Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be
Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books
that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at
the Mailbox Monday blog. Head over and check out other books received during the last week.
Happy Monday!
I haven't managed to post a mailbox Monday for some time and this is my first one for 2020. Today I have listed the books I received as gifts from family and friends.
We had a busy Christmas period with all the children home for Christmas day lunch. The day was so busy I didn't even manage to take a photo.
My eldest daughter announced her engagement in the new year which was very exciting for the whole family.
Dot starts school in February, so only a few more weeks and she will starting a whole new adventure. Her introduction to preschool didn't go too well so we all have our fingers crossed for those first few weeks of school. Ditto also starts on his new adventure as a preschool boy so it will be very quiet at home soon.
Books received from family and friends:
The Model Wife by Tricia Stringer
Natalie King's life is
full. Some might say too full. With her teaching job, a farm to run,
three grown daughters who have not quite got a handle on things, a
reserved husband and a demanding mother-in-law, most days she is too
busy to think about whether she is happy. But her life has meaning,
doesn't it? After all, she is the one person everyone depends upon.
But
when an odd gift from her mother-in-law - an old book in the form of
stern and outdated advice for young wives - surfaces again, it brings
with it memories she thought she had buried deep. Has this insidious
little book exerted some kind of hold over her? Could it be that in her
attempts to be a loving wife and mother, she no longer knows who she is?
The Cottage at Rosella Cove by Sandie Docker
LOST
Nicole has left
her city life for the sleepy town of Rosella Cove, renting the old
cottage by the water. She plans to keep to herself - but when she
uncovers a hidden box of wartime love letters, she realises she's not
the
first person living in this cottage to hide secrets and pain.
FOUND
Ivy's
quiet life in Rosella Cove is tainted by the events of World War II,
with ramifications felt for many years to come. But one night a drifter
appears and changes everything. Perhaps his is the soul she's meant to
save.
FORGOTTEN
Charlie is too afraid of his past to form any
lasting ties in the cove. He knows he must make amends for his tragic
deeds long ago, but he can't do it alone. Maybe the new tenant in the
cottage will help him fulfil a promise and find the redemption he isn't
sure he deserves.
The Kookaburra Creek Cafe by Sandie Docker
THE PAST
For
Hattie, the cafe has been her refuge for the last fifty years – her
second chance at a happy ending after her dreams of being a star were
shattered. But will the ghosts of her past succeed in destroying
everything she’s worked so hard to build?
THE PRESENT
For
Alice, the cafe is her livelihood. After Hattie took her in as a
teenager, Alice has slowly forged a quiet life as the cafe’s manager
(and chief cupcake baker). But with so many tragedies behind her, is it
too late for Alice’s story to have a happy ending?
THE FUTURE
For
Becca, a teenager in trouble, the cafe could be the new start she
yearns for. That is, if she can be persuaded to stop running from her
secrets. Can Becca find a way to believe in the kindness of strangers,
and accept that this small town could be the place where she finally
belongs?
The Wolf Hour by Sarah Myles
Thirty-year-old Tessa
Lowell has a PhD in psychology and is working in Uganda to research the
effects of PTSD and war on child soldiers. She joins a delegation
travelling across the Congolese border, deep into the African bush, for
peace talks with Joseph Kony, notorious leader of the Lord's Resistance
Army.
At the camp Tessa meets thirteen-year-old Francis,
already an experienced soldier and survivor of shocking violence. The
talks stall, and the camp is attacked by other rebels who take Tessa.
Isolated in an increasingly volatile situation, she tries to form a bond
with Francis.
In Melbourne, Tessa's parents are notified of the
kidnapping, but learn there is little that government agencies can do.
Desperate, they contact their son Stephen, an astute if manipulative
businessman based in Cape Town. He agrees to search for his sister but
has other reasons to contact the rebel forces.
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow
is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow
whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s
secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when
she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But
nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women
come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their
lives. Brilliant and beguiling, The Wife and The Widow takes you to a cliff edge and asks the question: how well do we really know the people we love?
Books received from the publisher:
The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Penman
1172. The Kingdom of
Jerusalem, also known as 'Outremer', the land beyond the sea. Outremer
was a young realm, one baptized in blood when the men of the First
Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. Those crusaders
who stayed had to adapt to an utterly new world, a land of blazing heat
and exotic customs and enemies who were also neighbors.
Balian
d'Ibelin had long enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect with Saladin.
But Saladin was set upon taking Jerusalem by storm, seeing it as a
blood debt, retribution for the massacre in 1099. Defeating Saladin
would have been a challenge for any king, but while Baldwin IV was
intelligent, educated, charismatic, courageous, and dedicated to the
welfare and protection of his people, he was also doomed by his
affliction with leprosy. However, he fought his disease as fiercely as
he fought the Saracens, though, and when he learned that Saladin was
planning to invade Outremer, he won a remarkable victory over a much
larger Saracen army at Montisgard in 1177; Saladin himself barely
escaped capture. Balian took part in that battle, too, for he was loyal
to his young, dying king. Eventually, Balian's finest hour would come,
for he convinced Saladin to accept a peaceful surrender . . .