dolci Di Love.
Blessed Are is set mostly in Ireland, on a farm where they make the most amazing cheese. It's a lighthearted, quirky, charming story with a little touch of Irish cheese-making magic, and a romance.
Dolci Di Love is set mostly in Tuscany. Unhappily childless wife turned Manhattan workaholic, Lily Turner, is gutted when she realizes that her husband of many years not only has been unfaithful, but has a child by another woman in Italy, where he visits regularly as part of his wine importing business. She sets out to track him down in Italy and confront him.
Quoting from the book blurb — "But beneath the cobbled lanes of this charming hilltop village, an underground network of ancient widows is working tirelessly on finding her a happy ending - whether she wants it or not." It's part gorgeous travel story and part emotional journey about reconciliation, connection, forgiveness and the joy of baking. But what lifts it from the ordinary is the ancient widows. Their interactions are delightful, and as a group, and as individuals, they have their own journey to make. Recommended.
Finally, I read Lisa Kleypas — Chasing Cassandra. Lisa Kleypas is an auto-buy for me, and as expected, I enjoyed it very much.
Andrea here: This has been an odd month of reading for me. I’ve had the final page proofs of my upcoming September Wrexford & Sloane mystery to read through one last time to doublecheck that the corrections made on the digital file went through without a hitch – and I’m a terrible proofreader, so it takes me ages! So to uncross my eyes, I spent much of my leisure time watching the delightful third season of Miss Fisher’s mysteries on video. (Highly recommended!)
That said, I did read a wonderfully erudite and entertaining non-fiction book on paper. In fact, the title is On Paper—the Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History by Nicholas Basbanes. In it, the author takes readers on a journey through hand papermaking in China and Japan, where modern day artisans still follow age-old methods, and then into a fascinating history of how paper made its way from the East around the world and how it influenced so many aspects of life. From hygiene and au courant fashion to economics, politics and pop culture, he also muses with both humor and insight on how it’s become elemental to human culture. I very much enjoyed it!
From Mary Jo: I've read both new and old this past month! A new book was The Star and the Shamrock by the Irish writer Jean Grainger. Set in Liverpool and Northern Ireland just before and during WWII, the story is about Elizabeth Klein, a nurse whose young husband died on the last day of WWI. The years since have been quiet and rather lonely, until she receives a letter from her late Jewish husband's cousin in Berlin. Ariella Bannon's husband had been taken by the Nazis and is probably dead, and she's terrified for her two young children because being Jewish in Germany is becoming increasingly dangerous.
The Kindertransport is beginning to send Jewish children from Germany to the UK, but Ariella can't bear to send her children to strangers, so she begs Elizabeth, a cousin by marriage whom she has never met, to take them in.
After her initial shock, Elizabeth agrees, and Liesl and Erich become part of her life. The bombing of Liverpool sends them to Elizabeth's childhood village in Northern Ireland. Her late mother had disowned Elizabeth for marrying a Jew, but the house is the only refuge for her and her foster children. She's glad to learn that a Jewish refugee camp has been established near the village so her children don't feel so isolated, but there is tension between the communities, and Elizabeth gradually becomes a bridge between them.
This is a moving story of change, danger, and many kinds of love. I found it compelling as well as giving new insights into survival and hope in a world turned upside down.
One Perfect Summer is a recent release by veteran romance author Brenda Novak, who has expanded into women's fiction. True crime writer Serenity Alston had her DNA tested as a useful tool for her writing, and is startled to discover that she has two half-sisters. They'd been raised very differently, in different parts of the country, and they have no idea how they are related.
Serenity suggests the sisters, plus a small niece, spend a week getting acquainted at her family's Lake Tahoe cabin. All three are dealing with challenging changes in their lives and there is some tension at first, but as they decide to stay all summer, they discover the power of sisterhood. I really enjoyed it, and wonder if there might be a sequel in the works. I'd like to spend more time with these characters!
Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray is one of my all-time favorites and I just finished a reread. It's narrated by Carolina McSwain, who has a dance studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, and for 42 years has been happily married to Tom, a public defender. All four of their kids have also become lawyers, even the youngest, George, who inherited the dance gene from his mother.
The story starts when Carolina's only daughter, Kay, phones, sobbing uncontrollably. Carolina and her husband manage to extract the information that Kay has just become engaged to Trey, a scion of one of the richest and most powerful families in Raleigh. Then the other phone rings and it's Carolina's fashionable and rather snobbish younger sister, Taffy, also sobbing uncontrollably, although with better reason since her husband has just left her in favor of a junior executive younger than Taffy's daughter.
The sisters have never been close, but a devastated Taffy shows up on the doorstep the next day with far too much luggage and a hysterically crazed terrier named Stamp. The story is very funny and full of lively characters and evolving relationships, and it also ends with proof that sisterhood is powerful. Great fun. <G>
Christina again:
Hope you are all safe and well – and please add your own recommendations in the comments below as we need lots of wonderful stories to keep us going at the moment!