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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael David LukasTananarive Due|title=The Oracle of StamboulReformatory|rating=45

|summary=The book Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is set in sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Ottoman Empire Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the reader segregated reformatory is given a potted history chamber of those timeshorrors,haunted by the boys that have died there. WarsIn order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, troops, Rome and Robert must enlist the help of the Byzantines all get a passing mention school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations... |isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a baby called Eleonora young age. When she hears there is bornto be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. SadlyEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, her mother does not make it and itHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's left to her father to bring her updeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. He struggles She hides away, so that they don't find and decides the best thing for himselfkill her too, but more importantly, for his young daughterand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, is to enter into dressing as a marriage of convenience with boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a member of his extended familycabin boy. Domestic life rumbles along, but underneath She soon finds herself in the surfacethick of things when there is a mutiny on board, things and from there we are brewing ..caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755377702</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Molly CarrSarah Marsh|title=A Study in CrimsonSign of Her Own

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=As soon After a bout of scarlet fever as I read a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the blurb on the back cover I thought there's no doubting that this book use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is going taught to be one of those delightful rompslip read, shall we saybut physically restrained from signing. Carr takes From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the famous deaf and much-loved using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and much-read detective Holmes along with his trustyideas, if rather dull and plodding side-kick Watson and decides to have Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a bit complicated tangle of funespionage. But will it work?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907685405</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreview|author=Amanda Taylor|title=The Chinamanfollow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca''s Bastard|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I found picks up a few months after where we left off. In the title palace of the book excellent Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and I was keen to find out morethen by divine intervention never returned home. The blurb on As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the back cover does its job - until throne of the last bit, which becomes a bit irritatingWestern Isles. It claims Having survived – politically and physical – the book 'is very captivating'. Well, chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to be brutally honest, itIthaca's either captivating or it's not. The word 'very' shores, Queen Penelope is not neededon the brink of a fragile peace. And sadlyOne that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, noand his sister Elektra, I didn't find the book captivating at allseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843865440</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christina CourtenayB0C7J9D21B|title=Trade WindsA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis|rating=34.5

|summary=It When we first meet our hero, his name is 1731 Ettore and Killian Kinrosshe lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, disgraced heir to the estate is making his way as best it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he can through the gambling dens was born. He's not been short of Edinburghmothers, trading on though - but for someone of his skillbackground in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, ability it's difficult to hold his drink and obtain decent employment. The stint working with the smiling fickle fortunes preparation of lady anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luckon fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. The Lady is smiling at the moment, although she hasn't always done soHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931232</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret JamesEssie Fox|title=The Silver LocketFascination

|summary=It The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the eve of the First Second World War and Rose Courtenay) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's parents are keen to marry her off to well-bred Michael Easton. But Rose is certain such a life glut of domesticity media set in Dorset is not for her and so instead she takes the bold step of running away era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to London where she volunteers as a nurse for the war effortpoint of being cliched, hackneyed even. Posted All this is simply to France, Rose meets injured soldier Alex Denham who she has known since childhood, and is the only man who has ever made her blushillustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. Romance soon blossoms between Rose and Alex, But despite Rose fighting against her feelings as Alex is already marriedthat, something about it still grabs me – and also disapproved of by her parents due to his dubious backgroundsomething about this book's description did as well. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906931283</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon ScarrowNicole Jarvis|title=The Legion (Roman Legion 9)A Portrait in Shadow|rating=34.5

|summary=Ajax and his crew of fellow renegade gladiators have been stirring things up in Egypt. Attacking small naval bases, merchant ships and villages along the coast, they're successfully stirring some unrest. Because Ajax isn't silly. Not only is he a skilled fighter and capable commander, he's also full I want all of guile. The band pose as Roman soldiers when raiding, so their victims are left with anti-Roman sentiment in addition Florence to their losses. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755353749</amazonuk>}}know my name''

{{newreview|author=Pamela Evans|title=Harvest Nights|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1920 and London is struggling to deal with the consequences of the Great War. Unemployment is high and money is scarce. Clara Tripp, a former Land Girl has been forced to return to the city to work as a waitress, leaving behind the countryside which she loves so much. When Charlie FennerCast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an acquaintance from Clara's Land Army days, comes oasis in to the teashop which her art can find a home and where she works, Clara her future can't help but feel overjoyedthrive rather than stagnate. He offers her temporary work on his parents' orchard in Kent and But as some as she gladly accepts. Yet a serious accident forces Clara to stay longer than expected and it is then that enters Florentine society she makes a shocking discovery which threatens to destroy faces great opposition from the Fenner family. Back in London Clara struggles with her confused emotions and powerful Accademia, the looming prospect self-proclaimed guardians of her marriage the healing magics that through paintings have the power to local boy Arnold. When devastating news comes protect the city and its citizens from Kent, Clara realises she can no longer keep her discovery a secretplagues and curses. But coming faceThe all-to-face with Charlie again means Clara must acknowledge her buried feelings male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and make a decision between doing the right thing change – has no place amongst them and following her hearttheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755345452</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreview|author=Ross Laidlaw|title=Justinian: The Sleepless One|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Born Uprauda YstockSet in the near-distant future, in a world on the son verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a peasant, Justinian hero (as he was to become knownor several) managed to change his life around when his mother's brother, Roderic, an important general in save the Roman Army, paid for his educationday and rescue what little remains. After a series What no-one expected was that one of successes, Roderic became Emperor Justin and then passed the mantel on to his nephew, who became known as Justinian. When he came into power, Knights of the Roman Empire was under attack from all directions and Justinian was forced to battle for his right to remain Emperor. Fortunately, he married Theodora, an ex-courtesan, who helped to mould him into Round Table would answer the leader that he needed to becall. Was this enough to remain in power, or would it all be snatched away from him?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971586</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter CareyG K Holloway|title=Parrot and Olivier in AmericaIn the Shadows of Castles

|summary=Two years have passed since [[The Redemption We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of Alexander Seaton by Shona Maclean|Alexander Seaton]] found his redemptionWilliam of Normandy's coronation as King of England. He William's position is comfortably settled in his life at not secure and the University, about new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to be sent on worry. While the academic expedition of a lifetimeprevious king, Harold, is dead and wondering how best to ask the woman he loves to be his wife. Then a case likelihood of mistaken identitymore pitched battles is over, which almost costs him his love the rebels are stirring and much of the respect of his friends leads Alexander country does not wish to discover he has recognise a cousin in town – the son of his late mother's brother, come from Ireland to seek his helpnew overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849162441</amazonuk>1800422466

 {{newreview|author=Julian Lees|title=The Fan Tan Players|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The story opens with a vividly described cyclone in 1920s Macao. I found Lees' writing was such in the opening chapter that it felt almost apocalyptic. The loss of life, the damage to property and ... 'sounds of the surf regurgitating gurgling carcasses of belly-bulging cows.' I couldn't help but think of the real-life tragedy unfolding in Pakistan. I felt a bit queasy when I was reading this, to tell you the truth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207492</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fiona Mountain3949666079|title=Rebel Heiress|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Based on the life of a pioneer in the world of butterfly collecting, this novel was an enchanting and enthralling read. Born into a rigorously devout Puritan family, young Eleanor is an anomaly both in her outlook and attitude - and her butterfly collecting interests set her further apart from the more traditional ladies. The prejudices of the times are well explained, and the level of historical detail is sufficient to give the reader a good understanding of the tensions of the period.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091656</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNoema|author=Seth Hunter|title=The Price of GloryDael Akkerman

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=''This is the final book in Seth Hunter's trilogy a story about some things that happened to me about the naval adventures and private life of Captain Nathan Peaketwelve thousand years ago. While the other two books, The Time of Terror and [[The Tide of War by Seth Hunter|The Tide of War]], were fairly self-contained stories in themselves, the running thread of Nathan's private life continues over the three books and isn't really resolved until the final few paragraphs in The Price of Glory.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343115</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Daisy Goodwin|title=My Last Duchess|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=There's plenty to enjoy Maya is a young girl living in this debut novel by Daisy Goodwina hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. And first up Climate change is occurring, the elegant coverSea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. I wanted What to read do? Can the book as soon as I saw law givers in the photograph: a beautiful girl with great presence about her. The thoughtful look on her face and lack federation of ring on her finger hinted at an intriguing story. It was also a fair bet that this historical fiction, set in villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the nineteenth centuryTraveller, was about a romance, suitable or unsuitable. So spiritual figure who interprets the cover complemented the story – a quite unusual featwisdom of All Life, judging by other offerings I have seen recently.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755348060</amazonuk>provide solutions?

 {{newreview|author=James Forrester|title=Sacred Treason|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In London, in December 1563, the herald William Harley (known to everyone as Clarenceux) had no intention of becoming involved in one of the many Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth, but he's unwittingly drawn into one when his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn, gave him a chronicle, telling him that it hid a secret which could cost Machyn his life. Clarenceux was sceptical until he was visited by Francis Walsingham's brutal enforcers and within a matter of a few hours he turns from a law-abiding citizen into a man on the run in search of clues which will tell him why the chronicle is so important.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356012</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ron Rash1529125898|title=Serena|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The reader is introduced to one of the two main characters straight away. George Pemberton. But everyone (even his new wife) calls him simply Pemberton. He's faced with an awkward and at the same time delicate situation and deals with it - with violence. No one seems too bothered, not even the local sheriff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674887</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGodmersham Park|author=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|title=The Complete Brigadier Gerard StoriesGill Hornby

|summary=Meet Brigadier Etienne Gerard. An officer in Napoleon's army, he is a boastful womaniser with a significantly higher opinion 'If it were not for the casual dereliction of his own intelligence than anyone around him – notably Napoleon himself. Hethe odd gentleman's also braveduty, resourceful, fiercely loyal there would no women to his emperor and any woman he finds himself in love with, and above teach well-bred daughters at all, utterly, totally heroic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847679196</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Ben Kane|title=The Road Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to Rome (Forgotten Legion Chronicles)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=After years take up the position of wondering if their twin were still alive, Romulus and Fabiola happen governess to catch sight twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of each other on the docks at Alexandrianecessity. Their meeting isn't to last longUntil the death of her mother, as Fabiola is being rushed to safety Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her loverfather was frequently absent from the household. When her mother died, Brutus, one of Caesar's most trusted generals her father cast her off and Romulus has just been press-ganged into would have nothing more to do with her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an army about to go into battleannuity of £35 a year. HoweverHer maid, this chance meeting gives them additional strengthAgnes, which they are certainly going to need to survive the struggles aheadwould receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090153</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Margaret Muir|title=Floating Gold|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The novel opens with a description of the rotting remains of a human being battered by the waves on the beaches of the Isle of Wight. I cannot recall any book I have ever read starting on a more depressing note, but this is far from a depressing, or disappointing, story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070909051X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=E V ThompsonMelissa Fu |title=No Less Than The JourneyPeach Blossom Spring

|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''No Less Than The JourneyOrigins'' concerns a young Cornish miner seeking a new life in America. He makes many interesting acquaintances and some rather arduous journeys in his quest to find a family member.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709087551</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Katie Flynn|title=Heading Home|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Claudia Unfortunately it is seven when this book opens, in Liverpool in 1926. She's a careful girl, perhaps a little spoilt, although clearly not wealthy. She enjoys the protection only truly poetic part of thirteen-year-old Danny who comes a book that I expected more from a poorer family, and evidently has something of a crush on Claudia. Even in this first chapter, she comes across Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as somewhat self-centred, wanting people to think well of her, but not naturally generous or empathicviewed through one family's perspective. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520265</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=G. De Beauregard and H. De Gorsse|title=The Stamp King|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Set in 1896, this When their home city is set ablaze during the story of William Keniss and Betty Scottwar with Japan, two a young American philatelists each intent on owning the world’s only complete stamp collection. The rarest specimen of all is one issued by the Maharajah of Brahmapootra but never placed on general sale, although one copy did pass through the postal system, mother (Meilin) and it is one of only two in the entire universe. The Maharajah owns this one himself her four-year- and our collectors old son (Renshu) are determined to get their hands on the otheramong those who flee.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852597460</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julie Orringer|title=The Invisible Bridge|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and follows them on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the barstheir journey across China, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Beverley Eikli|title=Lady Farquhar's Butterfly|rating=3|genre=WomenRenshu's Fiction|summary=Olivia - Lady Farquhar - has recently been widowed. This does not upset her in the least; indeed, as becomes clear through the novel, her husband was an unpleasant bully who subjected her case eventually to all kinds of abuse. Unfortunately, however, the terms of his will have ensured that her beloved toddler Julian has been taken away to live with his uncle Max until such time as Olivia marries someone considered to be above reproach. For that reason, she is seriously considering marrying Nathaniel, a clergyman who has helped her for many yearsAmerica. The only problem with that is that she finds him increasingly repulsive...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090579</amazonuk>1472277538

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anita Diamant1916072038|title=Day After Night|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=First of all, I really liked the unusual pitch for a Second World War novel, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after the liberation of Europe. The war machine has ground to a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrants. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp is emotionally a halfway house between the past and the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties and House in limbo for an indeterminate period, the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all their loved ones.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847398618</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jennie Rooney|title=Hollow (The Opposite of Falling|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1862 and when wealthy Liverpool girl Ursula Bridgewater finds herself single and restless after her fiancée Henry Springton leaves her for another woman, she soon turns to travel as a means of escape and sets off on her first expedition. But she has agreed to stay friends with Henry and cannot quite escape him completely as they continue to write to each other. Ten years later and Ursula has travelled all over the world and is about to embark on a trip around America, but this time she decides to take a companion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTalbot Saga)|author=Iain Pears|title=Stone's FallAllie Cresswell

|summary=I read Iain Pears' ''The Portrait'' a We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year or so ago -old Jocelyn Talbot and loved it so I was really looking forward her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to reading this novelthe house in the hollow. The front cover is strikingly handsome two women are angry with each other and hints of good things to come between its covers. The novel Jocelyn is divided up into sizeable chunks well aware of three. Three different decades and three different locations. Pears then dips in her mother's strengths and out of the main characters' lives, telling the reader basically what makes them tick.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:

{{newreview|author=Nicola Cornick|title=Confessions of a Duchess|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow with her young daughter. But when the village squire decides to invoke the Dames’ Tax''She is practiced at subterfuge, a law requiring every unmarried woman to give up half her wealth to himat concealing, the town becomes beneath a hotbed facade of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining respectability, the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife and carry out a murder inquiry on behalf of Lord Liverpool. The last thing Laura and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years ago. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin them bothdeplorable truth''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303802</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Gill Schierhout|title=The Shape of Him|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The story Hester is told in the first person by Sara Highbury. Shefurious about Jocelyn's running a small business in an efficient but rather detached fashion. She's all washed up. She starts refusal to recount her earlierdo as she was asked, happier life when it meant something to her. And the reader soon discovers that a diamond digger called Herbert was - which has precipitated ''this violent and still is - the love of her life. And here Schierhout gives us a taster of the hard and dirty work digging for stones (theyunexpected removal''re never called diamonds by the workers apparently). The danger and precarious nature of the work is laid bare. But Herbert seemed to be a natural. Why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535777</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Anne-Marie Vukelic|title=Far Above Rubies|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Shy Catherine Hogarth first meets Charles Dickens at her parents' house when he hilariously comes in through Then we are told of the window to dance birth of a jig before the assembled guests, before leaving child and then entering again via the front door. Employed by her father George, the editor of the Evening Chroniclesoon after, as a reporter and sketch writerHester Talbot departs, Charles is at the start of his writing career leaving Jocelyn in shame and soon becomes a regular visitor to the Hogarth householdisolation in Yorkshire. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090536</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth ChadwickAnnabel Abbs|title=To Defy A KingThe Language of Food

|summary=#Set in the traumatic and violent period leading up to the Magna Carta, Chadwick concentrates on the fortunes of two extended families. The Marshals, close to the throne for their expertise, political and military might, and the Bigods, Eliza Acton is a poet who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespee, son of has never had the family matriarch, and John’s father. Banished from Court, and forced slightest inclination to leave her son there, Ida marries Roger and founds a strong patriarchal dynastyboil an egg. However, tension is never far from boiling point, When tasked with the two half brothers tolerating each other at bestwriting a cookery book, loathing each other more often than notshe recruits Ann Kirby, due to their opposing natures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne O'Brien|title=Virgin Widow|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is famous throughout England as one of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisors. But as Edward is lured towards another influential family when he falls in love a local woman with Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret of Anjou and King Louis XI of France, aiming to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English thronea troubled home life. A helpless pawnTogether, Anne is torn away from the man she lovesthey test, who will grow up to become Richard IIIcraft, to be used as political capital by her father refine and his allies as they try to regain reshape the kingdom world of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lynn Shepherd|title=Murder at Mansfield Park|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Straight away the reader is plunged into the language of Austen's eradomestic cookery, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' and ' ... her family were not consumptive...' We are also introduced to a host of characters and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at reinventing the beginning ''Names of the Principal Persons'', it does bombard and perhaps confuse the reader a little. I must admit to referring to this dratted list time recipe book and time again. It does break changing the flow at the beginning face of the novel. But, several chapters in and you're right into the story thereaftercookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905636792</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sara StockbridgeFreya Marske|title=The Fortunes of Grace HammerA Marvellous Light

|summary=The short prologue shares with the reader Robin Blyth is nudged into a childhood incident job in the life of Grace HammerCivil Service, much to his chagrin. It had a dramatic effect on her There he meets Edwin Courcey and her life thereafterlearns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. She is Desperate to remove a changed person. She's also driven. She grows into a desirable woman curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and turns men's heads wherever she goes. But she's also smartthe people shimmer with power. Some would perhaps think at this point, why not go 'up west', bag There they uncover a sugar-daddy and live sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in luxury for the rest of her days? But life is not as simple as thatBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emily PurdyB09F4CTKJR|title=The Tudor WifeFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=34.5

|summary=From It's the moment she sets eyes on handsome George Boleyn, plain Lady Jane Parker falls madly in love later stages of World War I and prays that George will be hersthe United States has just entered the conflict. As Jane Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and George's families negotiate joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the marriage Jane meets Anne Boleyn RAF and quickly realises the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that George only can happen, Petrol has eyes for Anne, to master flying the notoriously difficult but remains determined that she can make George love hermajestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561942</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne PerryChristophe Medler|title=The Sheen on the SilkMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=Anna Zarides arrives in Constantinople, determined to find out why her twin brother Justinian has been convicted Set against the backdrop of murder. But it is 1273the English Civil War, and a woman cannot move about freely to ask questionssecret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. Anna is As a skilled doctorloyal servant of the King, who uses Arab and Jewish medicine in secret as well as more accepted Christian remedies: in her quest for information she disguises herself as a eunuch Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and successfully treats a wide range follow the clues to uncover one of people from the very poorest right up to most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the emperor himselfKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755339061</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Penny Ingham1471187179|title=The King's DaughterA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore

|summary=The central female character - Minnie is an 'The Kingordinary's Daughter' is Elflaedegirl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. SheThe book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice youngman to marry, feisty produce children and very prettyspend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. She also has Unfortunately, this unforgettable reddish hairisn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. At this point in the story I was reminded As a little result of Queen Elizabeth Ia chance meeting, I have to say. In Elflaede's own words she 'had never known finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a time without war .' The hordes of Pagan Norsemen are double life - attempting to blame. They've come to England with their own set infiltrate the Communist Party of superstitionsGreat Britain. And they've come with one aim. To conquer great swathes of EnglandMinnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095559975X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Trevor BloomAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The Half-SlaveKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=At Samarobriva in Roman GaulWell, this looked very much like a raiding Saxon tribe meets its match in book I could love from the form get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a division of weird section in the Franksmiddle on darker stock paper, who have suborned a chapter whose number was in the Roman authorities 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and are establishing their control throughout the regionso on. A mysterious meeting It intrigued with the Frankish Overlord persuades the leader of the Saxons to sign subterranean voice a treaty man hears in wartorn Dresden that will forever alter the fate what little I knew of his people. In return for Frankish silver, he hands over to them his youngest son, Ascha the half-slaveit mentioned, as a perpetual hostage to guarantee the peacetoo. But in you've seen the frozen north new powers are risingstar rating that comes with this review, and Ascha will soon be drawn into a web of lies and ambition as two very different worlds come into conflictcan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955563062</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Seth HunterChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Tide of WarBlack Kids

|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=The Tide of War Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the second book in a trilogy backdrop of historical fictionnovels by Seth Hunterthe 1992 Los Angeles riots, set in a reaction to the 1790s and recounts the adventures absolution ofBritish naval captain Nathan Peake. In this book newly-promoted Peakeis sent to the Caribbean to command four police officers for beating a British frigateblack man, the UnicornRodney King,nearly to hunt for death. Told from the French warshipperspective of Ashley Bennett, the Virginienovel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=Michelle Lovric|title=The Book of Human Skin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''Ye can't take the slither out ovva snake.'' So says Gianni, valet in a wealthy eighteenth century Venetian household. The master, a merchant, divides his time between Italy and Peru, where he deals in silver. But the merchant isn't the serpent - his son Minguillo is. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at the convent in Arequipa, Minguillo was born - a serpent in his family's midst. His own mother couldn't bear Move on to nurse him and his father went into denial, making more and more frequent trips to a South American home free of sociopathic progeny. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elif Shafak|title=The Forty Rules of Love|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This is a sixth novel from best-selling Turkish author, Elif Shafak. Set in twelfth century Anatolia, two famous characters from Islamic history meet in a gorgeously real world. A delicate contemporary US love story is wrapped around the rich, meaty historical fiction. Don't be misled by the dodgy-sounding title!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918733</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]