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{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage<!-- de Lacey Davidson -->|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|-title=Kokoschka's Doll| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|2.5[[image:1506905900.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1506905900/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Literary Fiction| stylesummary="verticalWell, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson]]=== [[image:4stargo, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Nathan Whyte is tremendously excited about It intrigued with the arrival of Frederick Douglass subterranean voice a man hears in Ireland. And even more excited wartorn Dresden that his Quaker fatherwhat little I knew of it mentioned, who is publishing too. But you've seen the British edition of ''Narrative''star rating that comes with this review, Douglass's memoir of his life as a slave, will be accompanying the famous black American abolitionist and can tell that if love was on his speaking tour. Nathan is deeply impressed by Douglassthese pages, who is a charismatic figure and a gifted orator. But Ireland will have as big an impact on Frederick Douglass as Frederick Douglass will have on itwas not actually caused by them. We watch him through Nathan's eyes as he sees for himself the beginnings of the horrors of the potato famine and meets and befriends the famous Irish nationalist, Daniel O'Connell. [[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson So what happened?|Full Review]]isbn=1529402697}}<!-- Daniel Peltz -->{{Frontpage|-author=Christina Hammonds Reed| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Black Kids[[image:1912083779.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912083779/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  Teens | stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Indomitable Chiesa di Santa Maria by Daniel Peltz]]=== [[image:4starChristina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to death.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.|isbn=1471188191}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]{{FrontpageWhen we first visit the Chiesa di Santa Maria we're |author=Caroline Scott|title=When I Come Home Again|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=1918 and a young man is arrested in the company of Molly Cavendish who is Durham Cathedral. He refuses to give a part-time guide at the Museo di Santa Marianame, which no matter how hard they push he will not say who he is what the ruins of the Chiesa - a chapel - have now become. Crowds flock to see its centrepieceEventually they determine this isn't wilful obstinance, he doesn't answer because he doesn't know. He remembers being on the road for a renaissance fresco with a history which grabs the attention long time, and being frightened, and some of young and old. Molly uses the history to entertain faces from the touristsroad, but there's more too it other than she knows, particularly as that – everything that came before has gone. They need a name for the history of the building is also the history of the Vannini familyforms and so they call him Adam and, who helped because he was found in building the chapel some six hundred years ago and one of whose descendants Galilee Chapel, it becomes Adam Galilee. A fanciful name for a tired young man in a dishevelled uniform who doesn't know who he is, where he is the director of the museumor how he got there. [[The Indomitable Chiesa di Santa Maria by Daniel Peltz|Full Review]]isbn=1471192172}}<!-- Worsley -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1405946172| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Glass House|author=Eve Chase[[image:Worsley_Mary.jpg|link|rating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/408869446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Historical Fiction|summary===[[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley]]=== [[imageRita lost both her parents in a car crash when she was just six years old:4starsince then she's always craved a family.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] She'd lived with her grandmother in Torquay until she got a job as a nanny with the Harrington family in London. Soon her engagement to Fred, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''Lady Mary'' chronicles a Torquay butcher, fell through and the famous story of Henry VIII's love affair with Anne BoleynHarringtons became her family. In 1971, his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, Anne's execution for adulteryafter a fire at the London house, Jeannie Harrington, her children, 13-year-old Hera and Henry6-year-old Teddy, along with Rita went to the family's subsequent marriage to Jane Seymour, which finally produces house in the much longed for birth Forest of a male heirDean. This time It wasn't ''quite'' dilapidated, but it certainly wasn't the story is told through same standard as the London house had been before the eyes of an important but often neglected player - Henry's young daughter, Maryfire. Mary's hopes of her family staying together are crushed by the divorce and she is treated terribly by a father under the influence of the Boleyn faction. Lady Mary follows her through these awful years and you can't help but root for the little girl stuck in the middle of these tumultuous events}}{{Frontpage|author=Sally Magnusson|title=The Sealwoman's Gift|rating=4. [[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley5|Full Review]] <!-- Curran -->genre=Historical Fiction|-| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690133There is a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the Garden.jpg|link=http://www Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children than those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for him.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran God was not to be deceived, however, and Larissa Zageris]]=== [[imagedecreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the eyes of man, and so the Elves were born:4starthe hidden folk.jpg|link=Category: They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.|isbn=1473638984}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:HumourFrontpage|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fictionauthor=Wendy Cheyne |title=From the Auld Rock to a Hard Place|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction]] You are a lass |summary= After the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of twenty eight. PluckyCulloden, penniless many Scottish estates were given to English lords. They were not kind to their crofting tenants. Many on the mainland were cleared and in Regency era London while this did not happen much on the islands such as Shetland, the race is on new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to find a suitable suitor leave - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager port cities on the mainland, to save you from a life alone, North America and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes even to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty Australia and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway CravenNew Zealand. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]]<!-- Mayfield -->|-isbn= 1838591753}}{{Frontpage|author= Alison Weir|title= Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard The Tainted Queen| stylerating=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|4[[image:1786072424.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786072424/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Historical Fiction| stylesummary=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;Katheryn was seven when her mother died'', thus we are thrust into this tumultuous time in young Katheryn'|===[[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield]]=== [[image:4s life, trying to find a home, both figuratively and literally, where she can grow and grieve.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]Unfortunately, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In eighteenth century LondonKatheryn is followed by bad luck and she learns an important lesson, sisters Fitzgeraldshe is too young, Constance too poor and Verity are changed forever when they become entwined with the Fowler family - and charged with protecting a mysterious child. Fast forward too unimportant to the London be of 2015any value to anyone, but she is beautiful and surely, that will count for something in the sisters are still waiting - with no way of knowing if the boy is alive or dead. Far awayend, a hidden pool grants those who sup from it eternal life, but also forces them to keep a secret for two hundred years. As those years pass by, those who were granted immortality find that won't it?|isbn=1472227778}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529123763|title=Miss Austen|author=Gill Hornby|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It's far from a blessing - with true darkness emerging in long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of the absence letters which she and other members of deaththe extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Jane. [[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield|Full Review]] <! What is not known is ''why'' she did this and at this stage -more than two hundred years after Jane's death - Laws -->a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcoming. Gill Hornby has provided us with some possible answers in a book that proved to be far more emotionally complex than I was expecting.|-}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"1471186393|title=Photographer of the Lost[[image:Laws_Munich.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178803788X/refauthor=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Caroline Scott| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"4.5|===[[Munich: The Man Who Said No! by David Laws]]==genre=Historical Fiction [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] I've played Neville Chamberlain in public, you know – May 1921. Edie receives a full one-line in a ''Beyond photograph through the Fringe'' sketch, where he says he has a piece post. There is no letter or note with it. There is nothing written on the back of paper from Hitlerthe photograph. I then proceeded to prove it was It is a paper bagpicture of her husband, Francis. Francis has been missing for four years. Technically, in facthe has been "missing, by blowing it up and immediately bursting it. That believed killed" but that is what not something that paper was to many – the indicator of a lot of hot air, and only leading to an unwelcome noise, when WW2 actually struck anywaya young widow can believe. Certainly, not everyone was keen She hangs on his appeasement with the Nazisword 'missing', and this book opens with disbelieving the first-person reportage of one such man, keen on showing proof to Chamberlain that he should not sign the Sudetenland away. But he only got so far before his story was cut off entirely – leaving a grand-daughter, Emma, at Cambridge but under a cloud word killed.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=099944235X|title=The Man Who Killed Hitler|author=Andre Pronovost|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Germany is split. Some of ignominyher is in favour of Hitler and the Nazis, but much isn't. Some of her is stuck to pick the lasteast fighting the Soviets, barest threads of but some will soon have to be on the story up and see just what did happen other front, against the Americans coming into the continent to himput things right as they see it. Oh Finding out that the war to the east isn't working, due to Hitler's tactical ineptitude and her help has just come out of prison… [[Munich: inability to heed advice, some people reckon Stalin is five seasons away from being in Berlin. The Man Who Said No! by David Laws|Full Review]] <!-- Kristjansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Kristjansson_Kinonly way to shore things up, and repair the splits, is to kill Hitler, and luckily Baron Nicholas is the man to do it.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co He's aristocratic enough, he knows enough people in industry, society and other circles of power, so once he's succeeded he might be able to keep a German presence in Europe.uk/dp/1786489937/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  But will he still be able to keep the "predatory American capitalists" and the blatantly communist Soviets from meeting in the middle?}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1789018625|title=Just Another Girl on the Road|author=S Kensington|rating==[[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson]]===4 [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)Fiction|Crime (Historical)]] Unnthor Reginsson is the uncrowned king of the valley; retired Viking farmer summary=When Sergeant Farr and Corporal Valentine first encountered Katrinka Badeau she was just eighteen years old and fleeing from a farmhouse and rumoured owner of a large hoard group of goldGerman deserters who had raped her. He is gathering his clan, a grand reunion after ten years of absenceDespite being outnumbered she was giving just about as good as she got when Farr and Valentine intervened and finished the group off. It is time for strengthening family bondswas 1944 and Farr and Valentine were part of the Jedburgh unit, feastingEDMOND, telling tall tales and remembering shared historylead by Major Willoughby Nye. [[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson|Full Review]] Nye recognised Katrinka immediately - he'd worked on her father's merchant ship and Katrinka had once had a crush on Nye. When he offered her a job with his unit, she accepted}}<!-- Chadwick -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1542007232| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Rabbit Girls|author=Anna Ellory[[image:0751564974.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751564974/ref3|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Historical Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick]]=== [[image:5starBerlin, 1989.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''Templar Silks'' is Miriam is in the middle of a great example of historical fiction done well. It's a fictitious account of William Marshal's city freshly united, with the Wall newly broken down and people able to cross at liberty for the first time in Jerusalem during decades. She is in the late 1100s during a brief spell middle of calm before the death of King Baldwin to leprosy in 1185. Elizabeth Chadwick has written a previous book about William Marshal such euphoria, but glossed over this period cannot feel it, for she has not left her father's apartment in his life for lack of researchweeks, nursing him as he lies dying. In this book she goes back to fill in the gaps having spent time studying this particular period of his life. Her main problem One standard bed-bath, as she acknowledges at the end of the bookhowever, is that virtually nothing is known of Marshal's time in Jerusalem. We know very different, when and why he went, we know who gasps the major power players were, we know when he came back name ''Frieda'' that she does not recognise – and that is about itshe sees for the first time ever a tattoo for his camp inmate identity under his watch. So understandably One bombshell outside, then, this book is probably more fiction than history but it and two inside. And inside her father, Henryk, what is brilliantly written none the less. [[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick|Full Review]] <!going on, as he has a first-- Mitchell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:MandM_Revenge.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520973179/ref=nosimperson narrative alternating with her story?tag=thebookbag-21]] What will we find happened, as he remembers back to the real Frieda, a young woman that shook him to the core when he was her literature professor? That's right, more bombshells… }}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1529311446|title=The Long Flight Home|author=A L Hlad|rating==[[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell]]===4.5 [[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''Revenge'' opens with the news that Charles Stuart is to return to the throne summary=September 1940 - as Charles II of England. A young womanWWII rages on, Ruth Courtney, is returning home to her family's farmhousebombs rain down on Britain, excited at destroying the prospect homes and lives of a new Kingpeople on the edge. She arrives homeIn Epping Forest, however, to find Susan Shepherd and her home ablaze and surrounded by renegade soldiers, supporters grandfather Bertie live together raising homing pigeons with the birds proving a comfort for Susan following the loss of Cromwell, her family nowhere parents. These pigeons are more than just birds to be foundSusan though – in each one, and especially in Duchess, she sees a distinct personality and forms a close bond. [[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell|Full Review]] <!Meanwhile, young pilot Ollie Evans leaves Maine to head to Britain and join the Royal Air Force. Working with the National Pigeon Service, he soon meets Susan and is tasked with air-dropping hundreds of homing pigeons into German- Rawi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rawi_Baghdadoccupied France, where many will not survive.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786073226/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] As the mission is planned, the bond between Ollie and Susan grows stronger, but when Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, it may be Duchess who provides an unexpected lifeline and ensures that hope of a reunion for Susan and Ollie remains…}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"178747920X|title=Brightfall |author=Jaime Lee Moyer|rating=4.5|genre=[[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi]]===Historical Fiction [[image:2.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]Robin Hood is gone – denouncing both his former life and his love Marian, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] and retreating to a monastery – although no-one knows quite what led him to abandon all that he had built. Marion''The Baghdad Clock'' is a tale of two s life since has been relatively quiet - but when her friends growing up during the first and second Iraqi war. Shahad Al Rawi uses magic realism to illustrate the displacement felt start dying, Marion is tasked by a young girl and her neighbourhood. The novel introduces us Father Tuck to break the various characters curse surrounding the protagonist. They are full of life them and yet never seem to add anything to the central narrativesave their lives. RawiSetting off with a soldier, it would seema Fey Lord and a sullen Robin Hood, has she becomes tangled in a problem with telling maze of betrayals, complicated relationships, and a story. [[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi|Full Review]]vicious struggle for the throne…}}<!-- Clements -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1784631647| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Perfect Explanation|author=Eleanor Anstruther[[image:Clements_Coffin.jpg|leftrating=5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472204271/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  Historical Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Coffin Path Enid Campbell was a woman who, on the face of it, had everything. Leading the life of an aristocrat – full of inherited wealth and splendour, glamourous locales and high expectations. Only Enid's life has been plagued by Katherine Clements]]=== [[image:4mental illness – undiagnosed, untreated and threatening both Enid and those close to her.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]After losing custody of her children, [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]Enid sells her son to her sister for £500 – but is this an act of greed, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Maybe you've heard about Scarcross Hallor an act of desperation? Hidden on Exploring the old coffin path that winds from true story of her own grandmother, Eleanor Anstruther has found the village to the moor topperfect subject for an explosive, the villagers only speak of it in hushed tones moving and beautifully well- of how it's a foreboding place filled with evilwritten debut. Mercy Booth has lived there since birth, [[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0857058738|title=Equator|author=Antonin Varenne and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, but a recurrence of strange events begins to unsettle herSam Taylor (translator)|rating=3. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, mysteries come to light 5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It strikes me that nobody can only be solved by Mercy unearthing long-buried secrets. And will a dark stranger help Mercy protect everything she has come speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to love or tear see how bad it from her grasp? [[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements|Full Review]] <!-- Llewellyn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Llewellyn-Walkingwas here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of the white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473663075?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473663075]]  | style="vertical But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-align: top; text-align: left;"gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1472227727===[[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linktitle=CategorySix Tudor Queens:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] David Reece was called up in 1941 and sent to fight in Burma. On his return in 1946, he finds a return to civilian life quite beyond him and, after a brawl, is sent to a military psychiatric hospital. There, he is treated by Daniel Carter, a psychiatrist whose instincts tell him that talking therapies can work with men like David, but who is working in a profession enthusiastically adopting invasive procedures such as ECT and lobotomy. ''Walking Wounded'' follows both men as they both try to come to terms with traumatic experiences and find a place in a world moving on from WWII. [[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn|Full Review]] <!-- Morris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Morris_Auschwitz.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785763644?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785763644]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] So, you arrive in all ignorance at Auschwitz, and see the horror there, and immediately swear to survive the ordeal to see retribution dealt on those behind it, but what do you do to see that oath out? Do you get to work diligently as the Nazis demand, to the extent you get the word ''collaborator'' muttered behind your back? Do you dare to stick your neck out and get a job that means you're actually a Jew working in the political wing of the SS, answerable to Berlin? Do you dare get contacts with civilian workers building the place, and trade the loot purloined from the incoming victims' belongings with food they smuggle in for you, under the eyes of all the camp guards? The man whose real life story inspired this novel did all that, and survived to tell the tale, 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. [[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris|Full Review]] <!-- Halliburton -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Halliburton_Optickal.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0715651978?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0715651978]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Rachel Halliburton's debut novel opens in London in January 1797. Benjamin West, President of the Royal Academy, is reflecting on the past year's scandal involving the Provises, father and daughter, and worries that he handled everything poorly. From the start the book's figurative language is appropriately full of colour and painterly techniques: 'He had intended to deal with them honourably, but now everyone in London was saying he had not. 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 memory, the murkier it became.' [[The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton|Full Review]] <!-- Banks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Banks_W.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0983333416?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0983333416]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[W by John Banks]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] 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. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]] <!-- Everest -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Everest_Xmas.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509843655/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Christmas at Woolworths by Elaine Everest]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''Christmas at Woolworths'' is the sequel to wartime saga The Woolworths Girls, and continues the story where the first book left off. Members of the close-knit community in Erith are doing their best to pull together and keep morale high, even though the future is uncertain. At the heart of the neighbourhood, the home of kindly matriarch Ruby is a beacon where family and friends can gather for good food and conversation: a way to forget the troubles outside. Spirits remain high; even when the 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 the war, Maisie is desperate for a child and Freda would love to find romance. Will they all get their wishes this Christmas? [[Christmas at Woolworths by Elaine Everest|Full Review]] <!-- WALTERS -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Walter_Last.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760632139/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Hours by Minette Walters]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of hygiene which we'd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, the disease rages through the country. 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 marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and when Lady Anne realised the virulence of the plague she ordered that the estate refuse entry to anyone, including her husband and his entourage, for fear that they would bring the disease to her people. [[The Last Hours by Minette Walters|Full Review]] <!-- Mytting -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Mytting_16.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857056069/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] While his grandfather lived the past was an area of certainty for Edvard. At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with his grandparents, having survived the accident that killed his parents. 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 mother's name, the whereabouts of late Great-Uncle Einar… and that's without looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Edvard is determined to solve the puzzle, a 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. [[The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Clements -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Clements_Kingdom.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178089466X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Kingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4) by Toby Clements]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] 1470 dawns and the next chapters of the War of the Roses are ready to play out. King Edward thinks that the future has been settled but treachery is still lurking. Meanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have their world turned upside down when that ledger and a chance comment threaten all they have, including their lives. [[Kingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4) by Toby Clements|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|} {{newreviewAnna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets|author=P F Chisholm|title=Guns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)Alison Weir

|summary=1592: Sir Robert Carey flees Poor, frumpy Anne of Cleaves always gets a raw deal by history, of all the strictures wives of Elizabethan court – Henry VIII she is the one who is known for being rejected. Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard were the sexy ones, Jane the dutiful one who delivered a son, Katherine of Aragon clung on to her crown and his creditors – in order Katharine Parr clung on to become Deputy Warden her life but poor frumpy Anne of Cleaves just rolled over and moved along. Not any more! Alison Weir presents us with a different view of this young woman who saw the West March in Carlisleopportunity to live an independent life and took it.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0718187091|title=Liberation Square|author=Gareth Rubin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. The Scottish/English borders After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from the East, and those who inhabit them are different Americans from the world he's left behind but west. Dividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in two, a wall running through it will have to become his worldlike a scar. ItWhen Jane Cawson's now husband is arrested for the murder of his job former wife, Jane is determined to bring law to the lawlessclear his name. This isn't easy when every local he comes across has an affinity and In doing so, Jane follows a heritage trail of crime corruption that leads her right to some degree. For Robert the best thing about highest levels of the job is its proximity state – and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of 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 side are plotting against him but they don't realise what they're up against. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786694719</amazonuk>murderous secret police…

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Zanna Sloniowska and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)191236266X|title=The House with the Stained-Glass WindowBoy in a Turban|author=Joseph Hucknall

|summary= MariannaYou might not think that Georgian London contained many black people. But it contained more than you think. You may have heard of Francis Barber, an opera singer the black African slave who became the friend of lexicographer Samuel Johnson and was a beneficiary of his will. ''The Boy in a Turban'' tells the soon-to-be Ukrainian city story of Lviva fictional black character, James, in Georgian London. James, then Quaccoe, is mistakenly shot dead at brought to the capital from a political rally in the dying days Jamaican plantation by a ship captain who wanted a servant for his two daughters.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=034901082X|title=In The Full Light of the Soviet UnionSun|author=Clare Clark|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In 1930's Berlin, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandal. This novel begins with both anger Emmeline, a wayward young student, Julius, an anxious middle-aged art expert, and hopeRachmann, as Marianna's coffin is covered a mysterious art dealer, live in the illegal blue and yellow flagpolitically turbulent Weimar Berlin, and her death seems to herald soon find themselves whipped up into excitement over the birth surprise discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. Based on a new nation. But true story and unfolding through the day subsequent rise of her funeral is also Hitler and the Nazis, the day discovery of her daughter's first period – a girl who must learn how the art allows these characters to be a woman in this time of drastic changeexplore authenticity, with no mother to guide her along the wayvanity and self-delusion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857057138</amazonuk>