WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme Sam hosts at Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Here is what I am currently reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.

Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!

Happy Reading!!

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What I am currently reading:

The runaway international bestseller–part sweeping historical epic, part legal thriller–following the trial that shaped the life of the young Julius Caesar and gave root to an immortal legacy.

Every legend has a beginning.

Rome, 77 B.C. Senator Dolabella, known for using violence against anyone who opposes him, is going on trial for corruption and has already hired the best lawyers and even bought the jury. No man dares accept the role of prosecutor–until, against all odds, an unknown twenty-three-year-old steps out to lead the case, defend the people of Rome, and defy the power of the elite class. This lawyer’s name is Caius Julius Caesar.

Masterfully combining exhaustive historical rigor with extraordinary narrative skills, Santiago Posteguillo shows us the man behind the myth of Caesar as never before, taking us to the dangerous streets of Rome where the Senate’s henchmen lurk on every corner, submerging us in the thick of battle, and letting us live the great love story of Julius Caesar and his wife, Cornelia. 

After Julius Caesar, the world was never the same. I Am Rome tells the tale of the early events that shaped this extraordinary man’s fate–and changed the course of history itself.

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What I recently finished reading:

Kezia Cooper Hobson, recently widowed, arrives in New York from San Francisco.  Determined to make a fresh start, she has just completed the sale of her Pacific Heights home, not to mention her husband’s venture capital firm, and in doing so, is also freed from her responsibility as a board member of the company. Bringing with her only a few personal treasures, she is excited to move into the blank slate of a beautiful midtown penthouse, in the city that she has always loved. It is also where her two adult daughters now live.

As Kezia settles into her new apartment, she meets her movie-star next-door neighbor, Sam Stewart, whose terrace borders hers. Just a couple of weeks after she arrives, however, a devastating crisis strikes New York City. Kezia and Sam find themselves connecting over their strong impulse to help those in need. As they share a life-changing experience of volunteering, a bond is sparked and a friendship is formed.

Kezia’s daughters, Kate and Felicity, are taken aback by their mother’s new friendship, both more focused on their own love lives than hers. But Kezia is learning that the changes she’s making are just what she needs to open new horizons.

In this powerful and moving new novel, Danielle Steel illuminates the importance of human connection and embracing brave change, proving it’s never too late for a brand-new start.

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What I think I will read next:

When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library in this heartwarming novel from the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir

When new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she’s expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running it, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?

Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library, although she’s only there until she heads off to university in the fall. But after the death of her beau on the front line and amid tumultuous family strife, she finds herself harboring a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help.

Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa only to find herself working as a maid for a man who treats her abominably. She escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship in the literary community and aid in finding her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.

When a slew of bombs destroy the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city’s residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate, and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library? Or will the beating heart of their neighborhood be lost forever?

A funny and timeless novel from Luci Adams in the vein of Sophie Cousens and Kelly Harms

*One horrible, “bury your head under the covers” kind of day

*Two adorable children to nanny; and

*Their very hot, very single father

Daisy has realized you really can hit rock bottom when you lose your job, your boyfriend, and are estranged from your sister all at once. Seeking to claw her way out from the very definition of a bad year, her plan is to start by simply looking like she’s clawing her way out of rock bottom. On Instagram. Obviously.

But when she takes a stopgap job as a nanny to help a single father with his two young girls, being immersed in a close-knit, loving family starts to poke holes in her plan. Can making her not-so-picture-perfect life look perfect online really help her derailed career get back on track? Can it mend her relationship with her unreliable and painfully irritating sister? And can it get her back in the arms of her unbelievably beautiful and shallow ex…and as she gets closer to someone new, does she even want to?

A sparkling and bright novel of love, second chances, and finding your way in the age of ennui and influencers, It Must Be True Then is a delight for the millennial and Gen Z age.

Two parents, desperate to find their missing daughter, stand accused of murder. How far will they go to find the truth?

Someone is guilty.

For the last seventeen years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block—number 210, across the street—whose occupant refuses to break his silence.

Someone knows what happened.

As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed, and why she disappeared.

Someone will pay.

Told in the alternating perspectives of Harry and Zara, and in a dual timeline between the weeks after Sophie’s disappearance and a year later in the middle of a murder trial, Imran Mahmood’s taut yet profoundly moving novel explores how differently grief can be experienced even when shared by parents—and how hope triumphs when it springs from the kind of love that knows no bounds.

A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love in seventeenth-century London from the acclaimed author of Solomon’s Crown

1666. It is a year after plague has devastated England. Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within the cavernous London townhouse of her older sister. At the mercy of a legion of doctors who fail to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no signs of improvement. Soon, her sister makes a decision borne of she hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods. But he is a foreigner. A Jew. And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of grief that rages within her. There is no easy cure for melancholy.

David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind. Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend, struggling with his religion and his past, David finds himself in this foreign land, free and safe, but incapable of happiness—caring not even for himself, but only for his ailing father. The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart. He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love.

Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together. A Great Fire is coming—and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible.

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Reading Challenge books I hope to get to this week:

Two souls meet at a dark railroad crossing… there’s no hint this night will be the beginning – and end – of everything.

Lily doesn’t exist any more – old Lily, anyway. That night made her different, rewrote her life, tore up everything she thought she knew and understood.

How do you go back to normal after you’ve met someone who has turned your life upside down? When you fear the passionate connexion but don’t want to live for anything else? When those few moments were the most intense and intimate of your life and it was the barest taste of what you could have together?

How do you find the strength to not run away from something that has the power to shatter your heart?

Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language and situations that some readers may find objectionable (including spanking and bondage). Content intended for adults only. Length: 75,000 + words

After 40 years of marriage, Olivia’s husband unexpectedly passes away. But when Ben’s will reveals a life-altering secret, she suffers a blow no widow should ever experience. As Olivia visits each of her sons to share a final connection before facing a truth that will change their family, she discovers that each has been harboring a painful secret, just like his father. Will the revelations destroy their family or bring them closer together?

Watching Glass Shatter is the 1st book in the Perceptions of Glass contemporary fiction, family drama series. Currently, there are two available, with a third planned in the future. Chapters switch POV between Olivia and each son, revealing different personalities, voices, and struggles not unlike many of us in life. You’ll undoubtedly love some members of this family and experience a fiery angst for others. But in the end, it will tug at all of your emotions.