Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 8

Wordless Wednesday – Mountain Vegetation

2023 – A Year of Reading

To my surprise, I have read a similar number of books to last year, 34 books in all – nowhere near my illusory goal of a book a week. The year started slowly as I only managed two books a month until August. Results for the latter part of the year were helped by a number of novellas and short stories which on the virtual bookshelf appeared to be novels, if you judge by price alone. This year I have also reviewed twice the number of books as last year, which is a definite improvement.

Once...

My Reading – December 2023

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry 
Some time in the sixties old Mr Tomelty had put up an incongruous lean-to addition to his Victorian castle.

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys
It was like a curtain had fallen, hiding everything I had ever known.

A Christmas Love Redeemed by Alison Stuart 
Fabien Brassard, the Comte de Mont Clair, paused at the head of the graceful stairs leading down into the ballroom of his sister’s fashionable Mayfair residence.

AnaRose and the Templar’s Quest by Mar...

Beautiful Ghost by Milana Marsenich

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an snippet from Milana Marsenich’s novel, Beautiful Ghost, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Blurb

During the fall of 1918, the influenza pandemic crosses the nation and reaches the mining town of Butte, Montana.

Marika Jovich, who wants to go to school to become a physician, works menial tasks for Dr. Fletcher. She feels useless as she tries to save friends and neighbors from the ravages of the flu. In the midst of the p...

Twelfth Cake House by Heidi Eljarbo

Today I’m delighted to be shining a spotlight on Heidi Eljarbo’s newly released novel, Twelfth Cake House, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Twelfth Cake House is a heartwarming Christmas romance set in the Georgian period.

Blurb

Even a clever matchmaker may need a push in the right direction if she’s to find true love. When she’s asked to find a match for herself, it proves to be the most difficult task she’s ever undertaken.

Mid-December 1796

Sixty-y...

Book Review – Teatime Trouble by Tonya Penrose

Teatime Trouble by Tonya Penrose is set on idyllic Shell Island, a place of sunshine, glittering water and friendly people. Page Wright and her cousin Betsy Ross, who run the Honey Bees Bakery there, are asked to provide a high tea for a group of bestselling British authors staying at Three Fables Inn, a place considered by some to be haunted.

Betsy is a creative cook who specializes in hot and highly spiced. Page, as well as managing the bakery, has what she describes as inklings – flash...

Book review – Teatime Trouble by Tonya Penrose

Teatime Trouble by Tonya Penrose is set on idyllic Shell Island, a place of sunshine, glittering water and friendly people. Page Wright and her cousin Betsy Ross, who run the Honey Bees Bakery there, are asked to provide a high tea for a group of bestselling British authors staying at Three Fables Inn, a place considered by some to be haunted.

Betsy is a creative cook who specializes in hot and highly spiced. Page, as well as managing the bakery, has what she describes as inklings – flash...

Millie’s Escape by Marcia Clayton

Today I’m delighted to be sharing a snippet from Marcia Clayton’s recently released novel, Millie’s Escape, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Millie’s Escape is the fifth book in The Hartford Manor Series, a heart-warming family saga stretching from the Regency period to Victorian times.

Blurb

1885 North Devon, England
It is winter in the small Devon village of Brampford Speke, and a typhoid epidemic has claimed many victims. Millie, aged fifteen, is doing h...

My Reading – November 2023

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
On Friday, July 29th, Dublin got the weather that was forecast.

Teatime Trouble by Tonya Penrose
Page hung up the phone and turned to her cousin. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time, Betsy Ross.”

In the Shadow of Gallipoli by Robert Bollard
Every April, the shores of Gallipoli witness a fresh invasion as patriotic Australian tourists throng to Anzac Cove.

Book Review: Ancestry by Simon Mawer

In Ancestry, Simon Mawer imagines the lives of two sets of his great-great-grandparents, ordinary people from the struggling working classes. The vicissitudes and sorrows of their lives, as well as moments of joy and achievement, are brought to vivid life in this meticulously researched novel.

The first third of the novel is taken up with the story of Simon Mawer’s maternal great-great-grandparents, Abraham Block, a seaman from Kessingland on the Suffolk coast, and the woman he married in...