Changes

<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah FranklinTananarive Due|title= ShelterThe Reformatory|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombedGracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-out city homeold Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, finding refuge in otherwise known as the WomenReformatory. It's Timber Corpsa place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. For herIn order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, this remote community Robert must now serve a secret purposeenlist 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.<br>5|genre=General FictionSeppe|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an Italian prisoner inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of warsome pirates in the town, is haunted by his memoriesshe decides to go and watch. In the forest camp Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, he Hannah finds herself embroiled in a strange kind young boy's death at the hands of freedomtwo vicious pirates.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as She hides away, so that they are drawn togetherdon'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 world outside their forest haven thick of things when there is being torn apart. Old certainties are crumblinga mutiny on board, and both must now make a from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life-defining choiceon the ocean waves.<br>What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane JohnsonSarah Marsh|title= Court A Sign of LionsHer Own|rating= 3.5|genre= Historical General Fiction |summary= Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada After a year ago. In the shadow bout of the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful places on earth, she works scarlet fever as a waitress serving tourists in child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a busy bar. She pretends she's happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate's aloneworld of silence, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is everything about to bring her face-to-face with her greatest fearlife changes. Five centuries ago, Living in a messagetime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, in Ellen is sent to a hand few could school where she is taught to lip read, was inscribed but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in blood on another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a stolen scrap of papersystem called Visible Speech. The paper was folded and pressed into one of At the Alhambra's walls. There it has lainsame time, undisturbed by the tides of history – the Fall of Granada, the expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of loveBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a time complicated tangle of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life foreverespionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Angus WatsonClaire North|title= You Die When You DieHouse of Odysseus|rating= 45|genre= Historical Literary Fiction|summary= Finnbogi ''What could matter more than love?'' The follow-up to the Boggy and his tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted by few months after where we left off. In the greatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). Vikings meet Native Americans in a clash palace of cultures Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and potentially then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the end throne of the worldWestern Isles. When 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 known world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosyreturn of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356507564</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison WeirB0C7J9D21B|title=Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A KingCaptive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|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 Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2difficult 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Essie Fox|title=The Fascination

|summary=Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad 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 be trained at the courts more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of European royalty. Not only does this give them an education media set in the ways of era that the elite, hallmarks we've come to associate with it could also ensure a good marriage. Unfortunately he hasn't reckoned on are familiar to the ideas that one point of thembeing cliched, Anne, picks up and as for marriage… Anne hackneyed even. All this is determined simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to marry for love not through some paternal arrangementdo poorly. Yet the reality turns out to be differentBut despite that, driving a wedge through her family on a road leading to dark tragedysomething about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147222762X</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Martha ConwayNicole Jarvis|title= The Floating TheatreA Portrait in Shadow|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more. But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the 'free' North is fraught with danger. For the sake I want all of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled Florence to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad. But as Mayknow my name''s secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her.

And 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 save protect the lives of others, she must risk her owncity 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. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785762907</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jenny AshcroftThomas D Lee|title= Beneath a Burning SkyPerilous Times|rating= 43|genre= Historical FictionFantasy|summary=Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home ''Hate is the path of least resistance'' Set in Egypt a bitterthe near-sweet experience. On the one handdistant future, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clara, and the pair have formed in a deep and loving bond. On world on the otherverge of climate collapse, she has an unhappy marriage to her domineering husband Alistair, who only married her Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to spite Clara, who had refused him previously. Life with save the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, dailyday and rescue what little remains. As a lady with What no means of supporting herself, Olivia seems trapped without any means -one expected was that one of escape, only finding solace in the company Knights of her sister and friends. But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is up to Olivia to try and solve Round Table would answer the mystery of her disappearance before it is too latecall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751565032</amazonuk>0356518523

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Conn IgguldenG K Holloway|title=Dunstan: One Man Will Change In the Fate Shadows of EnglandCastles

|summary=The young Dunstan shows no sign We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of the sainthood heWilliam of Normandy'll later attains coronation as King of England. Son of a Wessex thane and sent to a monastery for education, this isnWilliam't a lad who responds to discipline. However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge s position is not secure and then comes the big breaknew king has many challenges. Lady Elflaed calls to put Imposing authority through a proposal coronation is important. And William is right to him after hearing about what she considers to be a miracle worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the monks consider another in a long line likelihood of excuses. Yet Dunstan will outshine all his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courtsmore pitched battles is over, as the book's title suggests. Whether we believe in rebels are stirring and much of the miracles or country does not, Dunstan certainly had quite wish to recognise a life!new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718181441</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Edge3949666079|title= The Hopkins ConundrumNoema|author=Dael Akkerman|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Tim Cleverley inherits ''This is a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist story about some things that happened to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery me about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed twelve thousand years ago.''The Wreck of the Deutschland'' nearby.

In Victorian EnglandMaya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full the Sea of confusion Grass encroaches further and contradictionfurther into Maya's forest home, but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to overrule his calling do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to God. Andcope? Can the Traveller, speaking a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of GodAll Life, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined… |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785630334</amazonuk>provide solutions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne O'Brien1529125898|title=The Shadow QueenGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby|rating=4.5

|summary=Born in 1328''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, Joan 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 Kent may be governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of royal blood teaching but she's from this was a family tainted by treacherycase of necessity. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl Until the death of Kenther mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was executed for his part in loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the infamous Montague plothousehold. However Joan has grown up under the protection of When her cousinmother died, King Edward III her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with all the advantages and attributes her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a princessyear. YetHer maid, much 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 her motherPeach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins's chagrin, obedience isn't one . Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of these attributesa book that I expected more from. JoanCovering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's head strong feist takes her on a varied journey in lifeperspective. Having said thatWhen their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, three husbands, five marriages a young mother (technicallyMeilin) and a her four-year-old son destined for the English throne means that it(Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's also been one heck of a life!case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848455070</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patricia Falvey1916072038|title=The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell

|summary=Ireland 1900: Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she and Rosie Killeen would be friends foreverWe meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Rosie soon comes Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to know better as there's a social chasm between those who live the house in the House hollow. The two women are angry with each other and those, like RosieJocelyn is well aware of her mother's familystrengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, who have been brought up merely to serve them. The days beneath a facade of innocence are coming to an end in many ways. Soonrespectability, as the cry for Irish Home Rule becomes louder, theredeplorable truth''ll be more than steps on society. Hester is furious about Jocelyn's ladder between them refusal to do as each must discover their own way 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 a nation that will never be the same againYorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786490625</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elaine EverestAnnabel Abbs|title= The Butlins Girls|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the smiles and confident appearance, she hides a secret; she has taken the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and Plum, and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447295536</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Geraint Jones|title= Blood Forest|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|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 ways. He 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184815</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Dominic Smith|title= The Last Painting Language of Sara de VosFood|rating= 5|genre= Historical 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 through. Sara Eliza Acton 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 poet who has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is never had the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s Manhattanslightest inclination to boil an egg. Ellie Shipley forged When tasked with writing 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 arecookery book, 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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Caro Fraser|title= The Summer House Party|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= In the gloriously hot summer of 1936she recruits Ann Kirby, a group of people meet at local woman with a country house partytroubled home life. Within three yearsTogether, England will be at warthey test, but for nowcraft, time stands still. Dan Ranscombe is clever refine and good-looking, but he resents reshape the wealth and easy savoir-faire world 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 Asherdomestic cookery, reinventing the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless recipe book 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 changing the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyondface of cookery writing forever. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death… |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Matthew HarffyFreya Marske|title= The Serpent Sword|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786692406</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Antonia Senior|title=The Tyrant's ShadowA Marvellous Light

|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''.Patience lives with her widowed brother, WilliamRobin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, helping much to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry)chagrin. Despite There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the Civil war ending, the times streets of London are still uncertainthreaded with magic. Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with Desperate to remove a parliament of rebels refusing curse that threatens to go swallow him, Robin follows Edwin 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 countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and religious factionsthe people shimmer with power. However when Patience comes across Shadrick Simpson, There they uncover a charismatic preacher, sinister plot that threatens the lives of all becomes clearer for her at least. Meanwhile Sam Challoner, William's brother magicians 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 isBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782396616</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= David BarbareeB09F4CTKJR|title= DeposedFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating= 4.5|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 It's the edge later stages of despair with a frightened young slave named Marcus as his only companion. Ten years later World War I and it is Emperor Vespasian who wears the purple. Things may have settled since United States has just entered the civil war but Vespasian's son Titus is plagued by worry about plots to murder his fatherconflict. Gruesome atrocities and mysterious disappearances are rife throughout Rome; it Petrol Petronus is a city full of falsehoods young American who has signed up and intrigues with joined the fear of rebellion lurking beneath 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the surface. Furthermorefirst US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, a man who used the first to be emperor still lives – a blind man who everyone believes attached to the RAF and the first to be deadsent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. His name is Nero and he seeks revenge against those who wronged himBut before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762672</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Diney CosteloeChristophe Medler|title= The Married Girls|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married to farmer Billy. She arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war and now feels settled in 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...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784976121</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Philip Kerr|title= Prussian BlueMadrigal: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime (Historical) |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>}}{{newreview|author= Stephan Collishaw|title= The Song of the Stork|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079190</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alan Kennedy|title=A Time to Tell LiesClosely Guarded Secret

|summary=1586: Mary Stuart, Queen Set against the backdrop of Scots, has time to look back over her past life as she sitsthe English Civil War, incarcerated a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by her second cousin Queen Elizabeth ISir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. Mary's life hasn't been one As a loyal servant of totally pampered royalty. Growing up in Francethe King, away from her mother, widowed and then returning to Scotland to claim Head of the throne before she was even 19Secret Service, her struggle with fate started early. The tensions between Mary it is Robert's duty to uncover the woman, Mary details of the Catholic plan and Mary follow the political force continue through three marriages, an unsolved murder and clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the thwarted desire to serve her peopleKing. Now it's come to this prison cell but while there's life, there's still hope…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905916787</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Grace Macallister1471187179|title= The Magician's LieA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore

|summary=England 1645: Matthew Hopkins Minnie is good at his chosen career: seeking, testing and convicting those with the Devil an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in thema leafy provincial suburb. His sisterThe 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, Alice, doesn't realise produce children and spend the full connotations rest of his actions until, widowed her days looking after her husband and pregnant, she returns their home. Alice is grateful Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to be allowed do at all and neither does she want to live under Matthew's roof but then watches his sinister finger of suspicion point in unexpected placescontinue working as a secretary. This is As a result of a man changed from chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the boy that Alice used secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to knowinfiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. She never then realised that he'd be capable of killing hundreds of people Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and making her likes - whilst working for the Witchfinder's SisterCommunist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241978033</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Emma HendersonAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title= The Valentine HouseKokoschka's Doll|rating= 42.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= In June 1914, Sir Anthony ValentineWell, this looked very much like a keen mountaineerbook I could love from the get-go, arrives with his family 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 spend potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the summer in their chaletmiddle on darker stock paper, high a chapter whose number was in the French Alps. There20, for the first time000s, fourteen-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work letters used as one of the 'uglies' - village girls employed as servants narrative form, and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eyeso on. For Mathilde it is It intrigued with the start subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of a life-long entanglement with les anglais - strangeit mentioned, exciting people, far removed from the hard grind of farmingtoo. Except she soon finds But you've seen the Valentines are less carefree than they appear, star rating that comes with a curiously absent daughter no one talks about. It will be decades - disrupted by warthis review, 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 visitcan tell that if love was on these pages, she must decide whether to use itwas not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444704028</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Polly ClarkChristina Hammonds Reed|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 RainsThe Black Kids

|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=Eliza has tragically punctuated childhood memories Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of India that have feed her desire the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to returndeath. Therefore in 1930, following Told from the death perspective of her husbandAshley Bennett, when the British government commission novel follows her to photograph scenes evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of Indian liferace, 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 to a woman finding her, as is Jay, an Indian price who shows Eliza the real India. However, attractions are sometimes dangerous voice and even deadlyembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241287081</amazonuk>1471188191