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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author= Grace MacallisterHeather Morris|title= The Magician's LieTattooist of Auschwitz
|rating=4
|genre= Thrillers
|summary= The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. But one night she swaps her trademark saw for an axe. When Arden's husband is found dead later that night, the answer seems clear, most of all to young policeman Virgil Holt. Captured and taken into custody, all seems set for Arden's swift confession. But she has a different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199967</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Helen Dunmore
|title=Birdcage Walk
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married well. John Diner Tredevant is a property developer who has reached So, you arrive in all ignorance at Auschwitz, and see the zenith of his life's work: building a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking horror there, and immediately swear to survive the Avon Gorge. ordeal to see retribution dealt on those behind it, but what do you do to see that oath out? In a time of turbulence Do you get to work diligently as France reaches the dawn of revolutionNazis demand, Britain, including Diner, fears it may spread. to the extent you get the word ''collaborator'' muttered behind your back? This puts Lizzie in Do you dare to stick your neck out and get a job that means you're actually a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe Jew working in propagating pamphlets and ideas the political wing of egalitarianism for and the SS, answerable to all, including women. Berlin? In other wordsDo you dare get contacts with civilian workers building the place, and trade the loot purloined from the incoming victims' belongings with food they think nothing of spreading ideas smuggle in for you, under the eyes of all the sort camp guards? The man whose real life story inspired this novel did all that fanned , and survived to tell the French flames. Howevertale, but he also managed to do something even more daring, and unexpected – he dared to invest hope in a burgeoning love that's not Lizzie's only problem… there is a darkness he found in her husband's past of which she's unawarethe camp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00919594031785763644</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Beth UnderdownRachel Halliburton|title=The Witchfinder's SisterOptickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal|rating=43.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=England 1645: Matthew Hopkins is good at his chosen career: seeking, testing and convicting those with the Devil Rachel Halliburton's debut novel opens in London in themJanuary 1797. His sisterBenjamin West, AlicePresident of the Royal Academy, doesnis reflecting on the past year't realise s scandal involving the full connotations of his actions untilProvises, widowed father and pregnantdaughter, she returns homeand worries that he handled everything poorly. Alice From the start the book's figurative language is grateful appropriately full of colour and painterly techniques: 'He had intended to be allowed to live under Matthew's roof deal with them honourably, but then watches his sinister finger of suspicion point now everyone in unexpected placesLondon was saying he had not. This is It was as if somebody had dropped a small amount of ivory black paint into yellow orpiment on a man changed from palette – the boy that Alice used to know. She never then realised that more he'd be capable of killing hundreds of people prodded and making her stirred the memory, the Witchfindermurkier it became.'s Sister.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>02419780330715651978</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Emma HendersonJohn Banks|title= The Valentine HouseW
|rating= 4
|genre= Literary General Fiction|summary= In June 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, a keen mountaineer, arrives with his family to spend On the summer slopes of Mt Hood in their chaletOregon, high in the French Alps. There, for the first time, fourteenan 1000-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one of the 'uglies' Viking is discovered frozen - village girls employed as servants and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eyethree thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. For Mathilde it Josh Kinninger is inspired by the start of a lifeViking discovery -long entanglement with les anglais - strange, exciting people, far removed from the hard grind of farming. Except she soon finds the Valentines are less carefree than they appearthree personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with a curiously absent daughter no one talks abouthis world in turmoil. It will be decades - disrupted by war, accidents and Beginning a cruel betrayal - before Mathilde discovers the key to the mystery. And in 1976journey westward, the year Sir Anthonyhe's great-great grandson comes filled with a desire to visit, she must decide whether to use itwreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14447040280983333416</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Polly ClarkElaine Everest|title= LarchfieldChristmas at Woolworths|rating= 3.5|genre= Literary Historical Fiction |summary=I It's early summer when a young poet'Christmas at Woolworths'' is the sequel to wartime saga ''The Woolworths Girls, Dora Fielding, moves to Helensburgh on '' and continues the story where the west coast of Scotland and her hopes are first challengedbook left off. Newly married, pregnant, she's excited by Members of the prospect of a life that combines family close-knit community in Erith are doing their best to pull together and creativity. She thinks she knows what being a personkeep morale high, a wife, a mother, means. She even though the future is soon shown that she is wronguncertain. As At the battle begins for her very sense heart of selfthe neighbourhood, Dora comes to find the realities home of small town life suffocating, kindly matriarch Ruby is a beacon where family and friends can gather for good food and, eventually, terrifying; until she finds conversation: a way to escape reality altogetherforget the troubles outside. Another poet, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan HSpirits remain high; even when the bombs are falling so close to home. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, We catch up with his the three friends from the first book of poetry published, should be embarking on success : Sarah yearns for peace and society in London. Instead, in 1930an end to the war, fleeing a broken engagement, he takes a teaching post at Larchfield School for boys where he Maisie is mocked desperate for his Englishness a child and suspected - rightly - of homosexualityFreda would love to find romance. Yet in Will they all get their wishes this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fears.Christmas?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17864819281509843655</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Dinah JefferiesMinette Walters|title=Before the RainsThe Last Hours
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eliza has tragically punctuated childhood memories In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of India that have feed her desire to returnhygiene which we'd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, the disease rages through the country. Therefore in 1930On the estate of Develish, following Lady Anne Develish took control of the death future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband, had ridden off to try and secure a marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and when Lady Anne realised the British government commission her to photograph scenes virulence of Indian life, she jumps at the chance. What plague she doesn't realise is ordered that not everyone she comes across is delighted with the idea. Living within the Sultana's opulent palace complex is definitely an attraction for estate refuse entry to anyone, including herhusband and his entourage, as is Jay, an Indian price who shows Eliza for fear that they would bring the real India. However, attractions are sometimes dangerous and even deadlydisease to her people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>02412870811760632139</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Otto de Kat Lars Mytting and Laura Watkinson Paul Russell Grant (translatorTranslator)|title=The Longest NightSixteen Trees of the Somme|rating=34.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Emma has a philosophy – ''let While his grandfather lived the dead rest, and love the living''past was an area of certainty for Edvard. The problem At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with thathis grandparents, as a 96-year-old, is having survived the accident that there killed his parents. Now his grandfather has died revelations are too few living leftcoming to light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd believed… his mother's birthplace, and so while the love remains she will go through her memories, taking a woozyhis mother's name, diaphanous path through all the major events whereabouts of her lifelate Great-Uncle Einar… and that's without looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Starting in wartime Berlin with one husband, who gets snatched from her at work, fleeing Edvard is determined to another place to wait for peacesolve the puzzle, and wait for a determination that will take him in vain, moving away from his native Norway to Holland and finding new love, and so on – this wispy journey will show all the impacts an area of war, from rationing right up to exile, death France synonymous with devastation and survivala remote Scottish island loaded with secrets. The memories are coming strongly here and now, as Emma is waiting for at least one of her two sons to visit, and then she will die…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08570560850857056069</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Adrian GoldsworthyToby Clements|title= VindolandaKingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4)|rating= 3.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= AD 98: in 1470 dawns and the northern fields next chapters of Britannia lies Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary base situated on the edge War of the Roman world. Far from the prosperity and decadence of Rome, the wild and untamed lands around Vindolanda Roses are ripe with rebel tribes and druids set against the destruction of Rome and its armiesready to play out. In King Edward thinks that the midst of this destruction future has been settled but treachery is Flavius Ferox; a Briton still lurking. Meanwhile Katherine and Roman Centurion who has been given the task of keeping the peace in this desolate edge of the Thomas also have their world. But life in Roman Britain is full of danger turned upside down when that ledger and betrayal at every turna chance comment threaten all they have, and Ferox knows it will take more than courage to overcome what lies aheadincluding their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784974684178089466X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)P F Chisholm|title=Guns in the North (The Yellow HouseSir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)|rating=34.5|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=If you were 1592: Sir Robert Carey flees the needy kind, would you really join strictures of Elizabethan court – and his creditors – in order to become Deputy Warden of the drumming-out of town of two people accused of murder purely because of their nationality? Would you get a feeling of belonging just because you were there when someone carried a dead dog down off a mountain? The main character West March in this novel doesCarlisle. But The Scottish/English borders and those who inhabit them are different from the world he has something that 's left behind but it will really get him noted, well-thought-of, includedhave to become his world. He has come It's now his job to bring law to the south of France to set up an artistslawless. This isn' collective, where t easy when every local he can live comes across has an affinity and work alongside his counterparts, who can inspire each other and best each other a heritage of crime to create wonderful artsome degree. In fact a much-respected guest For Robert the best thing about the job is its proximity to the woman he loves but he doesn't know what he'll do about that yet either. Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to be on his way now, so surely he can find kinship? The guestside are plotting against him but they don't realise what they's name is, after all, Gauguinre up against. The main character is, of course, Vincent van Gogh…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19073205631786694719</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Antonin Varenne Zanna Sloniowska and Sam Taylor Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|title=Retribution RoadThe House with the Stained-Glass Window|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction |summary=''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard manMarianna, he was something else: a dangerous man.'' If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him. Working as a soldier for the East India Company an opera singer in the ruralsoon-to-be Ukrainian city of Lviv, remote, outlaw hotbeds of Asia is mistakenly shot dead at a political rally in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat dying days of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan MinSoviet Union. It doesn't go well – to start This novel begins withboth anger and hope, heas Marianna's supposed to run coffin is covered in the rule over ruffians saved from the gallowsillegal blue and yellow flag, but can't command them until he's forced his way and her death seems to having herald the knowledge birth of a new nation. But the day of her funeral is also the mission he needs day of her daughter's first, only for all hell period – a girl who must learn how to break loose. But get back he doesbe a woman in this time of drastic change, only with no mother to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, guide her along the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08570537440857057138</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Theodore BrunK J Whittaker|title=A Mighty Dawn (The Wanderer Chronicles)False Lights|rating=34.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= A story like this needs a strong central character; it needs a warrior who Cornwall, 1817. What if your worst mistake changed the course of history? Napoleon has convictioncrushed the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, heart and honourhis ex-wife Josephine presides over French-occupied England. Hakan has all these in abundanceCornwall erupts into open rebellion, and young heiress Hester escapes with Crow, but he didnWellington't get them easilys former intelligence officer, a half-French aristocrat haunted by his part in the catastrophic defeat. In this coming of age taleTogether, he goes on they become embroiled in a quest web of treachery and espionage as plans are laid to find himself after experiencing free Wellington from secret captivity in the most tremendous of betrayalsScilly Isles and lead an uprising against the French occupation. In a country rife with traitors, Hester and Crow know it is impossible to play such a game as this for long... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>17823999411786695340</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=S J Hardman LeaJefferson Farjeon|title=The Sins of SoldiersSeven Dead|rating=54|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Anson Scott wants to join Ted Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. He lacked the British army courage. However, needs must, and World War I for whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to try his chances at an isolated house with a different reason than most of his fellow Americansshuttered window. He's '...he might find a journalist wanting bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?'' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the uncensored inside story to send back home; a deadly enterprise asshutters, if the Germans donbut it definitely isn't get him, the Brits may deem him what he'd hoped. In a spy. Unperturbed locked room he carries his plan through finds seven dead bodies; six men and finds himself on a woman. Fleeing the French front in 1916. He has an ally house in British officer David Alexanderhorror, which he is just as well since not all his enemies are across no manpursued and caught by a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's land. The two men have story (and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd clues, including a lot in commonportrait shot through the heart, more than they know an old cricket ball and perhaps more than is good for them as a mysterious note written by one of the Somme approachesvictims.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17858901820712356886</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|authortitle=David GilmanSalt Creek|titleauthor=Viper's Blood (Master of War)Lucy Treloar|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Bowman and commander Thomas Blackstone is one The first chapter of Edward III's greatest weapons, bringing him potentially head to head against the Dauphin once again. However'Salt Creek'' opens in Chichester, faced with an elongated stale mateEngland, Thomas' role becomes that of scavenger leader as the chances of victory make way for a greater chance of starvation amongst the armiesin 1874. There Hester Finch is a light at the end respected and reasonably wealthy member of the tunnel thoughher community. Blackstone is to go on a trip: an escort mission to Italy, delivering the French KingBut she can's daughter Isabelle t stop her thoughts wandering back to Milan and her wedding. Having said thatadolescence, spent on Salt Creek Station in the light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming lanceremote South Australian Coorong region. IsabelleHester feels ''has never felt so alive as then, when we had so little's prospective groom is one of the brothers who killed Thomas' wife and daughter. Death is definitely on the cards… but whose?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849744631910709417</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Rory ClementsJamie Ford|title=CorpusLove and Other Consolation Prizes|rating=5|genre=Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=A suicidal overdose and At the World's Fair in 1962, it seems that all eyes are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates the murder of upper class Cecil Langley and landscape, filling people with anticipation about things to come. One visitor, however, has his wife are two events that may be unconnectedmind firmly focused on the past. However this Ernest Young is England in 1936, helping his daughter Ju-ju with a magnet story she is writing for opposing forces and their first moves her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on). Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into raffle at the middle of this accidentally to begin with but his curiosity has been piqued enough to ensure heWorld's not walking awayFair in 1909.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17857626130749022752</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Beatrice ColinNicola Pryce|title= To Capture What We Cannot KeepThe Captain's Girl
|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=ParisLast year, February 1887Bookbag reviewed, and work on thoroughly enjoyed, [[Pengelly's Daughter by Nicola Pryce|Pengelly's Daughter]], a swashbuckling historical romance set in picturesque Cornwall. Now we have the foundations pleasure of Eiffel's daring tower is about to beginreading the much-anticipated sequel. Engineer Emile NouguierThis time, taking photographs the story focuses on a neighbour of the site from a tethered hot air balloon for tourists nearbyPolcarrow family, Miss Celia Cavendish, chances who has been engaged to meet a young widow from Glasgow named Caitriona Wallacecruel man that she does not love. One fateful night, and his own foundations start she runs away to shift. Over the next two years as the tower slowly rises in the Champ de MarsPolcarrow house to beg them for help, what began as an impossible dream becomes solid reality – Cait and Emile's love the pivotal events of that night have far-reaching consequences for each otherall involved. In a world where more than bustles and corsets hem her in, will Cait be able to break free of her oppressive future, and given their different social strata, can Emile re-shape his?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17602917221782398856</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Deanna RaybournHawa L Crickmore|title=Across the Ocean|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell Mystery)young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a sibling. Only recently he'd been a fit young man, in the prime of life, but now he was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen days. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a match.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= M J Tjia|title= She Be Damned
|rating= 4
|genre= Crime (Historical Fiction) |summary=Veronica Speedwell did not choose to be an investigator by profession. She wasLondon, first and foremost1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, a scientist; a lepidopterist their sexual organs mutilated and adventuress who travelled the world looking for exciting butterfly specimensremoved. HoweverWhen another girl goes missing, when her fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest expedition was cancelled due to an unfortunate incident with victim. The police are at a giant tortoise, Veronica loss and her taxidermist friend Stoker took up the challenge of a murder investigation as an interesting diversion. The case seemed so it falls to an open-courtesan and-shut one; Miles Ramsforthprofessional detective, an art patronHeloise Chancey, had been accused to investigate. With the assistance of murdering his pregnant mistressher trusty Chinese maid, Artemisia. He was discovered at the sceneAmah Li Leen, covered in her blood and had both the motive and circumstances Heloise inches closer to commit the crimetruth. He would hang by But when Amah is implicated in the end of the week if Veronica and Stoker could not find brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the 'real' killerstrikes again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0451476158178507931X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Jemima BriggesSarah Franklin|title=Counting the CostShelter|rating=45|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The year is 1794 and we meet our young protagonist, MariaConnie Granger has escaped her bombed-out city home, finding refuge in desperate circumstancesthe Women's Timber Corps. Alone and terrified, she has concluded that her only option is to take For her own life by throwing herself into the surging river waters. Months previously, she was cruelly violated by the master of the house where she worked and this remote community must nowserve a secret purpose.<br>Seppe, in the advanced stages an Italian prisoner of her pregnancywar, is haunted by his memories. In the future seems bleak. Luckilyforest camp, he finds a pair strange kind of gypsy women find Maria and take her infreedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. Following a traumatic labourBut as they are drawn together, Maria becomes desperately ill and when she recovers, her baby the world outside their forest haven is gonebeing torn apart. Alone againOld certainties are crumbling, Maria is free to start and both must now make a new life-defining choice. With a clever disguise, she becomes the dowdy 'Miss Dinchope' and takes a position as a housekeeper <br>What price will they pay for the village rector.freedom? What will they fight to protect?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17858991391785762990</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Steven BurgauerJane Johnson|title=The Night Court of The Eleventh SunLions|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The word Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada a year ago. In the shadow of the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful places on earth, she works as a waitress serving tourists in a busy bar. She pretends she'Neanderthals happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate' has become equated s alone, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is about to bring her face-to-face with people deemed to have her greatest fear. Five centuries ago, a message, in a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a backward attitude stolen scrap of paper. The paper was folded and outlook. But what do we know pressed into one of the original Neanderthals from over 200Alhambra's walls. There it has lain,000 years ago? Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds undisturbed by the tides of history – the knowledge Fall of anthropologistsGranada, archaeologists and historians with the story expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of Strong Armslove, his family and their struggle to survive in a very effectivetime of danger and desperation, and informative waythe fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life forever.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14196715451786694336</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Meelis Friedenthal and Matthew Hyde (translator)Angus Watson|title=The Willow KingYou Die When You Die|rating=34|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Meet Laurentius. He's a scholar newly arrived in Estonia in the seventeenth century, aiming to study more. But things aren't going well for him – a long-standing illness seems to be returning, Finnbogi the weather and roads are awful, he's late – Boggy and his only friend, tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take a parakeet, won't even survive road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted by the first two days ashoregreatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). He's entering Vikings meet Native Americans in a weird clash of cultures and potentially the end of the world, what's more – one imbued with evil smells, peopled by strange characters with stranger ideas. Can his modern ideas, and thinking about When the Queen of the soul, bear him through his course?known world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17822717400356507564</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Ian RossAlison Weir|title=The Mask of Command (Twilight of Empire)Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2|rating=54
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead for previous books in Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad to be trained at the seriescourts of European royalty. 305AD: Castus Aurelius, following Not only does this give them an education in the death ways of his predecessorthe elite, has been promoted to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) of the Roman forces at the Rhineit could also ensure a good marriage. HeUnfortunately he hasn's also been ordered to take Crispust reckoned on the ideas that one of them, Anne, Constantine's son picks up and heir, as for marriage… Anne is determined to marry for the character-building experiencelove not through some paternal arrangement. That complicates matters as when Castus isn't trying Yet the reality turns out to keep Crispus alivebe different, he's finding it difficult driving a wedge through her family on a road leading to increase his own chance of survival, especially considering how the last Rhine commander met his enddark tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784975257147222762X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Sophia TobinMartha Conway|title= The VanishingFloating Theatre|rating=35
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=1814. In When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the middle shore of the Yorkshire Moors in an isolated spot lies White WindowsOhio, a house shadowed in mystery she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and intrigueshe settles into life among the colourful troupe of actors. Living in this desolate household is Marcus TwentymanShe finds friends, a hard drinking and complicated man possibly the promise of more. But cruising the border between the Confederate South and his sister, the hardened widow Hester'free' North is fraught with danger. Brought For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to White Windows is Annaleightransport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, a young runaway from London who has come to Yorkshire to be across the new housekeeper to river and on, along the Twentymanunderground railroad. But as May's with the hope of leaving her painful past behind her. At firstsecrets become harder to keep, Annaleigh believes she may have found sanctuary but soon realises learns she has become entangled in a web must endanger those now dear to her.  And to save the lives of conspiracy and dangerothers, leaving she must risk her trapped and more alone than everown...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14711516031785762907</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Mary GibsonJenny Ashcroft|title=Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls)Beneath a Burning Sky
|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Where did it all go wrong? Only Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home in Egypt a short time agobitter-sweet experience. On the one hand, Matty Gilbie was a star of she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clara, and the silver screen with pair have formed a glittering future predicted for herdeep and loving bond. As On the 'Cockney Canary'other, she has an unhappy marriage to her melodic singing voice and stunning good looks domineering husband Alistair, who only married her to spite Clara, who had ensured that her first foray into movies was a runaway successrefused him previously. Unfortunately that success came Life with the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with a price: Matty's business partner Frank Rossi frittered away their money and turned violent and controllingOlivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, daily. Bruised and battered from As a particularly vicious beating from Franklady with no means of supporting herself, Matty secretly makes her Olivia seems trapped without any means of escape back to her home , only finding solace in Bermondsey, and the comfort company of family her sister and friends. Frank But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is not one up to Olivia to be crossed, however, try and vows to do whatever solve the mystery of her disappearance before it takes to win Matty backis too late. Can she ever be truly free?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849733350751565032</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Shirley McKayConn Iggulden|title=1588Dunstan: A Calendar One Man Will Change the Fate of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)England
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=A lot The young Dunstan shows no sign of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life sainthood he'll later attain. Son of law lecturer a Wessex thane and local investigator Hew Cullen toosent to a monastery for education, this isn't a lad who responds to discipline. As we travel through However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge and then comes the year with big break. Lady Elflaed calls to put a proposal to him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles after hearing about what she considers to be a miracle and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some monks consider another in a long line of his most interesting casesexcuses. In fact thereYet Dunstan will outshine all his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courts, as the book's one to match each of title suggests. Whether we believe in the year's big festivals: Candlemasmiracles or not, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yule.Dunstan certainly had quite a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>18469736350718181441</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Lesley LokkoSimon Edge|title=The Last DebutanteHopkins Conundrum|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed ''The Wreck of the Deutschland'' nearby. In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full of confusion and contradiction, but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens to overrule his calling to God. And, speaking of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined… |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785630334</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Anne O'Brien|title=The Shadow Queen|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1936 Born in Chalfont Hall in Dorset young Kit Algernon-Waters can't really understand what's going on: at thirteen years old 1328, Joan of Kent may be of royal blood but she's been banished to have supper from a family tainted by treachery. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for his part in the nursery whilst everyone else is dining downstairs with the guestsinfamous Montague plot. Even However Joan has grown up under the protection of her elder sister, Lilycousin, who's sixteen is dining King Edward III with these unnamed 'guests'all the advantages and attributes of a princess. Kit has tapped all her usual sources to find out who the visitors areYet, but much to no avail. All sheher mother's managed to work out (wellchagrin, letobedience isn's be honest 'find out by eavesdropping' is closer to the truth) is that the visitors are Germant one of these attributes. KitJoan's parentshead strong feist takes her on a varied journey in life. Having said that, Lord and Lady Whartonthree husbands, are short of money five marriages (technically) and a son destined for the English throne means that it's important that at least also been one heck of their daughters makes a good marriage. Six months later Lily is married to one of the German, living in some style in Germany. Within a couple of years she's mixing with some dubious company, including Unity Mitford. It was even rumoured that she'd met Hitler.life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140914254X1848455070</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Stef PenneyPatricia Falvey|title=Under a Pole StarThe Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1948Ireland 1900: Elderly Flora Mackie is invited on a press trip to the North Pole; a trip Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that takes her back through her lifeshe and Rosie Killeen would be friends forever. Flora remembers her childhood with her father on whaling ships Rosie soon comes to know better as there's a social chasm between those who live in the seas around GreenlandHouse and those, her marriage born like Rosie's family, who have been brought up merely to serve them. The days of ambition and misaligned lust and the result: the Arctic exploration team she led innocence are coming to an end in the late 19th centurymany ways. This was Soon, as the cry for Irish Home Rule becomes louder, there'll be more than steps on society's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a trip nation that had many knock-on effects including death and lovewill never be the same again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17864811621786490625</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Morgan McCarthyElaine Everest|title= The House of BirdsButlins Girls|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Oliver Fresh-faced Molly Missons has spent years trying to convince himself that he's suited just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a life of money making in Butlins auntie. Behind the city, smiles and that he doesn't miss a childhood spent in pursuit of mysteryconfident appearance, when he cycled around the cobbled lanes of Oxford, exploring its most intriguing corners. When his girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house - and she hides a fierce family feud - secret; she's determined has taken the job to strip it, sell it and move onescape escalating problems at home. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and amongst the shelves of a discardedPlum, leather bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one it turns out that conceals they each have their own reasons for wanting a hidden diary from the 1920sfresh start. So begins a quest Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the identity of the author, Sophia Louiscamp. It Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is a portrait of war and marriagehe working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, isolation Molly and longing her new friends face new threats and a story dangers that will shape the future of the abandoned house - and of Oliver may threaten their new- foreverfound freedom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14722058471447295536</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Jacquelyn BensonGeraint Jones|title= The Smoke HunterBlood Forest|rating= 45
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= Eleanora Mallory is an educated young woman living in Victorian London but she is restricted by the strict social codes of the late nineteenth-centuryFelix. The lucky one. She He doesn's a historian, a suffragette, t feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and is years ahead finds twelve of her time much to his comrades butchered and mutilated in the chagrin of her male work colleagues at worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the Public Records Officesoldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. After losing her job and finding a mysterious map abandoned on her former employerHe might have run, but he knew he's desk, Ellie decides to take a chance at an adventured never make it. She packs her bags and sets off on a journey to Central America, where the map shows the way He stepped out to a legendary historical city. It's the expedition of a life time, but little does Ellie know that a team of fortune hunters are hot on her trailface whatever came next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14722383460718184815</amazonuk>
}}

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