The Book Date

Month in Review

April Reading Round up

May 2, 2024 Kathryn

Total books read this month: 17

Book Ratings

Worst Wingman Ever. Own audio -short story. 4.25 stars.
Legends and Lattes. Library book. 4 .25 stars
The Beautiful Mystery Own print book. 5 stars.
The Underground Library. Library book. 4.25 stars
Just for the Summer. Own audiobook. 5 stars.
Secrets of Riverside. Review book. 3 stars.
The Wanderer. Audiobook. 5 stars. (Reread)
What Happened to Nina? Review book. 3.75 stars
Grown Ups. Own print book. 4 stars.
Love, Just In. Library book. 3.75 stars
The Radio Hour. Review book. 4 stars
The Library of Borrowed Hearts. Review audiobook. 4.25 stars
The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue. Review book. 3 stars.
The Rivertown Vet. Library book. 4.5 stars.
The Grazier’s Son. Library book 4.5 stars
Death at a Scottish Wedding. Own kIndle book. 4 stars.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Own print book. 4 stars.

Settings:

USA 6
Canada 1
England 1
Fantasy world 2
Australia 5
Ireland 1
Scotland 1

New to me authors:

8 new to me authors. And probably a first for these month in reviews that I’d read all of these authors again – with different books of course!

Travis Baldree. *
Natalie Murray*
Lucy Gilmore*
Dervla McTiernan*
Marian Keyes *
Jennifer Scoullar*
Cathryn Hein*
Jessica Townsend*

*Authors I’d read again.

Top Books for April

Looking forward to publishing in May

I’ll be listening to these.

2024 Reading Goals check

24 in 24 books that I own. (on a list made in January). No additions this month. Still 12/24

Emilie Richard Reader Challenge. April. Book that makes you laugh. Worst Wingman Ever. Abby Jimenez. And Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. Well a couple of LOL moments.

Rachael John’s Book Club selection for April. Love, Just In. Natalie Murray

Slow Reading book – 24 minutes at least a day. Grown Ups. Marion Keyes Completed. Now reading a middle grade book. Not a big book, but one way to fit it into my reading. Finished The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Going to read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld next as my slow and steady.

Genre Check

Cozy Fantasy 2
Contemporary Romance 8
Crime/Mystery 3
Historical Fiction 2
Contemporary Fiction 2

Buy 2 – 4 books per month

Books bought in April

Linking up with Nicole from FeedYourFiction Addiction.

Review

Secrets of Riverside. Mandy Magro

April 30, 2024 Kathryn

Secrets of Riverside

Published: Harlequin Australia
Date: 1st May 2024
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

After losing her family in a tragic fire when she was a child, Amelia Price has battled to put the shattered pieces of her life back together. Even so, she’s never felt like she belongs anywhere, and she longs for stability and love. When a mysterious letter turns up at her apartment with hints that she’ll uncover the truth behind what happened all those years ago if she goes to the sleepy, picturesque town of Riverside, she sets off on a journey to tropical Far North Queensland.

Jarrah King owns and runs the Riverside Roadhouse. He loves the simpleness of country living, and the fact it gives him complete anonymity. Over the years he’s made a life for himself under a new name, however his past has never stopped haunting him.

When a sassy blonde takes up the new cook position, he can’t help but be drawn to her vivacious personality. But he can tell there’s also pain hiding underneath her bubbly facade and he longs to erase those shadows. However, lowering his defences to let her in may risk his new identity, as well as everything he holds dear.

Set in Queensland, Australia, Secrets of Riverside is a nice romantic read that moves along well.

I really liked the two main characters – Amelia (Millie) and Jarrah. They both have had a lot to deal with in their past lives, yet they are upright good living people. They deserved to find each other. As well as the two main characters we have a really fun dog in the story.

I liked the premise of the story, yet at times I felt it was a little forced. Tommy – Jarrah’s nephew, didn’t quite work for me. He seemed to just turn so easily one way or the other.

There is a lot of time given to the surroundings or setting or to characters interior thoughts. I found these large chunks of prose, a little off putting. I like to see plenty of dialogue in a book, there was some of course, I just felt I would have liked more.

If you like outback romance set in Australia I think you’ll enjoy this book.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 29, 2024April 29, 2024 Kathryn

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… 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 here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit 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.

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I had a great reading week this week. The first book is a review book, the next two are Australian outback books from the library and both were so very good. Great and Precious Things was an Audible Plus listen and was very enjoyable. The Summer Swap is a review book coming up.

A mixed bag of weather but it has turned colder at night – a two quilt night now! Mid winter is often a three quilt one! We’ve had a few beautiful sunny days which is always welcome.

One of my sisters called in Sunday to return books and get more. I gave her Inheritance by Nora Roberts but later remembered I need to tell her it ends on a cliff hanger and the next one is out at the end of the year. I am also encouraging her to rejoin the library with all its goodies. I love on Libby how you can get so many magazines to flip through. My favourite quilting magazine is there so I am delighted about that.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

I gave up waiting for the “maybe” that this one would become available in this part of the world on audio and bought the Kindle edition. Kindle books – many of them are rather expensive now.

Death at a Scottish Wedding

I’ve read books #2 and #3 in the Ravenswood series so decided to go back and listen to #1.

Remember Love

Also listening to this one on my phone -Truly, Madly when I am out walking

Truly Madly

Slow and Steady is

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Up next:

From my NetGalley shelf an Historical book

a New doctor at Orchard Cottage Hospital.

Last Week’s Posts

The Library of Borrowed Hearts. Lucy Gilmore

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Review

The Library of Borrowed Hearts

April 24, 2024 Kathryn

The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Published: Dreamscape Media
Narrators: Leanne Woodward, Aven Shore, Joe Jameson, Bob Ball.
Date: 30th April 2024
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling: to take care of her three younger siblings, to find herself, to make ends meet. She’s just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book from the 1960s at the local flea market. Deciding it’s a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her—only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it for an exorbitant price. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers back when the book was new…one of whom is almost definitely Jasper Holmes, the curmudgeon next door.

And when she begins following the clues left behind, she discovers this isn’t the only old book in town filled with their romantic marginalia. This kickstarts a literary scavenger hunt that Chloe is determined to see through to the end. What happened to the two tragic lovers who corresponded in the margins of so many different library books?

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore was very enjoyable. We have Chloe and her three siblings Theo, Trixie and Noodle (Aloysius) and their next door neighbor – a grumpy old man who never returns anything that goes over into his garden. That’s Jasper.

Chloe was left to care for her sister and brothers when their mother just up and left them. She has done so with a very low paid job at the local library. Then she comes across the book with all the notes that two people have made in the margins of a book quite a long time ago. The mystery begins!

Soon we are down that rabbit hole of a story which is utterly fascinating. It eventually plays out into the lives of Chloe and her brothers and sisters. We meet along the way Zac who rescues Noodle when he gets in a spot of bother. Zac becomes quite significant.

This story is a whole listening experience, I went along for the ride and I came to really love these characters. It has some sad parts to it and equally it has some laugh out loud moments and very heart warming moments. It’s one of those books I hate to say good bye to the characters.

The narration is very good, the story as it moves along is told from a few of the characters viewpoints, and different narrators voice these characters.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 Kathryn

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Well another week goes by. It was a good reading week with some sunshine and walks (short!) thrown in. I didn’t do that much really, just all the usual daily things. And as I just heard of someone very sick I can definitely count the ordinary and usual as a blessing.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

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Listening to

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I finished my slow and steady read book cover

So I have opted to read as a slow and steady book a middle grade book.

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Up next:

Not sure maybe one of these just collected from the library on Sunday.

Last Week’s Posts

What Happened to Dervla McTiernan

The Wild Lavender Bookshop Jodi Thomas

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Review

The Wild Lavender Bookshop. Jodi Thomas

April 19, 2024 Kathryn

The Wild Lavender Bookshop
Published: Kensington
Date: 23rd April 2024
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

The trees that circle Someday Valley near Honey Creek are dressed in their fall finest, providing a pretty backdrop for the local businesses—including the little bookshop loved by schoolteacher Cora Lee Buchanan. There, under the watchful eye of owner Noah O’Brien, Cora Lee and her sister, Katherine, meet each Wednesday. Their talk mostly revolves around one subject: their father, known to everyone in town as Bear.

Both Cora Lee and Katherine worry about Bear Buchanan. They’ve no idea Bear has a secret life of his own. As for the sisters, Katherine, beautiful and self-absorbed, is in search of her third husband, while Cora Lee is in love for the first time. On warm nights, she climbs up to her building’s roof to chat with Noah and listen to the melody of the water below. Yet there is more intrigue afoot in Honey Creek . . .

Andi Delane has arrived in town to hear the last wishes of the father she never met. She was shocked to get a letter from lawyer Jackson Landry, and she has few expectations—of this mysterious will, or of Deputy Danny Davis who’s been assigned to protect her. But fall always brings changes, and this year there will be enough to alter not just the lives of those who call Honey Creek home, but the future of Someday Valley itself . . .

Another very enjoyable book from Jodi Thomas, The Wild Lavender Bookshop is at the centre of all the main goings on that happen in Someday Valley over this period of time.

Andi who I have been long looking forward to turning up in Someday Valley finally appears and it is around her that all the action takes place. And finally she will get to meet two of her half brothers.

Andi and the Deputy soon have a thing going on between them, Noah the bookshop owner discovers he really does have feelings for the younger of Bear’s daughter and Bear himself just might have someone rather special to him as well.

The story is told with all the wonderful Texas setting Jodi Thomas does so well, along with that strong sense of humor that is also her trademark. It has plenty of action and as usual the characters endear themselves to this reader’s heart.

Review

What Happened to Nina? Dervla McTiernan

April 16, 2024 Kathryn

book cover

Published: HarperCollins Australia
Date: 28th February 2024
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family’s cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home.

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?

Nobody knows. Simon’s explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign.

HOW FAR WILL HIS FAMILY GO TO KEEP HIM SAFE?

Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fuelled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive ‘fans.’

HOW FAR WILL HER FAMILY GO TO GET TO THE TRUTH?

Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters – finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognize that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.

My thoughts.

What a disturbing crime/mystery story this is. We meet Nina in the prologue, we see things and when she disappears we know enough to be worried for her.

We see her family – distraught and out of their minds. We see Simon and his family and for a start they see money and power as the way to proceed. They are not likeable!

We see the police following up on small leads, and we see the online trolls that Rory – Simon’s father has set in place to blacken Nina and her family. That part I found chilling and oh so real. We see it every day over smaller matters than possible crime.

Have You Seen Nina? was a riveting and disturbing read. Would justice be served? I didn’t see what was coming and that was even more disturbing. It wasn’t something I could rest with or delight in. Messy!

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 15, 2024April 15, 2024 Kathryn

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Welcome in. Well I went back to wearing summer clothes, and then yesterday sorted out winterish ones again. We had a couple of days rain which was excellent. It was an atmospheric river that really went around us, north and south of us got very heavy rain. They said we’d have heavy rain one night, but we got a 5 minute sprinkle!

So anyway plenty of reading and quilting. I got a flu and Covid vaccine on Saturday. My arm is still sore from the Covid one!

What I read last week:

A good reading week. The Underground Library was about WW2 and London and underground train station and the people of course. Secrets of Riverside was a a review book. Just for the Summer I listened on audio. I loved it, Abby Jimenez is a wonderful author. The Wanderer was a reread via audio and I still really liked it.

What I am reading now:

Reading a library/review book.

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Listening to… A review audiobook

The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Slow and Steady Read.

Getting near the end, so coming to the big blow up I think.
Grown Ups

Up next:

Not sure exactly which ones but these are probables. One a library book and one a review book.

Last Week’s Posts

Seaglass Summer. Rachel Hanna

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Review

Seaglass summer

April 10, 2024 Kathryn

Sea Glass Summer

Published: Deamscape Select
Date: 19th March 2024
Narrator: Becky Brabham
Length: 3hours 36 minutes.
Source: Publisher via Netgalley

At 40, Tara Lawson’s world falls apart. A painful divorce and the loss of her job as a journalist leave her reeling. But it’s the news of her beloved grandmother’s passing that draws her back to her childhood home in Seagrove, South Carolina, to settle the estate.

In the midst of her grief, Tara unexpectedly reconnects with Noah, her childhood best friend. Now a successful sea glass artist, Noah’s steadfast presence becomes a comforting anchor. Together, they revive their old tradition of hunting for sea glass, a simple joy that begins to heal Tara’s emotional wounds.

As the summer unfolds, their bond deepens, and a profound love blossoms. The peaceful beach town, the shared silence and laughter, and the beauty of sea glass all play a part in Tara’s healing process.

But as the season draws to a close, Tara is faced with a decision that threatens to unravel everything she’s rebuilt. Torn between two paths, she must choose what she truly wants.

Sea Glass Summer by Rachel Hanna is part of an ongoing series. This book is #11. It mainly focuses on Tara, returning home after her grandmother’s death, and Noah – Tara’s long term friend who now, as the story continues becomes something more.

The story also includes Julie who has been keeping a long term secret from her family and friends, she has been writing her first book. We learn of her journey and ultimate success.

I particularly liked the setting and the inclusion of the sea glass in the story, and the cover is really inviting. There is a sense of a broad community of people who are there for each other.

The narrator does a competent narration and added to the story. I think this book will be welcomed by those who have been enjoying the series since its beginning.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 Kathryn

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Well it was a reasonable week. We had cool but pleasant weather with one evening of rain. Not much or enough but at least some. My winter wood came on Tuesday and I spent that day putting it away. Usually I do it over about three days but not this time. I was rather stiff the next day. I think I might have to get a bit more but the thought of wheelbarrowing it around the back and stacking is too fresh in my mind at the moment.

We changed our clocks this week, so that will take a little adjusting too as it always does until it feels totally normal again.

What I read last week:

All good reads. I really liked The Beautiful Mystery, it is very tempting to go straight into the next one but there are library and review books waiting so will have to wait a while.

What I am reading now:

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I am listening to…

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And also. The Wanderer by Robyn Carr. A reread but on Audible Plus so I am enjoying that book all over again.

I continue on with my slow and steady read. It’s not gripping but I want to see how it all works out. I can see some of them are going to meet a crisis point.

Grown Ups