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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita DiamantTananarive Due|title=Day After NightThe Reformatory

|summary=First of allGracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, I really liked twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the unusual pitch Gracetown School for a Second World War novelBoys, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after otherwise known as the liberation of EuropeReformatory. The war machine has ground to It's a place with a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men brutal and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrantsdark reputation. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp But the segregated reformatory is emotionally a halfway house between chamber of horrors, haunted by the past and boys that have died there. In order to survive the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties school governor and in limbo for an indeterminate periodhis Funhouse, Robert must enlist the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in help of the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all school's ghosts – only they have their loved onesown motivations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847398618</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jennie Rooney|title=The Opposite of Falling|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1862 and when wealthy Liverpool girl Ursula Bridgewater finds herself single and restless after her fiancée Henry Springton leaves her for another woman, she soon turns to travel as a means of escape and sets off on her first expedition. But she has agreed to stay friends with Henry and cannot quite escape him completely as they continue to write to each other. Ten years later and Ursula has travelled all over the world and is about to embark on a trip around America, but this time she decides to take a companion.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain PearsKatherine Howe|title=Stone's FallA True Account

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=I read Iain Pears' ''The Portrait'' Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a year or so ago family who run an inn, and loved it so I was really looking forward being made to reading this novelwork there from a young age. The front cover When she hears there is strikingly handsome and hints to be a hanging of good things some pirates in the town, she decides to come between its coversgo and watch. The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of threetwo vicious pirates. Three different decades She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and three different locationsthen 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. Pears then dips She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and out from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the main characters' lives, telling the reader basically what makes them tickocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gill SchierhoutSarah Marsh|title=The Shape A Sign 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 - 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 RubiesHer Own

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Shy Catherine Hogarth first meets Charles Dickens at After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her parents' house hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when he hilariously comes in through the window use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to dance a jig before the assembled guestsschool where she is taught to lip read, before leaving and then entering again via the front doorbut physically restrained from signing. Employed by her father GeorgeFrom here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the editor of deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the Evening Chroniclesame time, as a reporter Bell is working on other inventions and sketch writerideas, Charles is at the start of his writing career and soon becomes Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a regular visitor to the Hogarth householdcomplicated tangle of espionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090536</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Chadwick|title=To Defy A King|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=#Set in the traumatic and violent period leading The follow-up to the Magna Carta, Chadwick concentrates on excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the fortunes palace of two extended families. The MarshalsOdysseus, close with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to the throne for their expertise, political and military mightrule 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 Bigods, who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespee, son throne of the family matriarch, and John’s fatherWestern Isles. Banished from Court, Having survived – politically and forced physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to leave her son thereIthaca's shores, Ida marries Roger and founds Queen Penelope is on the brink of a strong patriarchal dynastyfragile peace. However, tension is never far from boiling point, One that shatters however with the two half brothers tolerating each other at bestreturn of Orestes, King of Mycenae, loathing each other more often than notand his sister Elektra, due to their opposing naturesseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne O'BrienB0C7J9D21B|title=Virgin WidowA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl of WarwickWhen we first meet our hero, his name is famous throughout England as one Ettore and he lives at The House of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisorsBeautiful Swallows. But Idyllic as Edward is lured towards another influential family this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he falls was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in love late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret preparation of Anjou anchovies didn't work out and King Louis XI of France, aiming to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back bastards are considered bad luck on the English thronefishing boats. A helpless pawn, Anne 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 Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and his allies it was not long before he had a successful business as they try to regain the kingdom of Englanda guide for visitors. He was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynn ShepherdEssie Fox|title=Murder at Mansfield ParkThe Fascination

|summary=Straight away the reader The Victorian era is plunged into incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the language of AustenSecond World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's era, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' and ' ... her family were not consumptive...' We are also introduced to a host glut of characters and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at media set in the beginning ''Names of era that the Principal Personshallmarks we'', ve come to associate with it does bombard and perhaps confuse are familiar to the reader a littlepoint of being cliched, hackneyed even. I must admit All this is simply to referring illustrate that it would be an easy thing to this dratted list time and time againdo poorly. It does break the flow at the beginning of the novel. Butdespite that, several chapters in something about it still grabs me – and yousomething about this book're right into the story thereafters description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905636792</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sara StockbridgeNicole Jarvis|title=The Fortunes of Grace HammerA Portrait in Shadow|rating=4.5

|summary=The short prologue shares with the reader a childhood incident in the life of Grace Hammer. It had a dramatic effect on her and her life thereafter. She is a changed person. She's also driven. She grows into a desirable woman and turns men's heads wherever she goes. But she's also smart. Some would perhaps think at this point, why not go I want all of Florence to know my name'up west', bag a sugar-daddy and live in luxury for the rest of her days? But life is not as simple as that.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Emily Purdy|title=The Tudor Wife|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=From the moment she sets eyes on handsome George BoleynCast out from Rome, plain Lady Jane Parker falls madly Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in love and prays that George will be hers. As Jane and George's families negotiate the marriage Jane meets Anne Boleyn and quickly realises that George only has eyes for Anne, but remains determined that she Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can make George love her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561942</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Perry|title=The Sheen on the Silk|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Anna Zarides arrives in Constantinople, determined to find out why a home and where her twin brother Justinian has been convicted of murderfuture can thrive rather than stagnate. But it is 1273, and a woman cannot move about freely to ask questions. Anna is a skilled doctor, who uses Arab and Jewish medicine in secret as well some as more accepted Christian remedies: in her quest for information she disguises herself as a eunuch and successfully treats a wide range enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of people from the very poorest right up healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the emperor himselfcity and its citizens from plagues and curses.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755339061</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Penny Ingham|title=The King's Daughter|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The central female character all- 'The King's Daughter' is Elflaedemale Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. She's To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young, feisty woman who promises trouble and very pretty. She also change – has this unforgettable reddish hair. At this point 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 no place amongst them and their own set of superstitions. And they've come with one aim. To conquer great swathes of Englandsociety.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095559975X</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreview|author=Trevor Bloom|title=The HalfSet in the near-Slave|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=At Samarobriva distant future, in Roman Gaul, a raiding Saxon tribe meets its match in world on the form verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a division of the Franks, who have suborned hero (or several) to save the Roman authorities day and are establishing their control throughout the regionrescue what little remains. A mysterious meeting with the Frankish Overlord persuades the leader What no-one expected was that one of the Saxons to sign a treaty that will forever alter the fate Knights 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 Round Table would answer 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 conflictcall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955563062</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Seth HunterG K Holloway|title=The Tide In the Shadows of WarCastles

|summary=The Tide of War is We begin after the second book momentous battle in a trilogy 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of historical fictionnovels by Seth Hunter, set in the 1790s England. William's position is not secure and recounts the adventures ofBritish naval captain Nathan Peakenew king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. In this book newly-promoted PeakeAnd William is sent right to worry. While the Caribbean to command a British frigateprevious king, Harold, is dead and the Unicornlikelihood of more pitched battles is over,to hunt for the French warship, rebels are stirring and much of the Virginiecountry does not wish to recognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>1800422466

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle Lovric3949666079|title=The Book of Human Skin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''Ye can't take the slither out ovva snake.'' So says Gianni, valet in a wealthy eighteenth century Venetian household. The master, a merchant, divides his time between Italy and Peru, where he deals in silver. But the merchant isn't the serpent - his son Minguillo is. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at the convent in Arequipa, Minguillo was born - a serpent in his family's midst. His own mother couldn't bear to nurse him and his father went into denial, making more and more frequent trips to a South American home free of sociopathic progeny. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNoema|author=Elif Shafak|title=The Forty Rules of LoveDael Akkerman

|genre=Literary General 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 fictionabout some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago. Don't be misled by the dodgy-sounding title!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918733</amazonuk>}}'

{{newreview|author=Lawrence Hill|title=The Book of Negroes|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Although this Maya is a work of fictionyoung girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the whole distasteful and deeply upsetting subject Sea of slavery is a fact, therefore, at times I felt as if I were reading a true account. The narrative goes back Grass encroaches further and forth, starting with Aminata (or Meena as she is usually called) as a relatively old woman (what we would call middle-aged). Shefurther into Maya's in London, far from forest home, but she's there for an extremely important reasonand food is becoming more and more scarce. The powers-that-be need her What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to tell her storycope? Can the Traveller, as a slave over many years. The hope is that other Meenas will not have to suffer spiritual figure who interprets the same fate. On a lighter note (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 naivety.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552775487</amazonuk>wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phil Rickman1529125898|title=The Bones of Avalon|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|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 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 to this is Nel Borrow, who treats Dudley when he'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>}} {{newreviewGodmersham Park|author=Susan Fletcher|title=CorragGill Hornby

|summary=A small and dirty woman sits in a prison cell. With her bare feet and her matted hair and her damp, filthy clothes, she doesn't wonder at 'If it were not for the casual dereliction of the word odd gentleman''witch''. She has been called it s duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all her life. Her mother called her ''witch'' before she named her. Her given name Corrag – was a corruption: for Cora (her mother) and Hag (which she'd get as used to as Cora had).

She sits through the snow of the winter, knowing that the sound Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she hears outside is arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the dragging position of the logs for her pyregoverness to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen.   She had no experience of teaching but this was tolda case of necessity. Until the death of her mother, thoughAnne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. When her mother died, that a man her father cast her off and would comehave nothing more to do with her. So No explanation was offered but she waits for himwould receive an annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007321597</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard DenningMelissa Fu |title=The Amber TreasurePeach Blossom Spring

|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Cerdic I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is the younger son only truly poetic part of a minor lord living in a quiet Anglo Saxon village in sixth century Northumbriabook that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. His people are settled and When their home city is set ablaze during the Welsh war with Japan, a young mother (RomanoMeilin) and her four-Britonsyear-old son (Renshu) seem contained behind the Pennines. Cedric fully expects to live out his live as a gentleman farmer, hopefully with the beautiful Aidith by his sideare among those who flee. 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 CynricThe story follows them on their journey across China, and finding glory in battleRenshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849140235</amazonuk>1472277538

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine Howe1916072038|title=The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane|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 House 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. Hollow (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>}} {{newreviewTalbot Saga)|author=E V Thompson|title=The Dream TradersAllie Cresswell|rating=34.5

|summary=In We meet part of the nineteenth centuryTalbot 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, 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 house in the Chinesehollow. All very noble but the fact The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is that Luke is a passenger on board a ship laden with the stuff well aware of her mother's strengths and there are Chinese gunships on the horizon.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070908885X</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:

{{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 ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of Beresford. At respectability, the wedding she encounters Lord Shadderly, Beresforddeplorable truth''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 Hester is very much in two minds furious about the entire venture - apprehensive, yet more than a little excited at the prospect of her new life. The voyage doesnJocelyn't begin particularly well for her, s refusal to do as she feels isolated from the other girls. A voracious readerwas asked, she which has packed her trunk with books as opposed to the more conventional linens precipitated ''this violent and this immediately sets her apartunexpected removal''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553512</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Christi Phillips |title=The Devlin Diary|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1672 Then we are told of the birth of a child 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 soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and forced to use her skills to treat his mistress, Louise de Keroualleisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393489</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan |title=The Day The Falls Stood Still|rating=4.5|genre=Historical 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 night. 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 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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Terence MorganAnnabel Abbs|title=The Master Language of BrugesFood

|summary=Belgium, the fifteenth century. Hans Eliza Acton is apprenticed to a master painter in poet who has never had the city of Brussels, until the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apartslightest inclination to boil an egg. Luckily for HansWhen tasked with writing a cookery book, a mistakenly drawn sketchshe recruits Ann Kirby, and a bizarre rescue from the gallows gives him local woman with a major boost - patronage, for both portraits and many religious imagestroubled home life. With what might seem to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages onlyTogether, concerning but one month - we see his startling life journeythey test, covering beguiling modelscraft, ghostly war scenesrefine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and even changing the biggest intrigues face of English royal courtcookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eloisa JamesFreya Marske|title=When the Duke ReturnsA Marvellous Light

|summary=''When the Duke Returns'', the newest volume Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the 'Desperate Duchesses' seriesCivil Service, continues the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left offmuch to his chagrin. The focus, this time, is on Isidore, There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the Duchess streets of Conway: hot-headedLondon are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, hot-blooded and Italian Robin follows Edwin to bootthe countryside, she was married by proxy at where the age of sixteen hedgegrows bristle with incantations and is still the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a virgin seven years later. Isidore's cunning sinister plot to entice back that threatens the husband she has never seen from his travels in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeon, His Grace Duke lives of Conway is now back all magicians in England, ready to claim his estate and, as Isidore presumes, ready to claim his beautiful wifethe British Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam WilliamsB09F4CTKJR|title=The Book of the AlchemistFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=34.5

|summary= It''The Book s the later stages of World War I and the Alchemist'' is a story within a story. It opens in 1938 during United States has just entered the Spanish Civil Warconflict. Pinzon, a Spanish politician who resigns for moral reasons, Petrol Petronus is taken hostage by a group of Republican soldiers, along with his young GrandsonAmerican who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. A group of villagers are also taken captive and locked This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in a cathedral as part of Canada, the soldiers' desperate plan first to be attached to protect themselves from the Fascist forces that are hunting them. A cavernous mosque built inside RAF and the first to be sent into the mountain under skies to fight the cathedral's crypt is discovered, and Germans in it, a bookactive combat. As Pinzon reads the bookBut before that can happen, another story unfolds, set in the eleventh century. This is the story of Samuel Petrol has to master flying the Jewnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Jack Ludlow|title=Warriors|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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate TremayneChristophe Medler|title=The Loveday ConspiracyMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=Trevowan Manor has been Set against the home backdrop of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by a Loveday but St John Loveday lost Sir Robert Douse in the house on the throw summer of 1642. As a dice before killing himself – loyal servant of the King, and now his cousin Tristan has Head of the house. St JohnSecret Service, it is Robert's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish duty to uncover the details of the man responsible. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan plan and is now living follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in a cottage with history—especially since the plot could affect 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 choiceKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer1471187179|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 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.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewA Beautiful Spy|author=Robyn Young |title=Requiem (Brethren Trilogy)Rachel Hore

|summary=ItMinnie 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 December 1295expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the bedraggled remnants rest of the Third Crusade are returning her days looking after her husband and their home. Not Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all have given up the dream of a Christian Jerusalem, and Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars, is eager neither does she want to find patrons to fund continue working as a fresh invasionsecretary. But the West has turned inward As a result of a chance meeting, andshe finds herself drawn into espionage, with the Order's reason working for existence vanished with the Crusader states, factions within both the English secret service and French courts covet effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the wealth and military might Communist Party of the TempleGreat Britain. With his homeland of Scotland under assault by his old rival Edward, Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and his position usurped by former comrades who wish to turn the Order to sinister ends, peace friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for series protagonist Will Campbell seems far awaythe Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340921420</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony RichesAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Wounds of Honour (Empire)Kokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Riding to the Northern outpost of the Roman Empire to deliver a messageWell, Marcus Valerius Aquila is seemingly attacked by this looked very much like a band of barbariansbook I could love from the get-go, but which is rescued by a group why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of Tungrian irregulars, fighting as part of the Roman armyit. Arriving at his destination, it soon becomes clear that the attack was deliberate, as his father has been condemned as I found things to potentially delight me each time – a traitor back weird section in Rome by Emperor Commodus and his whole family have been put to the sword.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340920300</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Freda Lightfoot |title=House of Angels|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The novel focuses middle on the Angel family who live in the Lake District darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the late 1900s. Josiah Angel is the head of the family and appears to be a respectable business man20, 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 – comfort000s, moneyletters used as narrative form, beauty and an easy life, in great contrast to the poverty around themso on. Not far from Josiah's department store are the workhouse It intrigued with its brutality and the blocks of slum flats infested with rats.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007125</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Faye L Booth |title=Trades of the Flesh|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I read Trades knew of the Flesh in about 2 hours, speeding through itmentioned, and think Itoo. But you've spent about double seen the star rating that time figuring out how to comes with this 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 can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by the end of the review, although if I do I guess I could just delete this part…)them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230743412</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith Christina Hammonds Reed|title=Pride and Prejudice and ZombiesThe Black Kids

|genre=HumourTeens |summary=AhChristina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the benefits to a good book absolution of four police officers for beating a classic first line. 'Call me Ishmael.' 'It was a bright cold day in Aprilblack man, Rodney King, and the clocks were striking thirteennearly to death.' Who can forget Iain Banks' 'It was Told from the day my grandmother exploded'? Or those timeless words by Jane Austenperspective of Ashley Bennett, 'It is the novel follows her evolution from a truth universally acknowledged that silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brainswoman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1594743347</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=Chandra Prasad|title=Breathe the Sky: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Amelia Earhart|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Prasad's first novel Move on to [[On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad|On Borrowed WingsNewest History Reviews]] 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1932279393</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Hilary Mantel|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>}} {{newreview|author=Shandi Mitchell |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>}} {{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 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>}}