Showing posts with label Kate Morton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kate Morton. Show all posts

Friday, June 29, 2018

The Tip of My Wish List: It's Pre-Order Madness!

If you're anything like me you've got a book wish list so long there is no way you will ever be able to read through it all. And, on top of that, it's never ending because you just can't stop adding more books to it! To try and organize myself I'm sharing 5 books from my wish list that I'm most excited to get to, usually with a common theme, on the last Friday of each month. I know a number of excellent bloggers who will be doing similar posts and I'll be sure to link to their posts as well so you can see all the goodies we're excited about and, hopefully, add a few new books to your own wish list. I'll also link the titles to Goodreads where you can read reviews and find the various ways to purchase a copy of the books if they sound like your style. I really hope you enjoy and let me know if you've read any of these or have others you would add to the list.
 
I very rarely pre-order books as I never seem to find the time to read the books right when they come out. However I recently noticed that I had in fact pre-ordered a number of books from some of my favorite authors, and thus a wish list post was born! I am so excited for these books to come in and am counting down the days for all of them!
 
 
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Why did you do that to me Mummy, don’t you love me?


Kath lives with her husband Adam and daughter Lyla in a desolate stone longhouse deep in Dartmoor National Park. She likes her life the moors are beautiful, if bleak and she counts herself as happy, even if they struggle with money, and work, and her daughter's shyness.

But one day Kath wakes up from a coma, with a vague memory of a near-fatal car accident. She hugs her daughter close, likewise her husband Adam. But there’s something wrong. Adam seems furious with her and Lyla is acting evermore strangely. They should be delighted to see her alive, snatched from certain death. But they won't meet her gaze

Then Kath learns that the car crash wasn't an accident, and her whole life collapses into a world of panic, and danger.



Watching You


Gripping psychological suspense from the number one bestselling author of Then She Was Gone, as what begins as an innocent crush develops into a dangerous infatuation.


You’re back home after four years working abroad with a brand new husband in tow.

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re living with your big brother, camped out in his spare bedroom.

And then – quite unexpectedly – you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher of the local high school. He’s twice your age. And he’s devastatingly attractive.
Soon you find you’re watching him. All the time.

But what you don’t know is that someone is watching you.

Or that what has started as an innocent crush is quickly turning into an obsession as dark as it is deadly.


Family secrets, illicit passion and an unexplained murder lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell’s gripping new novel. 




The Clockmaker's Daughter


A rich, spellbinding new novel from the author of The Lake House—the story of a love affair and a mysterious murder that cast their shadow across generations, set in England from the 1860's until the present day.


My real name, no one remembers.
The truth about that summer, no one else knows.


In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor in rural Oxfordshire. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?


Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a story of murder, mystery, and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter.



Daughters of the Lake


The ghosts of the past come calling in a spellbinding heart-stopper from the “Queen of the Northern Gothic.”


After the end of her marriage, Kate Granger has retreated to her parents’ home on Lake Superior to pull herself together—only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed into the shallows. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before. In her dreams…

One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It’s time for the lake to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels, it pulls Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it’s Kate’s turn to listen.

As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, if only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.


A Spark of Light


The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.


Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.


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Check out these lovely blogs for more books to add to your wish list(updated as they become available):


Holly at 2 Kids and Tired
Stephanie at Layered Pages
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Erin at Flashlight Commentary
Magdalena at A Bookish Swede
 


Thursday, March 29, 2018

Cover Crush: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Hello, my name is Colleen and I am a cover slut. I know, I know....you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover. I just can't help myself! A beautiful cover draws my eye every single time and I can't help but pick up the book it's dressing and see if the inside seems as intriguing as the outside. Sometimes it does, and sometimes a pretty cover is just a pretty cover. Either way, I love getting an eyeful!

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin at
Flashlight Commentary, created a weekly blog post called Cover Crush and she and some other blogger friends are sharing their favorite covers each Thursday. You'll find my Cover Crush selection below and I'll link to everyone else's at the end of the post.

So, without further ado, my Cover Crush this week is.....
 
 
 
 
Full disclosure...I've already read this book and own a hardcover copy. However I kind of wish I could read it for the first time again with this cover! It has such a secret garden feel to it and I LOVE the dress on the woman making her way through the foliage. The bright, saturated color is gorgeous and I just want to stare at this one for hours (but I won't...okay maybe I will.).
 
Read on for the synopsis....


An abandoned house...

June 1933, and sixteen-year-old Alice Edevane is preparing for her family's Midsummer Eve party at their country home, Loeanneth. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.

A missing child...

Seventy years later, after a particularly troubling case, Detective Sadie Sparrow retreats to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall. Once there, she stumbles upon an abandoned house, and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace.

An unsolved mystery...

Meanwhile, in her elegant Hampstead home, the formidable Alice Edevane, now an old lady, leads a life as neatly plotted as the bestselling detective novels she writes. Until a young police detective starts asking questions about her family's past, seeking to resurrect the complex tangle of secrets Alice has spent her life trying to escape...
 
 
Don't forget to check out what covers my blogger buddies are drooling over this week (updated as they become available):


Magdalena at A Bookaholic Swede
Erin at Flashlight Commentary
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Stephanie at Layered Pages
Holly at 2 Kids and Tired



Created by Magdalena of A Bookaholic Swede
 
 

Friday, November 6, 2015

Review: The Lake House by Kate Morton


Publication Date: October 20, 2015
Atria Books
Hardcover & eBook; 512 Pages



Genre: Historical Fiction


Synopsis



From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heart-stopping suspense and uncovered secrets.


Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…

One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.

Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone…yet more present than ever.

A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read.


What Did I Think About the Story?



I have to confess right off the bat that I snatched this book up without a second thought when the lovely Amy at HF Virtual Book Tours sent the notice about the tour. After reading Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden and The Secret Keeper she joined that small list of authors who get an insta-read from me as soon as they have a new book come out (which, in Kate Morton's case, is far to seldom, but that is just me being impatient). Now, this sort of fan-girl response means I do expect a lot out of her novels as they have to live up to my high expectations of what she offers. So with this high standard in place, was I disappointed with The Lake House? Not at all, the writing is stellar! Does the book join the ranks of my all time favorite books  (where both The Forgotten Garden and The Secret Keeper hold places)? No, unfortunately I can't say that it does, although it does get darn close. With her impeccable ability to weave various story lines, time periods and complicated characters together, there were a few things that held the book out of the top of the ranks for me.


The Lake House is a chunkster of a novel (weighing in at almost 600 pages) and, while all her novels are longer with tightly knotted storylines going on, The Lake House at times felt longer than it needed to while all her other novels seemed to flow very quickly for me. I admit I'm not the fastest reader around, but I assumed I would be so wrapped up in the story that I would finish it in about a week, no problem. It ended up taking me over two weeks to finish it and while I can say I really enjoyed most of that time spent, I never became so wrapped up in what the characters were experiencing that I couldn't put it down. I spent a vast amount of time slowly reading through the descriptions of the lake house, the Cornwall countryside, beautiful and busy London, etc. because the writing is stunningly beautiful, but then was able to put it aside and pick it up again whenever I had time. The various mysteries surrounding the characters just didn't keep me so enraptured that I was glued to the pages.    


That being said, the author did a great job, as usual, of presenting a variety of conflict and mystery for the reader to try and solve, with enough twists and turns that there were still some surprises by the ending. Some of the more secondary mysteries (the secret Sadie Sparrow was keeping about her past for one) were somewhat easy to figure out early on, but all in all Kate Morton's signature style of slowly dropping information, little by little, into the narrative and the character's dialogue kept the facts well hidden until we the reader are meant to learn the full truth of what happened to these characters and why. Having Sadie Sparrow be a detective and Alice Edevane a writer of mysteries was a brilliant move as well as this allowed the reader to follow along as Sadie tried to solve the case of the missing Theo Edevane and Alice try, at first at least, to somewhat muddle the facts and divert Sadie's attention so she wouldn't.


I don't think anyone who picks up a Kate Morton novel could possibly be disappointed in the story they read. Her attention to detail, deliciously descriptive and flourishing writing style and ability to weave together the past and present in remarkable ways is unparalleled in my opinion. She has this ability to transport the reader to the nearly magical worlds the characters inhabit but, at the same time, develop the characters and show how this magical world changes over time given the maturity and wisdom that comes with age and knowledge. If you start your Kate Morton journey with The Lake House be prepared for even more enjoyment when you pick up her other books. Even with this not being my favorite of her novels, I am still a fan girl of hers for life!


What Did I Think About the Cover?



I think it's very pretty, but actually isn't my favorite Kate Morton cover. Most of the covers for her US books prominently show a stately house or cottage, gorgeous gardens and some sort of scrolling adornment along the border. These are my all time favorite kinds of covers and I've adored each one I've collected. Having the woman's face and the water on The Lake House cover obscure so much of the house and no real adornment around the border was a little bit of a disappointment to me. I'll be on the look out for the paperwork release and pick it up if it has a cover that better matches her typical covers.


My Rating: 4.5/5.0


 
Thank you to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for providing me with a free copy of The Lake House in exchange for an honest review. Be sure to continue below for more information about the author, the book, the rest of the blog tour!
 
 
 

About the Author

 
 
Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland and lives now with her husband and young sons in Brisbane. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, specializing in
nineteenth-century tragedy and contemporary Gothic novels.

Kate Morton has sold over 7.5 million copies in 26 languages, across 38 countries. Her novels include The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, and The Secret Keeper.

You can find more information about Kate Morton and her books at www.katemorton.com or www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor.



Buy the Book

 
 
 
 

Meet Kate Morton on Tour!

 
 
 
 
 

The Lake House Blog Tour Schedule

 
Monday, October 5

Review at Just One More Chapter

Tuesday, October 6

Spotlight at Passages to the Past

Thursday, October 15

Review at The Eclectic Reader
Review at History From a Woman’s Perspective

Monday, October 19

Review at The Baking Bookworm

Tuesday, October 20

Review at Unshelfish
Review at Luxury Reading

Wednesday, October 21

Review at Book Drunkard
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews

Monday, October 26

Review at Beth’s Book Nook

Tuesday, October 27

Review at Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, October 28

Review at The Maiden’s Court

Thursday, October 29

Review at Book Nerd

Friday, October 30

Review at A Chick Who Reads

Sunday, November 1

Review at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf

Monday, November 2

Review at A Book Geek
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

Tuesday, November 3

Review at Bookish
Review at Bookramblings
Review at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, November 4

Review at Broken Teepee
Review at Words and Peace

Thursday, November 5

Review at The Lit Bitch
Review at Kinx’s Book Nook

Friday, November 6

Review at A Literary Vacation
Review at Curling Up By the Fire