Taking a deep breath as we plunge into April … I won’t bore you with my complicated itinerary, but between Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Wales, Bristol, South West Scotland, Edinburgh and Rome I will only be spending five days at home this month.
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| Perfect holiday reading |
My priority before I go away is to make sure that I have a whole stack of books on my Kindle so that I have something to read at all times. I spent a lot of yesterday clicking aimlessly around Amazon, but I just wasn’t inspired. Scrolling down a screen just isn’t the same as picking a book up in a bookshop and turning it over to read the blurb (I know, I know, I’m sounding middle-aged again). I’m one of those weird people that likes to read the last page to get a feel for the book and to make sure I get a happy ending, and you can’t do that on Amazon.
Thrillers/romantic suspense are my preferred holiday reading, but I appear to have read everything by my favourite ‘travelling’ authors (Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Nora Roberts, P.J. Tracy, Tess Gerritsen …) Why can’t they write quicker?? (Not Nora, of course – no one could write more than she does!) I’ve tried a number of other thriller writers that get rave reviews – people like Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter and Mark Billingham – but have never quite clicked with them in the same way.
In the end I bought books by Lisa Gardner and J.A. Kerley, both new to me, and a Linda Howard set in the Amazon which sounds fun, so we’ll see. It’s so wonderful when you find an author and can work your way through their back list, isn’t it? Somebody recently recommended Laura Kinsale here, and I bought and enjoyed Lessons in French very much, so I’m looking forward to reading more of her books when I’m home and in the mood for historical romance. In the meantime, all recommendations for romantic suspense very welcome. I’ve got a lot of travelling to do in April, and I’m going to need a lot more than three books to keep me going!
Have you tried Susanna Kearsley? (She also writes romsus as Emma Cole.) I loved 'The Shadowy Horses' and have bought all of hers since then. Rachel Hore's "The Glass Painter's Daughter" is also a good read (has a mystery and a romance, but that might be more your thing for reading at home). I also like Susan Moody and Elizabeth McGregor (but I have a feeling they're not in ebooks). Or there's Judith Lennox, "Some Old Lover's Ghost"; "The Shadow Child" is also good.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your travels! (Rome and Edinburgh. Sigh. Envious here - can't believe it's a year since we were in Rome. Say hello to the Coliseum and the Pantheon for me...)
Loved Susanna's Sophia's Secret, Marianna and The Rose Garden. Rachel Hore's The Hidden Garden (think I've got that right). Have you read any Donna Leon - straight crime, set in Venice.
ReplyDeleteDo you read Susan Elizabeth Phillips? Try It Had To Be You - worth it just for the opening. Julie Cohen's The Summer of Living Dangerously. And Jenny Haddon recommend City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris - a "well paced thriller ... simmering sexual tension" which I have on my Kindle to take to Italy next month.
Totally envy you Rome. Missed it last year because of the ash cloud. Hoping to do better with the Lakes this year - although we've had an offer on the house and life has just hit the fan!
Liz, it's "The Memory Garden" (and I'd second that and your Donna Leon rec). Enjoy the Lakes, and yay on the house offer! Jessica, I have another one for you; I've just finished Essie Summers' "The Somnambulist", which I enjoyed - set in Victorian London and she knows her stuff (Victorian is my period, so I'm a bit picky).
ReplyDeleteRighty. Revisions, read or chocolate? (Thinks: need to discuss revs with lovely ed, so that narrows it down...)
Could have sworn I left a comment earlier so sorry if I've double posted.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway some of my travelling authours are Alexander McCall Smith, MC Beaton (Agatha Raisin), Cadfael books, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Terry Pratchett, Peter Robinson...I'll stop there
Nina x