Something Good
Just for a change
Hello dear reader,
This is not a New Year’s Resolution, because it’s early November, but I have a resolution to read more and spend less time on social media and those free games where I end up watching ads of women exercising on a chair. (Laughs hysterically at how un-achievable this is.) I know, right? But anyway, I’m going to give this a red-hot go.
It’s spring here in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m tidying up the garden so we can host the Oaten family for Christmas. There will be 24 of us. (Every family is getting a set of The Bookshop Belles for Christmas.) The footpaths were slippery and green, so I’ve been pressure hosing them for about 30 minutes at a time, working my way around so that the walkways are safe again. I borrowed the neighbour’s green bin so I could stuff all the hedge clippings in, because mine was already full. Things had really gotten out of hand!
Free Reads
We can all do with some light entertainment in dark times, and I’m here to deliver. All of these classic novels below are free, and you can click here to download them from my website or click on the book image below. Yes, they are way waaaaay out of copyright and I gave them pretty new covers. (I prefer fictional pirates, thank you.) There are also a few other books there that are free or bundled into low-cost items, so help yourself to whatever appeals.
Bargain Reads
Many of these books are free to read in Kindle Unlimited, or are priced competitively for the rest of November. All of them have one of my favourite tropes, Grumpy/Sunshine, which is why I joined in with one of my titles, too.
What Am I Reading?
This book was just one of those things where I followed a link on a very pretty cover (the covers always get me! Look at that teal!) and underneath the buy button, Amazon was offering three month’s free KU. Well, can’t get much better than free, can you? So I figured I’d challenge myself to read as much as I could in that time.
A Lady’s Rogue to Ruin by Sofie Darling is thoroughly entertaining so far and … I didn’t even notice the little pile of books on the cover. Yes, the heroine runs a bookshop! I’m a few chapters in and it’s making me grin already.
Speaking of bookshops, ahem, I want to thank everyone for reading or reviewing or rating The Bookshop Belles. Matthew is a sweet Regency romance novella and is free everywhere. Most readers love it, but some are unhappy because it’s only 25k long. Sorry about that, we made it far too interesting and crammed in way too much adventure. I’ll have a chat with Catherine about coming back to it at some point. Readers are also asking for more books, including a story featuring Brutus. We both adore Brutus, he’s such a sweetheart. We’re having such a fabulous time writing our next historical series we want to push on with our new shiny thing … but I love Hatfield and want to come back.
The other four titles in the series are full-lenth, sweet Regency romance novels and are free to read in KU as well. Enjoy.
The Garden!
Spring came for a few days before Melbourne turned to Mel-freeze and it’s rained non-stop. This is a peony rose called Gay Paree and it’s possibly the loudest flower I’ve ever grown. Every year I get four whole blooms from this plant, and that’s it. It’s been in the ground for about 10 years!
Once you put a peony in the garden, you shouldn’t disturb it. The nursery staff advised me to treat this plant like a teenage boy - leave him alone but feed him a lot. Hahaha!
Well, I hope this has provided a handy distraction from ‘everything out there’ for a short while. Hope you’re reading some fabulous books.