[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author= Martha ConwayHeather Morris|title= The Floating TheatreTattooist of Auschwitz|rating= 54|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone So, you arrive in all ignorance at Auschwitz, and penniless on see the shore of horror there, and immediately swear to survive the Ohioordeal to see retribution dealt on those behind it, she finds but what do you do to see that oath out? Do you get to work on diligently as the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along Nazis demand, to the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among extent you get the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, word ''collaborator'' muttered behind your back? Do you dare to stick your neck out and possibly get a job that means you're actually a Jew working in the promise political wing of more. But cruising the border between SS, answerable to Berlin? Do you dare get contacts with civilian workers building the Confederate South place, and trade the loot purloined from the incoming victims'free' North is fraught belongings with danger. For food they smuggle in for you, under the sake eyes of a debt all the camp guards? The man whose real life story inspired this novel did all that must be repaid, May is compelled and survived to transport secret passengerstell the tale, under cover but he also managed to do something even more daring, and unexpected – he dared to invest hope in a burgeoning love that he found in the camp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785763644</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rachel Halliburton|title=The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Rachel Halliburton's debut novel opens in London in January 1797. Benjamin West, President of darknessthe Royal Academy, across is reflecting on the river past year's scandal involving the Provises, father and ondaughter, along and worries that he handled everything poorly. From the start the underground railroad. But as Maybook's secrets become harder figurative language is appropriately full of colour and painterly techniques: 'He had intended to keepdeal with them honourably, she learns she must endanger those but now dear to hereveryone in London was saying he had not. And to save It was as if somebody had dropped a small amount of ivory black paint into yellow orpiment on a palette – the more he prodded and stirred the lives of othersmemory, she must risk her own..the murkier it became. '|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17857629070715651978</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Jenny AshcroftJohn Banks|title= Beneath a Burning SkyW
|rating= 4
|genre= General Fiction
|summary=On the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0983333416</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Elaine Everest
|title= Christmas at Woolworths
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning ''Christmas at Woolworths'' is the sequel to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experience. On the one hand, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clarawartime saga ''The Woolworths Girls, '' and continues the story where the pair have formed a deep and loving bondfirst book left off. On Members of the other, she has an unhappy marriage close-knit community in Erith are doing their best to her domineering husband Alistair, who only married her to spite Clarapull together and keep morale high, who had refused him previously. Life with even though the sadistic Alistair future is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, dailyuncertain. As a lady with no means At the heart of supporting herself, Olivia seems trapped without any means of escapethe neighbourhood, only finding solace in the company home of her sister kindly matriarch Ruby is a beacon where family and friendscan gather for good food and conversation: a way to forget the troubles outside. But Spirits remain high; even when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is bombs are falling so close to home. We catch up with the three friends from the first book: Sarah yearns for peace and an end to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her disappearance before it war, Maisie is too latedesperate for a child and Freda would love to find romance.Will they all get their wishes this Christmas?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515650321509843655</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Conn IgguldenMinette Walters|title=Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of EnglandThe Last Hours
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The young Dunstan shows no sign In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of the sainthood hehygiene which we'll d find basic nearly seven hundred years later attain, the disease rages through the country. Son On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of the future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and secure a Wessex thane marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and sent when Lady Anne realised the virulence of the plague she ordered that the estate refuse entry to a monastery anyone, including her husband and his entourage, for education, this isn't a lad who responds fear that they would bring the disease to disciplineher people. However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760632139</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lars Mytting and then comes Paul Russell Grant (Translator)|title=The Sixteen Trees of the big breakSomme|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=While his grandfather lived the past was an area of certainty for Edvard. Lady Elflaed calls At aged 4 he'd been taken to put a proposal to him after hearing about what she considers to be a miracle and live with his grandparents, having survived the monks consider another in a long line of excusesaccident that killed his parents. Yet Dunstan will outshine all Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd believed… his mother's birthplace, his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courtsmother's name, as the bookwhereabouts of late Great-Uncle Einar… and that's title suggestswithout looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Whether we believe in Edvard is determined to solve the miracles or notpuzzle, Dunstan certainly had quite a life!determination that will take him away from his native Norway to an area of France synonymous with devastation and a remote Scottish island loaded with secrets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181814410857056069</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Simon EdgeToby Clements|title= The Hopkins ConundrumKingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4)|rating= 5|genre= General Historical 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 1470 dawns and the next chapters of the War of the Deutschland'' nearbyRoses are ready to play out. In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full of confusion and contradiction, King Edward thinks that the future has been settled but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens to overrule his calling to Godtreachery is still lurking. And, speaking of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new Meanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have their world – only to find themselves in more trouble turned upside down when that ledger and a chance comment threaten all they could ever have imagined… , including their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785630334178089466X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Anne O'BrienP F Chisholm|title=Guns in the North (The Shadow QueenSir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Born 1592: Sir Robert Carey flees the strictures of Elizabethan court – and his creditors – in 1328, Joan order to become Deputy Warden of Kent may be of royal blood but shethe West March in Carlisle. The Scottish/English borders and those who inhabit them are different from the world he's from a family tainted by treacheryleft behind but it will have to become his world. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for It's now his part in job to bring law to the infamous Montague plotlawless. However Joan This isn't easy when every local he comes across has grown up under the protection of her cousin, King Edward III with all the advantages an affinity and attributes a heritage of a princesscrime to some degree. Yet, much For Robert the best thing about the job is its proximity to her motherthe woman he loves but he doesn's chagrin, obedience isnt know what he'll do about that yet either. Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to be on his side are plotting against him but they don't one of these attributes. Joanrealise what they's head strong feist takes her on a varied journey in lifere up against. Having said that, three husbands, five marriages (technically) and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>18484550701786694719</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Patricia FalveyZanna Sloniowska and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|title=The Girls of Ennismore: A HeartHouse with the Stained-Rending Irish SagaGlass Window|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Ireland 1900: Ennismore HouseMarianna, an opera singer in the soon-to-be Ukrainian city of Lviv, is mistakenly shot dead at a political rally in the dying days of the Soviet Union. This novel begins with both anger and hope, as Marianna's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she coffin is covered in the illegal blue and yellow flag, and Rosie Killeen would be friends foreverher death seems to herald the birth of a new nation. Rosie soon comes to know better as thereBut the day of her funeral is also the day of her daughter's first period – a social chasm between those girl who live must learn how to be a woman in this time of drastic change, with no mother to guide her along the House way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857057138</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= K J Whittaker|title= False Lights|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Cornwall, 1817. What if your worst mistake changed the course of history? Napoleon has crushed the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, and his ex-wife Josephine presides over French-occupied England. Cornwall erupts into open rebellion, and thoseyoung heiress Hester escapes with Crow, like RosieWellington's familyformer intelligence officer, who have been brought up merely to serve thema half-French aristocrat haunted by his part in the catastrophic defeat. The days Together, they become embroiled in a web of innocence treachery and espionage as plans are coming laid to free Wellington from secret captivity in the Scilly Isles and lead an end in many waysuprising against the French occupation. SoonIn a country rife with traitors, Hester and Crow know it is impossible to play such a game as the cry this 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 nation that will never be the same againlong...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17864906251786695340</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Elaine EverestJ Jefferson Farjeon|title= The Butlins GirlsSeven Dead
|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness Ted Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. He lacked the courage. However, needs must, and whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to start her new job as try his chances at an isolated house with a Butlins auntieshuttered window. ''. Behind ..he might find a bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?'' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the smiles and confident appearanceshutters, she hides but it definitely isn't what he'd hoped. In a secretlocked room he finds seven dead bodies; she has taken six men and a woman. Fleeing the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends house in her chalet-mates Bunty horror, he is pursued and Plumcaught by a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's story (and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhilepossible scoop), Molly is shocked Hazeldean decides to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd clues, including a portrait shot through the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discoveredheart, Molly an old cricket ball and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedoma mysterious note written by one of the victims.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14472955360712356886</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|authortitle= Geraint JonesSalt Creek|titleauthor= Blood ForestLucy Treloar|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= FelixThe first chapter of ''Salt Creek'' opens in Chichester, England, in 1874. The lucky oneHester Finch is a respected and reasonably wealthy member of her community. He doesnBut she can't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated stop her thoughts wandering back to her adolescence, spent on Salt Creek Station in the worst possible waysremote South Australian Coorong region. He Hester feels ''has never felt even less lucky so alive as then, when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew hewe had so little''d never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181848151910709417</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Dominic SmithJamie Ford|title= The Last Painting of Sara de VosLove and Other Consolation Prizes
|rating= 5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= If you find At the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, World''The Last Painting of Sara de Vos'' provides a masterclass s Fair in how to work up a canvas in stages. Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting1962, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we it seems that all eyes are even one fifth of focused on the way throughfuture. Sara is one of The Space Needle dominates the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canallandscape, her now dead daughter its central figurefilling people with anticipation about things to come. The painting One visitor, however, has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is his mind firmly focused on the patent lawyer from whom it past. Ernest Young is stolen in 1950s Manhattan. Ellie Shipley forged helping his daughter Ju-ju with a copy of the painting in story she is writing for her postgraduate student years and newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in 2000 finds herself a raffle at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of SydneyWorld's foremost fine art academics. Satisfying though those first descriptions are, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age to mark out the composition which will followFair in 1909. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X0749022752</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Caro FraserNicola Pryce|title= The Summer House Party|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= In the gloriously hot summer of 1936, a group of people meet at a country house party. Within three years, England will be at war, but for now, time stands still. Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir-faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And what about Diana, PaulCaptain's beautiful sister, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children's nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practised seducer. As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death… |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Matthew Harffy|title= The Serpent SwordGirl|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= ItLast year, Bookbag reviewed, and thoroughly enjoyed, [[Pengelly's AD 633 and Albion is Daughter by Nicola Pryce|Pengelly's Daughter]], a divided island made up of petty warlords who want to be treated like honourable royalty but act like gangstersswashbuckling historical romance set in picturesque Cornwall. Romans are a memory that Now we have entered into myth and the souls pleasure of Albion are torn between reading the old Gods and the new Christmuch-anticipated sequel. It is in this world that we follow This time, the adventures story focuses on a neighbour of Beobrand as he undertakes the classic hero’s journeyPolcarrow family, Miss Celia Cavendish, who has been engaged to a cruel man that she does not love. Beobrand moves from wide-eyed teenager One fateful night, she runs away to the Polcarrow house to hardened beg them for help, and honourable warrior through a brutal rite of passage as he hunts the killer pivotal events of his brother and seeks to become a true warriorthat night have far-reaching consequences for all involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17866924061782398856</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Antonia SeniorHawa L Crickmore|title=The Tyrant's ShadowAcross the Ocean
|rating=4
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''.Patience lives A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with her widowed brothera rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, William, helping to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry)preferably from a sibling. Despite Only recently he'd been a fit young man, in the Civil war endingprime of life, the times are still uncertain. Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with but now he was suffering from a parliament rare type of rebels refusing to go to bone cancer: without the electorate transplant he would be paralysed for ratificationlife and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen days. William sees this problem at close quarters once he's effectively forced to become CromwellUnfortunately Martin's legal advisor parents had died in an atmosphere poisoned by espionage a car crash and religious factionsthere were no siblings or other close relatives. However when Patience comes across Shadrick SimpsonHis girlfriend, Celia, was not a charismatic preacher, all becomes clearer for her at least. Meanwhile Sam Challoner, William's brother in law, comes home after privateering with Prince Rupert and realises that the fight at sea is better than peace at home. At least when you're privateering you know who your enemy ismatch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17823966161524666971</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= David BarbareeM J Tjia|title= DeposedShe Be Damned|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical Fiction) |summary= A.D 68. A deposed emperor lies London, 1863: prostitutes in a prison cellthe Waterloo area are turning up dead, betrayed their sexual organs mutilated and newly blinded by those who were sworn to protect himremoved. He is now crippled and deprived of powerWhen another girl goes missing, left completely on the edge of despair with a frightened young slave named Marcus as his only companion. Ten years later and it is Emperor Vespasian who wears fears grow that the purple. Things killer may have settled since the civil war but Vespasian's son Titus is plagued by worry about plots to murder his fatherclaimed their latest victim. Gruesome atrocities The police are at a loss and mysterious disappearances are rife throughout Rome; so it is a city full of falsehoods falls to courtesan and intrigues with professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the fear assistance of rebellion lurking beneath the surface. Furthermoreher trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, a man who used Heloise inches closer to be emperor still lives – a blind man who everyone believes to be deadthe truth. His name But when Amah is Nero and he seeks revenge against those who wronged himimplicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the killer strikes again. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762672178507931X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Diney CosteloeSarah Franklin|title= The Married GirlsShelter|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married to farmer Billy. She arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war and now feels settled in Connie Granger has escaped her adopted bombed-out city home. Meanwhile, finding refuge in the squireWomen's fighter pilot sonTimber Corps. For her, Felix, has returned to the village with this remote community must now serve a fiancée in towsecret purpose. Daphne <br>Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is beautiful, charminghaunted by his memories... and harbouring secrets. After meeting during In the warforest camp, Felix knows some he finds a strange kind of Daphne's past, but she has worked hard to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built lifefreedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. For CharlotteBut as they are drawn together, too, a dangerous past the world outside their forest haven is coming back in the shape of fellow refugee, bad boy Harry Blackbeing torn apart. Forever bound by their childhoodsOld certainties are crumbling, Charlotte will always care for him, but Harry's return disrupts the village quiet and it's not long before gossip spreadsboth must now make a life-defining choice. The war may have ended, but <br>What price will they pay for these girls, trouble is only just beginning...freedom? What will they fight to protect?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849761211785762990</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Philip KerrJane Johnson|title= Prussian Blue: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12Court of Lions|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime (Historical) Fiction |summary= Bernie Gunther is not your typical hero. In 1939, he was stationed Kate Fordham arrived in Berlin as the sunlit city of Granada a police officer handling murder cases and occasionally doing work for some high-ranking Nazisyear ago. Although never a Nazi party member himself (he was a known member In the shadow of the Social Democratic Party)Alhambra, he understood that one of the best thing he most beautiful places on earth, she works as a waitress serving tourists in a busy bar. She pretends she's happy with her new life – but how could do for himself at that time was to make himself indispensable to men like Reinhard Heydrich she be? Kate's alone, afraid and Martin Bormannhiding under a false name. So when he And fate is assigned about to bring her face-to solve -face with her greatest fear. Five centuries ago, a murder that has occurred at Hitler's Berghof message, in the Bavarian mountainsa hand few could read, he knows that he needs to do it quickly was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap of paper. The paper was folded and discreetly – not just for justicepressed into one of the Alhambra's sakewalls. There it has lain, but for his own. He is given exactly one week to apprehend undisturbed by the tides of history – the suspectFall of Granada, and he hopes that with the help expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of love, in a time of his friend Friedrich Korschdanger and desperation, an investigator with the Krimialpolizei (or Kripo, for short) he just might get luckyfragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life forever. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>17842964811786694336</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Stephan CollishawAngus Watson|title= The Song of the StorkYou Die When You Die|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Historical Fiction|summary= Stephan Collishaw has achieved Finnbogi the Boggy and his tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take a rare feat – road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted by the greatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). Vikings meet Native Americans in a novel set amidst clash of cultures and potentially the horrors end of Nazi tyranny that does not shy away from human suffering, but does the world. When the Queen of the known world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not drown in it eitherbe so rosy. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>17850791900356507564</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Alan KennedyAlison Weir|title=Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A Time to Tell LiesKing's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary= Psychologist Alan Kennedy's fifth novel continues the story he began with [[Lucy by Alan Kennedy]]. In the autumn of 1942, Captain Alex Vere and Justine Perry are among the men and women picked up and taken to a stately home in Scotland, where they are trained in spy skills. After this first encounter, Alex is smitten yet uncertain if he will ever see Justine again. The spy's life is dangerous and unpredictable, after all. Six weeks later, though, they meet up again in southwest France, where they have been sent to collect Simone, a Special Operations Executive agent. It's Alex's first mission (Justine's fourth) and all goes horribly awry. Alex ends up in custody at the Gendarmerie, facing a German who knows he has a false passport.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993202322</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Alex Nye
|title=For My Sins
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1586: Mary Stuart, Queen Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad to be trained at the courts of European royalty. Not only does this give them an education in the ways of Scotsthe elite, has time to look back over her past life as she sits, incarcerated by her second cousin Queen Elizabeth Iit could also ensure a good marriage. Mary's life Unfortunately he hasn't been reckoned on the ideas that one of totally pampered royalty. Growing up in Francethem, away from her motherAnne, widowed picks up and then returning as for marriage… Anne is determined to Scotland to claim the throne before she was even 19, her struggle with fate started earlymarry for love not through some paternal arrangement. The tensions between Mary Yet the womanreality turns out to be different, Mary the Catholic and Mary the political force continue driving a wedge through three marriages, an unsolved murder and the thwarted desire her family on a road leading to serve her peopledark tragedy. Now it's come to this prison cell but while there's life, there's still hope…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916787147222762X</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Grace MacallisterMartha Conway|title= The Magician's LieFloating Theatre|rating=45|genre= ThrillersHistorical Fiction|summary= The Amazing Arden When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the most famous female illusionist floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among the colourful troupe of her dayactors. She finds friends, renowned for her notorious trick and possibly the promise of sawing a man in half on stagemore. But one night she swaps her trademark saw for an axe. When Ardencruising the border between the Confederate South and the 'free's husband North is found dead later fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that nightmust be repaid, the answer seems clearMay is compelled to transport secret passengers, most under cover of all to young policeman Virgil Holt. Captured darkness, across the river and taken into custodyon, all seems set for Ardenalong the underground railroad. But as May's swift confession. But secrets become harder to keep, she learns she has a different story must endanger those now dear to tellher. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless And to save the lives of others, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbindingmust risk her own...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17871999671785762907</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Helen DunmoreJenny Ashcroft|title=Birdcage WalkBeneath a Burning Sky|rating=54|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married wellYoung bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experience. John Diner Tredevant is a property developer who On the one hand, she has reached been reunited with her estranged sister Clara, and the zenith of his life's work: building pair have formed a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking the Avon Gorgedeep and loving bond. In a time of turbulence as France reaches On the dawn of revolutionother, Britainshe has an unhappy marriage to her domineering husband Alistair, including Dinerwho only married her to spite Clara, fears it may spreadwho had refused him previously. This puts Lizzie in a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe in propagating pamphlets and ideas of egalitarianism for and Life with the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to allhorrific abuse at his hands, including womendaily. In other wordsAs a lady with no means of supporting herself, they think nothing Olivia seems trapped without any means of spreading ideas escape, only finding solace in the company of her sister and friends. But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the sort that fanned the French flames. Howeverbustling streets of Alexandria, that's not Lizzie's only problem… there it is a darkness in up to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her husband's past of which she's unawaredisappearance before it is too late.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00919594030751565032</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Beth UnderdownConn Iggulden|title=The Witchfinder's SisterDunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of England
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=England 1645: Matthew Hopkins is good at his chosen career: seeking, testing and convicting those with The young Dunstan shows no sign of the Devil in themsainthood he'll later attain. His sisterSon of a Wessex thane and sent to a monastery for education, Alice, doesnthis isn't realise the full connotations of his actions untila lad who responds to discipline. However an enquiring, widowed intelligent mind begins to emerge and pregnant, she returns homethen comes the big break. Alice is grateful Lady Elflaed calls to put a proposal to him after hearing about what she considers to be allowed to live under Matthew's roof but then watches his sinister finger of suspicion point a miracle and the monks consider another in unexpected places. This is a man changed from the boy that Alice used to knowlong line of excuses. She never then realised that he'd be capable of killing hundreds of people Yet Dunstan will outshine all his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and making her holding responsible positions in their courts, as the Witchfinderbook's Sistertitle suggests. Whether we believe in the miracles or not, Dunstan certainly had quite a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>02419780330718181441</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Emma HendersonSimon Edge|title= The Valentine House|rating= 4|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= In June 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, a keen mountaineer, arrives with his family to spend the summer in their chalet, high in the French Alps. There, for the first time, fourteen-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one of the 'uglies' - village girls employed as servants and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eye. For Mathilde it is the start of a life-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 appear, with a curiously absent daughter no one talks about. It will be decades - disrupted by war, accidents and a cruel betrayal - before Mathilde discovers the key to the mystery. And in 1976, the year Sir Anthony's great-great grandson comes to visit, she must decide whether to use it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444704028</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Polly Clark|title= LarchfieldHopkins Conundrum
|rating= 5
|genre= Literary General Fiction |summary=I It's early summer when Tim Cleverley inherits a young poetfailing pub in Wales, Dora Fieldingwhich he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, moves to Helensburgh on who composed ''The Wreck of the west coast of Scotland and her hopes are first challengedDeutschland'' nearby. Newly married In Victorian England, pregnant, she's excited by the prospect of Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life that combines family full of confusion and creativity. She thinks she knows what being a personcontradiction, but discovers a wife, a mother, means. She is soon shown calling for poetry that she is wrong. As the battle begins for her very sense of self, Dora comes threatens to find the realities of small town life suffocating, and, eventually, terrifying; until she finds a way overrule his calling to escape reality altogetherGod. Another poetAnd, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan H. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, with his first book speaking of poetry publishedGod, should be embarking on success and society in London. Instead, in 1930, fleeing Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a broken engagement, he takes a teaching post at Larchfield School for boys where he is mocked for his Englishness and suspected - rightly - of homosexuality. Yet new world – only to find themselves in this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fears.more trouble that they could ever have imagined… |amazonuk=<amazonuk>17864819281785630334</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Dinah JefferiesAnne O'Brien|title=Before the RainsThe Shadow Queen
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eliza has tragically punctuated childhood memories Born in 1328, Joan of Kent may be of India that have feed her desire to returnroyal blood but she's from a family tainted by treachery. Therefore Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for his part in 1930, following the death infamous Montague plot. However Joan has grown up under the protection of her husbandcousin, when King Edward III with all the British government commission her to photograph scenes advantages and attributes of Indian life, she jumps at the chancea princess. What she doesnYet, much to her mother's chagrin, obedience isn't realise is that not everyone she comes across is delighted with the ideaone of these attributes. Living within the SultanaJoan's opulent palace complex is definitely an attraction for head strong feist takes her, as is Jay, an Indian price who shows Eliza the real Indiaon a varied journey in life. HoweverHaving said that, three husbands, attractions are sometimes dangerous five marriages (technically) and even deadly.a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>02412870811848455070</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Otto de Kat and Laura Watkinson (translator)Patricia Falvey|title=The Longest NightGirls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga|rating=34.5|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=Emma has a philosophy – Ireland 1900: Ennismore House''let the dead rest, s young heiress Victoria had hoped that she and love the living''Rosie Killeen would be friends forever. The problem with that, Rosie soon comes to know better as a 96-year-old, is that there are too few living left, and so while the love remains she will go through her memories, taking 's a woozy, diaphanous path through all the major events of her life. Starting in wartime Berlin with one husband, social chasm between those who gets snatched from her at work, fleeing to another place to wait for peace, and wait for him live in vain, moving to Holland the House and finding new lovethose, and so on – this wispy journey will show all the impacts of warlike Rosie's family, from rationing right who have been brought up merely to exile, death and survivalserve them. The memories days of innocence are coming strongly here and nowto an end in many ways. Soon, as Emma is waiting the cry for at least one of her two sons to visitIrish Home Rule becomes louder, and then she there'll be more than steps on society's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a nation that will die…never be the same again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>08570560851786490625</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Adrian GoldsworthyElaine Everest|title= VindolandaThe Butlins Girls|rating= 3.54
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= AD 98: Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the northern fields of Britannia lies Vindolandasmiles and confident appearance, she hides a Roman auxiliary base situated on secret; she has taken the edge of the Roman worldjob to escape escalating problems at home. Far from the prosperity She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and decadence of RomePlum, the wild and untamed lands around Vindolanda are ripe with rebel tribes and druids set against the destruction of Rome and its armiesit turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. In the midst of this destruction Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is Flavius Ferox; a Briton and Roman Centurion who has been given working as an entertainment adviser at the task of keeping the peace in this desolate edge of the worldcamp. But life in Roman Britain Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is full of danger and betrayal he working at every turnthe camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and Ferox knows it will take more than courage to overcome what lies aheaddangers that may threaten their new-found freedom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849746841447295536</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)Geraint Jones|title=The Yellow HouseBlood Forest|rating=35|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=If you were the needy kind, would you really join in 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? Felix. The main character in this novel doeslucky one. But He doesn't feel especially lucky when he has something that will really get him noted, well-thought-staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of, includedhis comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible ways. He has come to felt even less lucky when the south of France to set up an artists' collective, where he can live and work alongside his counterpartssoldiers arrived, who can inspire each other and best each other to create wonderful artRoman cavalry. In fact a much-respected guest is on his way nowHe might have run, so surely but he knew he can find kinship? The guest's name is, after all, Gauguind never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next. The main character is, of course, Vincent van Gogh…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19073205630718184815</amazonuk>
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