Truth be Told by Carol Cox

This was also a new kind of read for me. Wild West and a touch of romance in a very gentle way. Nicely put together with an actual story which held my interest throughout.


Amelia has taken over her father's printing press and she is determined to run it the same way her father did. Truthful journalism. The biggest obstacle to this however she finds to her dismay is her recently acquired step father - a smiling, smarmy businessman who is not what he seems and who also in addition to fleecing the county, has his eye on Amelia as well.


Apart from Amelia's romance, I did so like the setting 1893. A quiet American town of Granite Springs and so very descriptive. The descriptive part of this story was as good as the story itself. The characters, the lifestyle, the quiet pace of the town all added to the books interest.


This was a free download from Amazon. Another good one!

Mailbox Monday/It's Monday! What are you reading?

Am late with this post as I was out of Colombo till 4 pm.


          









The above from Netgalley.





This is an intriguing one though the cover does not do it justice! from Edelweiss.





Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey who is back from her trip to Australia! Welcome back Sheila.


Reading Matrons and Madams. Dealing with a hospital Nursing Sister and the brothels of the area surrounding the hospital. Interesting and a subject which I have not read in conjunction together ever before!


Hot as hell in Colombo and drooling when I read about six inches of snow here and a foot there!

Things you won't say - Sarah Pekkanen

Mike and Jamie are a normal middle class American family - three children, an enormous mortgage, happily married, good friends and a nice suburban lifestyle.


Mike is a cop and Jamie lives in fear every day when he steps out to work wondering what the day would bring. It must be terrible to live under such a stress all the time. Most of the time she manages to shove the idea of this kind of future away but it is always there. What she did not envisage was when the tables were turned and Mike became involved in a shooting of a young teenager during a scuffle and especially when the boy was colored and the issue became a national one. Was the teenager shot only because he was colored?


The topic is extremely relevant in America today and I can see parallels in what happened just a couple of months ago but this is told from the side of the policeman and his family and the havoc that an incident can create in not just a family but even a tight knit community which could splinter over taking sides in such a highly volatile situation.


Jamie has to try to keep it together for the sake of her three children. She also wants to save her marriage which she feels is splintering under the relentless pressure of the media and she wants to save Mike from a breakdown which she feels is imminent. Mike facing the same pressure also from workmates and people on the force as well as the media is knowing that his wife is facing her own demons and is unable to help her. What happens in a situation like this is very beautifully related in this tragic story.


Very good characterization and storytelling.


I have read only one Pekkanen (mainly due to inaccessibility) and I was very surprised when Edelweiss sent this book on to me. Many thanks to them.


On a non blogging note since my reviews are done ahead of time I sometimes find that I do not update anything that may be of interest to readers on a non book note! We just finished a Presidential Election in our country and returned a new president after ten years! This is a huge change for everyone and all are now feeling our way around with a new person at the helm.


The Pope made a visit to Sri Lanka for just two days which was a huge success. Apart from the mass in Colombo he made a lightening visit to a church in Madhu which is in the wilds of Sri Lanka and very isolated. 300,000 people turned up. So glad he did this as another section of people were able to witness and hear the Mass said there.


Weather is now unbearably hot. We always have either too much rain or too little. There never seems to be a happy medium.

Silent Run by Barbara Freethy

A woman is involved in a horrific car accident. Forced over by a cliff by a pursuing car, she awakes in hospital to total amnesia. What is frightening is that there is a baby car seat in the vehicle, with a single shoe but no sign of an infant.


Sarah keeps getting glimpses of her past but they are just seconds of her life and with the arrival of Jake who claims to be the father of baby Caitlin and who is furious that Sarah just took off seven months ago with his beloved daughter and for no apparent reason, Sarah knows that she has to find answers to her dilemma and fast.


At the same time worried as she is for Caitlin's life, Sarah's own seems to be a bit precarious. Hounded even in hospital by unknown forces, she has to unravel as to why she was running and from whom.


An interesting mystery with plenty of murders thrown in, this was a download from Amazon for me.

The Rogue's Folly by Donna Lea Simpson

This is the type of read that one absolutely has to have when one is harassed! and I was and I needed it and it really suited the purpose.


Lady May seems like a well behaved prim young lady. She has had a tumultuous past with a mother who was the female equivalent of a libertine and a rake. Very unusual for a Regency romance with a touch of Georgette Heyer and this was what piqued my interest. The ladies are normally all very proper and this one was just not so.


May loves her life on her country property. She feels she can be herself, she can wear breeches and ride all around the countryside not being queried or curtailed but all that comes to a rather abrupt end with the appearance of Etienne, someone from her shadowy past and someone who she loves very dearly who is now injured and needs her help to just survive.


The love story of May and Etienne and how despite all odds the story ends well is a nicely told romance - with just touches of just the right amount of sexual tension to make the story worthwhile!


Sent to me by Netgalley via Beyond the Page Publishing. Thank you.

Mailbox Monday/It's Monday! What are you reading?

I missed out last weeks MM because there was too much going on. We were slap bang in the middle of a Presidential Election which was surprisingly non violent, quiet and everyone well behaved!!!! Elections in our part of the world are never orderly and this was a very pleasant surprise. We had a change of President which took almost everyone by surprise - an absolute dark horse who pipped the incumbent President to the post. Hopefully this change is going to be good for the future as well.


On a book note some very delightful reads came in.


            













All the above are courtesy of Netgalley.





This was a free download from Amazon. Thanks to the blogger who recommended it on FB.







Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Am reading two books currently! The Winter Siege which I am finding fascinating. Descriptive 100% and The Fifteenth District. Very good reviews from all, but I am finding it very hard going. Almost seventy percent done.


Work has kept me out of Colombo but reading has gone ahead.  Its such a relaxing thing to read something totally out of my current environment and feel transported to either Regency England or to Royalist wars in England or whatever!

Newport by Jill Morrow

Adrian is a successful lawyer and he with his gangly assistant Jim have returned to Newport to attest a very unusual case. An elderly man wants to marry a rather young woman, unusual but not uncommon but what is strange here is that the man is marrying at the request of his long dead wife, who has appeared in a séance and not just requested him to do so but ordered him to do so.


The fact that the very young Amy through whom the wife speaks is none other than the "niece" of Catherine the bride in our story adds the quirkiness. The bridegroom's son Nicky is furious at the turn of events as he fears he is going to get out of his very large inheritance and he has now encouraged his sister Chloe to join forces with him in delaying the marriage.


What was interesting in this story was not just the apparent facts as it appeared on the surface but the history of almost every character which went back decades and which was very much part of what was happening now. How events that took place years before can influence, change and be part of a life decades later is always how stories become interesting and in this case it is very much so.


The stories of Catherine and Amy, how intertwined they were with Adrian and Nicky in very unthought of ways and the outcome today comes together well. A good depiction of life in the 1920s - dark and glitzy at the same time.


This was a book sent to be by Edelweiss.