Happily I ‘mostly’ succeeded in getting through the books I targeted for reading last week.

Chelsea Cain’s One Kick  was great and I read it in a sitting (and have already published my review along with my post on Caroline Overington’s Can You Keep a Secret? ). Similarly I read Jaye Ford’s Already Dead in a night (review coming this week).

However… I then got stuck on Tana French’s The Secret Place. I struggled through the first third and then avoided picking it up for three nights in a row (wasting valuable reading time!), so finally called it quits. I didn’t just delete it from my Reader and rate it a DNF (as I’d normally do), but rather skimmed the last 2/3 so I knew what eventuated (a girl needs closure!!!). My #mehness was mostly down to unlikeable characters… and a complete lack of engagement on my part.

As a result I started a book on the weekend which was on the agenda for this coming week; a book released by Blue Rider Press in June. I’ll be getting the review up this week sometime but was gobsmacked at how much I enjoyed it. Shirley, by Susan Scarf Merrell is a fact / fiction combo: a fictional account of a young couple’s year spent with American author Shirley Jackson. Incidentally. It’s promoted as a psychological thriller. But it’s not. It is however, beautifully written and astonishingly addictive!

In my ‘to-read’ pile the closest publication date is 11 September (Harlan Coben) so I’m actually going to spend this week catching up on books I didn’t request until they’d already been published (like Shirley). I don’t know any of the authors so have no idea what to expect, but I’m a sucker for a good backcover blurb.

Joanna Briscoe’s Touched  published by Random House UK is apparently a ‘deeply creepy novella’. It was released in July this year.

When I Wasn’t Watching  is yet another missing / murdered child mystery via Carina UK and written by Michelle Kelly. It seems the sort of book I’d usually be happy to find at the library. It was released this month.

And because one of the books on my list is a novella, I’m pretty sure I’ll get to the new Harlan Coben as well (unless something new pops up in NetGalley before then). Found  via Orion Publishing Group is the latest in the Mickey Bolitar YA series. I don’t usually read YA novels and am always nervous about reading something midway through a series, but… I loved Coben’s last book. (Well that and I didn’t realise it was part of a YA series!) 😉

 

So that’s my weekly reading. If you’re a reader, what’s on your reading agenda?

I’m again linking up with Sheila from Book Journey!