Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
no edit summary
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=E V ThompsonTananarive Due|title=No Less Than The JourneyReformatory|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|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'No Less Than The Journey'' concerns s ghosts – only they have their own motivations...|isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young Cornish miner seeking age. When she hears there is to be a new life hanging of some pirates in Americathe town, she decides to go and watch. He makes many interesting acquaintances Enthralled and some rather arduous journeys horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in his quest 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 find 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 family membermutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709087551</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katie FlynnSarah Marsh|title=Heading Home|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Claudia is seven when this book opens, in Liverpool in 1926. She's a careful girl, perhaps a little spoilt, although clearly not wealthy. She enjoys the protection of thirteen-year-old Danny who comes from a poorer family, and evidently has something of a crush on Claudia. Even in this first chapter, she comes across as somewhat self-centred, wanting people to think well A Sign of her, but not naturally generous or empathic. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520265</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=G. De Beauregard and H. De Gorsse|title=The Stamp KingHer Own|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Set in 1896, this is the story of William Keniss and Betty Scott, two young American philatelists each intent on owning the world’s only complete stamp collection3. The rarest specimen of all is one issued by the Maharajah of Brahmapootra but never placed on general sale, although one copy did pass through the postal system, and it is one of only two in the entire universe. The Maharajah owns this one himself - and our collectors are determined to get their hands on the other.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852597460</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julie Orringer|title=The Invisible Bridge|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In After a story that takes us from the elegance bout of Parisscarlet fever as a child, through the streets Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic talesilence, masterfully toldeverything about her life changes. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, Living in a young Hungarian Jewish studenttime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is about sent to leave his brother Tibor a school where she is taught to go and study architecture in Parislip read, but physically restrained from signing. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of ParisFrom here, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls she ends up in love with a beautiful ballerina another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a terrible secret to hidesystem called Visible Speech. As At the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andrassame time, the book moves back to HungaryBell is working on other inventions and ideas, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungaryin a complicated tangle of espionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Beverley EikliClaire North|title=Lady Farquhar's Butterfly|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Olivia - Lady Farquhar - has recently been widowed. This does not upset her in the least; indeed, as becomes clear through the novel, her husband was an unpleasant bully who subjected her to all kinds House of abuse. Unfortunately, however, the terms of his will have ensured that her beloved toddler Julian has been taken away to live with his uncle Max until such time as Olivia marries someone considered to be above reproach. For that reason, she is seriously considering marrying Nathaniel, a clergyman who has helped her for many years. The only problem with that is that she finds him increasingly repulsive...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090579</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anita Diamant|title=Day After NightOdysseus
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=First of all, I really liked the unusual pitch for a Second World War novel, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after the liberation of Europe. The war machine has ground to a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrants. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp is emotionally a halfway house between the past and the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties and in limbo for an indeterminate period, the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all their loved ones.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847398618</amazonuk>}}''What could matter more than love?''
{{newreview|author=Jennie Rooney|title=The Opposite follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace 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 Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her for another womanhusband, she soon turns who sailed to travel as a means of escape war at Troy and sets off on her first expeditionthen by divine intervention never returned home. But As ever she has agreed to stay friends with Henry and cannot quite escape him completely as they continue to write to each otherremains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Ten years later Having survived – politically and Ursula has travelled all over physical – the world and chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is about to embark on the brink of a trip around Americafragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, but this time she decides to take a companionKing of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>0356516075
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain PearsB0C7J9D21B|title=Stone's FallA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis
|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 When we first meet our hero, his name is strikingly handsome Ettore and hints of good things to come between its covers. he lives at The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks House of threeBeautiful Swallows. Three different decades Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and three different locationsEttore's mother died when he was born. Pears then dips in and out He's not been short of the main characters' livesmothers, telling the reader basically what makes them tick.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicola Cornick|title=Confessions though - but for someone of a Duchess|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow obtain decent employment. The stint working 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 preparation of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife anchovies didn't work out and carry out a murder inquiry bastards are considered bad luck on behalf of Lord Liverpoolfishing boats. The last thing Laura Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years agoit was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin them bothHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303802</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gill SchierhoutEssie Fox|title=The Shape of HimFascination
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The story Victorian era is told in incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the first person by Sara HighburySecond World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. SheThere's running such a small business glut of media set in an efficient but rather detached fashion. Shethe era that the hallmarks we's all washed up. She starts ve come to recount her earlier, happier life when associate with it meant something are familiar to her. And the reader soon discovers that a diamond digger called Herbert was - and still is - the love point of her lifebeing cliched, hackneyed even. 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 All this is laid bare. But Herbert seemed simply to illustrate that it would be a naturalan easy thing to do poorly. 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 guestsBut despite that, before leaving something about it still grabs me – and then entering again via the front door. Employed by her father George, the editor of the Evening Chronicle, something about this book's description did as a reporter and sketch writer, Charles is at the start of his writing career and soon becomes a regular visitor to the Hogarth householdwell. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090536</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth ChadwickNicole Jarvis|title=To Defy A King|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=#Set Portrait in the traumatic and violent period leading up to the Magna Carta, Chadwick concentrates on the fortunes of two extended families. The Marshals, close to the throne for their expertise, political and military might, and the Bigods, who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespee, son of the family matriarch, and John’s father. Banished from Court, and forced to leave her son there, Ida marries Roger and founds a strong patriarchal dynasty. However, tension is never far from boiling point, with the two half brothers tolerating each other at best, loathing each other more often than not, due to their opposing natures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne O'Brien|title=Virgin WidowShadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl ''I want all of Warwick, is famous throughout England as one of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisors. But as Edward is lured towards another influential family when he falls in love with Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret of Anjou and King Louis XI of France, aiming Florence to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English throne. 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 and his allies as they try to regain the kingdom of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>}}know my name''
{{newreview|author=Lynn Shepherd|title=Murder at Mansfield Park|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Straight away the reader is plunged into the language of Austen's eraCast out from Rome, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and ' ... where her family were not consumptivefuture can thrive rather than stagnate...' We are also introduced to a host of characters and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the beginning ''Names self-proclaimed guardians of the Principal Persons'', it does bombard and perhaps confuse healing magics that through paintings have the reader a little. I must admit power to referring to this dratted list time protect the city and time again. It does break the flow at the beginning of the novel. But, several chapters in its citizens from plagues and you're right into the story thereaftercurses.|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 her all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and her life thereafterguard it above all else. She is a changed person. She's also driven. She grows into a desirable To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and turns men's heads wherever she goes. But she's also smart. Some would perhaps think at this point, why not go 'up west', bag a sugar-daddy change – has no place amongst them and live in luxury for the rest of her days? But life is not as simple as thattheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>1803362340
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
{{newreview|author=Emily Purdy|title=The Tudor Wife|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=From Set in the moment she sets eyes near-distant future, in a world on handsome George Boleynthe verge of climate collapse, plain Lady Jane Parker falls madly Britain is in love and prays that George will be hersgreat peril. As Jane and George's families negotiate The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the marriage Jane meets Anne Boleyn day and quickly realises that George only has eyes for Anne, but rescue what little remains determined . What no-one expected was that she can make George love herone of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561942</amazonuk>0356518523
}}
 {{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 her twin brother Justinian has been convicted of murder. 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 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 himself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755339061</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Penny Ingham|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 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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Trevor BloomG K Holloway|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 Shadows of WarCastles
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|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
|rating=4.5
|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
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|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 the word ''witch''. She has been called If it all her life. Her mother called her ''witch'' before she named her. Her given name Corrag – was a corruption: were not for Cora (her mother) and Hag (which she'd get as used to as Cora had).  She sits through the snow casual dereliction of the winterodd gentleman's duty, knowing that the sound she hears outside is the dragging of the logs for her pyrethere 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 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
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America.
|isbn=1472277538
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1916072038
|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|author=Allie Cresswell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Cerdic is We meet part of the younger son of a minor lord living Talbot family in a quiet Anglo Saxon village Yorkshire in sixth century NorthumbriaNovember 1811. His people are settled Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the Welsh (Romano-Britons) seem contained behind house in the Pennineshollow. Cedric fully expects to live out his live as a gentleman farmer, hopefully The two women are angry with the beautiful Aidith by his side. But as he listens to the tales told by Lilla the bard, he caneach other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother't help but dream of following after his uncle, the great warrior Cynric, s strengths and finding glory in battle. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849140235</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:
{{newreview|author=Katherine Howe|title=The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Connie ''She is doing postgraduate research on witchcraft. Although she is initially rather wary practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of being asked to clear out her grandmother’s old houserespectability, the project turns out to lead to lots of exciting possibilities, including romance and perhaps original sources for her studiesdeplorable truth''.|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, Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as the press of the time gleefully dubbed it. But the truth is that his work she was of groundbreaking importance: he developed the electrical alternating current and the AC motorasked, and much more. The average person probably which has a better awareness of Samuel Clemens - who wrote Tom Sawyer precipitated ''this violent 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 donunexpected removal''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 Then we are told of the nineteenth centurybirth of a child and, when European nations are scrabbling to colonise as many territories as possiblesoon after, a young Englishman sails into Chinese waters seeking fame and fortune. Unlike the rest of his countrymen howeverHester Talbot departs, 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 leaving Jocelyn in shame and there are Chinese gunships on the horizonisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070908885X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Janet MullanyAnnabel Abbs|title=Improper RelationsThe Language of Food|rating=45
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Unlucky in love Charlotte Hayden Eliza Acton is a poet who has just lost her best friend and confidante Ann in marriage never had the slightest inclination to the Earl of Beresfordboil an egg. At the wedding When tasked with writing a cookery book, she encounters Lord Shadderly, Beresford's best friendrecruits Ann Kirby, a broodingly handsome man whom she takes an immediate dislike tolocal woman with a troubled home life. Before she knows it Charlotte is caught in a compromising situation with Shadderly Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and he is forced to propose to her or risk both their reputationschanging the face of cookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755347803</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare ClarkFreya Marske|title=Savage LandsA Marvellous Light
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel begins with one of Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the central characters - Elisabeth - preparing Civil Service, much to leave her home in France, his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and embark upon learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a ship curse that threatens to take her swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to America - to meet and marry a complete stranger. At this time there were literally only a few hundred settlersthe countryside, so potential wives were shipped in along where the hedgegrows bristle with other necessities! She is very much in two minds about incantations and the entire venture - apprehensive, yet more than people shimmer with power. There they uncover a little excited at sinister plot that threatens the prospect lives 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 all magicians in the more conventional linens and this immediately sets her apartBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553512</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christi Phillips B09F4CTKJR|title=The Devlin Diary|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1672 and Hannah Devlin, a young widow with a skill Flights 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>}} {{newreviewFreedom|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan |title=The Day The Falls Stood StillSteven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I imagined this title as a It'Gone With s the Wind' sort later stages of novel, World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a saga-esque historical romanceyoung American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, with a characterful heroine the first to be attached to the RAF and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late the first to be sent into the nightskies to fight the Germans in active combat. WellBut before that can happen, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of Petrol has to master flying the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.Snotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John WilcoxChristophe Medler|title=The Shangani PatrolMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is the latest discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the adventures summer of Simon Fonthill, 1642. As a cross between a Victorian James Bond and Indianna Jones. Although one loyal servant of a seriesthe King, it stands alone as a novel. It's steeped in the history (and there's a lot of it) Head 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=BelgiumSecret Service, the fifteenth century. Hans it is apprenticed Robert's duty to a master painter in uncover the city details of Brussels, until the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apart. Luckily for Hans, a mistakenly drawn sketch, plan and a bizarre rescue from follow the gallows gives him a major boost - patronage, for both portraits and many religious images. With what might seem clues to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages only, concerning but uncover one month - we see his startling life journey, covering beguiling models, ghostly war scenes, and even of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the biggest intrigues of English royal courtKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eloisa James1471187179|title=When the Duke ReturnsA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary'When the Duke Returns'', the newest volume 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'Desperate Duchesses' seriess expectations and find a nice young man to marry, continues produce children and spend the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left offrest of her days looking after her husband and their homeThe focus Unfortunately, this timeisn'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, is on Isidoreshe finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the Duchess of Conway: hot-headed, hotsecret service and effectively living a double life -blooded and Italian attempting to boot, she was married by proxy at infiltrate the age Communist Party of sixteen Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and is still a virgin seven years later. Isidore's cunning plot to entice back the husband friends she has never seen from his travels in Asia made - 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 wifelikes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam WilliamsAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=The Book of the AlchemistKokoschka's Doll|rating=32.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary= ''The Book of Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the Alchemist'' get-go, which is a story within a storywhy I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. It opens I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War. Pinzonmiddle on darker stock paper, a Spanish politician who resigns for moral reasonschapter whose number was in the 20, is taken hostage by a group of Republican soldiers000s, letters used as narrative form, 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 themso on. A cavernous mosque built inside It intrigued with the mountain under the cathedral's crypt is discovered, and subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of itmentioned, a booktoo. As Pinzon reads But you've seen the bookstar rating that comes with this review, another story unfoldsand can tell that if love was on these pages, set in the eleventh centuryit was not actually caused by them. This is the story of Samuel the Jew.So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jack LudlowChristina Hammonds Reed|title=WarriorsThe Black Kids|rating=34.5|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=Arduin of Fassano Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is paid by Michael Doukeianos, a young Byzantine general, to keep set against the peace in Apulia. Arduin is a Lombard, however, and secretly plans to revolt and take Apulia for himself, hiring a group backdrop of Norman mercenaries to help him do the job. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothers1992 Los Angeles riots, famed warriors with their own conflicts and a desire reaction 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 absolution of the Loveday family four police officers for generations. It will still be owned by beating 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 twinblack man, AdamRodney King, vows that he will punish the man responsiblenearly to death. Amelia has been forced Told from Trevowan and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasn't enough perspective of a problemAshley Bennett, the novel follows her son evolution 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 silent bystander when confronted 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 matters of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some casesrace, 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>}} {{newreview|author=Robyn Young |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, woman finding her voice 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 awayembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340921420</amazonuk>1471188191
}}
{{newreview|author=Anthony Riches|title=Wounds of Honour (Empire)|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Riding Move on 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>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]

Navigation menu