Welcome to My Favourite Reads, the blog series where I share the books I’ve loved reading over the past month and encourage you to do the same. Gotta share around the book love!

We were on the road to South Australia for a couple of weeks in August for the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Adelaide, and afterwards to Mt Gambier, in the state’s south-east, to see my family. Normally, I don’t get a lot of reading done when we’re away but this time I surprised myself.

Typically, I’d manage only three or four books. Instead, I read seven. Not all have made it to the favourites list. A couple were so-so reads for me and not recommendable.

Here are the ones that are, with my favourite being…

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Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

I’ve been a Kate Clayborn fan since reading Love Lettering. That was a brilliant romance (read my thoughts on that here), as was her three-book Chance of a Lifetime series (check out Beginner’s Luck here). So I was very excited to pick up Georgie, All Along.

She didn’t let me down.

This was a gorgeous story. Romantic, beautiful and heartwarming, and fantastically written. I adored Georgie. She was fun and clever and messy and so easy to like. But the hero Levi… SWOON!!! He was completely sighworthy. Damaged, yet trying to be better for Georgie.

I loved the premise, with Georgie wanting to discover her new self by going back to a teenage to-do list. The meet-cute was sweet too. Georgie’s hippie parents were hilarious, and I liked the other friend and family subplots too. The latter was quite moving and its resolution very satisfying.

So good. So, so good.

I have Love at First to read next. Rah!

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The Hanging City by Charlie N Holmberg

I wasn’t sure I’d like this. I couldn’t get into the previous Charlie N Holmberg I tried, and a troll romance? Not really my thing. Except, apparently it is!

I loved The Hanging City. It was romantic and cleverly done and the writing was lovely. I thought the worldbuilding was great too. Lark, the heroine, has been on the run from her exploitative father for years and is desperate for a place to belong. With nothing left to lose, she takes a chance on the human-hating troll city of Cagmar and is only permitted to stay thanks to her cursed power of being able to thrust terror into any creature. Except not everyone is happy at her arrival, her father is on her tail and her curse becomes increasingly difficult to hide.

This had a real found family aspect which I adored but the biggest surprise was the romance. I didn’t think I’d like that at all, but it was compelling and sweet, and I was barracking for them like crazy by the end.

Fab stuff. I’m now going to give Still The Sun a go.

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The Nazi’s Engineer by J. Robert Kennedy

I love this series. It’s bonkers, but the books are hugely entertaining and very hard to put down. I started this on our road-trip back from the Romance Writers of Australia conference and had it read well before home.

The Nazi’s Engineer sees the professors discovering famous Russian treasure, the Amber Room. Thought to have been destroyed in the Second World War, the pieces are found crated in a sealed mine. It’s the discovery of the century but a slip from a worker sees word get out. The treasure is stolen to order by professional thieves, and the professors kidnapped, needed as experts to validate the room to its purchaser. Only, the thieves don’t realise who they’re dealing with.

Nuts. But I loved it.

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The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas

I’ve read quite a few Louise Douglas books and while a couple didn’t hit the spot, most I found stunning, with gorgeous writing, and great mysteries and atmospheres. My favourite is The Secrets Between Us, but In Her Shadow and The House by the Sea (my thoughts on that one here) were also excellent.

The Room in the Attic is another I can add to that list. Mostly set in the past in a creepy asylum turned boarding school, it follows the fate of Nurse Emma and her charge Harriet from the asylum years, and Lewis and Isak, two motherless boys banished to the bleak boarding school. When Lewis discovers bones, he’s compelled to learn about Emma and her fate. But doing so puts the two boys in danger.

A wonderful story, beautifully told and poignant. Nice twist at the end, too. Gotta love that!

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Mrs Hudson and the Lazarus Testament by Martin Davies

Mrs Hudson and the Lazarus Testament is book three of the Holmes and Hudson mysteries (although my fourth read), a series that started with the excellent Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse (my thoughts here). And another hugely enjoyable addition to this Holmesian spinoff.

When Flottie witnesses the death of a man on Baker Street and hears his last words, they don’t seem to make sense. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are no use. They’re too busy chasing an ancient artefact that could change the course of history. Meanwhile, Mrs Hudson has her own conundrum, with the suspected haunting of an isolated property on the moors.

As usual, lots of twists and turns and even some laughs (thank you, Hetty) as our sleuths search for answers to their puzzles.

Love this series. It’s entertaining and a great perk up whenever I hit a reading slump. Next stop: Mrs Hudson and the Samarkand Conspiracy.

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What have been your recent favourite reads?

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