This week...

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading week!

I finished my first 5 star read for the year! Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey. I was already a fan of this author, and this book took it to the next level for me! You can read my review here.

Next up was The Storyteller's Daughter by Victoria Scott, which features a WWII mystery, an old house and so much more. My review is here. 

I also read the third book in the Skylarks series by Helen Rolfe which is called Something in the Air. My review for this will be up later this week. 

My current read is An Italian Island Secret by Victoria Springfield, which has whisked me off to the Italian island of Ischia. I wish I could visit for real, but alas, it isn't to be as we have other travel plans for this year.

I'm watching



I am very excited as Bake off : The Professionals is back for another season! I love this particular version of Bake Off which features professional bakers being set the most amazing and difficult challenges. There are some amazing creations. There are also some disasters!

Another thing that was back this week was Sail GP. They changed one of the key elements on the boats for this race and it led to some very exciting racing!

I started watching the TV adaptation of Beth O'Leary's book, The Road Trip. I will get back to that next week I think.

We watched a new movie on Netflix this week called The Six Triple Eight, which tells the story of an all African American female battalion who are tasked with the almost impossible task of clearing a huge backlog of 17 million letters and packages during WWII. It stars Kerry Washington, and features a couple of notable cameo appearances. We really liked it and thought it was pretty well done.

Life

Last week was a pretty quiet week really. 

My thoughts have turned towards actively looking for a new job! Wish me luck!

Max

A couple of  months ago, Max was really sick, but he is pretty much like he was before now. He still has quite a few big patches of hair missing which you can see on his head and belly, but he is wanted to play tug of war, chase the ball and so much more, which is quite a relief.

Here he is lying on the cool of the tiles because it is hot here at the moment!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books and Blogging Goals for 2025

Blog Tour: Widows Waive the Rules by Julia Jarman
Blog Tour: Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey
Weekend Cooking: What We Ate on Holidays - South Australia

Sunday Salon: 2024 Year in Review

Blog Tour: The Storyteller's Daughter




I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Blog Tour: The Storyteller's Daughter by Victoria Scott

 

Beth Bineham's life is falling apart. Her husband wants a divorce, and she made a terrible gaffe on National TV which lead to her being stood down from her role in the family firm. When her great-aunt Nita passes away, her family charges her with sorting out the house before they can sell it!

Beth made it to the family home, Melham Manor, just in time to see Nita before she passed, and her last words have intrigued Beth. There is a box in the attic which contains some documents that related to Nita's past, in particular in relation to her short period working at the nearby town's local newspaper during WWII.

Nita is what you would call eccentric, but Beth has great memories of spending time with her at Melham Manor, until suddenly the visits stop, mainly because her mother didn't like Nita. Now, Beth is trying to work out what Nita's secrets are.

Nita had been raised as the privileged daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Her brother Frank is off fighting in the war, but Nita is expected to marry and have children. Nita is given the chance to work as a volunteer at the local newspaper, never expecting that she would have the chance to be a reporter. When she and her colleagues hear a story about the possibility of a German spy working in their area, they are all determined to track him down.

This is a dual timeline book, so whilst we hear Nita's story, we also get to see Beth as she follows the clues of her great-aunt's story, and navigates her own trials. She was a bit blindsided by her husband's determination to divorce and so she is trying to figure out what comes next for her and her young children. When she is offered the chance to do a little reporting of her own for the same small town newspaper that Nita worked for, she begins to see a way to reimagine her own life, away from the control of her family.

I love a book where an old house is a character in a book. In this case, Melham Manor is a place which has clearly been loved over the years, but as Nita has gotten older she has been unable to keep up. She does have many items hoarded within the house, including some items that are worth a lot of money, if only Beth can uncover them all before her father sells the house, unless Beth can perhaps change his mind. 

This was a good read, and there were some really interesting things that came up, including some Wiccan practices, old secrets, secret identities, WWII intrigue and more. 

I hadn't read Victoria Scott before either under that name or her other name of Victoria Darke. I will be looking for more from her at some point.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews, and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. 

Rating 4/5

About the book

The Storyteller's Daughter

A secret buried for decades… A story that will change everything.

1940: When twenty-one-year-old Nita Bineham is offered the chance of independence, away from the high walls of her family’s Surrey estate, she grasps it with both hands. But her new role at a local newspaper coincides with the emergence of a sinister rumour in their quiet village: that there is a traitor in their midst. Nita is determined to prove herself by uncovering the truth, but is she prepared for revelations that could change her life forever?

2008: Following the death of her great aunt, Beth flees London for the privacy of rural Surrey. Within the confines of her family’s dilapidated manor house, she hides from the dual wreckage of her career and her marriage. But when her aunt’s dying words lead her to a stack of old newspaper articles, Beth finds herself drawn into a decades old mystery: about a long-buried secret, and an enemy dangerously close to home.

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/storytellersdaughter

About the Author

Victoria Scott has been a journalist for many media outlets including the BBC and The Telegraph. She is the author of three novels published by Head of Zeus. Her first book for Boldwood is a Gothic timeslip novel, The House in the Water.



Social Media Links –

Facebook: @VictoriaScottJournalist

Twitter: @Toryscott

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Bookbub profile: @toryscott