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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice HoffmanTananarive Due|title=The DovekeepersReformatory
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in the last desperate days before the Roman siege on Masada (70CE)Gracetown, the lives of four women collide and mergeFlorida. June 1950. They are Yael, the daughter of After a Sicarii assassin; Revka, the wife of a gentle baker who witnessed her daughters' rape and murder; Aziza, raised as scuffle with a white boy with the skills of a great warrior and Shirah, born in Alexandria twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to a mother well versed in ancient magic. All four have crossed the heartless desert on separate journeys to arrive six months at the last outpost against the Roman Legion, where 900 Jews held out Gracetown School for many, many months. Here they have little power and less hope, but each refuses to be a victim. All are harbouring deep secrets about their pastsBoys, otherwise known as they become the MasadaReformatory. It's dovekeepersa place with a brutal and dark reputation. With supplies dwindling and certain death drawing nearBut the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, their uneasy bonds to each other strengthen as their truths are unveiled. They find an uneasy comfort haunted by the boys that becomes true loyalty and empowermenthave died there. While few in their company In order to survive to recount the taleschool governor and his Funhouse, their story has lived on to haunt Robert must enlist the deepest help of memoriesthe school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857205420</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pam JenoffKatherine Howe|title=The Things We CherishedA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=The rather sentimental title Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and Mills & Boon-ish front cover did not endear me being made to this book initiallywork there from a young age. The blurb on When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the back cover made up for thistown, howevershe decides to go and watch. The story opens - at the end, if you get my drift Enthralled and we're horrified in America equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in 2009a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. An elderly man called Roger is in prisonShe hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, awaiting trial for (alleged) war crimes. Charlotte has been assigned and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the case. Although shenotorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a hot-shot lawyer she also has cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a conscience (unlike many of mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her colleagues) so therefore she's a bit rip roaring tale of a rare breedlife on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547298</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gabrielle KimmSarah Marsh|title=The Courtesan's Lover|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This is a big thumping book running to almost 500 pages. We're in sixteenth century Italy, Naples to be precise and the scene is set for the entrance A Sign of the main character, courtesan Francesca. And what an exotic creature she is. But also charming, thoughtful and intelligent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751544558</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Christina Courtenay|title=Highland Storms|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The publisher, Choc Lit Limited, gives a fair idea of what kind of read this book is. Romance with a capital R. Courtenay decides to go back in time to a Scotland rather weary of battles but strong in image especially in terms of the countryside. Is the book's purple hue suggestive of the purple heather to be found all over this area of Scotland, I wonder. It all conjures up a deeply romantic setting for many, myself included. Add in the odd fairy-tale castle or two and it's even better.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931712</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Marsh|title=Fiennders AbbeyHer Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In was the end of the nineteenth century and the family at Fiennders Abbey might lead much more leisurely lives than the staff who kept the house running as it should, but their fortunes were inextricably linked. Mary Bowden was the tweenie when we first met her – she did all the dirty jobs which were beneath those higher up the ladder – as well as being the daughter of the gamekeeper. She was also intelligent, ambitious and very attractive with her straight, milk-blonde hair. As a child she'd always been very friendly with Richard, the son of the house, but it's not a friendship which either of their mothers wishes to foster.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447200071</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Titania Hardie
|title=The House of the Wind
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title After a bout of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains itscarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touchSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, I thought and not over-played eithereverything about her life changes. The short Prologue describes Living in a young girl on time when the eve use of her 'terrible fatesign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the very last minutedeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at At the Casa al Vento - 'The House same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of the Windespionage.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
{{newreview|author=Jane Sanderson|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features a bold promise follow- up to the excellent 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'. The basic features of a reliable Ithaca'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; picks up a few months after where we left off. In the landed gentry enjoying their estatepalace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the staff servicing it Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the localschaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, all relying Queen Penelope is on the fortunate family for their own incomebrink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>0356516075
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin FalconerB0C7J9D21B|title=Silk RoadA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Falconer presents When we first meet our hero, his readers with a handy map name is Ettore and he lives at The House of the famous (or perhaps that should be infamous) Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore'Silk Roads mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it' which stretches from Europe all the way s difficult to Chinaobtain decent employment. The story opens with a charismatic young princess who lives stint working with her extended family in an area of Mongolia. She is clearly the apple preparation of her fatheranchovies didn's eyet work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. So much so, that Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he will often take advice from her, rather than from his two older sons. She would be had a prize catch indeed successful business as a wife guide for any man, but the feisty Khutelun has other plans. She wants plenty of adventure and glory in her life. She doesn't want to be a baby machine and besides, no man has caught her eyevisitors. YetHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891081</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Charles Frazier|title=Nightwoods|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=If you have read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain', or indeed seen the film, then you'll have a fair idea what to expect from his latest offering - 'Nightwoods'. As with 'Cold Mountain', the landscape of the Appalachians is the dominant character, this time set in the 1950s. He even manages to get his requisite bear into the story although thankfully it fares rather better than the unfortunate beast in his first book. The dark, oppressing majesty and beauty of the mountains and woods pervades the whole story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444731246</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanEssie Fox|title=The Thirty-nine StepsFascination
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Ask anyone about 'The Thrity-nine Steps' and I guarantee they'll be able to tell you it's a spy story with Richard Hannay at its heart. Most people will be able to tell you how it starts. But when you ask, 'Yes, but what ARE the 39 Steps?' most people will falter.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971985</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Charlotte Anne Walters
|title=Barefoot on Baker Street
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I must admit that I think The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the title Second World War) which has often led to more than a little cheeky, few writers mishandling it. There's such a little too near glut of media set in the era that the bone as far as hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the iconic Baker Street and equally iconic Sherlock Holmes point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is concernedsimply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. The sepia front cover suggests a rather sugaryBut despite that, romantic read so I wasnsomething about it still grabs me – and something about this book't off to the best of startss description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920121</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanNicole Jarvis|title=A Lost Lady of Old YearsPortrait in Shadow|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=While I normally start with a plot description ''Iwant all of Florence to know my name'd better justify the summary first. (Translated, it reads - Warning - you must understand Scots dialect really well if you hope to like this book from the start. Well worth reading though, it's such a good story.)
BasicallyCast out from Rome, this is Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a tale set during home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the Jacobite Rising of 1745self-6 with authentic dialogue proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that time; which is through paintings have the power to say, rather hard to follow if you're anything like meprotect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. Most booksTo them, I can read in a couple of days maximum, this took me nearly a month Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and at some points I was reduced to asking my Scottish colleague to translate it for metheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846972035</amazonuk>1803362340
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
{{newreview|author=Brian Ruckley|title=Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The Edinburgh Dead|rating=5|genre=Crime British Isles desperately needs a hero (Historicalor several)|summary=The phrase 'jack of all trades and master of none' can apply to writers as well as anything else save the day and I've always been suspicious of authors who switch genres, as they often prove less effective when they do sorescue what little remains. Sometimes, however, it does work and having enjoyed Brian Ruckley's fantasy writings such as [[Fall What no-one expected was that one of Thanes by Brian Ruckley|Fall the Knights of Thanes]], I found that he's equally as enjoyable when writing a crime thrillerthe Round Table would answer the call.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498653</amazonuk>0356518523
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Fiona MountainG K Holloway|title=Cavalier QueenIn the Shadows of Castles
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=We sweep back begin after the momentous battle in time to a young Henrietta. Living 1066 and on the spoilt and pampered life day of a pretty, little princess whom everyone (even her dog) loves and adores. She spends delightfully carefree days singing and dancing and playing with her little dog. But the subject William of marriage is on the horizon. SheNormandy's fourteen after all. Time to put away those childish things. Who has her family decided will be her future husband? The young princess has no say in the matter but hopes he will be just a little handsome and be gentle with hercoronation as King of England. ItWilliam's position is not only a marriage of two individuals (that's almost inconsequential) it's a marriage of two nations - with strategy secure and long-term thinking in mind. In short, the French Royal Family want to do everything to appease other countries and hopefully keep war at baynew king has many challenges.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091672</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Barry Unsworth|title=The Quality of Mercy|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary='The Quality of Mercy' picks up the story of the author's Booker Prize-winning 'Sacred Hunger' although if you haven't read the first book, you won't be greatly disadvantaged as the relevant story lines are explainedImposing authority through a coronation is important. What you might miss out on And William is some of the feeling for a few of right to worry. While the main charactersprevious king, most notably the Irish fiddlerHarold, Sullivan who, when this book picks up in spring 1767, has just escaped from prison where is dead and the remaining shipmates likelihood of the slave shipmore pitched battles is over, the 'Liverpool Merchant' await their trial of piracy. Slavery rebels are stirring and abolition thereof remains a central theme much of this sequel, but the book draws some poignant similarities with those in bondage due country does not wish to poverty, and particularly those working in the coal mines of County Durhamrecognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091937124</amazonuk>1800422466
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Aitcheson3949666079|title=Sworn SwordNoema|author=Dael Akkerman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=The novel ''This is set in the turbulent a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years following the Battle of Hastings. We follow the Normans as they set out to quell the restless and rebellious factions in the North of England. An ambush in Durham sees the Normans decimated and determined on revenge - this precipitates the events which followago.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093241</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Lisa See|title=Dreams of Joy|rating=4Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It's the late 1950sClimate change is occurring, and America's teenagers (the very idea a brand new concept) are beginning to live the all-American dream. For some Sea of them however it isn't all 'Happy Days' diners Grass encroaches further and rock'n'roll. For the second generation Chinese immigrants therefurther into Maya's an alternative: back 'forest home' there's a brave new world being forged, a world where 'we'd work in the fields and sing songsfood is becoming more and more scarce. We'd What to do exercises ? Can the law givers in the park. We'd help clean federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the neighbourhood and share meals. We wouldn't be poor and we wouldn't be rich. We'd all be equal.' |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408822296</amazonuk>wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Buchan1529125898|title=GreenmantleGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby|rating=45
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I'm told that Buchan is still widely read. Really? "John Buchan? Oh yes, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps"… and that's as far as most If it were not for the casual dereliction of us get. Letthe odd gentleman's be honest most of us only know that one from the many film versionsduty, just about there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all of which take huge liberties with the original plot.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971977</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Ellen Feldman|title=Next Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to Love|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Babe, Grace and Millie are three American girls who have grown take up togetherthe position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. Now young women each marry their sweetheart just as America becomes involved in the Second World WarShe had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity. But on a fateful day in 1944, sixteen telegrams arrive from Until the War Department bringing death to the localsof her mother, including Grace Anne had a comfortable life and Millie whose husbands have was loved by both been killedparents although her father was frequently absent from the household. Babe seems When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to be the lucky one as do with her husband. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Claude, returns from the WarAgnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in truth he will never be the same man againby some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330544500</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Fiona Mountain|title=Isabella|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The fate of mutineer, Fletcher Christian in the 18th century remains a mystery even today but Fiona Mountain has pieced together a dramatic and powerful story based on rumours and clues that Fletcher returned to England to be with his long-lost love, Isabella Curwen. Fletcher, the son of a bankrupt family and Isabella, the sole heiress of a huge fortune are prevented from marrying. Their relationship is manipulated by those around them and a young, naïve Isabella is forced to marry her cousin, John. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099562251</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ben Kane|title=Hannibal: Enemy of Rome|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Thanks to his [[The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane|Forgotten Legion]] trilogy, Ben Kane has recently bought Roman times to life in me far more than history and Latin lessons at school ever did. Having enjoyed this first trilogy, I've been eagerly awaiting his ''Hannibal'' trilogy, since he told Bookbag about it when we interviewed him. Finally, the wait is over and ''Hannibal: Enemy of Rome'' is here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809227X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jose Saramago and Margaret Jull CostaMelissa Fu |title=The Elephant's JourneyPeach Blossom Spring
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=This novel I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is inspired by a real event – the marriage gift only truly poetic part of an elephant a book that I expected more from Dom João III of Portugal . Covering Chinese history from 1938 to his cousin Maximilian, the Hapsburg Archduke of Austria2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the gift was acceptedwar with Japan, the elephant Solomon, his mahout Subhro a young mother (Meilin) and numerous soldiersher four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, oxen and porters, walked from Lisbon to Vienna in Renshu's case eventually to deliver the present, arriving in 1552America. This is the story of that journey.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546884</amazonuk>1472277538
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Stockbridge1916072038|title=Cross My PalmThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Fortune teller Rose Lee lives on We meet part of the edge of London society Talbot family in Yorkshire in 1860, making her living by entertaining (and sometimes deceiving) the rich by reading their palmsNovember 1811. She fears the fate she has read for herself Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in her own palm which is perhaps what makes her cautious of delivering the whole truth to the ladies that employ her. On one particular night Rose is called some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house of Lady Quayle, a woman of high society, who delights in having her fortune read, taking everything Rose tells her as gospelthe hollow. One of the guests present The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is Emily, a young girl and friend well aware of Lady Quayleher mother's daughter Tabitha.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070118504X</amazonuk>}}strengths and weaknesses:
{{newreview|author=Alison Weir|title=The Captive Queen|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, growing up in Brooklyn. Vaclav dreams beneath a facade of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine togetherrespectability, making lists of the things theydeplorable truth''ll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Helen Humphreys|title=The Reinvention of Love|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Hester is furious about Jocelyn'The Reinvention of Love' is one of those stories that is so bizarre and strange that it could only be based on factual events. Essentially it is a good, old-fashioned love triangle set mostly in Paris in the period from the 1830s s refusal to the 1860s; a world where fighting duels is a commonplace event. The triangle features the great French literary writer Victor Hugodo as she was asked, his wife Adèle and the altogether strange critic Charles Saint-Beuve who narrates much of which has precipitated ''this story, with brief breaks for Adèle's side of events violent and some letters written by the Hugounexpected removal's youngest daughter, also called Adèle (but let's call her, as she was known to her family, Dédé to avoid confusion).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687985</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Karen Harper|title=The Queen's Governess|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Kat Ashley isn't a name one usually associates with the Tudor era, but just like Then we are told of the more famous characters birth of the perioda child and, she has her own fascinating story to tellsoon after, a story which this book captures perfectly. As Thomas Cromwell's spy, Anne Boleyn's confidante and later Princess Elizabeth's governessHester Talbot departs, Kat Ashley certainly knew the Tudor court well leaving Jocelyn in shame and it is through her fictional diary entries that the reader is invited to know the dazzling, yet dangerous Tudor court tooisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940419</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roy Jacobsen, Don Bartlett (translator) and Don Shaw (translator)Annabel Abbs|title=Child WonderThe Language of Food
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=1961 was a year of change, a time, as Jacobsen puts it, ''when men became boys and housewives women''. At the outset Finn and his mother are leading a quiet, rather timorous life in a working class Oslo suburb. Then change overwhelms them, not through world events, but in the form of a mysterious child who is Finn's half sister. Linda is not like other children and Finn's attempt to deal with her impact on his family is the central thread in this quintessential story of growing up.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050184</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Amor Towles
|title=Rules of Civility
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Katey Kontent works hard during Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the day as slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a typist at a big law firm in 1930s Manhattancookery book, but at night she likes to sample the nightlife – jazz clubs in Greenwich Villagerecruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. There on New Year's Eve 1937Together, they test, craft, she refine and her roommate Eve meet reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the charming Tinker Grey. This is recipe book and changing the start face of a year of many changes for Katey and her friendscookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444708848</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meira ChandFreya Marske|title=A Different SkyMarvellous Light
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=We meet Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the first streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the three main characters - Chinese Mei Lan on a trip hedgegrows bristle with her devoted minder-nursemaid into town. The sights incantations and smells intrigue the young girl as people shimmer with power. There they are uncover a far cry from her comfortable home and its surroundings. Rather than appreciating all sinister plot that space and threatens the beautiful objects lives of all magicians in the family home, Mei Lan feels lonely (she's an only child) and even hemmed in. But perhaps she'll change as she grows upBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099546248</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lian HearnB09F4CTKJR|title=Blossoms and Shadows|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I see from the front cover that Hearn is already a best-selling author with her ''Tales Of the Otori'' so I was looking forward to a good read. However, I did slump a little when I opened the book and was presented with several pages of the story's characters - sub-divided into fictional and historical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857382977</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFlights for Freedom|author=D J Taylor|title=Derby DaySteven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I read (and reviewed) TaylorIt's [[Ask Alice by D J Taylor|Ask Alice]] the later stages of World War I and took to Taylor's style straight away. Is this one going to be as good - or even better? Time to find out ..the United States has just entered the conflict. To set the tone we first meet Petrol Petronus is a couple of no-gooders as they plot and scheme and it's all about horses young American who has signed up and joined the Derby17 Aero Squadron. And by degrees, Taylor introduces his main characters, chapter by chapter, This company was the first US Aero Squadron to his readers. As this novel runs to over 400 pagesbe trained in Canada, there's plenty of time for flesh the first to be heaped upon attached to the bones of many of these characters. So, for example, we have a rather cold RAF and calculating daughter living with her elderly father who appear right at the start of first to be sent into the skies to fight the novelGermans in active combat. I got the sense But before that things were about can happen, Petrol has to happen - and they certainly did. There's a strong sense of emotions just bubbling under master flying the surface with this duonotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701183586</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Suzannah DunnChristophe Medler|title=The Confession of Katherine HowardMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Katherine Howard was Henry VIII's fifth wife. She was perhaps Set against the most seductive backdrop of his wives and the English Civil War, a considerable contrast to her predecessor, Anna secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of Cleves1642. She's been consigned to history as As a silly girlloyal servant of the King, but careful reading gives and Head of the lie to this. Suzannah Dunn begins her story when Katherine was twelve years old and went to live in her step-grandmotherSecret Service, it is Robert's household. There she met Cathryn – generally known as Cat – Tilney, but duty to uncover the details of the two girls were very different plan and didn't hit it off initially. Cat was quietly ambitious, aware that she needed follow the clues to make a good marriage, whilst Katherine was image-conscious and very interested uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the boysKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007258305</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Wall of Days1471187179|authortitle=Alastair Bruce|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The front cover of this debut novel caught my full and undivided attention with ''Alone, ten years on an island, until one day...'' I couldn't wait to start reading. We meet the central character - we don't know his name just yet and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter. He's living alone on an island, somewhere in the world. Is it the past, the present or even the future? As the story developed I decided on the former.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688000</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewA Beautiful Spy|author=Rory Clements|title=John Shakespeare: PrinceRachel Hore
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This Minnie is the third an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the excellent Elizabethan murder mystery series1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, featuring John Shakespeare, brother produce children and spend the rest of Willher days looking after her husband and their home. An inexplicable murder is linked Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a much deeper plot secretary. As a result of political dimensionsa chance meeting, leading Shakespeare she finds herself drawn into danger espionage, working for the secret service and tragedy. A series of bombings, which appear effectively living a double life - attempting to be targeting infiltrate the immigrant population causes huge unrest Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and fear, the friends she has made - and leads to likes - whilst working for the uncovering of further political dimensionsCommunist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544251</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Felix J PalmaAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The Map of TimeKokoschka's Doll|rating=2.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Like Well, this looked very much like a lot book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of readers it. I cannot resist found things to potentially delight me each time – a book with an immediate hook that draws you into weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the story quickly 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and in a seemingly effortless fashionso on. From It intrigued with the very first page of 'The Map of Time' Felix Palma had me firmly subterranean voice a man hears in his grasp and continued to hold me there for the entirety wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of the novelit mentioned, too. Not once did I become bored or distracted as I relished every wordBut you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, page and chapter of this remarkable bookcan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007344120</amazonuk>1529402697
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret JamesChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Golden ChainBlack Kids|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=ItChristina Hammonds Reed's 1931 and teenager Daisy Denhamdebut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, along with her parents Alex and Rose, and two brothers have left their life in India and moved a reaction to Melbury House in Dorset, a place full the absolution of history four police officers for Alex and Rose. Daisy is not keen on her new life and surroundings and is desperate to escape, particularly when she discovers beating a long held family secret that casts a shadow across her past. She soon meets handsome Ewan Fraser, a young black man forced to spend his holidays in Dorset thanks to his overbearing mother, and the two strike up an instant friendship that soon turns to loveRodney King, spurred on by their joint interest in working on the stage. Ewan soon gives Daisy a golden chain and Daisy promises never nearly to take it offdeath.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190693164X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Adrienne McDonnell|title=The Doctor and Told from the Diva|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=We first meet one perspective of the central charactersAshley Bennett, the successfulnovel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, young obstetrician Dr Ravell as he mingles with the great and the good Bostonians at a high-level social gathering. His reputation seems to precede him as one guest enthuses 'After nineteen years in a barren marriage ... thanks to you, they had twins.' High praise indeed. And at this gathering he not only meets a future patient, Erika von Kessler, but he is also enraptured by woman finding her singing voice. He tries to explain all this but finds it difficult so ends up by saying 'It was not an earthly voice; it was a shimmering.' I loved that lineand embracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751543608</amazonuk>1471188191
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{{newreview|author=Amitav Ghosh|title=River of Smoke|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=At over 500 pages, this is a big book and it's also a big book in terms of the subject matters that it covers; the whole colonial situation regarding parts of the East as well as the properties and problems of the poppy's product - opium. Ghosh also crams in a wealth of very different and diverse characters so that the novel has the feel of an exotic and at times, enchanting pot-pourri of a read. I have Move on to say at the outset that I find authors such as Rushdie wordy, very wordy. I have Ghosh's ''The Glass Palace'' in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. I wonder if the latter will be as wordy as the former. Time to find out...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719568986</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]
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