Reading - Letters from Paris

 Letters from Paris by Juliet Blackwell

After surviving the accident that took her mother’s life, Claire Broussard has worked hard to escape her small Louisiana hometown. But these days she feels something is lacking. Abruptly leaving her lucrative job in Chicago, Claire returns home to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she unearths a beautiful piece of artwork that her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II. 

At her grandmother’s urging, Claire travels to Paris to track down the century-old mask-making atelier where the object, known only as “L’Inconnue”—or The Unknown Woman—was created. Under the watchful eye of a surly mask-maker, Claire discovers a cache of letters that offers insight into the life of the Belle Epoque woman immortalized in the work of art. As Claire explores the unknown woman’s tragic fate, she begins to unravel deeply buried secrets in her own life.

Reading - The Road To Urdino

The Road To Urdino byRoma Tearne

In a draughty British prison cell Lynton Rasanagium awaits trial on a charge of terrorism.  His crime - the theft of one of the world's most exquisite and mysterious paintings - is both baffling and seductive, and as Ras's barrister Elizabeth beins her investigations, an extraordinary story unfolds.

An exile haunted by the memory of violence, Ras has only a feeling for colour and a helpless love for his child to guide him through lift in an alien culture; he could not have less in common with Elizabeth's chief witness, pampered, amoral Alex Benson.  And yet their lives are inextricably entwined, brought together in the idyllic hills of northern Italy by Charles Boyar, his beautiful wife Delia and their young son - and eventually by Ras's own daughter, the ambitious, manipulative Lola.  When their charmed existence is brought to a shocking end it becomes apparent to Ras that war's shadow is long and cold, and he has no choice but to take action.

Reading - Hidden Places

Hidden Places by Lynn Austin

A deep yearning for home had led Eliza to Wyatt Orchards ten years ago. Now widowed with three young children, she faces mounting debts and the realization it is all up to her. But she has no idea how to run an orchard alone. When a stranger appears at her doorstep, Eliza guesses he is no different than the other out of luck characters searching for work during the Depression. But the familiarity with which Gabe tends to the farm raises unanswered questions. With a vulnerable heart, she is unwittingly drawn to his gentle ways. But Eliza also fears that Gabe hides a past and motives that could jeopardize all she has fought to attain for herself and her children. . .

Reading - All She Ever Wanted

All She Ever Wanted by Lynn Austin

All She Ever Wanted is the emotionpacked story of three generations of women: Kathleen, her mother, Eleanor, and her grandmother, Fiona. Each woman left home to escape her family's past and to start a new life. Kathleen has been estranged from her family for 35 years, and she is torn between the need to forgive and the urge to forget. Hoping to find answers that will patch the wounds of her tattered heart and salvage her relationship with her daughter, Kathleen embarks on a journey into her family's mysterious past.

Reading - The Child Garden

The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson

Eden was its name. “An alternative school for happy children.” But it closed in disgrace after a student’s suicide. Now it’s a care home, the grounds neglected and overgrown. Gloria Harkness is its only neighbor, staying close to her son who lives in the home, lighting up her life and breaking her heart each day. 

When a childhood friend turns up at her door, Gloria doesn’t hesitate before asking him in. He claims a girl from Eden is stalking him and has goaded him into meeting near the site of the suicide. Only then, the dead begin to speak―it was murder, they say. 

Gloria is in over her head before she can help it. Her loneliness, her loyalty, and her all-consuming love for her son lead her into the heart of a dark secret that threatens everything she lives for.

Reading - The Night the Lights Went Out

The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen White

Recently divorced, Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to the Atlanta suburb of Sweet Apple, Georgia. It’s not her first time starting over, but her efforts at a new beginning aren’t helped by an anonymous local blog that dishes about the scandalous events that caused her marriage to fail.

Merilee finds some measure of peace in the cottage she is renting from town matriarch Sugar Prescott. Though stubborn and irascible, Sugar sees something of herself in Merilee—something that allows her to open up about her own colorful past.

Sugar’s stories give Merilee a different perspective on the town and its wealthy school moms in their tennis whites and shiny SUVs, and even on her new friendship with Heather Blackford. Merilee is charmed by the glamorous young mother’s seemingly perfect life and finds herself drawn into Heather's world.

In a town like Sweet Apple, where sins and secrets are as likely to be found behind the walls of gated mansions as in the dark woods surrounding Merilee’s house, appearance is everything. But just how dangerous that deception can be will shock all three women....

Reading - This Census-Taker

This Census-Taker by China Mieville

In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries—and fails—to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.

When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.

But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?