Welcome to the 2026 edition of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge! I am very excited to get the challenge underway for this year!
I am really looking forward to reading your reviews throughout the year! I am sure there is going to be a lot of great historical fiction discovered and shared with fellow HF lovers over the course of this year!
Just to recap what participants need to know. At the beginning of each month I will put up a post which will have a Mr Linky embedded into it for you to add your link. I will also do a recap post each month to help highlight the books we have been reading and the people who are participating.
Please remember...
add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review).
it doesn't matter where you review - Bookstagram, Goodreads etc as long as you share a direct link to your review.
any kind of historical fiction is accepted (fantasy, young adult, graphic novels...)
You will always find a link to the current month's post for links in the sidebar of my blog
if you have time, have a look some of the other links that are present. You never know when you will discover new blogs or books!
You can also join the challenge group on Facebook which you can find hereand don't forget to use the #histficreadingchallenge hashtag on the socials.
Earlier this year I read my first book by Emma Davies which was called The Midnight Bakery. As soon as I saw that there was going to be a new book out I knew that I was going to read it.
One December Morning starts with a really cute meet-cute. I am sure it is still a meet-cute even when the characters are in their 50s and 60s. When Peg and Henry meet in a petrol station, there is no reason to think that they will ever meet again. Hours later, they are both stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. With no sign of the cars moving, Peg approaches Henry's car and they sit together for a couple of hours chatting, sharing mince pies, until the traffic moves and they go their separate ways.
It turns out, though, that they are heading in very similar directions. Widow Peg is returning home to her beloved cottage with a patch of wood that she can wander through whenever she needs some peace of mind or inspiration. Peg had been visiting her aging aunt who had been in hospital.
Divorcee Henry is heading a nearby village in the Cotswolds for a visit to his son Adam and uptight daughter in law Sophia. Henry doesn't really enjoy the whole Christmas production which Sophia put on. Everything has to look perfect, taste perfect, and spend time with other perfect people. Henry finds it all very uncomfortable, but he does it out of a sense of duty so that he can spend time with his son.
After a heated discussion with Adam, Henry goes to find Peg's house looking for refuge. However, things don't come to plan. Peg finds herself becoming involved with Henry's family including Adam, Sophia and her mother Blanche. Adding Peg's aunt Mim and her own daughters into the mix, Peg's plan for a very low key Christmas with just her and a good book have gone right out the window.
Whilst Christmas plays an important part in this story, really the book is about being true to yourself and second chances. Several of the characters are facing unexpected changes in their lives and have the opportunity to think about what life really is all about!
I really enjoyed the first part of the story, and the end was nicely tied up, albeit it did feel a bit rushed. There is an odd change in the direction of the story at a point in the middle which had my scratching my head a bit when it happened. I ended up flipping back a couple of chapters to reread them to try and figure it what happened. In the end I just had to go with it!
I will be looking for books from this author's backlist and, of course, also for any new books she comes out with!
Thanks for Netgalley for the review copy. I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. This will be my last review for the 2025 version of the challenge, but I have already signed up for the 2026 challenge!
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf
I've gone a bit 1 click crazy over the last week or so, which meant that this list has changed a few times since I first started it! Luckily it's a matter of adding anything new to the top of the list and then take the corresponding number off the bottom of the list.
A Year at Appleyard Farms by Emma Davies - I have read the last couple of books by Emma Davies so now I am looking for some of her earlier book. This is a compilation of four of her books.
Everyone Loves Cake by Alisha Henderson - This was one of my Christmas presents
The Sirens by Emilia Hart - I haven't read any books by this author but they all sound good so I hope to get to this one soon.
The Honeysuckle Cafe by Lilly Mirren - I was drawn to this one because the cover is gorgeous and the author is Australian although she isn't an author I was previously familiar with.
Christmas at the Little Knitting Box by Helen Rolfe - Helen Rolfe is an auto read author for me but now I am look at her backlist.
A Starlit Summer by Kate Frost - Kate Frost is another author I have read a few books from. I already own the first and last books in the Romantic Escape series. This is the second book in the series.
The Amsterdam Affair by Kate Frost - And this is the fourth book in the same series. No idea why I didn't buy the third book. I should fix that!
Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - This is the second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series which features human size, walking talking cats, astrology and magical sounding drinks! This is the only one of these books that I have read so far.
The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd - I saw this on someone's blog a couple of weeks ago and had to have it. Love the cover on this one.
The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard - This is one that I got through Prime rather than buying outright. I am looking forward to reading it!
Now that I have finished this post I can't buy any more books until Wednesday!
I finished reading Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley which I had out from the library. I mentioned last week that I first discovered this author through her books written under the name Sue Heath. I will definitely be reading more Zara Stoneley books through the library.
I also finished One December Morning by Emma Davies. My review will be up in the next couple of days.
I also started and finished The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas. I have read quite a few of her later books so now it is time to start catching up on the earlier releases.
Next up, I started reading Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, as I am trying to get ahead of the library due dates. This is not being helped by the fact that I have 6 books all waiting to be picked up!
I'm watching
In the lead up to Christmas, I watched several different Christmas themed music events which were fine. Carols by Candelight is an Aussie tradition and this year I watched the Salvation Army Carols in the Domain, plus Delta Goodrem's Christmas special which were nice to have on in the background more than anything.
Wed did watch quite a bit of the cricket this week. The game should have lasted 5 days but it was all done in 2. I don't think it is that great for the game really. It's exciting to watch but losing 3 days of ticket sales, advertising revenue etc has to hurt the business side of the game!
I did also watch a TV show called Europe's Greatest Gardens all about Hortus Botanicas in Leiden in the Netherlands. Next time we go to visit my brother in law it's a place I would like to visit.
Life
Welcome to that awkward week between Christmas and New Year where you lose track of what you are meant to be doing, what day of the week it is and general confusion prevails. I do have to keep an eye on the calendar as I am working every day this week except New Years Day. Robert isn't working so he has created his own Honey Do list.
Christmas was lovely as usual. We go to my sister's most years, and have a very traditional meal of prawn cocktail, roast turkey and ham, and then a Christmas pudding and other desserts.
I did make a cheesecake on Saturday because I had a lot of berries left over and I used them to decorate. Then on Sunday we went for a drive in the country to a small town near us called Trentham. it was a lovely day out.
The end of one reading year and the beginning of a new one means thinking about which challenges you are going to be participating in. So today I am sharing the challenges that I will be participating in for 2026, and some I am contemplating joining. I am very much committed to making the challenges fit my reading as opposed to specifically reading for a challenge. The ones that I am thinking about joining would be more things that I would have to find books to read for it.
Of course I am going to start with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here. All the sign up details are in this post. If you love historical fiction or if you are just exploring the genre, we would love to have you join us as we read through history.
New Release Reading Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog - Do you love reading new releases or older books. I love both! When you do review a new release book, all you need to do is add your link to the link post! This year I read just under 100 new releases, so I think I am going to aim for New Release Veteran, which is 61-100 books per year! All the sign up details are here.
Bookish Books Reading Challenge hosted at Bloggin' Bout Books- I love reading books about books, so this is another challenge I enjoy. This year I read 17 books which counted towards this challenge, so I am going to aim for the Picking and Perusing level which is for between 11 and 20 books! All the details are here.
Japanese Literature Challenge hosted at Dolce Bellezza - The Japanese Literature Challenge runs through out January and February and I am going to try and read a couple of books at least. I am also going to try and do my own January in Japan theme, but I am not sure how well that will go! Here's the link for the review site.
Tying in nicely with that is the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader. I will be aiming for the Bilingual level which is 7 to 9 books. This year I read 9 books, most of which were Japanese but with a couple of French ones thrown in for good measure. You can find all the details for this challenge here.
In terms of the challenges I am contemplating joining, top of the list is Classics Spin. I did a Top Ten Tuesday post recently of Classics I Haven't Read so that would be 10 of the 20. Just need to add another 10 to the list.
I am going to try and do the additional Goodreads challenges, depending on the themes that are chosen. In terms of my goal for how many books to read, I am going to choose 104 again. This year I read a lot more than that but it was mostly thanks to the fact that I wasn't working for the first half of the year.
I am also still thinking about joining two of the challenges that Shelleyrae from Book'd Out is hosting. One is the Non-Fiction Reading Challenge. I read very little non-fiction. This year I only read three, but I am half way through another at the moment, which would fit with one of the categories! You can find all the details here.
The other one is the 2026 Speccy Fiction Challenge. Again, I don't read a lot of pure sci-fi or full on fantasy but I do love some magical realism and do read a bit of that, particularly in food related fiction. I just had a look at the categories and one is called Spectator where you are invited to "Read & review any speculative fiction book. Set your own goal, or none at all, just share what you read through the year". This sounds perfect for me, so no more contemplating. I am joining up for this one! Here are the details
I feel like I should add some kind of bingo type reading challenge but if I do it will probably by the Rachael Johns book club one.
In terms of other events of course I am going to be joining in on Paris in July. I am also going to be reading and cooking for Cook the Books, linking up to Foodies Read whenever I read something relevant and participating in events like Six Degrees of Separation, Sunday Salon and Top Ten Tuesday. I really enjoyed being part of Twenty Books of Summer/Winter this year so I will join up for that one again. I will also try to read something for Aussie Author August, Women in Translation and probably something for November (novella/non-fiction etc) on Instagram
I feel like that will keep me busy enough for the year.
Do you like reading challenges? What ones are you doing in 2026?
I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and with A good book & Cup of tea monthly link party hosted at Boondock Ramblings
A couple of years ago, I decided it was a good idea to start doing an annual post at the end of the year where I would announce what my cookbook of the year was as well as the recipe of the year.
The first year that was easy for both categories. There was one clear winner when it came to the book that we had cooked the most out of. Last year it was a little trickier, and this year might well be the hardest yet. There are a couple of reasons for that. We still continue.to mainly cook out of Nagi Maehashi's cookbooks Dinner and Tonight most weeks. There however was no new Nagi cookbook this year so I can't pick her again.
The other factor is that after going a bit crazy for the last couple of years buying many new cookbooks, this year I just stopped! In fact, as far as I can remember I have only bought one new cookbook ths year! It is no coincidence that this corresponds with the fact that the Jamie Oliver Cookbook Club died a death this year.
Update - I got given a cookbook for Christmas so now I have acquired two cookbooks this year. I do have another one on order but that probably won't come until the end of January.
Cookbook of the Year
Now you might think I am cheating a bit by naming the only cookbook I bought as my book of the year. However, even if I had of bought more cookbooks this book would have been right up there as we have really enjoyed cooking out out of this book. It is probably the book we have cooked out of the most this year, aside from Nagi's cookbooks.
I originally posted about this book back in June and since then we have tried another couple of recipes.
So far the things we have made include
Curry Roast chicken with marsala roast potato and raita
Prawn Curry
Curried Sausage rolls
Egg Curry
and I have all the ingredients here to make Caramel Slice. I am not sure if we will start with the traditional version or if I might make the spiced version. Or maybe both!
I have made the roast potatoes several times and the curried sausage rolls are a big hit whenever I make them.
When it comes to choosing the recipe of the year do you go with recipes that had the biggest impact when you made them, or do you choose a recipe that you made over and over again. Last year it was the former, and this year it is the latter. In fact, we had it for dinner tonight!
I originally shared this recipe back in February and we have made it countless times since then! The recipe comes from Australian Masterchef winner Adam Liaw. I did have a couple of photos of it but lost them all when my phone had to be revived from the dead!
Recipe of the Year
Baked Tuscan Chicken
6 chicken thigh cutlets Salt and black pepper 2 tbsp olive oil 2 brown onions, thinly sliced 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
200 g sundried tomato strips
300 ml thickened cream
2 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme)
60 g baby spinach leaves
½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan-forced). Season the chicken cutlets generously on both sides with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, then add the chicken, skin-side down in the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned. Remove the chicken to a plate.
Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and cream, then return the chicken to the pan, skin-side up. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, then bake for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.
Divide chicken cutlets between serving plates, then add the baby spinach and parmesan to the pan sauce, stirring to wilt the spinach. Spoon the spinach, sundried tomatoes and creamy sauce over the Tuscan chicken and serve.
So there we have my cookbook and recipe of the year for 2025. Do you have a favourite?
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
I feel like I got a really early start on the Christmas books this year, but that I have done a lot less Christmassy things so far, at least compared to last year. Maybe it's because I wasn't working this time last year so I have more time. Or maybe I am just not in a Christmassy mood yet!
August to November
1. Will You Stay Another Day? by Samantha Tonge (my review)
2. Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop by Jessica Redland (my review)
3. So This is Christmas by Helen Rolfe (my review)
4. Lost Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by Rebecca Raisin
5. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
6. Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin (my review)
7. A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft
8. A Family for Christmas in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen (my review)
9. The Midwife's Christmas Miracle by Fiona McArthur
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