Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"
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| + | |author=Anne O'Brien | ||
| + | |title=The King's Sister | ||
| + | |rating=4 | ||
| + | |genre=Women's Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=It's England in 1380 and 17 year old Elizabeth of Lancaster has always dreamt of her betrothal and the sort of love of which balladeers sing. So when she meets the person her father has lined up, her face drops to say the least. The Earl of Pembroke is eight years old so she's not pleased. However one day love will find her and cruelly cause her to choose between the love of her life and family with fatal consequences. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848453469</amazonuk> | ||
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{{newreview | {{newreview | ||
|title=The Lives of Stella Bain | |title=The Lives of Stella Bain | ||
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|summary=Canadian sailing boat captain Angus McGrath joins the army in 1917 as a cartographer. However, the cosy London war offices are full of map makers and artists and what's more the career choice is a luxury when the high mortality rates at the front means the infantry needs constant replenishment. Angus therefore finds himself in France as a 1st lieutenant in the Canada Corps. Meanwhile his family continue their life in the small fishing village back home in Nova Scotia, his wife worrying about her brother who has been declared missing in action. Angus is ideally placed to look for him but there are also other things demanding his attention, staying alive being only one of them. | |summary=Canadian sailing boat captain Angus McGrath joins the army in 1917 as a cartographer. However, the cosy London war offices are full of map makers and artists and what's more the career choice is a luxury when the high mortality rates at the front means the infantry needs constant replenishment. Angus therefore finds himself in France as a 1st lieutenant in the Canada Corps. Meanwhile his family continue their life in the small fishing village back home in Nova Scotia, his wife worrying about her brother who has been declared missing in action. Angus is ideally placed to look for him but there are also other things demanding his attention, staying alive being only one of them. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802986</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802986</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 15:16, 31 October 2014
The King's Sister by Anne O'Brien
It's England in 1380 and 17 year old Elizabeth of Lancaster has always dreamt of her betrothal and the sort of love of which balladeers sing. So when she meets the person her father has lined up, her face drops to say the least. The Earl of Pembroke is eight years old so she's not pleased. However one day love will find her and cruelly cause her to choose between the love of her life and family with fatal consequences. Full review...
The Lives of Stella Bain by Anita Shreve
The opening of this book is a brilliant one, being thrust into the midst of Stella’s confusion as she wakes with no memory in a first aid station near the front line. She knows nothing other than the fact that she can drive an ambulance, and the reader knows nothing more than her. She soon discovers that she can draw, too, and this is a really nice angle to help learn about her and her past without having to unveil everything all at once. I think the use of present tense within this novel works incredibly well in order to keep the reader at the same speed as the character, and it’s also a writing style I enjoy as a whole because it’s a little bit unusual and brings a different pace to the text. Full review...
The English Girl by Margaret Leroy
Stella Whittaker moves from a quiet English town to Vienna in 1937 to improve her music skills. Staying with old family friends, the Krauses, she feels less comfortable than she expects as a sense of mysterious menace hangs over the household. Nevertheless, Stella enjoys her new life and the sophistication of the city. More than anything, she enjoys falling in love with Harri, a young Jewish doctor. And despite many warning signs, Stella’s love for him blinds her to the possibility of trouble when it seems inevitable to others. Full review...
Ashes In The Wind by Christopher Bland
John Burke and Tomas Sullivan may go to the same primary school in Kerry but even in 1908 they're on two sides of a great divide. John is Anglo Irish protestant and comfortably off, being the heir to Derriquin Castle whereas Tomas is Irish Catholic, living in poverty and raised to feel the resentment of the oppressed. The fact that John has been brought up to believe in Home Rule tragically makes no difference as John, Tomas and their future generations live with the consequences of a centuries old struggle. Full review...
The Boleyn King (Anne Boleyn Trilogy 1) by Laura Andersen
In this alternative history, Anne Boleyn's son William has become the king known as Henry IX. As he nears the age of majority (18), he also approaches the age at which he will rule solo rather than through his regent and uncle, George Boleyn. However, he's inherited a troubled kingdom. Not only are England's enemies knocking at the door, there are enemies within Will's own household. It begins with the sudden death of one of the court's young ladies in waiting. Where will it end? Full review...
Zemindar by Valerie Fitzgerald
1850s India: Laura Hewitt accompanies her newly married cousin Emily Flood and Emily's husband Charles to the exotic sub-continent for a visit to Charles' half-brother Oliver Erskine. Although none of the travellers have ever met Oliver, many of the people they encounter have heard of him and the way he rules his small fiefdom as its Zemindar. These stories tantalise Laura as the information conflicts and she's unable to develop a mental picture of the man. That's not all that's conflicting: there's an increasing feeling of unrest in this furthest outpost of Queen Victoria's empire which will eventually lead to one of the bloodiest episodes in Indo-British history. Laura, Emily and Charles are naïve, but that won't save them from what's to come – something beyond their worst nightmares. Full review...
Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy) by Ken Follett
The story baton is passed to the next generation as the swinging 60s arrive for people like Dave Williams. For others such as Rebecca Hoffmann and Walli Franck, living in East Germany means other priorities and, indeed, worries. What the Hoffmann-Francks don't realise is that things are about to get a lot worse, partially due to the treacherous influence of someone they all once trusted. Meanwhile in America George Jakes has ideals and strong convictions that will take him past the metaphorical draw bridge into the echelons of a modern day Camelot. What of the Dvorkin twins in Russia? Tania and Dimka may have differing ideas on how to effect change but storm clouds are hanging over them - and the rest of the world - as an island off the coast of America gathers prominence. Full review...
Wars of the Roses: Trinity (Wars of the Roses 2) by Conn Iggulden
A bewildered Henry VI has awoken from the catatonic state that took him away from the business of ruling – and living – for over a year. His job is now to regain the reins of his kingdom that was a little too ably ruled by Richard Neville, Duke of York in his absence. Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, thinks Richard enjoyed the regency so much he's plotting a permanent takeover. The bigger problem is communicating it to Henry as she's increasingly side-lined. The approaching storm is gathering momentum threatening the House of Lancaster and a convalescing king whose recovery may only be temporary, even if he lives that long. Full review...
The Far Side of the Sun by Kate Furnivall
The Bahamas is a tropical paradise, left almost untouched by the war that’s raging on around it but the peace is disturbed one night, when a young waitress helps a man that’s been stabbed and left for dead. Mr Morrell insists that he can’t be taken to the hospital, his attackers will be waiting there, so Dodie Wyatt takes him back to her modest home and tries to save his life. Before he dies, Mr Morrell leaves Dodie with two gold coins, a name and a lot of trouble. Full review...
Csardas by Diane Pearson
Hungarian Jewish banker Zsigmond Ferenc rules his family with an iron fist. As a proud Hungarian he feels that he needs to maintain standards. His wife, Marta secretly gambles behind his back, his sparkling younger daughter Eva takes the heart of every man she meets (including his own) and his two sons need leadership and guidance. Then there's his eldest child, Amale who fears she will never fall in love which may be a disadvantage as he looks around for a fitting match. Although whatever their preoccupations may be at the moment everything in Hungary (and indeed Europe) is about to change; history's timings can be cruel and the advent of World War I is perhaps one of its cruellest. To say the Austro-Hungarian Empire won't be the same again is an understatement. Full review...
Havana Sleeping by Martin Davies
Hector, a night watchman is murdered at work. There's nothing unusual about that – it happens all the time. The reason being that this is Havana halfway through the 19th century; a place of intrigue, political posturing (and worse) as pro- and anti-slavery conflicts cause bubbles under the surface of society. It's a place where an apparently lowly British civil servant like George Backhouse can be posted to influential positions. It's a place where the Americans don't trust the British, the British don't trust the Americans and everyone fears what the Spanish may do. Meanwhile a courtesan named Leonarda just wants to find out why the man she loved died. Full review...
The Brethren (Fortunes of France) by Robert Merle and T Jefferson Kline (translator)
After fighting for France for most of their adulthoods, the two Jeans, de Siorac and de Saveterre (nicknamed 'The Brethren') take over the chateau and settlement at Mespech in the Perigore region of France. There the newly founded community flourishes as people like Jonas the stone-cutter move in, signalling growth. De Siorac does his bit by producing a family. However this is the 16th century and conflict is never far away. Nationally France is threatened by Spain and England but it's also a threat to itself as brother fights brother – Catholic versus Huguenot. Indeed, the Brethren live in fear of the consequences of their own Huguenot faith although de Siorac doesn't make life easy for himself – his wife Isabelle is Catholic. His personal battles reflect those of the country and have effects that, for him, are just as critical. Full review...
The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse
Connie is the daughter of once renowned taxidermist Crowley Gifford. Times have changed though. Crowley may once have been famous with his own museum proudly exhibiting intricately prepared bird and animal tableaux but he's now addled by alcohol and deep melancholy, leaving Connie to continue the art in much reduced circumstances. A decade before Connie (then aged 10) had an accident that robbed her of her memory. The past refuses to stay hidden though, returning with a vengeance and explaining the shell that Crowley has become. 'A vengeance' isn't a throwaway choice of words either – its return will upturn all that Connie has believed and even threaten her life and the lives of all those whom she holds dear. Full review...
The Soldier's Daughter by Rosie Goodwin
Briony Valentine lives a contented life with her mum, dad and younger siblings in a close-knit community in Nuneaton. She doesn't have much to worry about, other than the fact that she and her best friend both have a crush on the same boy, Ernie. However, the clouds of war are gathering and threaten to turn Briony's peaceful world upside down. Dad and Ernie enlist in the army and Briony has her own war to fight when she and her siblings are evacuated to Cornwall to stay with their stern Grandmother. The black sheep of the family, the unsavoury uncle Seb, clearly wants Briony out of his way, but how far will he go to make sure that she does not interfere with his sinister plans? Full review...
The King and the Slave by Tim Leach
The scene is set: a group of the king's closest acquaintances sit feasting around a table in almost total darkness. Wine flows freely. This is a place for political games, a place where the tension in the air is palpable. Wise men learn to play the rules; to be 'shadow men' under the ever-watchful gaze of a suspicious king who sees treachery in every smile. Invisibility is key to survival. Full review...
The New World by Andrew Motion
Following the success of his sequel to Treasure Island, Silver: Return to Treasure Island, poet Andrew Motion continues the adventures of young Jim (the son of the original Jim Hawkins) and Natty (daughter of Long John Silver) following a shipwreck which leaves them washed up on the shores of the New World. The good news is that the bar silver recovered from the island has survived the journey. The bad news is that the natives have spotted it too... Full review...
I Can't Begin to Tell You by Elizabeth Buchan
War came to Denmark in 1940 and people found that they had to take sides. British-born Kay Eberstern wasn't completely involved to begin with. She had obvious sympathies with the British but her husband had German ancestry and she could see Bror's point of view. But Bror went a little further than she thought necessary and openly sided with the occupying force because he felt the need to protect the family estate and the people who worked there. Gradually Kay came to realise that she could not - would not - accept this and she became increasingly involved with the Resistance movement. Full review...
The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman
Set in the grimy streets of Bristol, we follow the journey of Ruth – born to a Madame in a brothel, and constantly outshone by her prettier sister Dora, Ruth learns to stand on two feet and to defend herself – something which is picked up on by a regular client of Dora’s, Mr Dryer. Plunged headfirst into the world of fighting, Ruth soon meets Grenville Dryer’s wife, Charlotte, a woman scarred by smallpox and trapped in a loveless relationship with her husband, and a toxic one with her brother. Full review...
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
Paul Kingsnorth refers to his Booker-longlisted fiction debut, The Wake, as 'a post-apocalyptic novel set 1000 years in the past'. This ambitious story traces the three-year Ely resistance movement that followed the Norman Conquest. The guerrilla fighters were led by a figure named Hereward the Wake – thus the title. The first thing any review must note is the language: set in 1066-8, this historical novel is written in what Kingsnorth calls a 'shadow tongue' or 'pseudo-language', not quite the Old English you encountered reading Chaucer or Beowulf at school, but similar. I would strongly recommend that any diligent reader start by perusing the partial glossary and 'A Note on Language', both appended at the end of the text. Full review...
The Leopard of Dramoor by P De V Hencher
Stephen, Earl of Northumbria, known to popular legend as the Leopard of Dramoor, is past his best fighting days. But warfare is never far away in medieval England, particularly in the border country. And it's not far away now. A combined force of Scottish and French troops are massing and intend to attack one of Stephen's castles. Stephen's son David is captain of the castle but he's spoiled and lazy and his father knows he won't defend it successfully without help. Full review...
The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland
More and higher taxes are being levied on the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France. They may cause annoyance to the rich but they're breaking the poor, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his family. Meanwhile some of the better off are facing problems from other quarters. Cloth merchant Robert of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders. It's not a good time to be English and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and the peasants will be revolting. Full review...
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Martin Strauss has an unusual affliction that causes him to reinvent his life from false memories, convincing even himself. As a confabulist he's unsure of his past and whether he actually had a happy relationship with the woman he loved. But there is one thing of which he's convinced: he killed the famous Ehrich Weiss twice. You've not heard of Ehrich Weiss? Oh but you have for Ehrich was Harry Houdini, the best escapologist (among other things) that the world has ever known. Full review...
The Shadow of War by Stewart Binns
'The Shadow of War' is the first book in a sprawling series with a new book being released once a year for each year of the First World War. Binns writes about five British communities, all very different – an aristocratic Scottish family, a family of working class Welshfolk, a group of friends in a Lancashire factory town, a pair of Cockney soldiers, and Winston Churchill, alongside his wife Clemmie and various government figures. The groups interact at various points in the book, which leads to some very genuine and touching relationships forming, in particular the one between Margaret, a nurse, and Bronwyn, youngest daughter of the Welsh community. Full review...
Plague by CC Humphreys
Highwayman Captain William Coke stops a carriage in the line of his chosen career and soon discovers he's not the first to have assailed it. The driver is dead and all those within have been brutally skewered. He flees the scene but unfortunately leaves a pistol behind. This is all thief-taker Pitman needs to arouse his interest and attempt to track the Captain down with a noose in mind. Meanwhile nature has an equally random mode of death that's soon to be let loose on London. This is 1665 and the Great Plague is about to begin. Full review...
The Windsor Faction by D J Taylor
I jumped at the chance to review this novel. I enjoy reading books based within this period and was fascinated by the premise of what if? proposed on the back cover. The prologue was beautifully written and I hoped that was an indicator for the rest of the book. Full review...
The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
The long hot July of 1914 is a good one for friends Kezia and Thea. Kezia marries Thea's brother, Tom, bringing them even closer as life-long friends. Kezia then learns how to be a farmer's wife, translating her love into imaginative meals – sometimes overly so. Out of the two friends, Thea is the passionate one, fighting for women's universal suffrage and, as war approaches, pacifism. However, when war starts, Thea goes to the front as well as Tom, leaving Kezia at home to be more than the farmer's wife; necessity dictates she's now the farmer. Full review...
The Spider of Sarajevo by Robert Wilton
Four enterprising free thinking people are invited to speak to the military in London: James Cade (fiercely independent business man), David Duval (ladies' man and occasional cad), Fiona Hathaway (a young woman too intelligent to squander in marriage) and Ronald Ballentyne (anthropologist and Balkans expert). It's spring 1914 and their military hosts are actually recruiting spies on behalf of the Comptroller General for Scrutiny and Survey. The four think that they're serving their country and they are, but not in the way they think: they're bait. They are the flies that the high-ups hope will lead British intelligence to the anonymous phantom figure that is the Spider of Sarajevo. Full review...
Succession by Livi Michael
15 year old Margaret of Anjou is brought to England to marry King Henry VI, little realising she'll rule in his stead in all but name. Then little 3-year-old Margaret Beaufort marries John de la Pole, son of the Duke of Suffolk. This is the first of three marriages she'll embark on by the time she's 14, one of which will produce a king and all will produce suffering. The War of the Roses and the Tudor dynasty are both waiting in the wings; these are the women who will raise the curtain. Full review...
Friend and Foe (A Hew Cullan Mystery) by Shirley McKay
1583 and King James VI of Scotland is paranoid and, after the events of the Ruthven raid the year before, who can blame him? Surely this won't affect humble academic lawyer Hew Cullen? Oh but it will, eventually causing more turmoil than even he is used to. Back at the beginning though, while Hew continues, unaware of what's to come, he has more pressing domestic worries that, for once, don't affect his herbalist sister Meg or his doctor brother-in-law Giles. Indeed, this time the concern is the love of Hew's own heart. Full review...
I, Hogarth by Michael Dean
How similar in many ways was Hogarth’s London in the middle of the Eighteenth Century to the London of today. A city where it was easy enough to end up in debtor’s prison, as indeed did Hogarth’s beloved and unworldly father, having been condemned to the Fleet; a sad fate for a brilliant Latin scholar and writer of erudite texts. He opened a Latin speaking coffee house in St John’s Gate. Here the governor and authorities were open to high levels of corruption, as later in Dickens time and very reminiscent of the scandals of G4S today. Full review...
The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P S Duffy
Canadian sailing boat captain Angus McGrath joins the army in 1917 as a cartographer. However, the cosy London war offices are full of map makers and artists and what's more the career choice is a luxury when the high mortality rates at the front means the infantry needs constant replenishment. Angus therefore finds himself in France as a 1st lieutenant in the Canada Corps. Meanwhile his family continue their life in the small fishing village back home in Nova Scotia, his wife worrying about her brother who has been declared missing in action. Angus is ideally placed to look for him but there are also other things demanding his attention, staying alive being only one of them. Full review...
