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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]
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==Historical fiction==
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{{Frontpage
 
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|author=Tananarive Due
{{newreview
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|title=The Reformatory
|author=Richard Denning
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|rating=5
|title=The Amber Treasure
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=
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|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...
Cerdic is the younger son of a minor lord living in a quiet Anglo Saxon village in sixth century Northumbria. His people are settled and the Welsh (Romano-Britons) seem contained behind the Pennines. Cedric fully expects to live out his live as a gentleman farmer, hopefully with the beautiful Aidith by his side. But as he listens to the tales told by Lilla the bard, he can't help but dream of following after his uncle, the great warrior Cynric, and finding glory in battle.  
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|isbn=1803366532
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849140235</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
 
 
{{newreview
 
 
|author=Katherine Howe
 
|author=Katherine Howe
|title=The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
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|title=A True Account
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Connie is doing postgraduate research on witchcraft. Although she is initially rather wary of being asked to clear out her grandmother’s old house, the project turns out to lead to lots of exciting possibilities, including romance and perhaps original sources for her studies.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141047550</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Debbie Elliott
 
|title=Tesla & Twain
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=History remembers nineteenth century inventor Nikola Tesla as a mad scientist, and he did indulge in some very peculiar experiments, most notably the directed-energy weapon, or death-ray, as the press of the time gleefully dubbed it. But the truth is that his work was of groundbreaking importance: he developed the electrical alternating current and the AC motor, and much more. The average person probably has a better awareness of Samuel Clemens - who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn under his pen name Mark Twain, and who was known as one of the foremost satirists of his day. But perhaps they don't know that Twain was fascinated by scientific inquiry, or that these two seemingly disparate men were great friends.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906146756</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=E V Thompson
 
|title=The Dream Traders
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=In the nineteenth century, when European nations are scrabbling to colonise as many territories as possible, a young Englishman sails into Chinese waters seeking fame and fortune. Unlike the rest of his countrymen however, Luke Trewarne refuses to get rich selling opium to the Chinese. All very noble but the fact is that Luke is a passenger on board a ship laden with the stuff and there are Chinese gunships on the horizon.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070908885X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Janet Mullany
 
|title=Improper Relations
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Unlucky in love Charlotte Hayden has just lost her best friend and confidante Ann in marriage to the Earl of Beresford.  At the wedding she encounters Lord Shadderly, Beresford's best friend, a broodingly handsome man whom she takes an immediate dislike to.  Before she knows it Charlotte is caught in a compromising situation with Shadderly and he is forced to propose to her or risk both their reputations.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347803</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clare Clark
 
|title=Savage Lands
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=The novel begins with one of the central characters - Elisabeth - preparing to leave her home in France, and embark upon a ship to take her to America - to meet and marry a complete stranger. At this time there were literally only a few hundred settlers, so potential wives were shipped in along with other necessities! She is very much in two minds about the entire venture - apprehensive, yet more than a little excited at the prospect of her new life. The voyage doesn't begin particularly well for her, as she feels isolated from the other girls. A voracious reader, she has packed her trunk with books as opposed to the more conventional linens and this immediately sets her apart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553512</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christi Phillips
 
|title=The Devlin Diary
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It is 1672 and Hannah Devlin, a young widow with a skill for (illegally) practicing medicine finds herself being all but kidnapped by King Charles II's advisors and forced to use her skills to treat his mistress, Louise de Keroualle.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393489</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan
 
|title=The Day The Falls Stood Still
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I imagined this title as a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novel, a saga-esque historical romance, with a characterful heroine and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late into the nightWell, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.S.
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|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 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 boyShe 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861547438
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|author=John Wilcox
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|title=The Shangani Patrol
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=This is the latest in the adventures of Simon Fonthill, a cross between a Victorian James Bond and Indianna Jones.  Although one of a series, it stands alone as a novel.  It's steeped in the history (and there's a lot of it) of the late 19th century when Queen Victoria 'ruled the world.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345614</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Terence Morgan
 
|title=The Master of Bruges
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Belgium, the fifteenth century.  Hans is apprenticed to a master painter in the city of Brussels, until the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apart.  Luckily for Hans, a mistakenly drawn sketch, and a bizarre rescue from the gallows gives him a major boost - patronage, for both portraits and many religious images.  With what might seem to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages only, concerning but one month - we see his startling life journey, covering beguiling models, ghostly war scenes, and even the biggest intrigues of English royal court.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eloisa James
 
|title=When the Duke Returns
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=''When the Duke Returns'', the newest volume in the 'Desperate Duchesses' series, continues the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left off.
 
 
 
The focus, this time, is on Isidore, the Duchess of Conway: hot-headed, hot-blooded and Italian to boot, she was married by proxy at the age of sixteen and is still a virgin seven years later. Isidore's cunning plot to entice back the husband she has never seen from his travels in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeon, His Grace Duke of Conway is now back in England, ready to claim his estate and, as Isidore presumes, ready to claim his beautiful wife.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adam Williams
 
|title=The Book of the Alchemist
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary= ''The Book of the Alchemist'' is a story within a story.  It opens in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.  Pinzon, a Spanish politician who resigns for moral reasons, is taken hostage by a group of Republican soldiers, along with his young Grandson.  A group of villagers are also taken captive and locked in a cathedral as part of the soldiers' desperate plan to protect themselves from the Fascist forces that are hunting them.  A cavernous mosque built inside the mountain under the cathedral's crypt is discovered, and in it, a book.  As Pinzon reads the book, another story unfolds, set in the eleventh century.  This is the story of Samuel the Jew.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jack Ludlow
 
|title=Warriors
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Arduin of Fassano is paid by Michael Doukeianos, a young Byzantine general, to keep the peace in Apulia.  Arduin is a Lombard, however, and secretly plans to revolt and take Apulia for himself, hiring a group of Norman mercenaries to help him do the job.  These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothers, famed warriors with their own conflicts and a desire to gain titles and wealth for their sons.  Even if Arduin and the Normans could take Apulia, there are no guarantees that they could hold it in a land full of treachery and bribes.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007559</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Tremayne
 
|title=The Loveday Conspiracy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations.  It will still be owned by a Loveday but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the house.  St John's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish the man responsible.  Amelia has been forced from Trevowan and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women.  As if this wasn't enough of a problem, her son from her first marriage, Richard, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choice.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John E Smelcer
 
|title=The Great Death
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'
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|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035401614
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Claire North
 +
|title=House of Odysseus
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre= Literary Fiction
 +
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Robyn Young
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|isbn=0356516075
|title=Requiem (Brethren Trilogy)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's December 1295, and the bedraggled remnants of the Third Crusade are returning home. Not all have given up the dream of a Christian Jerusalem, and Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars, is eager to find patrons to fund a fresh invasion. But the West has turned inward, and, with the Order's reason for existence vanished with the Crusader states, factions within both the English and French courts covet the wealth and military might of the Temple. With his homeland of Scotland under assault by his old rival Edward, and his position usurped by former comrades who wish to turn the Order to sinister ends, peace for series protagonist Will Campbell seems far away.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340921420</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anthony Riches
 
|title=Wounds of Honour (Empire)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Riding to the Northern outpost of the Roman Empire to deliver a message, Marcus Valerius Aquila is seemingly attacked by a band of barbarians, but is rescued by a group of Tungrian irregulars, fighting as part of the Roman army.  Arriving at his destination, it soon becomes clear that the attack was deliberate, as his father has been condemned as a traitor back in Rome by Emperor Commodus and his whole family have been put to the sword.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340920300</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|author=Freda Lightfoot
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|title=House of Angels
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|author=A J Lewis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel focuses on the Angel family who live in the Lake District in the late 1900s. Josiah Angel is the head of the family and appears to be a respectable business man, bringing up his three daughters after the death of his wife. The family live in a beautiful house and – to outsiders – the daughters seem to have everything – comfort, money, beauty and an easy life, in great contrast to the poverty around them. Not far from Josiah's department store are the workhouse with its brutality and the blocks of slum flats infested with rats.
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007125</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|author=Faye L Booth
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|title=The Fascination
|title=Trades of the Flesh
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I read Trades of the Flesh in about 2 hours, speeding through it, and think I've spent about double that time figuring out how to review it!  Apart from anything else, it's taken me well over an hour to settle on a genre (and I reserve the right to change that by the end of the review, although if I do I guess I could just delete this part…)
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743412</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
|author=Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|title=Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
 
|summary=Ah, the benefits to a good book of a classic first line.  'Call me Ishmael.'  'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'  Who can forget Iain Banks' 'It was the day my grandmother exploded'?  Or those timeless words by Jane Austen, 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594743347</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chandra Prasad
 
|title=Breathe the Sky: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Amelia Earhart
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Prasad's first novel [[On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad|On Borrowed Wings]] followed a young girl entering the male-dominated arena of Yale in the 1930s.  Her heroine took inspiration from the likes of Amelia Earhart (who has a walk-on part in the book), women who were finding their way in the world on their own terms and refusing to let their womanhood get in the way of it.
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1932279393</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Hilary Mantel
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=Wolf Hall
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=A revisionist look at Henry VIII's minister, Thomas Cromwell. Rich, absorbing and intelligent, it's a beautiful, beautiful book.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007230184</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
 +
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Shandi Mitchell
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|isbn=0356518523
|title=Under This Unbroken Sky
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=A photograph opens the story.  A black and white picture of a family, husband, wife and their three children, smiling for the camera.  Thin, underfed, in their summer clothes despite the four inches of snow, they smile. Partly they smile because they do not know what is to come.
 
 
 
A page and five years later we catch up with the Mykolayenkos. In the Spring of 1938 Ivan and his cousin are catching mice in the barn and taking bets on which of the farm cats will pounce on the individually released rodents first.  The game is interrupted by a man with a loaded .22 rifle.  It takes a while for it to sink in, that this is Ivan's father, Teodor, free after a prison sentence for stealing his own grain.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297856588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=G K Holloway
|author=Kate Furnivall
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|title=The Concubine's Secret
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=As a sequel to Kate Furnivall's first book, ''The Russian Concubine'', The Concubine's Secret helps to tie up some hanging storylines and in general provides an entertaining follow-up. In the first book, we watched Chang An Lo and Lydia Ivanova fall in love against all the odds.  Here, they must remain in love despite being separated by most of a continent.  As you might expect, the reader spends most of the book hoping for them to find a way to finally be together.
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751540455</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=3949666079
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|title=Noema
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|author=Dael Akkerman
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
  
{{newreview
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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=Philippa Gregory
 
|title=The White Queen
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's 1464 and a young widow stands at the side of the road, clutching the hands of her two young sons, waiting for the new King to ride past. She is Elizabeth Woodville and the King is Edward IV. What happens is a matter of history: a secret marriage, a shocking reveal, and a vicious contest for the young King's ear (and purse) that forces civil war to drag on in England for much longer than perhaps it would have. Without this meeting, English history would have been critically different.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374557</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529125898
|author=Kate Pullinger
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|title=Godmersham Park
|title=The Mistress of Nothing
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|author=Gill Hornby
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon was a well-known figure in Victorian London when tuberculosis forced her to move to a hot climate.  She travelled to Egypt, accompanied only by her Lady's Maid, Sally Naldrett and left her husband and children in London, not knowing if she would ever see them again. Lady Duff Gordon's story is told in ''The Mistress of Nothing'' but it's Sally Naldrett who is the focus of the book.
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|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>1846687098</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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 householdWhen 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.
|author=Irène Némirovsky
 
|title=All Our Worldly Goods
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Pierre Hardelot and Agnes Florent were in love and had been since they were children, but there were problems - not the least of which was that Pierre was engaged to marry Simone RenaudinSimone was an appropriate match for the grandson of a mill owner and member of the bourgeoisie, but Agnes was descended from brewers and lower middle classIn northern France, just before the outbreak of the First World War, such distinctions mattered.  But Pierre and Agnes meet alone and rather than ruin her reputation Pierre proposesIn doing so he alienates his grandfather and the wealthy Renaudins. Pierre and Agnes' marriage and its consequences would reverberate for decades.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520443</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Melissa Fu
|author=Mary Hoffman
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|title=Troubadour
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In ''Troubadour'', 13-year-old noblewoman, Elinor de Sévignan, flees from her parents' choice of suitor by posing as a boy singer with a group of travelling minstrels in 13th century Southern France. As her transition from her pampered but restricted existence to roaming troubadour takes place on the roads of Provence, so begins the Albigensian Crusade. Forces from Northern France attempt to crush the Cathars, whose religious beliefs are seen as heretical, making their lands and wealth fair game for both fanatical followers of the Pope, and opportunistic mercenaries.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747592519</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Margaret Redfern
 
|title=Flint
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Will and his brother Ned have been plucked from their home in the Fens. They're on their way to Flint, ditch diggers for Edward I's new castle. Will is unwilling to go, and he's only eleven, but he can't abandon his strange older brother to strangers. Ned can't talk and most people dismiss him as an idiot, but he has skills. He can whisper to horses and calm them, he's a skilled herbalist, and he can make music that moves men's hearts. Ned is glad to be on this journey because he hopes to be reunited with Ieuan ap y Gof, an exiled bard and the man who taught him music.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784043</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=James McCreet
 
|title=The Incendiary's Trail
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=This book opens with a bang and except for brief slow-downs in the middle, is an exciting and riveting read.  It's both a historical mystery and a thriller, teaching the reader a little bit about Victorian London while still making the book an immersive experience that can be hard to leave.  The policemen really have very little idea who is behind the initial murder, much less the ones that follow, and I loved learning what happened along with them.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230736270</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Matthew Pearl
 
|title=The Last Dickens
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=In Bengal, India on a June day in 1870 two young mounted policemen are hot on the trail of dacoit suspected of the recent daylight robbery of a train of bullock carts.  The chests taken from the carts were full of Opium.
 
 
Meanwhile a few thousand miles away in Boston, USA, a young office boy is chased through the docks by a dark stranger of ''Hindoo'' appearance wielding a walking stick topped by a ferociously fanged idol.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655084X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Angus Donald
 
|title=Outlaw
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction  
 
|genre=Historical Fiction  
|summary=When Alan Dale is caught stealing from a market stall in Nottingham he narrowly escapes with his life and limbs in tact. To protect him from the justice of Sir Ralph Murdac, Alan's mother begs the mercy of the great outlaw, Robin Hood. Robin agrees to take Alan into his protection, and so begins Alan's life as an outlaw.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751542083</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1916072038
|author=Jane Borodale
+
|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|title=The Book of Fires
+
|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction  
+
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Agnes Trussel leaves her home to save her family from the disgrace of learning that she has been raped and is carrying an illegitimate childWith limited options and in despair at her situation she takes money from the home of a neighbour to pay her way to London.  Once there, her life as assistant to the dour John Blacklock, a firework maker, gives her security and a sense of worth.  But she is sure that all she values is likely to be lost once her pregnancy and her status as a thief becomes known.  The crux of her situation, and that of many women like her at the time, is well summarised in her thoughts: ''the child is almost all I have, I think.  And its'' ''existence will ensure that anything else will be taken away from me.''
+
|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811Twenty-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:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007305729</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
|author=Adam Thorpe
 
|title=Hodd
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Like every other English child I was brought up on tales of Robin Hood.  
 
  
''Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood with his band of men. Feared by the bad,'' ''loved by the good, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.'' 
+
Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''.
  
The theme music to the 1950s TV series starring Richard Greene says it all.  The legends and myths surrounding Robin of Loxley, faithfully recreated in all of the outings from Walter Scott's ''Ivanhoe'' through the Errol Flynn films, to the BBC's recently lamented Jonas Armstrong depict the Outlaw as Saint.
+
Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079433</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=Chris Hannan
+
|title=The Language of Food
|title=Missy
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=This begins so well, with just the right sort of first sentence to hook you into a book:  ''I expect you have the'' ''consolation of religion, or the guidance of a philosophy, but when me and the girls get frazzled, or blue, or rapturous,'' ''or just awfully so-so, we shin out and buy ourselves some hats.''  So says our heroine of the piece, 19 year old Dol McQueen, who narrates us through her exploits in America's nineteenth century Wild West.  She's rough, she's determined, but ultimately she's very damaged: a young, drug addict prostitute who trails hopelessly after her alcoholic mother from country to country.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099501554</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ben Kane
 
|title=The Silver Eagle (Forgotten Legion)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=I thought Ben Kane's debut novel [[The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane|The Forgotten Legion]] was excellent, but that it ended a little abruptly, even with the knowledge there was more to come.  Having now read that 'more to come', I feel a lot better about it.  The story is so relentless that there was no obvious place to pause between books.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090110</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marie Brennan
 
|title=In Ashes Lie
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's September 1666 and although the mortals' Civil War is over the war amongst the fae is still raging in London.  There's now a greater threat to the Onyx Court and it could destroy everything when a spark starts a fire which for three days spreads through the city devouring everything in its path.  Can the mortals and the fae unite to find a way to defeat a foe which neither can better on their own?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497185</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti
 
|title=Secretum
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Back in 2002, Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti shocked Italy with [[Imprimatur by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti|Imprimatur]], a historical fiction novel which cast aspersions on the behaviour of past Popes.  Despite being a very well researched and well-written mystery, it was boycotted in Italy, although it proved popular in other parts of the world.  However, the lack of recognition in their home country meant that the follow up that such a good story deserved has been seven years in the making.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971047</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lauren Willig
 
|title=The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I used to have months when I would gorge on chick lit before I got married.  I lived in London and would wile away the tedium of the tube by escaping into easy, comforting reads of twenty-somethings who worried about shoes and shopping and men.  It was reassuring to know that the girl, albeit after a series of highs and lows, would ultimately get the guy. I'm a different kind of person now, a stay at home mum more likely to be found playing in the park than shoe-shopping in London, and so it's been a while since I've felt like picking up a chick lit book.  Something about this one intrigued me though.  From the back cover blurb it's hard to tell if it's a historical novel, or contemporary chick lit, or perhaps some kind of mystery.  I have a feeling that if you come to it with any particular expectations of it fulfilling one of these genres you might be disappointed. But if you see it as a fun, exciting, genre-less read then, hopefully, you won't be able to put it down.
+
|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>0749007613</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Freya Marske
|author=Elaine di Rollo
+
|title=A Marvellous Light
|title=A Proper Education for Girls
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''A Proper Education for Girls'' is a knowing satire about Victorian attitudes towards women, focusing on the enduring bond between twin sisters, Alice and Lillian Talbot. The novel opens with a description of their father, a man with a very Victorian belief in Progress and a penchant for scientific experiment. He is obsessively devoted to his indiscriminate collection of 'interesting and useful artefacts' which has gradually subsumed their entire house. Mr. Talbot had expected his daughters to equal his enthusiasm and devote their entire lives to The Collection with only a bunch of old ladies (their aunts) for company, but, it didn't quite work out that way.
+
|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>0099513463</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Susan Wooldridge
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|title=The Hidden Dance
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=It is 1933, and the SS Etoile has just left Southampton harbour en route for New York.  On board is Lily Sutton, a timid, disturbed woman whose posh accent seems unsuited to her situation of travelling in steerage.  Through a series of flashbacks to various years in Lily's life we learn why she is so frightened and what has brought her to make this secretive journey to New York.  As well as learning about her romantic aspirations through the story we also see her stumble into a difficult situation on board ship that lends a crime mystery feel to the latter half of the book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007419</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Judith Lennox
 
|title=The Heart of the Night
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=When Kay is hired as Miranda's companion, she has no idea what to expect; she just knows that she would like to leave behind her quiet life in the English countryside. She quickly befriends Miranda and becomes her partner in crime, evading Miranda's 'aunt', really her father's ex-mistress, and seeking out adventures in a variety of European cities.  Trouble begins, however, when Miranda meets Olivier, a young aspiring filmmaker who believes that Miranda would be a stunning actress.  Unsurprisingly, Miranda truly falls in love with Olivier, which inadvertently leads to Kay's dismissal and return to England. Now separated, these best friends must find their way on their own throughout World War II.  With Kay in England and Miranda in East Prussia, the women's lives are completely different, providing us with a huge backdrop in which to fall in love with these characters and become enchanted with their lives.
+
|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>0755344847</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|author=Robert Ryan
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|title=Death on the Ice
+
|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1917, Captain Robert Falcon Scott's widow seeks to get a book on the market to redress the balance, to counter the rumour, public opinion and growing thought that not all was right with Scott and his exploits in Antarctica.  Seemingly, in 2009, Robert Ryan seeks the same.  However his book is certainly not just concentrating on Scott - we get a lot of Oates, Evans, the other Evans, and all the rest of the fatal party - as well as Shackleton, Amundsen and more.
+
|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>0755348354</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471187179
|author=Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=Imprimatur
+
|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=My history teacher at school would be stunned to see the number of historical fiction books I've been reading recentlyHe would be even more surprised to discover that I've mostly enjoyed themWhilst I've always loved reading, history was a subject for which I showed great ineptitude and disinterest in my younger years.   How times change.
+
|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 homeUnfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretaryAs 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971055</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|author=Marion Urch 
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|title=Invitation to Dance
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=3
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=Historical 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?
|summary=Lola Montez was an undeniably fascinating woman, a product of and producer of scandal. Born Eliza Gilbert to a young Irish girl and an English junior officer, she spent her early childhood in India before being shuffled off to relations in Scotland and then school in Bath. This novel chronicles her life and career as a Spanish dancer, all over Europe of the mid-nineteenth century and as far away as America and Australia.
+
|isbn=1529402697
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863223958</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Eloisa James
+
|title=The Black Kids
|title=Duchess by Night
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=In this third instalment of the ''Desperate Duchesses'' series the focus is on Harriet, the Duchess of Berrow. A widow of two years, Harriet manages her vast estate, makes judgements in the local court (where the judge is only a drunken figurehead) and is generally settled into her life. But she feels unattractive, old and boring; ready to find another husband but doesn't attract too many dancers, never mind suitors, when she turns up at a costume ball dressed as a dumpy Mother Goose (complete with a stuffed bird). When her friend sets off on a visit to a permanent house party at a residence of a certain very disreputable Lord Strange (in order to create a scandal and entice a husband she never met back to the country), Harriet decides to go with her, but worried about the debauchery, she goes as a young man, a nephew of Duke Villiers who also accompanies the ladies.
+
|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>0340961082</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|author=Ben Kane
 
|title=The Forgotten Legion
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Since the release of ''Gladiator'', Roman life has been a growth industry in the entertainment world, with even ''Doctor Who'' visiting Pompeii at one point.  The last time I visited Roman times in written form was when I was still doing Latin at school.  Fortunately, Ben Kane's ''The Forgotten Legion'' is far more engrossing than school ever was.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090102</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

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

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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

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