And then I found out the truth... finally.

Hi, there! I've been reading now for, um, let's see... I started at 8:05 and now it is 3:24. That means I been at it for 7 hours and 19 minutes. And have only read three books. That seems a bit lax. Hmm. Especially when I see how much else there is to be read!

What have I read?

Linnet by Sally Watson

I actually picked one of her older books this year to read (not one of her newly published ones). To be honest, I like her old ones from the 60s better than the ones she is turning out these days. Not that I'm not grateful for additional Sally Watson books. Especially when they deal with additional stories from people you met in her earlier books. And, I actually hadn't read this one yet (very bad on my part, but she is kind of a hard, and sometimes expensive, author to find these days). Linnet is, as far as I can tell, more of a stand-alone novel than some of her others. But, perhaps it is just that I can't place her family in the context of her other stories. But, it also takes place during Queen Elizabeth I's time and the majority of the others I have read were all after that time. Still, the character Linnet does bear a shocking resemblance to many of Watson's other heroines as far as being quite modern and outspoken with her beliefs, though Linnet is also far too trustworthy. It is that aspect that gets Linnet into trouble in the first place. She has run away from home and meets a seemingly respectable gentleman on her travels to London. He takes her under his wing and instead of taking her to her relatives in London, actually deposits her into his "school" where he trains young orphaned children to be pickpockets, beggars, and cutpurses. It is quite entertaining as she matches wits with him (and of course succeeds in the end) and grows to love the other children whom she first would not deign to sit next to due to their grubbiness. Quite and enjoyable read!

My other two reads were Jennifer Sturman's And Then Everything Unraveled and And Then I Found Out the Truth. Full disclosure, I had read the first book when it had first come out a couple of years ago. It ends on a cliffhanger and I was like "I want to know what happens next like right now!" But by the time the sequel had finally been published, it had somehow slipped my mind. And actually the plot and characters had also dissipated in my memory, so I thought it best to revisit the first to fully comprehend the second. I was not disappointed in either. In And Then Everything Unraveled, we meet Cordelia (Delia to her friends), who has just learned that her mother's ship had disappeared after sending a SOS signal. T.K. (her mother) was visiting Antarctica with an environmental group. Everyone convinced that her mother is dead, Delia is sent to live in NY with her aunt Charity (Charley), though her other aunt, Patience, has control of her financial situation. Delia has never met either aunt. But is T.K. actually dead? Delia suspects not and is prompted into additional explorations of this after she receives a mysterious cell phone call of static. Her new friend traces it to Patagonia, very "near" where her mother's ship was last spotted. With the help of her friend, a possible boy interest, a psychic, and a pony-filled tie-wearing private investigator, Delia intends to find out the truth. And she does. But not fully until the second book. But, don't worry, I won't spoil you for it.

Really, how can you not want to read this author's books when the first book is dedicated to Michelle Jaffe. (I personally love her Bad Kitty novels and am eagerly waiting book number three, whenever that is coming out.)

Now, back to reading. But before that, a tally.

Time spent reading: 7 hrs, 19 minutes
Blogging: 20 minutes
Books read: 3
Pages read: 730
Donations: $10.25 (3 books & 5 comments)