Welcome again to another scrumptious edition of My Favourite Reads!

March was a relatively quiet reading month. We had a few things on and were busy with visitors too, so I didn’t have a lot of reading time. The books I did read, though… Wow.

Any one of them could have been my favourite for the month so I’ve decided not to choose. It’s just too hard and it’d be unfair to the books I adored just as equally.

Here are my reads. Sooooo goooood!

.

The Asylum by Karen Coles

This historical mystery was a very, very hard book to put down. Not only was The Asylum beautifully written, with a fantastic gothic atmosphere, the way the puzzle unfolded of how Maud came to reside at the Angelton Lunatic Asylum was totally compelling.

Clever Maud has been incarcerated at Angelton for five years, yet she doesn’t understand why. Her memories are locked away as securely as she is. Then a new doctor chooses her for his case study on hypnosis. As Maud’s treatment progresses, she recalls more and more about her past, and not everyone is happy about it.

A wonderful tale of malevolence, madness and revenge. Highly recommended.

.

Unbuttoning the Tuscan Tycoon by Michelle Douglas

Oh, this book was pure joy! With its stunning Tuscan setting, celebration of food and wine, and wonderfully romantic relationship between Frankie and Dante, Michelle Douglas could have written Unbuttoning the Tuscan Tycoon just for me.

Frankie is a delightful character, determined to fulfil her grandmother’s wishes and learn to be happy-go-lucky after years of stressful study. Picking grapes in Tuscany seems like the perfect escape, but when she meets vineyard boss and restauranteur Dante, her adventure takes a turn. And in the most delicious way!

Absolutely gorgeous and very highly recommended. Love the cover too.

I see that this is has been subtitled on Amazon “One Summer in Italy Book 1”. Which means there’ll be a book two, I’m guessing with Frankie’s cousin. Rah! Can’t wait!

.

Sleeping Partner by Kelly Hunter

Sigh. I so adore Kelly Hunter’s romances. They just sing.

Sleeping Partner was particularly on song too. I loved the Penang setting with its colour and colourful characters, and I adored the magnificent but neglected old hotel that the heroine Mia has inherited. The staff were sweet and funny and Ethan, our hero, was a total babe. As for the emotional conflicts… They were big and heart-wrenchy and had me turning those pages like mad.

Absolutely gorgeous story, loaded with atmosphere and angst and Hunter’s trademark fun and snappy dialogue. Loved it.

.

The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon

I’m such a fan of Amy Harmon. She writes the most glorious and moving romances, and across all sorts of settings and time periods. She’s an auto-buy author for me so I didn’t really pay much attention to The Songbook of Benny Lament’s blurb when I grabbed it. I just started reading, thinking it’d be another of wonderful, beautifully written romances.

Which it was. But it was also so much more.

Written from the perspective of talented musician and songwriter Benny, The Songbook of Benny Lament tells the story of his mob connected family and his relationship with singer Esther Mine. It’s a relationship that tests the boundaries and even laws of the time, and sees Benny and Esther under constant threat.

This is a story about music and family and race set against a backdrop of social change and turbulence in ‘60s America.

Fascinating, enlightening, and triumphant.

.

The Lost Notebook by Louise Douglas

I’ve read quite a few Louise Douglases now. I really like her writing style (my favourite, and also one of my all-time favourite reads, is The Secrets Between Us) and she’s excellent at making settings come alive and creating atmosphere – usually gothicy, which is right up my alley.

The Lost Notebook is her latest release proved no different. Evocative and engrossing, it kept me riveted throughout.

English Mila has come to Brittany to temporarily care for her orphaned niece until she heads to boarding school. But when an elderly traveller woman dies in what Mila thinks are suspicious circumstances and no one cares, Mila feels compelled to dig deeper. Except someone out there doesn’t want her to know the truth.

I still have The Room in the Attic on my to-be-read pile and look forward to devouring that one too.

.

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

Wowsers! What a read this mystery/thriller was. The Butterfly Garden had been coming up in my recommendations for a while, but I hadn’t thought much of it. Then I looked closer and noticed all the rave reviews and decided to see what the fuss was about.

So glad I did because it was a cracking read. So cracking I immediately bought the next in the series.

The Butterfly Garden hooked me from the first page and didn’t let go. Maya, the narrator of much of the book, was an amazing character. Damaged and prickly, yet tough and clever and brave and hugely likeable. I loved how the story was told, too. That was smart and made for great tension.

Can’t recommend this enough. Go check it out. It’s fantastic.

.

What books have enthralled you recently?

.