It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week.  It's a great post to organise yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

What's happening here?

Happy New Year! I'm starting the brand new year by posting later than I usually do, because I was up late celebrating last night. Nothing fancy, just spending time with three other families. As is the norm, there were fireworks at midnight and the kids enjoyed sledging in the dark with the waxing moon peaking through the clouds and firework smoke.

My son goes back to school on Wednesday so it will be good to get back into a routine as I've got my NaNo book to edit. I'm looking forward to the task but also a little sad that the holiday was too short. However, there is a little sunshine due on my horizon later this month, so time to knuckle down for now.

What am I currently reading?

Nikan Rebuilt by Scarlett Cole (arc)

Nikan can never be complete. He's got a rock group made up of the family he built for himself, more money than he knows what to do with, and a stream of groupies falling over themselves to date him. But none of them are her. The one regret that still plagues him, still taunts him with what he could have had.

Jenny is a survivor. Now running a group home after overcoming life in a cult lead by her manipulative father and watching her mother drink the poison he fed his followers, she fights to keep the light in the eyes of every boy who walks through her doors. Far from simple young love, Nik taught her to trust, showed her how good life could be. Before he formed the band. Before he became a famous rockstar. Before he destroyed it all.

A chance meeting after years of no contact shows the connection still blazes between them. But will they have their second chance at love? Or will the weight of their past crush their future together?

Thoughts so far…

This book in number three in the Preload Series which follows members of a band. I had no preconceived ideas on what to expect and am pleasantly surprised as I get deeper into the novel. The author's note at the beginning had me instantly intrigued because I wasn't expecting the plot to be as deep as it is. If I'd read the previous novels in the series I would have been more aware, but that isn't necessary to enjoy this highly emotional second chance romance. I'm at 91% and will finish shortly but it's already a five star read for me.

I'll begin reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn later today.

Book(s) I've read this past week?

Snow by Mike Bond

Out of the Mist by Lauren Giordano

What are you reading?

First book of the year 2018...

The idea for The First Book Of The Year comes from Sheila at Book Journey.  This is the first year I am taking part in this yearly book meme.

My first book of the year will be The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. 

I admit I didn't make my choice until yesterday because I wasn't sure whether I'd pick a book for me, or make my next arc review novel the first of the year. This one has won me over simply because it's been on my radar since it was published last Summer.  I had the opportunity to review the novel, but I was already overcommitted at the time, so I did a promo and added it to my personal book list.  When I found out the book would be on-sale for one day only last Monday on Christmas Day, I made sure to take advantage and bought a copy. Now I can't wait to dive in.

As a reader, I've decided 2018 is a year to broaden my reading horizon and check out and read more books away from my contemporary romance comfort zone. I think The Alice Network is a perfect novel to set me on my journey and I hope I love it as much as those who have already discovered it.

In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.