Catching Up on Some Reading

When I’m in the head down and rewrite (or revise) mode, reading is the first thing to go. It’s a brain space issue. My head is full of my own story and I don’t want to convolute it with too much of someone else’s. But curtailed reading time one of the downsides to writing on a deadline. So when I’ve turned in a project and am in researching or brainstorming phase with another, I tend to go on reading binges. I’ve been gorging on some good ones lately, so I thought I’d give you just a taste of what’s been filling my evenings.

I  loved the unusual setting and characters of this book. It centers around WWII flight nurses, but both the hero (an engineer) and the heroine (a nurse) come to the story having lived very unusual lives, leaving both of them unwilling and unable to let others in. I love how they find each other (there is very much a Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail theme here), but I also love how they learn to make friends with others, too. All of the relationships–especially the friendships and conflicts between the nurses–ring completely true.

Ah, Regency. And Laurie Alice’s aren’t drawing room dramas. Her heroines find themselves in all kind of adventures and troubles! Cassandra Bainbridge tends more toward scholarly pursuits than marriage prospects, and yet she loves her fiance, Lord Whittaker, to distraction. Circumstances drive them apart then throw them back together again as Cassandra pursues her passion of hot air ballooning and Lord Whittaker finds himself in the midst of the Luddite rebellion.

I’ve been waiting for this book since finishing The Lady of Bolton Hill last summer. I wanted to know the rest of Bane’s story. Elizabeth Camden again weaves a fascinating story of intrigue and love centered around the opium trade during the late 1800s. While you do not need to have read The Lady of Bolton Hill to understand the story, I do think it helps give you more empathy with Bane as a hero when you’ve lived his past with him.

Confession time: I don’t read Amish books. Never have. But this one intrigued me from the start. First, it is an Amish-set retelling of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. But even as that premise drew me, I worried I wouldn’t be able to get into it. The first person point of view completely dispelled my fear. Cate was a normal young woman, even if she lived a lifestyle unfamiliar to me. Although not as unfamiliar as I imagined. A very quick and enjoyable read.

Here’s another one I wasn’t sure was my style, but it completely captivated me. I do love a good women’s fiction now and again and this was a good one. A young woman on the search for her mother’s past reunites a group of friends who bonded during summers in a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan. All have secrets and past hurts that have kept them apart for over 20 years. It’s one of those stories that tugs at your heart every direction it turns.

So that’s what I’ve been reading lately. How about you? Anything good that moved from your “to be read” pile onto one of your “keeper” shelves?