Spent the weekend in work bored to tears and trying to read under the counter without getting caught. Harder than you might think!
Got through a couple of good books though. As well as a bit of Virginia Woolf and Baudrillard for college (epic sigh) I also read Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement Moore and Velvet by Mary Hooper.

Velvet was very sweet. A bit young perhaps, but the story was excellent. The plot concerns a young orphan called, you guessed it, Velvet, who works in a Victorian laundry. One of her clients, a medium of some repute, takes her on as a personal maid, along with the very handsome manservant George. It quickly transpires, however, that things in the house are not all as they seem and Velvet doesn't know who she can trust...
If you like historical fiction, give this one a go. I'd never realised quite how covert an operation Victorian mediums ran, or how popular they were. The book is excellently researched and well written; a nine out of ten I think. I've also received a copy of  Grace by the same author and I'm looking forward to giving that a whirl.

Next up was Texas Gothic, and I made my self laugh a bit as I started reading it because I really do seem to come to books in themes. TG is another novel with a historical slant, though this one is set in the present day with the historical detail woven into the plot. The Goodnight sisters (you just know they can't be fully normal) are house sitting on their aunts Texas ranch when the younger, Amy, is visited by a ghost who wants to give her a message. There's been the discovery of a burial ground on a neighbouring farm and it seems to have stirred up all kinds of supernatural trouble. Aided by the handsome rancher Ben, Amy quickly discovers that something icky is brewing in the state of Texas...

I liked this lots. Clement-Moores' last novel, The Splendour Falls was also excellent so I was expecting great things from this, and I wasn't disappointed. Like Velvet the novel was incredibly well-researched, and because of this the characters and the plot felt authentic. Most definitely worth a read. See links to both below!

Velvet: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Velvet-Mary-Hooper/dp/0747599211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329261975&sr=8-1

Texas Gothic: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Texas-Gothic-Rosemary-Clement-Moore/dp/0552564931/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329262036&sr=1-1

Happy Reading!