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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rory ClementsTananarive Due|title=CorpusThe Reformatory

|genre=Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=A suicidal overdose Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the murder segregated reformatory is a chamber of upper class Cecil Langley horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his wife are two events that may Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations...|isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be unconnecteda hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. However this is England Enthralled and horrified in 1936equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a magnet for opposing forces young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and their first moves joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by thick of things when there is a royal crisis (depending mutiny on which side you're board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on)the ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the middle use of this accidentally sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to begin with lip read, but his curiosity physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking awayteaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Beatrice ColinClaire North|title= To Capture What We Cannot KeepHouse of Odysseus|rating= 45|genre= Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Paris, February 1887, and work on ''What could matter more than love?'' The follow-up to the foundations of Eiffelexcellent ''Ithaca''s daring tower is about to beginpicks up a few months after where we left off. Engineer Emile Nouguier, taking photographs In the palace of the site from a tethered hot air balloon for tourists nearbyOdysseus, chances with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to meet a young widow from Glasgow named Caitriona Wallacerule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and his own foundations start to shiftthen by divine intervention never returned home. Over As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the next two years as throne of the tower slowly rises in the Champ de Mars, what began as an impossible dream becomes solid reality Western Isles. Having survived – Cait politically and Emilephysical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's love for each othershores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. In a world where more than bustles and corsets hem her inOne that shatters however with the return of Orestes, will Cait be able to break free King of her oppressive futureMycenae, and given their different social stratahis sister Elektra, can Emile re-shape his?seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1760291722</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Deanna RaybournB0C7J9D21B|title= A Perilous Undertaking Captive in Algiers (Veronica Speedwell MysteryMuhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Veronica Speedwell did not choose to be an investigator by profession. She wasWhen we first meet our hero, first his name is Ettore and foremosthe lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a scientist; a lepidopterist bordello and adventuress who travelled the world looking Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for exciting butterfly specimens. Howeversomeone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, when her latest expedition was cancelled due it's difficult to an unfortunate incident obtain decent employment. The stint working with a giant tortoise, Veronica and her taxidermist friend Stoker took up the challenge preparation of a murder investigation as an interesting diversionanchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. The case seemed to an open Ettore was nothing if not resourceful -anddetermined -shut one; Miles Ramsforth, an art patron, and it was not long before he had been accused of murdering his pregnant mistress, Artemisiaa successful business as a guide for visitors. He was discovered at the scene, covered in her blood and had both the motive and circumstances to commit the crimeeven saving some money. He would hang by the end of the week if Veronica and Stoker could not find the 'real' killer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0451476158</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jemima BriggesEssie Fox|title=Counting the CostThe Fascination

|summary=The year Victorian era is 1794 and we meet our young protagonistincredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, Mariaperhaps, in desperate circumstances. Alone and terrified, she by the Second World War) which has concluded that her only option is often led to take her own life by throwing herself into the surging river watersmore than a few writers mishandling it. Months previously, she was cruelly violated by the master There's such a glut of media set in the house where she worked and now, in era that the advanced stages of her pregnancy, hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the future seems bleak. Luckily, a pair point of gypsy women find Maria and take her in. Following a traumatic labourbeing cliched, Maria becomes desperately ill and when she recovers, her baby is gonehackneyed even. Alone again, Maria All this is free simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to start a new lifedo poorly. With a clever disguiseBut despite that, she becomes the dowdy 'Miss Dinchopesomething about it still grabs me – and something about this book' and takes a position s description did as a housekeeper for the village rectorwell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785899139</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven BurgauerNicole Jarvis|title=The Night of The Eleventh SunA Portrait in Shadow

|summary=The word 'Neanderthal' has become equated with people deemed I want all of Florence to have know my name'' Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a backward attitude home and outlookwhere her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But what do we know as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the original Neanderthals healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over 200art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them,000 years ago? Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds the knowledge of anthropologists, archaeologists Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and historians with the story of Strong Arms, his family change – has no place amongst them and their struggle to survive in a very effective, and informative waysociety.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1419671545</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meelis Friedenthal and Matthew Hyde (translator)Thomas D Lee|title=The Willow KingPerilous Times

|summary=Meet LaurentiusWe begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. HeWilliam's a scholar newly arrived in Estonia in position is not secure and the seventeenth century, aiming to study morenew king has many challenges. But things aren't going well for him – Imposing authority through a long-standing illness seems coronation is important. And William is right to be returningworry. While the previous king, the weather and roads are awfulHarold, he's late – is dead and his only friend, a parakeet, won't even survive the first two days ashore. He's entering a weird world, what's likelihood of more – one imbued with evil smells, peopled by strange characters with stranger ideas. Can his modern ideaspitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and thinking about much of the soul, bear him through his course?country does not wish to recognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782271740</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=3949666079|title=Noema|author=Ian RossDael Akkerman|titlerating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Mask ''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.'' Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of Command (Twilight villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of Empire)All Life, provide solutions? }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529125898|title=Godmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead ''If it were not for previous books in the series. 305AD: Castus Aurelius, following casual dereliction of the death of his predecessorodd gentleman's duty, has been promoted there would no women to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) of the Roman forces teach well-bred daughters at the Rhineall. He's also been ordered ' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take Crispus, Constantine's son and heir, for up the characterposition of governess to twelve-year-building experienceold Fanny Austen. That complicates matters as when Castus isn't trying to keep Crispus alive, he's finding it difficult to increase his own chance She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of survival, especially considering how the last Rhine commander met his endnecessity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784975257</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sophia Tobin|title= The Vanishing|rating=3|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=1814. In Until the middle death of the Yorkshire Moors in an isolated spot lies White Windowsher mother, Anne had a house shadowed in mystery comfortable life and intriguewas loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. Living in this desolate household is Marcus Twentyman When her mother died, a hard drinking her father cast her off and complicated man and his sister, the hardened widow Hester. Brought would have nothing more to White Windows is Annaleigh, a young runaway from London who has come to Yorkshire to be the new housekeeper to the Twentyman's do with the hope of leaving her painful past behind her. At first, Annaleigh believes she may have found sanctuary No explanation was offered but soon realises she has become entangled in would receive an annuity of £35 a web of conspiracy and dangeryear. Her maid, Agnes, leaving her trapped and more alone than everwould receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471151603</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Mary GibsonMelissa Fu |title=Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls)Peach Blossom Spring |rating= 43.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Where did it all go wrong? Only I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short time ago, Matty Gilbie was a star of the silver screen with a glittering future predicted for her. As the chapter entitled ''Origins'Cockney Canary', her melodic singing voice and stunning good looks had ensured that her first foray into movies was a runaway success. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that success came with a price: MattyI expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's business partner Frank Rossi frittered away perspective. When their money and turned violent and controlling. Bruised and battered from a particularly vicious beating from Frank, Matty secretly makes her escape back to her home in Bermondseycity is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and the comfort of family and friendsher four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. Frank is not one to be crossed, howeverThe story follows them on their journey across China, and vows to do whatever it takes in Renshu's case eventually to win Matty backAmerica. Can she ever be truly free? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784973335</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKay1916072038|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime The House in the Hollow (A Hew Cullan MysteryThe Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell

|genre=Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=A lot We meet part of crime happens the Talbot family in Yorkshire in St Andrews during 1588 November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and therefore her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen toohouse in the hollow. As we travel through the year The two women are angry with himeach other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, his recently wedded English wife Francesat concealing, doctor brother in law Giles and his sister Megbeneath a facade of respectability, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting casesdeplorable truth''. In fact there Hester is furious about Jocelyn's one refusal to match each do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''. Then we are told of the year's big festivals: Candlemasbirth of a child and, Whitsunsoon after, LammasHester Talbot departs, Martinmas leaving Jocelyn in shame and Yuleisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lesley LokkoAnnabel Abbs|title=The Last DebutanteLanguage of Food|rating=45

|summary=In 1936 in Chalfont Hall in Dorset young Kit Algernon-Waters can't really understand what's going on: at thirteen years old she's been banished to have supper in the nursery whilst everyone else Eliza Acton is dining downstairs with a poet who has never had the guestsslightest inclination to boil an egg. Even her elder sisterWhen tasked with writing a cookery book, Lilyshe recruits Ann Kirby, who's sixteen is dining a local woman with these unnamed 'guests'a troubled home life. Kit has tapped all her usual sources to find out who the visitors areTogether, but to no avail. All she's managed to work out (wellthey test, let's be honest 'find out by eavesdropping' is closer to the truth) is that the visitors are German. Kit's parentscraft, Lord refine and Lady Whartonreshape the world of domestic cookery, are short of money reinventing the recipe book and it's important that at least one of their daughters makes a good marriage. Six months later Lily is married to one of changing the German, living in some style in Germany. Within a couple face of years she's mixing with some dubious company, including Unity Mitford. It was even rumoured that she'd met Hitlercookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140914254X</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stef PenneyFreya Marske|title=Under a Pole StarA Marvellous Light

|summary=1948: Elderly Flora Mackie Robin Blyth is invited on nudged into a press trip job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the North Pole; streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a trip curse that takes her back through her life. Flora remembers her childhood with her father on whaling ships in threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the seas around Greenlandcountryside, her marriage born of ambition and misaligned lust where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the result: people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the Arctic exploration team she led lives of all magicians in the late 19th century. This was a trip that had many knock-on effects including death and loveBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786481162</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Morgan McCarthyB09F4CTKJR|title= The House of Birds|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Oliver has spent years trying to convince himself that he's suited to a life of money making in the city, and that he doesn't miss a childhood spent in pursuit of mystery, when he cycled around the cobbled lanes of Oxford, exploring its most intriguing corners. When his girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house - and a fierce family feud - she's determined to strip it, sell it and move on. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, and amongst the shelves of a discarded, leather bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one that conceals a hidden diary from the 1920s. So begins a quest to discover the identity of the author, Sophia Louis. It is a portrait of war and marriage, isolation and longing and a story that will shape the future of the abandoned house - and of Oliver - forever.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472205847</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Jacquelyn Benson|title= The Smoke Hunter|rating= 4|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-century. She's a historian, a suffragette, and is years ahead of her time much to the chagrin of her male work colleagues at the Public Records Office. After losing her job and finding a mysterious map abandoned on her former employer's desk, Ellie decides to take a chance at an adventure. She packs her bags and sets off on a journey to Central America, where the map shows the way 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 trail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472238346</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Angus MacDonald|title= Ardnish Was Home: A Novel|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=A tiny peninsular lying on the west coast of Scotland, Ardnish provides a beautiful setting for a book that entices the reader to devour it all in one sitting. Duncan Peter Gillies (DP to friends and family) leaves Ardnish as a young man to sign up for the Lovat Scouts in 1915. What a tragically sweet story is to follow! Posted to Gallipoli, brutal scenes of the realities of the First World War face the reader from page one. Tragically, the young DP is desperately wounded and the medical support is woefully poor. The Gallipoli Campaign seems doomed to fail. DP learns that the order has been given for the allied troops to withdraw to the safety of Malta. Distressingly, the rescue boats are unreliable and DP with other casualties and nurses, find themselves in an impossible position stranded in enemy territory. This fast paced story charts DP's progress in escaping from the war zone, in recovering from his injuries, and, in the most desperate of circumstances, finding love.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780274262</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Lynn Guest|title= The Sword of Hachiman|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= Set at the dawn of the Shogun era, ''The Sword of Hachiman'' follows two warrior clans, the Minamoto and the Taira, as they struggle Flights for power under the Emperor. At first the Taira are in uneasy control, but the three Minamoto sons, separated at birth, plan to secretly reunite in order to defeat the Taira and avenge their Father's death. The youngest, Yoshitsune, is deemed most worthy and is granted the family heirloom, the Sword of Hachiman, the War God. Initiated into love and espionage by a young Taira noblewoman, and tested in the ferocious hand to hand combat that is his birthright, we follow Yoshitsune as he meets his faithful retainer, Benkei, and as he goes behind the scenes of the Cloister court, where two extraordinary women enter his life…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861515634</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFreedom|author=Tracey Warr|title=Conquest: Daughter of the Last KingSteven Burgauer

|summary=Princess Nest ferch Rhys is the only legitimate child of Rhys ap Tewdr (thereIt's a surname to make hist-fict addicts smile!), the last king later stages of Deheubarth, WalesWorld War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Playing on Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the beach with her brother one day she's captured by Norman soldiers17 Aero Squadron. From there she's held hostage by This company was the noble Montgomery familyfirst US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, loyal the first to King William Rufus. The standard of captivity in which Nesta is kept isn't bad. Lady Sybil is particularly kind be attached to her, realising that Nest is still mourning the deaths of her father RAF and most of her siblings at the hands of men from first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that same household. There is an ulterior motive though. The object of Sybil's attentions is can happen, Petrol has to make Nest a suitable wife for English nobility master flying the notoriously difficult but she's already promised to a Welsh princemajestic Sopwith Camel. Who will Nest actually marry and, more importantly, will Nest have any say in it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907605819</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John G SmithChristophe Medler|title=EugeneMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=4.5

|summary=Eugene is Set against the youngest backdrop of 13 childrenthe English Civil War, born into a family for whom secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the future seems assured due to their parents' butchery business in summer of 1642. As a smallloyal servant of the King, close East Midlands community. But they can't see what lies ahead: war in the world and between Head of the siblings. For EugeneSecret Service, from his birth in it is Robert's duty to uncover the 1920s through details of the war in Burma plan and trying follow the clues to settle down afterwards, uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the impact will last a lifetimeKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B01LW2XPQP</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irina Ratushinskaya1471187179|title=The OdessansA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore|rating=4.5

|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The Petrovsbook is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, Geibers produce children and Teselenkos may all live as friends in spend the Ukrainian town rest of Odessaher days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunately, but this is the dawn of the 20th century: changes are afoot that will test their friendship isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as well as their existencea secretary. Be they Russian establishmentAs a result of a chance meeting, Russian Jews or Polishshe finds herself drawn into espionage, each family will see tragedy alongside working for the birth pangs of secret service and effectively living a future Soviet state, not double life - attempting to mention infiltrate the struggle for survival that will be more successful for some Communist Party of them than Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for othersthe Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637260</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Clover MoonKokoschka's Doll|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of 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. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|isbn=1529402697}}{{Frontpage|author=Jacqueline WilsonChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Black Kids

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens |summary=Clover Moon lives in Cripps AlleyChristina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a slum street in Victorian England. Her father works at reaction to the factory and the heavy work has taken absolution of four police officers for beating a toll on his healthblack man, Rodney King, nearly to death. He likes to drink an ale or two after workTold from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, spending money the family can barely afford. Clover's mother died giving birth to novel follows her younger sister, Megs, evolution from a wispysilent bystander when confronted with matters of race, shy child. Father married again - to Mildred, a sharp-tongued woman who is free with a beating, particularly if the beating goes to Clover. Clover has another four half-siblings finding her voice and it's Clover, rather than Mildred, who takes care of themembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857532731</amazonuk>1471188191

Graham Moore's latest novel is set in 19th Century New York City following the War of the Currents immediately after the discovery of electricity. Paul Cravath is a young lawyer, recently graduated from Columbia Law School, who finds himself at the centre of the biggest lawsuit in American history to date: who invented the light bulb. Enlisted to defend George Westinghouse against 312 lawsuits and a sum of one billion dollars, Paul embarks Move on a seemingly impossible case to win. Going up against the incredibly intelligent and extremely resourceful Thomas Edison, who has newspapers at his disposal and the support of J.P. Morgan himself, Paul is nonetheless determined to win by any means necessary. In his unwavering quest for victory, Paul encounters Nikola Tesla, the eccentric genius, who could have the power to stop Edison, Alexander Bell, the inventor of the telephone and only one to beat Edison before, as well as Agnes Huntington, the astonishingly beautiful opera singer. With the stakes so high, Paul will discover that everyone is desperate to win, setting in motion their own plans with disastrous consequences.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471156664</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Paula McLain|title=Circling the Sun|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Beryl Clutterbuck was just two when she was taken by her parents from Abingdon in England to Kenya, to a farm at Njoro in the Rongai Valley in what was then the British East African Protectorate and which would become Kenya. Her mother was dismayed - amazed that her father would have sold everything to get little more than a few mud huts - and it was only a couple of years before she returned home with Dickie, Beryl's brother, leaving Beryl and her father to cope as best they could. Beryl grew up wild - largely brought up by the local tribespeople - and was catapulted into a disastrous marriage when she was just sixteen. It taught her one thing, though - she needed to take charge of her own destiny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844088308</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Simon Scarrow and T J Andrews|title=Invader|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= Modern technology gives a writer far more options on how to present their book. They are no longer bound by a yearly cycle of releasing a book in hardback and then waiting a few months for it to be released in paperback. The e-book gives you license to play with the format; how about a set of regular instalments? These segmented books worked for the likes of Charles Dickens, but pleasing a modern crowd used to quick thrills, as well as those used to the longer drawn out format, is not easy. Did Simon Scarrow and T J Andrews achieve their goals in the combined novel ''Invader''?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472213696</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Diney Costeloe|title=The Sisters of St Croix|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=On her 21st birthday Adelaide discovers a family she wasn't aware of: a Mother Superior aunt in a French convent and a father who died in WWI rather than Richard - her mother's husband and the man who raised her. Adeline decides to go to France for a short holiday in order to learn more from her aunt that her family knew as Sarah Hunt. Both Sarah and Adelaide part, hoping that they will see each other again soon and they will, but in circumstances that neither of them envisaged. As the Second World War begins and Germany captures France, there's danger ahead for each of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784972606</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anna Hope|title= The Ballroom|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Ella Fay does not know how a simple impulsive act landed her in the strict confines of a Yorkshire asylum. She does not know the stories of the other women there, or why the strange doctor plays them the piano, or where the patients go before they are never seen again. But there are two things she does know: she is not insane, and she will never stop struggling for freedom. Her spirit of escape ignites a spark of life within fellow patient John Mulligan, and a courtship flares into being as the couple are thrown together weekly in the ballroom for the Friday night dance. Yet with the odds stacked against them, and hope as fragile as the eggshells on which they have to tread, they find themselves in equal fear of what it is they are running away from, and what it is they are running towards.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552779474</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=J D Davies|title=Death's Bright Angel (Matthew Quinton’s Journals 6)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Captain Sir Matthew Quinton of King Charles II's navy sets out for another day at work. He and his men are charged with helping to subdue the Dutch town of Westerschelling. It's only afterwards that the true consequences hit him, along with some other consequences that are and will be open to conjecture. For the year is 1666 and London is about to face a disaster that will be discussed and theorised over for centuries… Fire!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910400467</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]