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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Iain Pears|title=Stone's Fall|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I read Iain Pears' ''The Portrait'' a year or so ago and loved it so I was really looking forward to reading this novel. The front cover is strikingly handsome and hints of good things to come between its covers. The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks of three. Three different decades and three different locations. Pears then dips in and out of the main characters' lives, telling the reader basically what makes them tick.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk!-- Remove -->}} {{newreview|author=Nicola Cornick|title=Confessions of a Duchess|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow with her young daughter. But when the village squire decides to invoke the Dames’ Tax, a law requiring every unmarried woman to give up half her wealth to him, the town becomes a hotbed of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife and carry out a murder inquiry on behalf of Lord Liverpool. The last thing Laura and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years ago. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin them both.|amazonuk= <amazonuk>0778303802</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gill Schierhout|title=The Shape of Him|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The story is told in the first person by Sara Highbury. She's running a small business in an efficient but rather detached fashion. She's all washed up. She starts to recount her earlier, happier life when it meant something to her. And the reader soon discovers that a diamond digger called Herbert was !-- and still is INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE- the love of her life. And here Schierhout gives us a taster of the hard and dirty work digging for stones (they're never called diamonds by the workers apparently). The danger and precarious nature of the work is laid bare. But Herbert seemed to be a natural. Why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535777</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne-Marie Vukelic|title=Far Above Rubies|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Shy Catherine Hogarth first meets Charles Dickens at her parents' house when he hilariously comes in through the window to dance a jig before the assembled guests, before leaving and then entering again via the front door. Employed by her father George, the editor of the Evening Chronicle, as a reporter and sketch writer, Charles is at the start of his writing career and soon becomes a regular visitor to the Hogarth household. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090536</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth ChadwickTananarive Due|title=To Defy A KingThe Reformatory

|summary=#Set in the traumatic and violent period leading up to the Magna CartaGracetown, Chadwick concentrates on the fortunes of two extended familiesFlorida. June 1950. The MarshalsAfter a scuffle with a white boy, close twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the throne Gracetown School for their expertise, political and military mightBoys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the Bigods, who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespeesegregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, son of haunted by the family matriarch, and John’s fatherboys that have died there. Banished from Court, and forced In order to leave her son there, Ida marries Roger survive the school governor and founds a strong patriarchal dynasty. Howeverhis Funhouse, tension is never far from boiling point, with Robert must enlist the help of the two half brothers tolerating each other at best, loathing each other more often than not, due to school's ghosts – only they have their opposing naturesown motivations...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne O'BrienKatherine Howe|title=Virgin WidowA True Account

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is famous throughout England as one of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisors. But as Edward Hannah Masury is lured towards another influential family when he falls living in love Boston, having been sent to live with Elizabeth Woodvillea family who run an inn, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret of Anjou and King Louis XI of France, aiming being made to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English thronework there from a young age. A helpless pawn, Anne When she hears there is torn away from the man she loves, who will grow up to become Richard III, to be used as political capital by her father and his allies as they try to regain the kingdom a hanging of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lynn Shepherd|title=Murder at Mansfield Park|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Straight away some pirates in the reader is plunged into the language of Austen's eratown, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' she decides to go and ' ... her family were not consumptive.watch..' We are also introduced to a host of characters Enthralled and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at the beginning ''Names of the Principal Persons''horrified in equal measure, it does bombard and perhaps confuse the reader Hannah finds herself embroiled in a little. I must admit to referring to this dratted list time and time again. It does break the flow young boy's death at the beginning hands of the noveltwo vicious pirates. ButShe hides away, several chapters in so that they don't find and you're right into the story thereafter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636792</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sara Stockbridge|title=The Fortunes of Grace Hammer|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The short prologue shares with the reader a childhood incident in the life of Grace Hammer. It had a dramatic effect on kill her too, and her life thereafter. She is then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a changed person. Sheboy and joining the notorious Ned Low's also drivenpirate ship as a cabin boy. She grows into soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a desirable woman mutiny on board, and turns men's heads wherever she goes. But she's also smart. Some would perhaps think at this point, why not go 'from there we are caught up west', bag a sugar-daddy and live in luxury for the rest her rip roaring tale of her days? But life is not as simple as thaton the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily PurdySarah Marsh|title=The Tudor WifeA Sign of Her Own

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=From 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 moment use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she sets eyes on handsome George Boleynis taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, plain Lady Jane Parker falls madly she ends up in love another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and prays that George will be hersusing a system called Visible Speech. As Jane and George's families negotiate At the marriage Jane meets Anne Boleyn same time, Bell is working on other inventions and quickly realises that George only has eyes for Anneideas, but remains determined that she can make George love herand Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561942</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreview|author=Anne Perry|title=The Sheen on follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the Silk|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Anna Zarides arrives in Constantinoplepalace of Odysseus, determined with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to find out why rule without her twin brother Justinian has been convicted 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 murderthe Western Isles. But it is 1273, Having survived – politically and a woman cannot move about freely physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to ask questions. Anna Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a skilled doctorfragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, who uses Arab and Jewish medicine in secret as well as more accepted Christian remedies: in her quest for information she disguises herself as a eunuch and successfully treats a wide range of people from the very poorest right up to the emperor himselfhis sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755339061</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Penny InghamB0C7J9D21B|title=The King's Daughter|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The central female character - 'The King's Daughter' is Elflaede. She's young, feisty and very pretty. She also has this unforgettable reddish hair. At this point A Captive in the story I was reminded a little of Queen Elizabeth I, I have to say. In Elflaede's own words she 'had never known a time without war .' The hordes of Pagan Norsemen are to blame. They've come to England with their own set of superstitions. And they've come with one aim. To conquer great swathes of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095559975X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAlgiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=Trevor Bloom|title=The Half-Slave|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=At Samarobriva in Roman Gaul, a raiding Saxon tribe meets its match in the form of a division of the Franks, who have suborned the Roman authorities and are establishing their control throughout the region. A mysterious meeting with the Frankish Overlord persuades the leader of the Saxons to sign a treaty that will forever alter the fate of his people. In return for Frankish silver, he hands over to them his youngest son, Ascha the half-slave, as a perpetual hostage to guarantee the peace. But in the frozen north new powers are rising, and Ascha will soon be drawn into a web of lies and ambition as two very different worlds come into conflict.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955563062</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Seth Hunter|title=The Tide of WarJ Lewis

|summary=The Tide of War When we first meet our hero, his name is the second book in a trilogy of historical fictionnovels by Seth Hunter, set in the 1790s Ettore and recounts the adventures he lives at The House ofBritish naval captain Nathan PeakeBeautiful Swallows. In Idyllic as this book newly-promoted Peakeis sent to the Caribbean to command a British frigate, the Unicornmight sound,to hunt for the French warship, the Virginie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michelle Lovric|title=The Book of Human Skin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=it's a bordello and Ettore'Ye can't take the slither out ovva snakes mother died when he was born. He'' So says Giannis not been short of mothers, valet though - but for someone of his background in a wealthy late-eighteenth -century Venetian householdAmalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The master, a merchant, divides his time between Italy and Peru, where he deals in silver. But stint working with the merchant isnpreparation of anchovies didn't the serpent - his son Minguillo iswork out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at the convent in Arequipa, Minguillo Ettore was born nothing if not resourceful - a serpent in his family's midst. His own mother couldn't bear to nurse him and his father went into denial, making more determined - and more frequent trips to it was not long before he had a successful business as a South American home free of sociopathic progenyguide for visitors. He was even saving some money. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Elif Shafak|title=The Forty Rules of Love|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This is a sixth novel from best-selling Turkish author, Elif Shafak. Set in twelfth century Anatolia, two famous characters from Islamic history meet in a gorgeously real world. A delicate contemporary US love story is wrapped around the rich, meaty historical fiction. Don't be misled by the dodgy-sounding title!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918733</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lawrence HillEssie Fox|title=The Book of NegroesFascination

|summary=Although this The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a work of setting for historical fiction(matched only, perhaps, by the whole distasteful and deeply upsetting subject of slavery is a fact, therefore, at times I felt as if I were reading a true account. The narrative goes back and forth, starting with Aminata (or Meena as she is usually calledSecond World War) as which has often led to more than a relatively old woman (what we would call middle-aged)few writers mishandling it. SheThere's such a glut of media set in London, far from home, but shethe era that the hallmarks we's there for an extremely important reason. The powers-that-be need her ve come to associate with it are familiar to tell her storythe point of being cliched, as a slave over many yearshackneyed even. The hope All this is simply to illustrate that other Meenas will not have it would be an easy thing to suffer the same fatedo poorly. On a lighter note (But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and they are few and far between) Meena gets to visit some London schoolchildren. They think that she eats elephant. She is able to laugh at their naivetysomething about this book's description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552775487</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil RickmanNicole Jarvis|title=The Bones of AvalonA Portrait in Shadow

|summary=When Elizabeth I's most trusted men fear for her safety and think there's a possibly supernatural plot against her, the obvious man to investigate it is Dr John Dee, her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts. Aided by his former pupil – and Elizabeth's reputed lover – Robert Dudley, he travels to Glastonbury to try and find the bones I want all of King Arthur. Glastonbury, however, has never recovered from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the execution of its beloved Abbot Richard Whiting, and many residents view the pair with suspicion. The exception Florence to this is Nel Borrow, who treats Dudley when heknow my name's ill and becomes the first woman Dee has ever been interested in romantically. Can the three stop the villainous plot? I'll leave you to find out…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872704</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Susan Fletcher|title=Corrag|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A small and dirty woman sits Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a prison cell. With her bare feet and her matted hair home and where her damp, filthy clothes, she doesn't wonder at the word ''witch''future can thrive rather than stagnate. She has been called it all her life. Her mother called her ''witch'' before But as some as she named her. Her given name Corrag – was a corruption: for Cora (her mother) and Hag (which enters Florentine society she'd get as used to as Cora had).  She sits through faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the snow self-proclaimed guardians of the winter, knowing healing magics that through paintings have the sound she hears outside is power to protect the dragging of the logs city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for her pyrecenturies and guard it above all else.  She was toldTo them, though, that a man would come. So she waits for himArtemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007321597</amazonuk>1803362340

 {{newreview|author=Richard Denning|title=The Amber Treasure|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849140235</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katherine HoweThomas D Lee|title=The Physick Book of Deliverance DanePerilous Times

|genre=Historical FictionFantasy|summary=Connie ''Hate 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 path of exciting possibilities, including romance and perhaps original sources for her studies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141047550</amazonuk>}}least resistance''

{{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 Set in some very peculiar experiments, most notably the directednear-energy weapondistant future, or death-ray, as in a world on the press verge of the time gleefully dubbed itclimate collapse, Britain is in great peril. But The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the truth is that his work was of groundbreaking importance: he developed the electrical alternating current day and the AC motor, and much morerescue what little remains. The average person probably has a better awareness of Samuel Clemens What no- who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn under his pen name Mark Twain, and who one expected was known as that one of the foremost satirists Knights 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 friendsthe Round Table would answer the call. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906146756</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=E V ThompsonG K Holloway|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 Shadows 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 RelationsCastles|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=45

|summary=The novel begins with one of We begin after the central characters - Elisabeth - preparing to leave her home momentous battle in France, 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and embark upon the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a ship coronation is important. And William is right to take her to America - to meet and marry a complete strangerworry. At this time there were literally only a few hundred settlersWhile the previous king, Harold, so potential wives were shipped in along with other necessities! She is very much in two minds about dead and the entire venture - apprehensivelikelihood of more pitched battles is over, yet more than a little excited at the prospect rebels are stirring and much 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 country does not wish to the more conventional linens and this immediately sets her apartrecognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553512</amazonuk>1800422466

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christi Phillips 3949666079|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>}} {{newreviewNoema|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan |title=The Day The Falls Stood StillDael Akkerman

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=I imagined this title as a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novel, This is a saga-esque historical romance, with a characterful heroine and page-turning story line about some things that necessitates reading late into the nighthappened to me about twelve thousand years ago. Well, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.S.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>}}'

{{newreview|author=John Wilcox|title=The Shangani Patrol|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the latest in Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the adventures Sea of Simon FonthillGrass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, a cross between a Victorian James Bond and Indianna Jonesfood is becoming more and more scarce. Although one What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of a seriesvillages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, it stands alone as a novel. It's steeped in spiritual figure who interprets the history (and there's a lot wisdom of it) of the late 19th century when Queen Victoria 'ruled the world.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345614</amazonuk>All Life, provide solutions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Terence Morgan1529125898|title=The Master of BrugesGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=Belgium, the fifteenth century. Hans is apprenticed to a master painter in ''If it were not for the city casual dereliction 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 - patronageodd gentleman's duty, for both portraits and many religious images. With what might seem there would no women to be a patchy diary teach well- 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 courtbred daughters at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Eloisa James|title=When Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up 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 offposition of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. The focus, She had no experience of teaching but this time, is on Isidore, was a case of necessity. Until the Duchess death of Conway: hot-headedher mother, hot-blooded Anne had a comfortable life and Italian to boot, she was married loved by proxy at both parents although her father was frequently absent from the age of sixteen household. When her mother died, her father cast her off and is still a virgin seven years laterwould have nothing more to do with her. Isidore's cunning plot to entice back the husband No explanation was offered but she has never seen from his travels in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeon, His Grace Duke would receive an annuity of Conway is now back in England£35 a year. Her maid, ready to claim his estate andAgnes, as Isidore presumes, ready to claim his beautiful wifewould receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam WilliamsMelissa Fu |title=The Book of the AlchemistPeach Blossom Spring

|summary= ''The Book We meet part of the Alchemist'' is a story within a story. It opens Talbot family in Yorkshire in 1938 during the Spanish Civil WarNovember 1811. 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 Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and locked her mother have travelled in a cathedral as part of the soldiers' desperate plan to protect themselves some discomfort from the Fascist forces that are hunting them. A cavernous mosque built inside the mountain under the cathedral's crypt is discoveredtheir home at Ecklington, and in it, a book. As Pinzon reads to the book, another story unfolds, set house in the eleventh centuryhollow. This The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is the story well aware of Samuel the Jew.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>}}her mother's strengths and weaknesses:

{{newreview|author=Jack Ludlow|title=Warriors|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Arduin of Fassano ''She is paid by Michael Doukeianospracticed at subterfuge, a young Byzantine generalat concealing, to keep the peace in Apulia. Arduin is beneath a Lombard, however, and secretly plans to revolt and take Apulia for himself, hiring a group facade of Norman mercenaries to help him do the job. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothersrespectability, 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 bribesdeplorable truth''.|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 JohnHester is furious about Jocelyn's twinrefusal to do as she was asked, Adam, vows that he will punish the man responsible. Amelia which has been forced from Trevowan precipitated ''this violent and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasnunexpected removal''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|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning Then we are told of the twentieth century, fully two thirds birth of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measleschild and, soon after, smallpoxHester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame 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 Deathisolation in Yorkshire.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robyn Young Annabel Abbs|title=Requiem (Brethren Trilogy)The Language of Food|rating=45

|summary=It's December 1295, and Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the bedraggled remnants of the Third Crusade are returning homeslightest inclination to boil an egg. Not all have given up the dream of When tasked with writing a Christian Jerusalemcookery book, and Jacques de Molayshe recruits Ann Kirby, the Grand Master of the Templars, is eager to find patrons to fund a fresh invasionlocal woman with a troubled home life. But the West has turned inwardTogether, andthey test, with the Order's reason for existence vanished with the Crusader statescraft, factions within both the English refine and French courts covet reshape the wealth and military might world of domestic cookery, reinventing the Temple. With his homeland of Scotland under assault by his old rival Edward, recipe book and his position usurped by former comrades who wish to turn changing the Order to sinister ends, peace for series protagonist Will Campbell seems far awayface of cookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340921420</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony RichesFreya Marske|title=Wounds of Honour (Empire)A Marvellous Light

|summary=Riding Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the Northern outpost streets of the Roman Empire London are threaded with magic. Desperate to deliver remove a messagecurse that threatens to swallow him, Marcus Valerius Aquila is seemingly attacked by a band of barbariansRobin follows Edwin to the countryside, but is rescued by a group of Tungrian irregulars, fighting as part of where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the Roman armypeople shimmer with power. Arriving at his destination, it soon becomes clear There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the attack was deliberate, as his father has been condemned as a traitor back lives of all magicians in Rome by Emperor Commodus and his whole family have been put to the swordBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340920300</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Freda Lightfoot B09F4CTKJR|title=House of AngelsFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|summary=The novel focuses on It's the Angel family who live in later stages of World War I and the Lake District in United States has just entered the late 1900sconflict. Josiah Angel Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the head of 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the family and appears first US Aero Squadron to be a respectable business mantrained in Canada, bringing up his three daughters after the death of his wife. The family live in a beautiful house first to be attached to the RAF and – the first to outsiders – be sent into the daughters seem skies to have everything – comfort, money, beauty and an easy lifefight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, in great contrast Petrol has to master flying 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 ratsnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007125</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Faye L Booth Christophe Medler|title=Trades of the FleshMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=I read Trades Set against the backdrop of the Flesh English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in about 2 hours, speeding through itthe summer of 1642. As a loyal servant of the King, and think I've spent about double that time figuring out how to review it! Apart from anything elseHead of the Secret Service, itis Robert's taken me well over an hour duty to settle on a genre (uncover the details of the plan and I reserve follow the right clues to change that by uncover one of the end of most guarded secrets in history—especially since the review, although if I do I guess I plot could just delete this part…)affect the King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230743412</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith 1471187179|title=Pride and Prejudice and Zombies|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>}} {{newreviewA Beautiful Spy|author=Chandra Prasad|title=Breathe the Sky: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Amelia EarhartRachel Hore|rating=3.54

|summary=PrasadMinnie 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 first novel [[On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad|On Borrowed Wings]] followed expectations and find a nice young girl entering man to marry, produce children and spend the male-dominated arena rest of Yale in the 1930sher 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. Her heroine took inspiration from the likes As a result of Amelia Earhart (who has a walk-on part in the book)chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, women who were finding their way in working for the world on their own terms secret service and refusing effectively living a double life - attempting to let their womanhood get in infiltrate the way Communist Party of itGreat 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>1932279393</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary MantelAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Wolf HallKokoschka's Doll|rating=2.5

|summary=A revisionist look at Henry VIII's ministerWell, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, Thomas Cromwellwhich is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. Rich 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, absorbing and intelligentso on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, ittoo. But you's a beautifulve seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, beautiful bookit was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007230184</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shandi Mitchell Christina Hammonds Reed|title=Under This Unbroken SkyThe Black Kids|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionTeens |summary=A photograph opens Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the story. A black and white picture backdrop of a family, husband, wife and their three children, smiling for the camera. Thin1992 Los Angeles riots, underfed, in their summer clothes despite a reaction to the absolution of four inches of snowpolice officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, they smile. Partly they smile because they do not know what is nearly to comedeath.  A page and five years later we catch up with the Mykolayenkos. In Told from the Spring perspective of 1938 Ivan and his cousin are catching mice in Ashley Bennett, the barn and taking bets on which of the farm cats will pounce on the individually released rodents first. The game is interrupted by novel follows her evolution from a man silent bystander when confronted with a loaded .22 rifle. It takes a while for it matters of race, to sink in, that this is Ivan's father, Teodor, free after a prison sentence for stealing his own grainwoman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297856588</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=Kate Furnivall|title=The Concubine's Secret|rating=3.5|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751540455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|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 Move 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>}} {{newreview|author=Kate Pullinger |title=The Mistress of Nothing|rating=5|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687098</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|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 Renaudin. Simone 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 class. In 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 proposes. In 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>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]