It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Personal:
- Huge update on Miss B’s Western Carolina application—She got in!!! She found out Wednesday night (I was at horseback lessons with Miss R). She was screaming so loud on the phone that the instructor heard her over in the ring…haha. We’re so proud of her!! She is thrilled to become a Catamount. We put down the deposit on Thursday, got the doctor to sign off on her immunization records on Friday, and we’re just waiting for the school to tell us the next steps. I also highly recommend doing Early Admittance/Early Action for college. By her getting in early, we have months to prepare (get stuff for her dorm, get the paperwork in…etc).
- So, needless to say, we didn’t tour her second-choice college last weekend. I was glad. It was rainy, foggy (not common here), and just plain gross on Saturday.
- We put up our Christmas lights and decorations on Saturday. We were going to do it last weekend, but both BK and I forgot (we usually put the stuff up the day after Thanksgiving).
- The main high school in our area (we have 4) won the district football game on Friday. So what does that mean? It means they are going to Chapel Hill on Friday to play in the state game. Because of how many people are going, the district decided to have the schools (pre-k to high school) go remote. My kids are thrilled. Go Red Tornadoes!!
Reading/Blog
- I am reading books like they are water. Seriously, I am a book behind, according to my schedule. If I keep this up, I will end up being ahead.
- Now, writing reviews is a different story. I am 4 (soon to be 5) reviews behind where I ideally would like to be. I should catch up by the end of the week, but I have said that before.
- I am almost at 50 on my NetGalley shelf. I should be under 50 by next week (keeping my fingers crossed)
What I am Reading Now:
In a web of deceit, escape is just the beginning.
Ava Cressman’s life takes a twisted turn after her divorce from Spencer. Seeking comfort, she falls into the arms of a mysterious man named Joel Carney, a former college acquaintance. However, when Joel meets Ava’s sister, Tanya, an unsettling connection sparks between them.
Tanya, seemingly innocent, invites Ava and her twin sister, Belle, on a secluded trip to a remote lodge. From the moment they arrive, an ominous atmosphere hangs in the air, hinting at a hidden darkness beneath the surface.
As shocking truths emerge, will Ava find a way to expose the tangled labyrinth of secrets before it’s too late?
The Sisters is a gripping psychological thriller that delves into the depths of manipulation, betrayal, and the darkest corners of the human mind. As Ava fights for her freedom and tries to untangle the lies, she also must face her own demons and find the strength to outsmart those who want to control her life.
Books I plan on reading later this week
An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.
Sometimes secrets just won’t stay hidden . . .
From USA Today bestselling author and Christy Award Hall of Fame inductee Tamera Alexander comes the story of two women from different centuries living in the same house who share strikingly similar journeys.
Claire Powell’s life is turned upside down when her beloved husband admits to a “near affair.” But when Stephen accepts a partnership with an Atlanta law firm without consulting her and buys a historic Southern home sight-unseen—it pushes their already-fractured marriage to the breaking point. Claire’s world spirals, and she soon finds herself in a marriage she no longer wants, in a house she never asked for.
In 1863, Charlotte Thursmann, pregnant and trapped in a marriage to an abusive husband, struggles to protect her unborn child and the enslaved members of her household. Desperate, she’s determined to right the evils her husband and others like him commit. But how can one woman put an end to such injustice? Especially if her husband makes good on his threat to kill her?
Both Claire and Charlotte discover truths about themselves they never realized, along with secrets long hidden that hold the power to bring God’s restoration—if only they choose to let it.
This Southern historical fiction novel includes:
Dual-timeline plot
Thought-provoking treatment of the themes of difficult relationships, infidelity, forgiveness, and trust
Discussion questions—you’re all set for book club!
