Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(130 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
+
  <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|author= Geraint Jones
+
{{Frontpage
|title= Blood Forest
+
|author=Tananarive Due
|rating= 5
+
|title=The Reformatory
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary= Felix. The lucky one. He doesn't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible waysHe felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next.
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184815</amazonuk>
+
|summary= 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 segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his 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 a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watchEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a 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 joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.
 +
|isbn=0861547438
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Dominic Smith
+
|author=Sarah Marsh
|title= The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
+
|title=A Sign of Her Own
|rating= 5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, ''The Last Painting of Sara de Vos'' provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages.  Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth of the way throughSara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canal, her now dead daughter its central figure. The painting has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s ManhattanEllie Shipley forged a copy of the painting in her postgraduate student years and in 2000 finds herself at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of Sydney'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 follow.  
+
|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing.  Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changesLiving in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible SpeechAt the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1035401614
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Caro Fraser
+
|author=Claire North
|title= The Summer House Party
+
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre= General Fiction  
+
|genre= Literary 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, Paul'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…
+
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.
 +
|isbn=0356516075
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Matthew Harffy
+
|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|title= The Serpent Sword
+
|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=A J Lewis
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= It's AD 633 and Albion is a divided island made up of petty warlords who want to be treated like honourable royalty but act like gangsters. Romans are a memory that have entered into myth and the souls of Albion are torn between the old Gods and the new Christ. It is in this world that we follow the adventures of Beobrand as he undertakes the classic hero’s journey. Beobrand moves from wide-eyed teenager to hardened and honourable warrior through a brutal rite of passage as he hunts the killer of his brother and seeks to become a true warrior.
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786692406</amazonuk>
+
|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows.  Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born.  He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats.  Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors.  He was even saving some money.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Antonia Senior
+
|author=Essie Fox
|title=The Tyrant's Shadow
+
|title=The Fascination
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''.
+
|summary= The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well.
Patience lives with her widowed brother, William, helping to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry). Despite the Civil war ending, the times are still uncertain.  Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with a parliament of rebels refusing to go to the electorate for ratification. William sees this problem at close quarters once he's effectively forced to become Cromwell's legal advisor in an atmosphere poisoned by espionage and religious factions. However when Patience comes across Shadrick Simpson, 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 is.
+
|isbn=1914585526
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782396616</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= David Barbaree
+
|author=Nicole Jarvis
|title= Deposed
+
|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= A.D 68. A deposed emperor lies in a prison cell, betrayed and newly blinded by those who were sworn to protect him. He is now crippled and deprived of power, 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 the purple. Things may have settled since the civil war but Vespasian's son Titus is plagued by worry about plots to murder his father. Gruesome atrocities and mysterious disappearances are rife throughout Rome; it is a city full of falsehoods and intrigues with the fear of rebellion lurking beneath the surface. Furthermore, a man who used to be emperor still lives a blind man who everyone believes to be dead. His name is Nero and he seeks revenge against those who wronged him.
+
|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762672</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the 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 art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change has no place amongst them and their society.
 +
|isbn=1803362340
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Diney Costeloe
+
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title= The Married Girls
+
|title=Perilous Times
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=3
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|genre= Fantasy
|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 her adopted home. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming... and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past, but she has worked hard to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built life. For Charlotte, too, a dangerous past is coming back in the shape of fellow refugee, bad boy Harry Black. Forever bound by their childhoods, Charlotte will always care for him, but Harry's return disrupts the village quiet and it's not long before gossip spreads. The war may have ended, but for these girls, trouble is only just beginning...
+
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784976121</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
 +
|isbn=0356518523
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Philip Kerr
+
|author=G K Holloway
|title= Prussian Blue: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12
+
|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|rating= 3.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= Crime (Historical
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Bernie Gunther is not your typical hero. In 1939, he was stationed in Berlin as a police officer handling murder cases and occasionally doing work for some high-ranking Nazis. Although never a Nazi party member himself (he was a known member of the Social Democratic Party), he understood that the best thing he could do for himself at that time was to make himself indispensable to men like Reinhard Heydrich and Martin Bormann. So when he is assigned to solve a murder that has occurred at Hitler's Berghof in the Bavarian mountains, he knows that he needs to do it quickly and discreetly – not just for justice's sake, but for his own. He is given exactly one week to apprehend the suspect, and he hopes that with the help of his friend Friedrich Korsch, an investigator with the Krimialpolizei (or Kripo, for short) he just might get lucky. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784296481</amazonuk>
+
|summary= We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord.
 +
|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Stephan Collishaw
+
|isbn=3949666079
|title= The Song of the Stork
+
|title=Noema
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Dael Akkerman
|genre= Literary Fiction
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= Stephan Collishaw has achieved a rare feat – a novel set amidst the horrors of Nazi tyranny that does not shy away from human suffering, but does not drown in it either.
+
|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079190</amazonuk>
+
|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
}}
+
 
{{newreview
+
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 villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?
|author=Alan Kennedy
 
|title=A Time to Tell Lies
 
|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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex Nye
+
|isbn=1529125898
|title=For My Sins
+
|title=Godmersham Park
 +
|author=Gill Hornby
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1586: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, has time to look back over her past life as she sits, incarcerated by her second cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Mary's life hasn't been one of totally pampered royaltyGrowing up in France, away from her mother, widowed and then returning to Scotland to claim the throne before she was even 19, her struggle with fate started earlyThe tensions between Mary the woman, Mary the Catholic and Mary the political force continue through three marriages, an unsolved murder and the thwarted desire to serve her peopleNow it's come to this prison cell but while there's life, there's still hope…
+
|summary=''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905916787</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny AustenShe had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity.  Until the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household.  When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with her.  No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a yearHer maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Melissa Fu
 +
|title=Peach Blossom Spring
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Historical Fiction
 +
|summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America. 
 +
|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Grace Macallister
+
|isbn=1916072038
|title= The Magician's Lie
+
|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|rating=4
+
|author=Allie Cresswell
|genre= Thrillers
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. But one night she swaps her trademark saw for an axe. When Arden's husband is found dead later that night, the answer seems clear, most of all to young policeman Virgil Holt. Captured and taken into custody, all seems set for Arden's swift confession. But she has a different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding.
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199967</amazonuk>
+
|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811.  Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:
 +
 
 +
''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
 +
 
 +
Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''.
 +
 
 +
Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Helen Dunmore
+
|author=Annabel Abbs
|title=Birdcage Walk
+
|title=The Language of Food
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married well.  John Diner Tredevant is a property developer who has reached the zenith of his life's work: building a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking the Avon Gorge. In a time of turbulence as France reaches the dawn of revolution, Britain, including Diner, fears it may spread.  This puts Lizzie in a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe in propagating pamphlets and ideas of egalitarianism for and to all, including women. In other words, they think nothing of spreading ideas of the sort that fanned the French flames.  However, that's not Lizzie's only problem… there is a darkness in her husband's past of which she's unaware.
+
|summary=Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959403</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Beth Underdown
+
|author=Freya Marske
|title=The Witchfinder's Sister
+
|title=A Marvellous Light
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=England 1645: Matthew Hopkins is good at his chosen career: seeking, testing and convicting those with the Devil in them.  His sister, Alice, doesn't realise the full connotations of his actions until, widowed and pregnant, she returns home.  Alice is grateful to be allowed to live under Matthew's roof but then watches his sinister finger of suspicion point in unexpected places. This is a man changed from the boy that Alice used to know. She never then realised that he'd be capable of killing hundreds of people and making her the Witchfinder's Sister.
+
|summary=Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. |isbn=1529080886
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241978033</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Emma Henderson
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|title= The Valentine House
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|rating= 4
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
|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= Larchfield
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Literary Fiction
 
|summary=I It's early summer when a young poet, Dora Fielding, moves to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland and her hopes are first challenged. Newly married, pregnant, she's excited by the prospect of a life that combines family and creativity. She thinks she knows what being a person, a wife, a mother, means. She is soon shown that she is wrong. As the battle begins for her very sense of self, Dora comes to find the realities of small town life suffocating, and, eventually, terrifying; until she finds a way to escape reality altogether. Another poet, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan H. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, with his first book of poetry published, should be embarking on success and society in London. Instead, in 1930, fleeing 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 in this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fears.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786481928</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dinah Jefferies
 
|title=Before the Rains
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eliza has tragically punctuated childhood memories of India that have feed her desire to return.  Therefore in 1930, following the death of her husband, when the British government commission her to photograph scenes of Indian life, she jumps at the chance. What she doesn't realise is that not everyone she comes across is delighted with the idea. Living within the Sultana's opulent palace complex is definitely an attraction for her, as is Jay, an Indian price who shows Eliza the real India. However, attractions are sometimes dangerous and even deadly.
+
|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241287081</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Otto de Kat and Laura Watkinson (translator)
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|title=The Longest Night
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Emma has a philosophy – ''let the dead rest, and love the living''.  The problem with that, 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 a woozy, diaphanous path through all the major events of her life.  Starting in wartime Berlin with one husband, who gets snatched from her at work, fleeing to another place to wait for peace, and wait for him in vain, moving to Holland and finding new love, and so on – this wispy journey will show all the impacts of war, from rationing right up to exile, death and survival.  The memories are coming strongly here and now, as Emma is waiting for at least one of her two sons to visit, and then she will die…
+
|summary= Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056085</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Adrian Goldsworthy
+
|isbn=1471187179
|title= Vindolanda
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|rating= 3.5
+
|author=Rachel Hore
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|rating=4
|summary= AD 98: in the northern fields of Britannia lies Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary base situated on the edge of the Roman world. Far from the prosperity and decadence of Rome, the wild and untamed lands around Vindolanda are ripe with rebel tribes and druids set against the destruction of Rome and its armies. In the midst of this destruction is Flavius Ferox; a Briton and Roman Centurion who has been given the task of keeping the peace in this desolate edge of the world. But life in Roman Britain is full of danger and betrayal at every turn, and Ferox knows it will take more than courage to overcome what lies ahead.
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784974684</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book 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, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary.  As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|title=The Yellow House
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|rating=3
+
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary 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?  The main character in this novel doesBut he has something that will really get him noted, well-thought-of, includedHe has come to the south of France to set up an artists' collective, where he can live and work alongside his counterparts, who can inspire each other and best each other to create wonderful art.  In fact a much-respected guest is on his way now, so surely he can find kinship?  The guest's name is, after all, GauguinThe main character is, of course, Vincent van Gogh…
+
|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 onIt intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, tooBut 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 themSo what happened?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320563</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529402697
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|title=Retribution Road
+
|title=The Black Kids
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous man.''  If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him.  Working as a soldier for the East India Company in the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds of Asia in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan Min.  It doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge of the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break loose.  But get back he does, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…
+
|summary=Christina 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. 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Theodore Brun
 
|title=A Mighty Dawn (The Wanderer Chronicles)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary= A story like this needs a strong central character; it needs a warrior who has conviction, heart and honour. Hakan has all these in abundance, but he didn't get them easily. In this coming of age tale, he goes on a quest to find himself after experiencing the most tremendous of betrayals.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399941</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=S J Hardman Lea
 
|title=The Sins of Soldiers
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Anson Scott wants to join the British army and World War I for a different reason than most of his fellow Americans.  He's a journalist wanting the uncensored inside story to send back home; a deadly enterprise as, if the Germans don't get him, the Brits may deem him a spy.  Unperturbed he carries his plan through and finds himself on the French front in 1916.  He has an ally in British officer David Alexander, which is just as well since not all his enemies are across no man's land.  The two men have a lot in common, more than they know and perhaps more than is good for them as the Somme approaches.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785890182</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Gilman
 
|title=Viper's Blood (Master of War)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Bowman and commander Thomas Blackstone is one of Edward III's greatest weapons, bringing him potentially head to head against the Dauphin once again. However, faced with an elongated stale mate, Thomas' role becomes that of scavenger leader as the chances of victory make way for a greater chance of starvation amongst the armies.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel though.  Blackstone is to go on a trip:  an escort mission to Italy, delivering the French King's daughter Isabelle to Milan and her wedding.  Having said that, the light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming lance.  Isabelle's prospective groom is one of the brothers who killed Thomas' wife and daughter.  Death is definitely on the cards… but whose?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784974463</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rory Clements
 
|title=Corpus
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=A suicidal overdose and the murder of upper class Cecil Langley and his wife are two events that may be unconnected.  However this is England in 1936, a magnet for opposing forces and their first moves in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on).  Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into the middle of this accidentally to begin with but his curiosity has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking away.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Beatrice Colin
 
|title= To Capture What We Cannot Keep
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Paris, February 1887, and work on the foundations of Eiffel's daring tower is about to begin. Engineer Emile Nouguier, taking photographs of the site from a tethered hot air balloon for tourists nearby, chances to meet a young widow from Glasgow named Caitriona Wallace, and his own foundations start to shift. Over the next two years as the tower slowly rises in the Champ de Mars, what began as an impossible dream becomes solid reality – Cait and Emile's love for each other. In a world where more than bustles and corsets hem her in, will Cait be able to break free of her oppressive future, and given their different social strata, can Emile re-shape his?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760291722</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Deanna Raybourn
 
|title= A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell Mystery)
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Veronica Speedwell did not choose to be an investigator by profession. She was, first and foremost, a scientist; a lepidopterist and adventuress who travelled the world looking for exciting butterfly specimens. However, when her latest expedition was cancelled due to an unfortunate incident with a giant tortoise, Veronica and her taxidermist friend Stoker took up the challenge of a murder investigation as an interesting diversion. The case seemed to an open-and-shut one; Miles Ramsforth, an art patron, had been accused of murdering his pregnant mistress, Artemisia. He was discovered at the scene, covered in her blood and had both the motive and circumstances to commit the crime. He would hang by the end of the week if Veronica and Stoker could not find the 'real' killer.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0451476158</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 10:53, 20 November 2023

1803366532.jpg

Review of

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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 segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations... Full Review

0861547438.jpg

Review of

A True Account by Katherine Howe

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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 a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a 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 joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves. Full Review

1035401614.jpg

Review of

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

3.5star.jpg General Fiction

After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching 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. Full Review

0356516075.jpg

Review of

House of Odysseus by Claire North

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

What could matter more than love?

The follow-up to the excellent Ithaca picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge. Full Review

B0C7J9D21B.jpg

Review of

A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries) by A J Lewis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money. Full Review

1914585526.jpg

Review of

The Fascination by Essie Fox

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well. Full Review

1803362340.jpg

Review of

A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I want all of Florence to know my name

Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the 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 art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society. Full Review

0356518523.jpg

Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

1800422466.jpg

Review of

In the Shadows of Castles by G K Holloway

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord. Full Review

3949666079.jpg

Review of

Noema by Dael Akkerman

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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 villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions? Full Review

1529125898.jpg

Review of

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.

Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity. Until the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours. Full Review

1472277538.jpg

Review of

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

3.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled Origins. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America. Full Review

1916072038.jpg

Review of

The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga) by Allie Cresswell

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:

She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth.

Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated this violent and unexpected removal.

Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Full Review

1398502227.jpg

Review of

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever. Full Review

1529080886.jpg

Review of

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. Full Review

B09F4CTKJR.jpg

Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel. Full Review

B095HY8SXQ.jpg

Review of

Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret by Christophe Medler

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King. Full Review

1471187179.jpg

Review of

A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book 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, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party. Full Review

1529402697.jpg

Review of

Kokoschka's Doll by Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)

2.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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? Full Review

1471188191.jpg

Review of

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

4.5star.jpg Teens

Christina 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. 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. Full Review

Move on to Newest History Reviews