Today I'm Reading; Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi

Being stuck on the Overground for over an hour on your way home from work is every Londoner's nightmare! Normally, I would have joined the red-faced commuters angrily tweeting TFL and vowing NEVER to pay for a season ticket again! But not today, today I happily sat there (yes I luckily snagged a seat) completely engrossed in the second book from the best-selling Spoils of Time trilogy from Penny Vincenzi. 

This isn't the first time I've read Something Dangerous, in fact it's probably about the 21st time! About 10 years ago on holiday with my family in Spain, I finished Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging and short of other options, stole my mum's beach read which just so happened to be the book above. With no glaringly obvious sex romps and graphic murders (I wasn't so lucky snaffling her Martina Cole's), mum let me read on and I discovered a family saga so engaging, colourful and entwined with history that every time I read it I always find something new in the story that I didn't know was there before. 

I downloaded the Lytton saga onto my kindle last week after seeing the book on my housemate's bedside table for research purposes (she works in the very cool world of TV and needed some inspiration for a new costume drama). I'm currently 82% through book 2 and have downloaded Book 3; Into Temptation ready to go when i'm done with Something Dangerous. 

I'd definitely recommend the Lytton Saga as the perfect introduction to Penny Vincenzi and the fascinating, complex and rich stories that she weaves. You won't be able to put them down, not on the train, sofa or even in the bath!

Happy Reading! 

Today I'm Reading.... In The Park

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"..."It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

In case you hadn't noticed, the sun has FINALLY decided to come out in London, and it seems to have put everyone in a really brilliant mood! I decided to take a wander round Piccadilly at lunchtime and ended up stumbling upon a little square patch of green in St James.  I picked myself a spot by some suitably sunny daffodils and pulled out my kindle for a quick half hour read.

Today's book of choice was the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy Catching Fire.  I first read The Hunger Games after my little cousin left a copy of hers at my grandparents house, short of reading material it was a toss up between Katniss and Co and Paul O'Grady's autobiography... needless to say The Hunger Games won. I had it finished within 2 days and downloaded the next two books right away- hello, my name is Lauren and I am a Hunger Games addict! I've even got the boyfriend on board after he ran out of things to do on holiday and 'borrowed' my kindle - I didn't get it back for the rest of the trip and he was the first one to suggest we go and see the film when it came out!  The detail that the books go into is incredible and the world of Panem and the serpentine President Snow that Lewis has created is bleakly terrifying and yet worryingly familiar.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday lunchtime, here's hoping the weather decides to stay like this for the whole of Spring so I can come back and read in the sunshine some more!