Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]
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==Historical fiction==
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tananarive Due
|author=Paul R Spiring and Hugh Cooke
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|title=The Reformatory
|title=Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton
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|rating=5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This mystery-adventure book was written and published around 100 years ago.  Will it stand the test of time?  The back cover blurb says confidently that this '' adventure story ... makes James Bond look like a stay at home ...''  Before you get into the story proper there's quite a lot of information in the introductory pages.  Some of it I did find interesting (the page about Max Pemberton and Sherlock Holmes for instance) but some readers may feel a little bogged down before they've even started to read chapter one.  Both Pemberton and Holmes belonged to a small, elite criminology society in London.  I got the impression that the two co-compilers felt as if they had to justify themselves somehow.  I ploughed on ...
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|summary= Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685316</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Katherine Howe
|author=Christina Courtenay
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|title=A True Account
|title=The Scarlet Kimono
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's 1611 and young Hannah's life in Plymouth is anything but exciting.  She has a horrid elder sister to deal with, and is jealous of her brother Jacob's career aboard a merchant ship.  Realising the life her parents have mapped out for her as wife to a man she loathes is not for her, Hannah decides to take action and control of her own destiny.  Soon she runs away from home, disguising herself as a boy and stowing away on one of the ships under her brother's command.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931291</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sara Sheridan
 
|title=Secret of the Sands
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's the summer of the year 1883.  William Wilberforce, hero of the anti-slavery movement is enjoying a gentleman's life in London. But, far away in Abyssinia, things are far from rosy for the local people.  The situation facing them is ugly and very dangerous - slavers (what a horrible word) are in the area and with the stark sentence 'It takes only seven minutes to capture almost everyone' we get the picture, loud and clear.  Sheridan wastes no time in giving her readers the heart-wrenching details:  the elderly are separated and treated with very little dignity (they're almost worthless, not worth the bother of transportation), the fit and healthy are singled out and lastly, the young are segregated.  They are 'prized' most of all.  And into this latter category falls a pretty 17 year old girl called Zena.  She is spirited.  She will not show any fear.  She thinks for a split second of running but is intelligent enough to know that she'd be beaten severely for her sheer insubordination and probably even killed on the spot. But behind her expressive eyes she is thinking and plotting ...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561993</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tim Murgatroyd
 
|title=Breaking Bamboo
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Summer 1266, Nancheng in Central China and Doctor Shih is struggling to cope with the monsoon season, when he gets a midnight summons to Peacock Hill: ancient palace complex and now home to the Pacification Commissioner, his wife, concubines and various officials and hangers on.  Wang Ting-bo's only son and heir is apparently dying and all the great and good of the medical guild are unable to save him.  They recommend the employment of magicians in the hope of driving out the evil spirits.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802382</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kieran McMullen
 
|title=Watson's Afghan Adventure
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=In truth, I could write this review in two words = (oh dear) and be done with it. But I'd better be fair and put some meat on those bones.  Where to start...  With its dark, almost apocalyptic front cover this book looks very much like a 'man's' book.  That's fine but is this what McMullen wants?  Is he happy to discard some or even perhaps most of the female reading population in one fell swoop?  It appears so.  Now I know that this is a historical yarn but even so, given the current situation in Afghanistan with British and American Troops, the word 'adventure' in the title doesn't sit easily with me.  If I saw this book on a bookstore shelf, I would feel a little uncomfortable.  Not a good start ... and it's generally downhill from here, I'm afraid.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685936</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bernhard Schlink and Carol Brown Janeway
 
|title=The Reader
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's West Germany, 1958. A 15-year-old schoolboy, Michael Berg, is suffering a long bout of hepatitis. When he recovers he returns to the flat of a tram conductor, 36-year-old Hanna Schmitz, to thank her for taking care of him the day he fell sick. The two of them begin a secret affair that becomes a routine for months: after school and work, Michael would read to her, and then they would make love and bathe each other. Both of them fall in love.
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|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch.  Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753804700</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861547438
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{{newreview
 
|author=Berlie Doherty
 
|title=Treason
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Forced by his power-hungry aunt and uncle to leave the comfort of his modest family home, Will Montague finds himself utterly overwhelmed, as he works as a page to Prince Edward under the keen eye of the temperamental King Henry, just as prone to unexpected bursts of compassion as he is to brutal cruelty. Just as he begins to find his feet in this new position, Will finds himself suddenly on the run, desperately trying to clear the name of his father, convicted of treason for failing to revert to the Protestantism led by the King, and simultaneously gaining more awareness of the world he lives in and the plights of the working class.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849391211</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|author=Jan Jones
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|title=The Kydd Inheritance
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Nell's Kydd's father died in a hunting accident and her brother, Kit was uncontactable, seemingly lost, on his way back from IndiaThis left her uncle, Jasper Kydd in charge of the family estate and he appeared to be doing all in his power to wreck Kydd Court and make Nell's life a misery.  Her mother coped with it all by retreating into her own world, where she couldn't be reached eitherWhen an unwelcome offer of marriage is forced upon her, Nell knows that she has to take action and that's when the very unsettling Captain Hugo Derringer arrivesHe's an old friend of Kitt's, but what exactly is he doing in the area and can Nell trust him?
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|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing.  Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changesLiving in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signingFrom here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible SpeechAt the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709091710</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035401614
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Claire North
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|title=House of Odysseus
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|rating=5
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|genre= Literary Fiction
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|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
  
{{newreview
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The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.
|author=Elizabeth Ashworth
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|isbn=0356516075
|title=The de Lacy Inheritance
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Set in England in 1192, the novel is full of details of life in this period, and resists the temptation to get overtly bogged down in excessive political detail, which makes this a very accessible read to those (like myself) who are not too knowledgeable about this particular historical period. Returning from the Crusades, Richard is forced to leave his family and atone for the sins which he believes has lead to him being afflicted with leprosy. Undertaking a quest to his grandmother's nearby cousin (who is childless, so grandmother wants Richard to present her case for inheriting his lands), Richard finds refuge here. This point struck me as odd - almost jarring in it's unlikelihood. Not only does Richard find help/support/refuge here (whilst remaining unknown to all except the cousin and his wife), but he's virtually welcomed with open arms. Would an itinerant leper be treated in this way? It did add a note of discord to the narrative - as if the quest for inheritance was more important that his trials as a leper.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802366</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|author=Winifred Holtby
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|title=South Riding
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|author=A J Lewis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The central character is a single woman in her middle years who relishes the chance to return to her roots in the tight-knit South Riding communityShe's ambitious and well-travelled and has tasted life and work in bustling, cosmopolitan London.  So it would appear that her pull back home is very strong indeedBut, you have to ask yourself the question, who would choose to give up this stimulating life down south and return up north?  One Sarah Burton, schoolteacher with promotion in her mind, that's who.  Everything depends on Sarah actually getting this job.  And straight away, Holtby gives us the low-down on the collective mentality of local government.  Yes, narrow-minded, parochial, dull - it's all of those things and moreBut not everyone is a political 'sheep'There's one or two who can see the bigger picture and can look beyond personal gain.
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|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful SwallowsIdyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was bornHe's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boatsEttore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitorsHe was even saving some money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849902038</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|author=C J Sansom
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|title=The Fascination
|title=Dark Fire
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=1540 was the hottest summer of the sixteenth century but Matthew Shardlake was doing his best to hold his legal practice together, which was made more difficult by the fact that he believed himself to be out of favour with Thomas Cromwell.  He tried to keep a low profile but when he defended the accused in a most unpopular case – that of a girl accused of brutally murdering her cousin – he found that the king's chief minister had a new assignment for him.  Unless he could solve Cromwell's problem his client was likely to die a slow and nasty death.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330450786</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael David Lukas
 
|title=The Oracle of Stamboul
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The book is set in the Ottoman Empire and the reader is given a potted history of those times,.  Wars, troops, Rome and the Byzantines all get a passing mention ... and a baby called Eleonora is born.  Sadly, her mother does not make it and it's left to her father to bring her up.  He struggles and decides the best thing for himself, but more importantly, for his young daughter, is to enter into a marriage of convenience with a member of his extended family. Domestic life rumbles along, but underneath the surface, things are brewing ...
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|summary= The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755377702</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
  
{{newreview
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Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.
|author=Molly Carr
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=A Study in Crimson
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=As soon as I read the blurb on the back cover I thought there's no doubting that this book is going to be one of those delightful romps, shall we say.  Carr takes the famous and much-loved and much-read detective Holmes along with his trusty, if rather dull and plodding side-kick Watson and decides to have a bit of fun. But will it work?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685405</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Thomas D Lee
|author=Amanda Taylor
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|title=Perilous Times
|title=The Chinaman's Bastard
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Fantasy
|summary=I found the title of the book excellent and I was keen to find out more.  The blurb on the back cover does its job - until the last bit, which becomes a bit irritating.  It claims the book 'is very captivating'.  Well, to be brutally honest, it's either captivating or it's not.  The word 'very' is not needed.  And sadly, no, I didn't find the book captivating at all.
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|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843865440</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
|author=Christina Courtenay
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|isbn=0356518523
|title=Trade Winds
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It is 1731 and Killian Kinross, disgraced heir to the estate is making his way as best he can through the gambling dens of Edinburgh, trading on his skill, ability to hold his drink and the smiling fickle fortunes of lady luck.  The Lady is smiling at the moment, although she hasn't always done so.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931232</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=G K Holloway
|author=Margaret James
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|title=The Silver Locket
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It is the eve of the First World War and Rose Courtenay's parents are keen to marry her off to well-bred Michael Easton.  But Rose is certain a life of domesticity in Dorset is not for her and so instead she takes the bold step of running away to London where she volunteers as a nurse for the war effort.  Posted to France, Rose meets injured soldier Alex Denham who she has known since childhood, and is the only man who has ever made her blush.  Romance soon blossoms between Rose and Alex, despite Rose fighting against her feelings as Alex is already married, and also disapproved of by her parents due to his dubious background.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931283</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Simon Scarrow
 
|title=The Legion (Roman Legion 9)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Ajax and his crew of fellow renegade gladiators have been stirring things up in Egypt. Attacking small naval bases, merchant ships and villages along the coast, they're successfully stirring some unrest. Because Ajax isn't silly. Not only is he a skilled fighter and capable commander, he's also full of guile. The band pose as Roman soldiers when raiding, so their victims are left with anti-Roman sentiment in addition to their losses.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755353749</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pamela Evans
 
|title=Harvest Nights
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It is 1920 and London is struggling to deal with the consequences of the Great War. Unemployment is high and money is scarce. Clara Tripp, a former Land Girl has been forced to return to the city to work as a waitress, leaving behind the countryside which she loves so much. When Charlie Fenner, an acquaintance from Clara's Land Army days, comes in to the teashop where she works, Clara can't help but feel overjoyed. He offers her temporary work on his parents' orchard in Kent and she gladly accepts. Yet a serious accident forces Clara to stay longer than expected and it is then that she makes a shocking discovery which threatens to destroy the Fenner family. Back in London Clara struggles with her confused emotions and the looming prospect of her marriage to local boy Arnold. When devastating news comes from Kent, Clara realises she can no longer keep her discovery a secret. But coming face-to-face with Charlie again means Clara must acknowledge her buried feelings and make a decision between doing the right thing and following her heart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345452</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ross Laidlaw
 
|title=Justinian: The Sleepless One
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Born Uprauda Ystock, the son of a peasant, Justinian (as he was to become known) managed to change his life around when his mother's brother, Roderic, an important general in the Roman Army, paid for his education. After a series of successes, Roderic became Emperor Justin and then passed the mantel on to his nephew, who became known as Justinian. When he came into power, the Roman Empire was under attack from all directions and Justinian was forced to battle for his right to remain Emperor. Fortunately, he married Theodora, an ex-courtesan, who helped to mould him into the leader that he needed to be. Was this enough to remain in power, or would it all be snatched away from him?
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|summary= We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971586</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=3949666079
|author=Peter Carey
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|title=Noema
|title=Parrot and Olivier in America
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|author=Dael Akkerman
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Olivier de Garmont is a young, French aristocrat who is drugged by the enigmatic Marquis de Tilbot, a close friend of Olivier's monarchist mother, and dispatched to the safety of the emerging United States to avoid the 1830 July Revolution, and the threat of the dreaded guillotine, in his native France. At least nominally his task while there is to prepare a report on the American penal system on behalf of the French government, a task for which he has little interest or indeed talent. Tilbot also dispatches his servant, an older British man, John Larrit, known to everyone as Parrot, to act as Oliver's secretary, servant, translator and to spy on Olivier for both his mother and Tilbot. They are an ill-matched pair, from opposite sides of the social spectrum but in democratic America, this relationship develops in ways that neither of them would expect. The story is told in alternating voices of these two main characters.
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|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571253296</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?
|author=Ross Laidlaw
 
|title=Theoderic
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=This is a historical tale with a capital 'H'. A Glossary, Historical Note, Prologue plus a map entitled 'The Barbarian Kingdoms and the Roman Empire' are all for the reader's maximum interest and (hopefully) maximum enjoyment and all before settling down to the first chapter. This very much sets the tone of the book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697111X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529125898
|author=Shona Maclean
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|title=Godmersham Park
|title=A Game of Sorrows
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|author=Gill Hornby
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Two years have passed since [[The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona Maclean|Alexander Seaton]] found his redemption. He is comfortably settled in his life at the University, about to be sent on the academic expedition of a lifetime, and wondering how best to ask the woman he loves to be his wife.  Then a case of mistaken identity, which almost costs him his love and the respect of his friends leads Alexander to discover he has a cousin in town – the son of his late mother's brother, come from Ireland to seek his help.
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|summary=''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849162441</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen.  She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessityUntil the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the householdWhen her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with herNo explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a yearHer maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.
|author=Julian Lees
 
|title=The Fan Tan Players
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=The story opens with a vividly described cyclone in 1920s MacaoI found Lees' writing was such in the opening chapter that it felt almost apocalypticThe loss of life, the damage to property and ... 'sounds of the surf regurgitating gurgling carcasses of belly-bulging cows.' I couldn't help but think of the real-life tragedy unfolding in PakistanI felt a bit queasy when I was reading this, to tell you the truth.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207492</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Melissa Fu
|author=Fiona Mountain
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|title=Rebel Heiress
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4
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|genre=Historical Fiction  
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|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.
|summary=Based on the life of a pioneer in the world of butterfly collecting, this novel was an enchanting and enthralling read. Born into a rigorously devout Puritan family, young Eleanor is an anomaly both in her outlook and attitude - and her butterfly collecting interests set her further apart from the more traditional ladies. The prejudices of the times are well explained, and the level of historical detail is sufficient to give the reader a good understanding of the tensions of the period.
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|isbn=1472277538
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091656</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1916072038
|author=Seth Hunter
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|title=The Price of Glory
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This is the final book in Seth Hunter's trilogy about the naval adventures and private life of Captain Nathan Peake. While the other two books, The Time of Terror and [[The Tide of War by Seth Hunter|The Tide of War]], were fairly self-contained stories in themselves, the running thread of Nathan's private life continues over the three books and isn't really resolved until the final few paragraphs in The Price of Glory.
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|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow.  The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343115</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
|author=Daisy Goodwin
 
|title=My Last Duchess
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=There's plenty to enjoy in this debut novel by Daisy Goodwin. And first up is the elegant cover. I wanted to read the book as soon as I saw the photograph: a beautiful girl with great presence about her. The thoughtful look on her face and lack of ring on her finger hinted at an intriguing story. It was also a fair bet that this historical fiction, set in the nineteenth century, was about a romance, suitable or unsuitable. So the cover complemented the story – a quite unusual feat, judging by other offerings I have seen recently.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755348060</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''.
|author=James Forrester
 
|title=Sacred Treason
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=In London, in December 1563, the herald William Harley (known to everyone as Clarenceux) had no intention of becoming involved in one of the many Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth, but he's unwittingly drawn into one when his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn, gave him a chronicle, telling him that it hid a secret which could cost Machyn his life.  Clarenceux was sceptical until he was visited by Francis Walsingham's brutal enforcers and within a matter of a few hours he turns from a law-abiding citizen into a man on the run in search of clues which will tell him why the chronicle is so important.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356012</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire.
|author=Ron Rash
 
|title=Serena
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=The reader is introduced to one of the two main characters straight away.  George Pemberton.  But everyone (even his new wife) calls him simply Pemberton.  He's faced with an awkward and at the same time delicate situation and deals with it - with violence.  No one seems too bothered, not even the local sheriff.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674887</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
+
|title=The Language of Food
|title=The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Meet Brigadier Etienne Gerard. An officer in Napoleon's army, he is a boastful womaniser with a significantly higher opinion of his own intelligence than anyone around him – notably Napoleon himself. He's also brave, resourceful, fiercely loyal to his emperor and any woman he finds himself in love with, and above all, utterly, totally heroic.
+
|summary=Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847679196</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Freya Marske
|author=Ben Kane
+
|title=A Marvellous Light
|title=The Road to Rome (Forgotten Legion Chronicles)
+
|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=After years of wondering if their twin were still alive, Romulus and Fabiola happen to catch sight of each other on the docks at Alexandria. Their meeting isn't to last long, as Fabiola is being rushed to safety by her lover, Brutus, one of Caesar's most trusted generals and Romulus has just been press-ganged into an army about to go into battle. However, this chance meeting gives them additional strength, which they are certainly going to need to survive the struggles ahead.
+
|summary=Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. |isbn=1529080886
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090153</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Margaret Muir
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|title=Floating Gold
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with a description of the rotting remains of a human being battered by the waves on the beaches of the Isle of Wight. I cannot recall any book I have ever read starting on a more depressing note, but this is far from a depressing, or disappointing, story.
+
|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070909051X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|author=E V Thompson
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|title=No Less Than The Journey
+
|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= ''No Less Than The Journey'' concerns a young Cornish miner seeking a new life in America. He makes many interesting acquaintances and some rather arduous journeys in his quest to find a family member.
+
|summary= Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709087551</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Katie Flynn
 
|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 of her, but not naturally generous or empathic.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520265</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471187179
|author=G. De Beauregard and H. De Gorsse
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=The Stamp King
+
|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|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 collectionThe 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 universeThe Maharajah owns this one himself - and our collectors are determined to get their hands on the other.
+
|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb.  The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their homeUnfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary.  As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great BritainMinnie 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>0852597460</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|author=Julie Orringer
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|title=The Invisible Bridge
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=5
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=General Fiction
+
|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of itI found things to potentially delight me each time a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so onIt intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too.  But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?
|summary=In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told.  It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris.  Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide.  As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary.
+
|isbn=1529402697
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Beverley Eikli
 
|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 of abuseUnfortunately, 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 Night
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical 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 themThey 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Iain Pears
+
|title=The Black Kids
|title=Stone's Fall
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|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.
+
|summary=Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to death. Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
}}
 
 
 
{{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 - 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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|author=Elizabeth Chadwick
 
|title=To Defy A King
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=#Set 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>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:53, 20 November 2023

1803366532.jpg

Review of

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations... Full Review

0861547438.jpg

Review of

A True Account by Katherine Howe

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves. Full Review

1035401614.jpg

Review of

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

3.5star.jpg General Fiction

After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage. Full Review

0356516075.jpg

Review of

House of Odysseus by Claire North

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

What could matter more than love?

The follow-up to the excellent Ithaca picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge. Full Review

B0C7J9D21B.jpg

Review of

A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries) by A J Lewis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money. Full Review

1914585526.jpg

Review of

The Fascination by Essie Fox

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well. Full Review

1803362340.jpg

Review of

A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I want all of Florence to know my name

Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society. Full Review

0356518523.jpg

Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

1800422466.jpg

Review of

In the Shadows of Castles by G K Holloway

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord. Full Review

3949666079.jpg

Review of

Noema by Dael Akkerman

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.

Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions? Full Review

1529125898.jpg

Review of

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.

Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity. Until the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours. Full Review

1472277538.jpg

Review of

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

3.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled Origins. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America. Full Review

1916072038.jpg

Review of

The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga) by Allie Cresswell

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:

She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth.

Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated this violent and unexpected removal.

Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Full Review

1398502227.jpg

Review of

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever. Full Review

1529080886.jpg

Review of

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. Full Review

B09F4CTKJR.jpg

Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel. Full Review

B095HY8SXQ.jpg

Review of

Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret by Christophe Medler

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King. Full Review

1471187179.jpg

Review of

A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party. Full Review

1529402697.jpg

Review of

Kokoschka's Doll by Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)

2.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened? Full Review

1471188191.jpg

Review of

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

4.5star.jpg Teens

Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to death. Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage. Full Review

Move on to Newest History Reviews