Is it just me or are the weeks spinning by at a ridiculously fast pace? It feels like only yesterday I was writing last week’s post. What am I currently reading? The House at Angel’s Beach by Phillipa Nefri Clark, a new-to-me Australian author. Ivy Ross left Rivers End ten years ago, vowing never to return. Her heart broken, her trust gone, the father she adored behind bars. But when her sister Jody begs Ivy to return to finalise their inheritance, the majestic Fairview House, she is drawn home. And when she finds a collection of heartfelt letters hidden in her father’s library, everything s ..read more

EXCERPT:There, on a plastic jewelry display, was a charm bracelet that looked impossibly familiar. The piece was a mixture of rose, yellow and white gold, braided together loosely like the one she and her friends had once shared. Except the bracelet she remembered only held one heart-shaped friendship charm. This one held several charms. Melody blinked the sting from her eyes. There was no way that this was the same bracelet Alyssa had gifted their little quartet of friends right before high school graduation. Once upon a prom night, that charm bracelet was lost in a car accident – along with ..read more

Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com Welcome to First Lines Friday, originally hosted by Reading is my Superpower. Instead of judging a book by its cover, here are the first few lines which I hope will make you want to read this book. These lines are from one of my NetGalley ARCs, which I started last night. <i>MELODY Melody Palmer pulled up at the address in her GPS and parked along the curb. The sign above the awning read HIDDEN TREASURES in large golden block letters. The word</i> treasure<i> brought visions of jewelry or fancy clothing to mind. It conjured images of spe ..read more

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com Two days to go and it is officially winter – although it feels like it has already arrived as it is an icy cold and stormy day today. We lost power for a little while this morning, so I went to my cousin’s for coffee as there was still power on her side of town. There is quite a bit of water on the roads which are also littered with broken branches. Six new ARCs dropped into my inbox in the past week, one more than last week. This is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter was the first. It is #12 in the Will Trent series. One toxic family. Eight suspicious gues ..read more

EXCERPT: Since her abrupt departure from journalism, Phoebe had turned to a life of crime, the corpses piling up. Channelling her rage into writing detective novels under a pen name, she’d now plotted multiple dastardly deaths to vex her two amateur sleuths, a 1920s society hostess and her chaperone. Recently, she’d added dark 1980s crime thrillers to her oeuvre and was even toying with gothic Victorian mysteries to avenge her bloodlust. Her imaginary worlds were like holiday destinations now, into which she escaped to find peace by restoring order. The books had been successful enough f ..read more

Here we are at the end of autumn and winter staring us in the face in the southern hemisphere. It is a wintery day today with sudden showers accompanied by equally sudden drops in temperature, cold winds and only the odd, brief glimpse of the sun. It’s definitely time for me to pack away my summer clothes and to bring out my winter woolies. I have signed up for the Goodreads Aussie Readers Winter Challenge, and I will post about that later in the week. What am I currently reading? Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks is a title from my 2018 NetGalley backlist which I am finding fascinating reading ..read more

EXCERPT: ‘I’m Sybil Baxter. From Fairvale.’ Sallyanne knew about Fairvale. Everyone in the area did. The Baxter family had lived on Fairvale for so long that no one in town could remember the not being there. Well, no one but the local Aboriginal tribe, but people didn’t really talk about that. ‘And you’re joining us?’ Sybil’s smile was more generous now. Sallyanne nodded and let out the breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding onto. ‘It’s my first meeting,’ she said, sure she was spluttering. Sybil nodded towards the women gathering around a table laden with cups, saucers and scon ..read more

EXCERPT: ‘You should find yourself a good woman.’ He paused before speaking and she waited, expecting some confidence, but obviously he thought better of it. ‘Yeah, well. Easier said than done. I’ve never had much luck in that line.’ He looked straight up at her. Those dark eyes that made you think like something out of a soppy magazine. I’d be your woman. Good or bad. Only no man has ever wanted me. The words came suddenly into her head and she was shocked by their bitterness. She turned away. Outside the light had almost gone and the street was quiet. There was a smell of woodsmok ..read more

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com Happy hump day! It’s a stormy day here in New Zealand. Heavy rain but thankfully not particularly cold. I have been to Book Club at the library today and we had some very spirited discussions! I have come home with a bag of books to read – one library, the others borrowed from other group members. The librarian also talked to us about an app called Beanstack which a lot of libraries are using for inter-library reading challenges. I have been logging my reading on it for almost 3 weeks now and participating in the Master of Minutes challenge and the Bingo ..read more

HELP! I am completely lost with the changes to this site . . . Where has everyone gone? I can’t find the posts of everyone I follow. I miss you! This is not fun! Put it back to how it was, WordPress, please . . . Meanwhile if you have managed to navigate the new system, please pass on some tips, ’cause I am just spinning around in circles going nowhere! Currently I am reading The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier. The Hitchcock movie sure is different than Du Maurier’s story and sorry, Mr Hitchcock, but I greatly prefer the original story to your screenplay. It’s definitely creepie ..read more