My Week In Review to the 26th August

Dragonfly Cafe, Tavistock 

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
Yesterday I finished I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith, one for my Classics Club Challenge. I hadn't read it before - or seen the film - and it wasn't at all what I had expected, but I did love the story.
Now I am reading C H Clepitt's newest novel, Curtain Call.


We popped over to see our friends Chris and Marta (and Banksy the Cat) in Tavistock this week. It was great to catch up with each other's news and we finally got to see the lovely Dragonfly Cafe in the town where Marta now works and organises the perpetual art exhibition. The tea is excellent and I enjoyed briefly wandering around looking at the art. Chris even sold one of his quirky Fishing Boat automata models while we were there so the purchaser got to meet the artist which was fun! Of course, if I were a more organised blogger, I would have snapped a photo of the moment for you! In lieu of that, there's three examples of Chris's work on the shelf in this photo:

I got a lovely tweet from publishers Endeavour Quill:

Another brilliant review of #ConradMonk - thanks @Stephanie_Jne! https://t.co/OtERi7kcvC #newbooks #funnyfiction #TheLastKingdom #historicalfiction @EdoardoAlbert pic.twitter.com/g0jwBiWc0A

— Endeavour Quill (@EndeavourQuill) August 24, 2018

If you like Saxon-Viking era historical fiction and didn't spot Conrad Monk And The Great Heathen Army on NetGalley, take a look at my review which will be blogged on Thursday. Great historical research and a fun adventure storyline!


There was bizarreness for the We Only Saw Happiness giveaway winner picking on Friday. I had to invalidate the first Gleam pick because that person claimed to have completed the Daily Comment entry over about eight days - one of which was picked - yet hadn't left a single comment on any day. This is only a one-person blog - did they really think I wouldn't notice their deceit?! Grrr! I've never had that situation before.
Still, Gleam allows me invalidations so now let's all congratulate Susan T who Did complete the entry she said she had! (Check your emails Susan!)

Giveaways closing soon:
26/08 INT: The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh HB book
31/8 INT: Literary Flits Spotlight post (free book promo!)
31/08 UK: 1 of 5 copies of Twenty Theatres To See Before You Die by Amber Massie-Blomfield (link goes to Official London Theatre website)
31/8 INT: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and The Gin Thief PBs (link goes to S C Barrus' website)
1/9 USA and Can: Signed PB of The Love Fool by Lorenzo Petruzziello

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 19th August
Artisan Rainbow - Bookmarks

Heidi by Johanna Spyri review + #FreeBook + #cake #giveaway
Revolutions: Parabola by Mateusz Skutnik graphic novel review
The Last Plantagenet? by Jennifer C Wilson short story review + Excerpt
Desirable Body by Hubert Haddad - Frankenstein retelling review
The Tale Of The Missing Man by Manzoor Ahtesham DNF review
The High Mountains Of Portugal by Yann Martel review
The Dead Wake Anthology by Ellie Douglas spotlight

Around the blogosphere:
Sherry Jolly reviewed Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
vvb32 reviewed A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Jovita at Inky Impressions considers The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins for her Books From The Backlog

Have a great week :-)

My Week in Review to the 19th August

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
The last couple of days I have been struggling to connect with The High Mountains Of Portugal by Yann Martel. I loved Life Of Pi so had high hopes for High Mountains. It might get better. I've been somewhat distracted since Thursday with New Happenings so my reading focus was pretty much non-existent!


And those New Happenings can be seen in that photo top right! Our new-to-us almost-vintage Hymer motorhome! Woo hoo!

It's shown pitched up at the lovely Ashe Farm Campsite where we stayed after picking it up on Thursday. We bought it from Somerset Motorhome Centre who kindly paid for a night's pitch fees so we could try it out while remaining close by the dealership - the campsite is just a few miles down the road. We thought this a great idea and did nearly need to ring up a couple of times with questions although we managed to figure out potential problems ourselves.

This motorhome is a mix of technology we're used to from caravanning and new ideas such as the onboard watertanks. It's nice to not be as overwhelmed as when we first set out with our caravan - all those years ago. And the motorhome being a German manufactured one means I will need to brush up my A level German pretty sharpish in order to make sense of the instructions. For example 'kreis' doesn't mean 'cross' as I had guessed. It means 'circle' as in electrical circuit. That's hopefully a word I won't forget in a hurry!

We did already discover a couple of things we were told on the handover aren't true - we don't need to whack the outside locker catches to make them close for example! Now we're eager to get on the road and away. Will someone Please buy our Torquay apartment?!

Giveaways closing soon:
22/08 INT: We Only Saw Happiness by Gregoire Delacourt PB book
25/08 INT: Boy On The Beach by R D Maddux books and Amazon gift cards


Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 12th August
Bookish Bingo - August 2018
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway and #FreeBook Linkup

The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh review + #Giveaway
The Love Fool by Lorenzo Petruzziello + #Giveaway
How To Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs review
The Gathering by Bernadette Giacomazzo + #Giveaway
A Blessing In Disguise by C H Clepitt audiobook review
The Path To Change by Pope Francis review
The Benevolent Dictator by Tom Trott + Guest Post


Around the blogosphere:
Chuckles discusses crime fiction likes and dislikes at Chuckles Book Cave
Avalinah's Books welcomes more new bloggers to the book blog community
The Butterfly Reader doesn't think that shooting fireworks from one's hands is a good magical power!

Have a great week :-)

My Week in Review to the 12th August

Bye bye Solena! 

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up again with What Are You Reading at The Book Date: Historical fiction at the moment because I am reading Of Faith And Fidelity by Evan Ostryzniuk. Next up I think will be Frankenstein retelling Desirable Body by Hubert Haddad.

Sad non-bookish news this week because we have sold our Raclet Solena trailer tent. The photo is from our last holiday in it in July. Much as we loved camping in Solena, Dave found its putting up strained his bad shoulder and he feels perhaps he is getting too old for tent camping. We do, of course, have an exciting replacement on the way which we're picking up on Thursday. If you're a Facebook friend, you might already have guessed what it is. If not, more news next week!

A blogging milestone on Wednesday: We Only Saw Happiness was the 800th book I've featured on Literary Flits! 800 books on 800 consecutive days! There's a giveaway to win my copy of this book too so click through and help celebrate this 'historic moment', lol.

Finally for this week's news, we saw The League Of Gentlemen at the Princess Theatre last night - our 15th Anniversary treat. The show is brilliant! Hilariously funny and an unbelievably slick production. All the best characters are there and I loved every minute. If tickets weren't so pricey, I'd go see it again tonight!

Giveaways closing soon:
13/08: ebook of Three by K J McGillick

16/08: ebook of Letter To Country by Rethabile Masilo

18/08: PBs of The Collision Of Grief And Gratitude by Rosanne Liesveld

Posts on my blogs this week were:
#WorldReads - Five Books From Iraq
My week in Review to the 5th August
Artisan Rainbow - Satchels
#ReadingWomen - August 2018

Duck Egg Blues by Martin Ungless + Author Interview
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett review
The Bespokist Society Guide to…London review
We Only Saw Happiness by Gregoire Delacourt review + #Giveaway
Resin by Ane Riel review
Blood Ribbon by Roger Bray
The Last Lie She Told by K J McGillick + Excerpt + #FreeBook

Around the blogosphere:

Greg at Book Haven wrote Some Thoughts About Book Blogging

Brittani at Hope, Faith and Books posted her Bout Of Books reading list (the next BoB starts on the 20th Aug)

Have a great week :-)

My week in Review to the 5th August

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up for the first time with What Are You Reading at The Book Date:
I've just finished The Wrath And The Dawn which I'll be reviewing on the 12th, and I'm about to start something completely different for me, The Path To Change by Pope Francis.

Four giveaway wins to tell you about this week! Firstly, congratulations to author Ellie Douglas whose zombie book The Dead Wake Anthology won July's Spotlight Post Giveaway! I'll be featuring it on Literary Flits soon.
If you are (or know of) an author who could use a bit of free promo, make sure you add your book(s)' links to This Linkup. I randomly pick one to post about each month and the next draw will be on the 1st September. (If you don't want to wait, you can of course buy Spotlight posts for £5 each!)

Stacey T won my Blood In The Woods by J P Willie giveaway. If you're reading this Stacey, check your emails!

The other giveaways were won by Me! The lovely people at No Exit Press ran an audiobook giveaway on Their Facebook Page and I am now eagerly anticipating listening to The Language Of Secrets, a Canadian crime thriller by Ausma Zehanat Khan. Then C H Clepitt offered five promo codes for her brand new audio short story, A Blessing In Disguise, and I was lucky enough to be on Her Facebook Page at just the right time! Thank you No Exit Press and C H Clepitt!

I read the last book of this year's Decade Challenge this week. It's my fourth year of doing this challenge and I've managed to not yet need repeats! The idea is to read a book that was first published in each of the decades from 1900 to the current year - twelve books in all. This year's challenge started on the 1st of September 2017 and finishes at the end of August 2018 so I still had a month to go! I like that this one starts mid-year because it takes a bit of reading pressure off December. If anyone wants to join me, I'll be restarting a new year's Decade Challenge on the 1st of September. More info nearer the time, but first here's my 2017-18 Decade Challenge reads, all linked to their Literary Flits reviews:

1903 - The Souls Of Black Folk by W E B du Bois
1910 - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1923 - The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
1930s - Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz
1943 - Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
1956 - The World Jones Made by Philip K Dick
1969 - Heroes And Villains by Angela Carter
1978-9 - Territory Of Light by Yuko Tsushima
1988 - A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
1998 - Havana Black by Leonardo Padura
2007 - The Running Man by Gilbert Tuhabonye
2017 - Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Giveaways closing soon:
None closing this week

Posts on my blogs this week were:
State Of The ARC - July 2018
My Week in Review to the 29th July
A Month In Books - July 2018
Artisan Rainbow - Sleep Masks
August Authorfest - reading new-to-me authors

The Daughter of River Valley by Victoria Cornwall
Boy On The Beach by R D Maddux + #Giveaway
Hunter's Chase by Val Penny
Entangled Lives by Imran Omer + review
Letter To Country by Rethabile Masilo + #Giveaway
A World Without Color by Bernard Jan + review
The Promise by Michelle Vernal + review

Around the blogosphere:

Evelina at Avalinah's Books has written a thoughtful and in-depth review of Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows by Balli Jaur Kaswal

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction has her regular Wrap Up Roundup Link Up

Chuckles at Chuckles Book Cave has an August Authorfest challenge to read new-to-her authors

Have a great week :-)

Artisan Rainbow - Sleep Masks 

My Week in Review to the 29th July

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

So last Monday, a week ago today, we spent practically all day driving from Sussex to Devon, then returning our trailer tent to its storage facility before finally getting to our Torquay flat at about 7pm. I was so exhausted I nearly caused a minor bump outside the Co-Op. If the other (fortunately alert) driver is reading this, I'm sorry!

Tuesday was a relaxing day where the washing machine did most of the work and I caught up with a good chunk of commenting and blog visiting. So my week started properly on Wednesday morning with a lovely surprise tweet from Weidenfeld and Nicolson. I've won their Bastille Day giveaway! All the lovely books pictured at the top of this post are heading my way! We're obviously supposed to be clearing from our flat right now, not adding to its contents - Dave will be so thrilled!!

Is everyone coping ok with the heatwave resurgence? I'm kinda happy we're back in the flat through August because the lounge at least is shady and cool for most of the day. That FurnaceFriday completely failed to materialise here in Torquay - it actually felt a bit nippy here with the cloud and breeze - and we didn't get to see the blood moon either! Still, I'm getting through a lot of tea to stay hydrated, especially flavours I can leave to go cold. My favourites are Twinings Buttermint which tastes like drinking Murray Mints if you're old enough to remember them! (Are they still made?) I recently cashed in my Maximiles points for a Spice Kitchen loose tea selection pack which arrived this week. Unfortunately each tea is packaged in little self-seal plastic bags which isn't very #PlasticFreeJuly, but they are delicious. If you haven't drunk their Strawberries And Cream Tea blend, you're missing one of my summer highlights!

Huge congratulations to Sheri who's won the bakerdays Letterbox Cake giveaway that closed on Saturday night! This was my second most popular giveaway ever with over 240 entrants - thank you all! If you're not Sheri, don't despair! There's lots more giveaways and freebies listed in Stephanie Jane's Giveaway Linkup and here are the ones you need to get your skates on to enter:

Giveaways closing soon:
30th July
Win PBs of Death In Dulwich and The Girl In The Gallery, both by Alice Castle

31st July
Authors wanting to Win a free Spotlight Post, make sure your book is added to the Spotlight Giveaway Linkup
Bloggers, let me know if you want me to check out your blog for potential nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award
Win a signed PB of The Invisible Case by Isabella Muir

1st August
Win a PB of Blood In The Woods by J P Willie plus your choice of HellBounds books PB

4th August
Win ebooks of On The Fault or Love Beneath The Mighty Dome, both by Ronald J Wichers

Posts on my blogs this week were:
The Versatile Blogger Award
My Week in Review to the 22nd July
Artisan Rainbow - Bracelets
Books From The Backlog - The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
50/50 Friday - Best/Worst Book From the First Half of the Year

Letting Go of Gravity by Meg Leder + #Giveaway + Guest Post
May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes
He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott
Lightness by Catherine Meurisse graphic novel
The Girl In The Gallery by Alice Castle + #Giveaway
Identity Unknown by Karolina Wojciak
The Invisible Case by Isabella Muir + #Giveaway + Excerpt

Around the blogosphere:
I love Kristen's Top Ten Heart Covers at Metaphors And Moonlight, especially the designs for Paper Valentine and Risen.
Joe Congel talks about his journey From Cartoonist To Writer
Danielle at Books Vertigo And Tea discusses why she Appreciates A Negative Review

Have a great week :-)

Artisan Rainbow - Bracelets 

My Week in Review to the 22nd July

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm got a GoFundMe appeal today which I hope might twang your purse strings or at least get you to click through and hit a share button or two. It's not actually Me being GoFunded (is that a word?) but my sister's friends, talented actresses and playwrights Alexandra and Kate Donnachie, who are taking their play 3 Years, 1 Week And A Lemon Drizzle to Edinburgh! They've got pretty much everything sorted except their own accommodation which is the purpose of this appeal. If you can help out at all, I know it would be very much appreciated. The play explores the true experiences of the sisters in coping when Alexandra developed an eating disorder. There's lots more information Through This Link or you can Buy Your Edinburgh Tickets here. Thank you!


My week has been pretty chaotic and has mainly consisted of zooming between different friends, hours of great chats, and far too much good food. I'm not complaining about the food you understand?! The pace doesn't let up until we drive back to Torquay today and I haven't even really got time to write this post. Apologies for any bizarre typos! And remember my pride last week at having caught up with all my commenting? Yeah, that didn't last long did it. Oops!

In lieu of a 'proper' post, here's a quartet of this week's good eateries that I'm happy to recommend if you're ever thereabouts:

In Cheam, London, Tasha's Tearoom  has a lovely atmosphere with elegant decor. The Banana And Pomegranate Cake is lush - and generously sliced!
In Herstmonceux, Sussex, Indian restaurant Eastern Promise is well worth a try. We'd been here before and were happy to return. My Vegetable Balti was rich and delicious.
In Eastbourne, Sussex, traditional fish and chips doesn't get better than that served at The Holiday Inn. This restaurant has been a favourite of ours for over a decade. We only get to visit annually now and it's a keenly anticipated treat.
Ganapati South Indian Kitchen in Peckham, London, is another superb Indian restaurant with delicious vegetarian thalis.


Posts on my blogs this week were:
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway and #FreeBook Linkup
My Week in Review to the 15th July
Artisan Rainbow - Coasters

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood
Liberty Landing by Gail Vida Hamburg + #Giveaway
Dortmund Hibernate by C J Sutton + Excerpt
Blood In The Woods by J P Willie + #Giveaway + #FreeBook
Notes From A Big Country by Bill Bryson
The Collision Of Grief And Gratitude by Rosanne Liesveld + #Giveaway
Hold by Michael Donkor

Around the blogosphere:
I'll get back to this!

Have a great week :-)

Artisan Rainbow - Coasters 

My Week in Review to the 15th July

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.
And in bookish news, I am linking up again with Book Photo Sundays over at Ronyell's Rabbit Ears Book Blog.

I think it might just about have been as hot in Spain when this photo was taken as it is now in the UK - perhaps not quite as I am happily reading out in the sun there whereas I've been keenly seeking shade this weekend. I first blogged this photo in the post Sizzling In The Sagunt Sunshine in November 2014.


Dave and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary of togetherness on Friday and, in a nice piece of serendipity, spent the evening with the two people who introduced us all those years ago - thank you Gilly and Dave! Then Saturday evening saw us at the 140th birthday party for our friends Andy and Barbara. (they've 70 years each). So congrats there too! The party was huge and we got to catch up with people we haven't seen in months which was great. Plus the food was unending and delicious (who made the banoffee pie?) and I can now recommend the band The Skarlettos with their fun Two-Tone/Ska vibe!

My Week in Review got pushed a day later than usual because yesterday was the 15th of the month and so time to refresh my Giveaway Linkup. This is a melange of free book links and giveaway competitions, all of which should be current (or at least were up until a couple of days ago when I tidied up the links!) Anything with a date is a giveaway, without a date is a perma-freebie. Feel welcome to add your own as well as entering/downloading any that take your fancy. There's lots of books for everybody and, if you're on the UK mainland, there's a cake giveaway too! (Please note, America is NOT on the UK mainland)

Disappointing news that our Torquay flat which we put up for sale last week has only had one viewing so far. Maybe due to the weather, the football World Cup, the imminent end of the school term, or a hundred and one other reasons! For whatever reason, if you're browsing RightMove this week could you just give our RightMove listing a quick share round your social media?!


Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 8th July
ReadingWomen - July 2018
Artisan Rainbow - Tote Bags
Books From The Backlog - H2O: A Biography of Water
50/50 Friday - Favourite Book That's the Most/Least Quotable
A Bakerdays cake for our 15th Anniversary! + #Cake #Giveaway

Daughter Of The Sea by Maggie Freeman
Love Beneath The Mighty Dome by Ronald J Wichers + #Giveaway
Riding Shotgun and Other American Cruelties by Andy Rausch
Bottled Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Read, Write, Love At Seaside by Addison Cole + #FreeBook
Death In Dulwich by Alice Castle + #Giveaway

Around the blogosphere:
Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you Sarah! You can read Sarah's Seven Facts About Herself here and I'm hoping to get mine posted later this week.

Have a great week :-)

Artisan Rainbow - Tote Bags