Morning all. It’s Monday (which has come around way quicker than I wanted it too) and, once again, I’m linking in with Sheila at Book Journey, who has a weekly meme, It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Normally, at this point, I’m finishing off books from the previous week whilst planning what to replace them with on my bedside table. As I didn’t post last week though, I’m in the nice position of having finished all my planned reads (now just to write review posts!) and getting to start the week with something new.

First up will be Kiss River by Diane Chaimberlain.

This is the follow up to The Keeper of the Light, which was my first read of 2015. When I finally get round to writing the review (this week, I hope), I’ll be able to tell you why I loved it. In the meantime, that’s probably fairly obvious by the fact I’ve ordered the second in the trilogy from my local library. And I can pick it up this morning – yay!

Ten years ago, a hurricane caused the upper half of the Kiss River lighthouse to crumble into the sea. Deemed beyond repair, the remaining 100-foot brick shell of the lighthouse and its spiral staircase have been cordoned off and left for nature to finish the demolition job. Sister and brother Lacey and Clay O’Neill live in the keeper’s house next to the Kiss River lighthouse. When stranger Gina Higgins arrives in the area, she joins them in their bid to restore the decrepit beacon. But all three are hiding secrets from their past, and Gina’s arrival puts in motion a chain of events sure to change their lives forever.

Cypress Grove by James Sallis is also on my to read list this week, continuing my attempt to read everything he’s written after coming across him way too late in his career. I really love the minimalistic way he tells a story.

The small town where Turner has moved is one of America’s lost places, halfway between Memphis and nowhere. That makes it the perfect hideaway: a place where a man can bury the past and escape the pain of human contact, where conversation happens only when there’s something to say, where you can sit and listen to crickets and watch owls fly silently across the face of the moon. It’s the place where Turner hopes to forget that he had been a cop and a psychotherapist, and would always be an ex-con.” And it’s working fine until Sheriff Lonnie Bates arrives on Turner’s porch with a bottle of Wild Turkey and a problem: The body of a drifter has been found – brutally and ritualistically murdered – and Bates and his deputy need help from someone with big-city experience who appreciates the delicacy of investigating people in a small town. Thrust back into the middle of what he left behind, Turner slowly becomes reacquainted not only with the darkness he had fled, but with the unsuspected kindness of others

And that’s it for this week, which is destined to be a little crazy and I don’t think I can take more on. Plus, these are both books I want to take my time with, not rush. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy them both. What about you – what are you reading this week?

Emma