This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books they’ve read and share what they have got up to during the last week.
It’s been an epic week. I’m very grateful that we have a bit of a break with the Easter holidays – no regular ferrying Ethan back and forth to college and no overseeing Oscar’s home schooling programme. The boys and I gave ourselves some major lie-ins during the week. And then, on Thursday they both went away with their stepdad for the weekend – and the big bonus is that they’ll be spending time with their sisters, too. I drove to Lancing to drop them off and then returned home again – the furthest journey I’ve driven since I got sick in March 2021. While I negotiated the heavy holiday traffic with no difficulty, I was a bit shocked at just how tired I felt in the evening and the following morning. But it’s another milestone to tick off and celebrate – the round trip is just over twenty-four miles. However, it took me nearly an hour to get home, given how busy the roads were.
Though that achievement has paled into insignificance compared with another HUGE milestone – both practically and emotionally. I was within touching distance of the end of Problems With Power, which is the third novel in my Picky Eaters series, featuring grumpy grandfather dragon, Castellan the Black. And once I got up and got going on Friday, I was able to sit down and just write without any interruptions. So I decided that I wouldn’t push, but just keep going until I was beginning to feel tired. And that’s what I did. The result was that I comfortably wrote over 4,000 words and was able to type THE END halfway down the last page.
I’ve always written stories, ever since I was a small child – though during the years when my children were very young, I gave up both reading and writing after dreaming that I’d left them in the bath, then got caught up in a book and forgotten they were there! However, once I started writing again in my thirties, I always knew I wanted to be an author. And last year, as the months rolled by and I was still unable to write more than a handful of sentences due to the brain fog and exhaustion that constantly afflicted me – I was facing the prospect that I’d never be able to write again. Even when I asked my very sympathetic Dr if I would make a full recovery, he couldn’t offer me any reassurance. Ironically, it didn’t affect my book review writing. But that is an enjoyable hobby I regard as light relief from the serious job of making up stories that are good enough for other people to read and enjoy.
What makes this particular novel special is that I was halfway through Chapter 8 on 4th March 2021 when I got sick with Covid-19. And it wasn’t until June last year that I began to be able to start writing fiction again, just a few hundred words here and there. Often there were long breaks between my writing days. So it has taken me just over two years to get the first draft completed – and for a lot of that time, I began to think this would be the unfinished manuscript to mark the end of my writing career. I’m still not who I was before – I don’t foresee being able to return to the classroom. Every so often I find myself hunting for a particular word that will not come – the boys think it hilarious, but as someone who has always been effortlessly articulate, at times I feel very diminished. So I’m humbly thankful that my writing mojo has at last fully returned. After writing the final words, I cried with relief.
On Saturday, Himself and I decided to visit Highdown Gardens as a treat. The weather was glorious and the pics are some of the spring flowers we saw growing there. We are so lucky to have these wonderful gardens so close to home.
As I’ve been really busy writing, my reading has taken a hammering – only two books this last week and one of those is an audiobook.
Last week I read:-
The Exes by Jane Lythell
When Holly is bequeathed a large but derelict house, she wants to share her good fortune. So she gets in touch with former boyfriend Ray, a builder who can project-manage the renovation in exchange for the basement flat. The spacious middle floor would make a glorious studio space—perfect for her friend and first love, Spencer. And before Holly knows it, the upper floor is let to soon-to-be ex-husband James, who’s on a path of reinvention from city highflyer to osteopath. What could possibly go wrong?
But no good deed goes unpunished, and soon the house is riddled with tension, rivalry, and petty spitefulness. And as Holly is beset with migraines, nausea, and spiralling self-doubt, even the house itself seems to be turning against her. But for someone, everything is going to plan . . .
I know and enjoy Jane Lythell’s writing – see my review of Woman of the Hour – so when she contacted me to ask if I’d like to read and review her latest release, I was happy to do so, despite domestic noir not being my go-to genre. I’m glad I did. This was a riveting read that had me staying up far too late! Review to follow. 9/10
AUDIOBOOK – Blood Ties – Book 2 of the Agents of the Crown series by Lindsay Buroker
Recently appointed Crown Agents Jev and Zenia must prove that they’re worthy of their new jobs and young King Targyon’s trust. Their mission?
To research the strange “disease of the blood” that killed Targyon’s three cousins and left him unexpectedly ruling an entire kingdom at barely twenty years of age.
There are just a few problems. If someone was responsible for creating that disease, that person could still be in the city, forcing Zenia and Jev to deal with someone very smart and very dangerous. Meanwhile, since Targyon has the same blood flowing through his veins that his cousins had, he’s at risk of becoming the next victim. And as it so happens, Jev shares some of that blood too. Might he become a target before Targyon? When Jev and Zenia signed on for this job, they didn’t realize how deadly it might become.
I thoroughly enjoy Buroker’s magical mix of action, adventure, enjoyable snark and a sprinkling of cute romance. The pacing is always well judged, the characters memorable and nuanced, with traits that can trip them up and add to the mayhem, while the worldbuilding is vividly depicted, so I can effortlessly visualise where they are and what is happening. I am also very impressed with the high standard of her production values – I love Vivienne Leheny’s narration. Once again, this second book has delivered the goods and I’m looking forward to getting hold of the next one in this series. 9/10
My posts last week:
Castellan the Black and his Wise Dragonic Musings on Life
Can’t-Wait-Wednesday featuring The Cleaving by Juliet E. McKenna
*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Frontier by Grace Curtis
Hope you, too, had some brilliant books to tuck into and wishing you all a happy, healthy week😊.
Again no rain, and on Wednesday and Thursday we were back to high summer temperatures and sitting outside. So Himself is trudging around with the watering can. The yarrow is now flowering and here is the first bloom on my elder. I don’t know what the dear little pink fluffy flowers are – I bought the plant because I love the leaves, but they work really well with the rest of the colour scheme in that bed. And the echium spires are now in full flower and have stopped growing – don’t they look fabulous? For reference, I am 5’5″. 
Himself is compiling the bibliography for me, but I’ve added the writing exercises – there are 50 – to help with characterisation, along with the quick check-list. I am now starting the edits to Mantivore Warrior.
best controversial, at worst life-threatening. But she’s always known; you have to fight your own corner as best you can, no point beating yourself up about it. Now though, times have changed, different priorities. She’s married, with a baby on the way and a flourishing business. She simply has to deal with a couple of worrying issues and then all should be smooth sailing. But, isn’t it a fact; just when you think you’ve got all your ducks in a row, life can turn right around and bite you on the bottom?
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. 
djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there. Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family and one misstep will doom her tribe.
Now, guided by the incorruptible Fire Court, the city is slowly rebuilding, but times are volatile and danger is only ever a heartbeat away. James Marwood, son of a traitor, is thrust into this treacherous environment when his ailing father claims to have stumbled upon a murdered woman in the very place where the Fire Court sits. Then his father is run down and killed. Accident? Or another murder …? Determined to uncover the truth, Marwood turns to the one person he can trust – Cat Lovett, the daughter of a despised regicide. Marwood has helped her in the past. Now it’s her turn to help him. But then comes a third death … and Marwood and Cat are forced to confront a vicious and increasingly desperate killer whose actions threaten the future of the city itself.
books and blogs they have written.
It’s been a lot colder and cloudier, but we only had a bit of rain last Sunday and since then, despite high winds, it’s been dry. The garden is desperate for some rain… Himself managed to cut back the shrubs – a job we normally do much earlier in the year. The escalonia is now in full bloom, along with the pretty little fuschia. I love the bright yellow leaves contrasting with the deep pink flowers. My bronze fennel is sprouting, and 
those echiums just keep growing and blooming. The bees love the flowers so much, you can hear their hum from across the garden.
When a mysterious plague breaks out in the army fort guarding Vilnoc, the port capital of the duchy of Orbas, Temple sorcerer Penric and his demon Desdemona are called upon by General Arisaydia to resurrect Penric’s medical skills and solve its lethal riddle. In the grueling days that follow, Pen will find that even his magic is not enough to meet the challenges without help from dedicated new colleagues—and the god of mischance.
to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. Spensa is sure there’s more to the story. And she’s sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars–and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie. But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself–and she’ll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.
Newly minted Lieutenant Sorilla Aida has a new mission and new allies, gear, and support as she is tasked with a job that could ensure that the human race stands a chance of reaching a technical parity with the mysterious alien alliance. Humans and SOLCOM are not the only ones making moves, however, and the Alliance has brought up their varsity to end the little side war before it gets out of hand. Are they really interested in humanity or human worlds, however, or is something more at play?
Stella, isn’t going as smoothly as she’d like. As an ordinary person, who happens to have some extraordinary abilities, it’s frustrating to find that something as simple as holding down a job, throws up unexpected hurdles. She’d be a darn sight better off if she could ditch the conviction she knows best which, together with a chronic inability to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people’s business, has led her more than once off the straight and narrow into the dodgy and dangerous. Plans for a safer future, include setting herself up in business, squashing her over-active conscience and steering clear of risky and unpleasant. Unfortunately, the best laid plans can lead to the darkest places.
Brainfluff 