#59 Fatal Secrets - Allison Brennan #60 The Prey - Allison Brennan #61 The Hunt - Allison Brennan #62 The Kill - Allison Brennan
Having loaded a whole pile of books to my Kindle, I was in the mood for some lightweight thriller/romance and these fit the bill nicely.
This is one of the things I most enjoy about the Kindle, that I can have a whole selection of books available to me at the click of a button in varying genres to suit my reading mood of the moment.
#63 Coraline - Neil Gaiman #64 Stardust - Neil Gaiman
I'd wanted to catch up with these two for a while and enjoyed them both very much. Coraline was a much simpler tale than I was expecting, but none the worse for it and Stardust differed quite significantly from the movie, but that was all to the good, too. I loved the movie but wasn't disappointed that the book took a different path here and there.
#65 Orchid Blues - Stuart Wood #66 Blood Orchid - Stuart Wood #67 Reckless Abandon - Stuart Wood #68 Iron Orchid - Stuart Wood #69 Hothouse Orchid - Stuart Wood
Catching up with the rest of the Holly Barker novels. Nice, easy reading that's not too taxing on the brain. I'm kind of disappointed I've read the last of these.
#70 Under the Lake - Stuart Woods
For some reason, I wasn't expecting this departure from his more well-known thrillers to be up to much, but I found it to be one of the best ghost stories I've read in a while. Kept me guessing right to the end and was satisfyingly spooky at points. I'd like to see more in this genre from Woods.
#71 To Defy A King - Elizabeth Chadwick
I've read a couple of Chadwick's historial novels previously and much enjoyed them. This wasn't one of them. The problem with simply following one woman's life was that it was a fairly boring life. Nothing much of note happened, she got married, she had babies...my diary would be more interesting than this. Very disappointing. But it wouldn't stop me reading more Chadwick novels if I came across them in the future.
#72 The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory
This was more like it. The story of Margaret Beaufort - mother to Henry Tudor/Henry VII. It suffers a little from being told from the heroine's pov, which leads to a lot of us being told about events and battles secondhand, as the heroine learns of them, rather than viewing them, since she isn't on the scene to directly witness them. But still a fascinating peek into medieval times, filled with all kinds of horrifying ways women were tortured. The terrifying habit of tossing a pregnant woman in a blanket to 'move things along' if she was enduring a difficult labour. The Holy Church actually formally decreeing that if it came down to a choice between baby and mother that the mother was to be sacrificed every time. Women being forced to attend church and confess to the 'sin' of childbirth after they had their baby...it was a fun time, clearly! A disturbing insight into just how cheaply female lives were held at that time.
LabRat
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly. Aramis: Yes, sorry. Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
The Holy Church actually formally decreeing that if it came down to a choice between baby and mother that the mother was to be sacrificed every time. Women being forced to attend church and confess to the 'sin' of childbirth after they had their baby...it was a fun time, clearly! A disturbing insight into just how cheaply female lives were held at that time.
