Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kent Wascom
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|author=Tananarive Due
|title=The Blood of Heaven
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|title=The Reformatory
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|rating=5
 +
|genre=Historical Fiction
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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...
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|isbn=1803366532
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Katherine Howe
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|title=A True Account
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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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.
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|isbn=0861547438
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Sarah Marsh
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1799 in America and Angel Woolsack is the son of an itinerant preacher, travelling around LouisianaLife isn't easy as Angel is torn between the puritanical fire and brimstone upbringing of Preacher-Father and his desire to be a normal young man within the confines of a religious communityEventually Angel's desire to express himself leads to tragedy and, with his only friend Samuel Kemper for company, he is cast out by those he lovesAngel and Samuel decide to search for Samuel's elder brother, Reuben, and thus begins the adventure that will take them to Florida, bring Angel a feisty bride and provide a place in the history books for the Kemper brothers as they grapple for land against the Spanish.
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|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearingSuddenly 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 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>1611855713</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035401614
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Claire North
 +
|title=House of Odysseus
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|rating=5
 +
|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.
|title=The Ice-Cold Heaven
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|isbn=0356516075
|author=Mirko Bonne
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=They say that if you fall off a horse you should get back on one right away, but even so…  I don't think many people who had only just left their first love – a shopgirl in their village – for their second – exploring the world on sailing cargo ships – would leap to a further voyage having been wrecked and stranded off the coast of South America for well over a week. But Merce here does he wants to follow his best friend on to a ship called ''The Endurance'' and head with Shackleton to the Antarctic.  But Merce is only seventeen, and is rejected – causing him to stow away onto one of the world's worst ever journeys.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715645846</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|title=The Reluctant Bride
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|author=Beverly Eikli
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|author=A J Lewis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Scarred soldier Major Angus McCartney cuts a lonely figure as he rides toward Micklen House bearing tragic news. He knows that his presence will be unwelcome and that the report he must deliver will devastate the entire household, especially the beautiful, unobtainable daughter of the family whom he has secretly been in love with for many years. Surely she will forever associate him with the bombshell that brought her world crashing down. There seems no way that she could ever love him the way that he loves her.
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|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born.  He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors.  He was even saving some money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781890862</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|author=Conn Iggulden
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|title=The Fascination
|title=Wars of the Roses: Stormbird (Wars of the Roses 1)
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|rating=4
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=England in 1437: Henry VI is now old enough to take the throne after the untimely death of his father 15 years earlier.  However 'The Lamb' (as young Henry is known) doesn't take after his robust, dominant father as enemies and allies alike are wont to mention.  Religiously devout, peace-loving and often ill, Henry VI relies on his right-hand men to take the load.  While a privileged role for people like William de la Pole (Duke of Suffolk) and spymaster Derry Brewster, it's also very dangerous.  They're the final line of defence before the King can be toppled and not all the malevolent powers are beyond the English Channel. A lot of hope is pinned on Henry's marriage to Margaret of Anjou healing the rifts but unfortunately there are unforeseen effects.
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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>0718159837</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
|author=Elaine Neil Orr
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|title=A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Emma Davis, daughter of a Georgian plantation owner has never been happy about the slave system.  People just shouldn't be owned like merchandise.  Whenever possible she slinks away to hear African stories from elderly slave Uncle Eli, sparking her imagination and love for a far off continent about which she's determined to do more than dream. Emma is going to theological college and she ''will'' be a missionary out there.  Her resolve pays off when she meets and marries Henry, clergyman and missionary to Yoruba.  Once there Emma discovers a local culture richer and more rewarding than she imagined, but, then again, so is the cost.
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425261301</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.
|title=Close to the Wind
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|isbn=1803362340
|author=Zana Bell
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Georgiana da Silva seems to have everything to look forward to; an engagement to her dashing cousin Jasper will finally allow her to escape the clutches of her oppressive aunt and open up the opportunity for her to travel the world, broadening her horizons considerably. Unfortunately, when she overhears a conversation between Jasper and the duplicitous Lord Walsingham, she realises that her engagement is a sham and that her brother’s life is in danger from a ruthless assassin. Can she reach her brother in New Zealand before the assassin has time to strike? The scene is set for an exciting cross-continental race against time which will pitch Georgiana headlong into a world of deceit, intrigue and adventure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781890269</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
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|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
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|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
  
{{newreview
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Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
|author=Bernard Cornwell
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|isbn=0356518523
|title=The Pagan Lord (Warrior Chronicles 7)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Lord Uhtred is outlawed and evicted from his land as he continues to niggle the Saxon clergy.  However this time it's in a big way: he murders an abbot while trying to reclaim his eldest son. As a punishment he's evicted from his land so Uhtred does the only thing he can: he follows his destiny and travels north to reclaim Bebbanburg (Bamburgh) from his usurping uncle, Aelfric.  There's a chasm between his dream and reality, but Uhtred is determined. Perhaps it's just as well because his choice of strategy will shape a nation.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007331908</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=G K Holloway
|title=The Night Flower
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|author=Sarah Stovell
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Fourteen-year-old Miriam Booth is a Romany gypsy from the Newcastle slums who, like the titular waif in [[:Category:Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens]]'s ''Oliver Twist'', is an orphan who lives by her wits but becomes drawn into a ring of house-breaking crime. In 1842 she is caught and sentenced to seven years' transportation to a convict colony in Australia.
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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>1906994218</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=3949666079
|author=Colum McCann
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|title=Noema
|title=TransAtlantic
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|author=Dael Akkerman
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In 1845 ex-slave, black American Frederick Douglass visits Ireland for a lecture tour about freedom and emancipation only to discover he's not preaching to the converted after all.  In 1919 Alcock and Brown climb into a rickety aircraft to fly the Atlantic and land in Limerick.  In 1994 Senator George Mitchell also travels to Ireland watched by a world that's about to see a miracle of negotiation.  Meanwhile through it all Lily and her descendants are also there, not only watching history but living it on both sides of the Atlantic.
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|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408829371</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?
|title=Sisters of the East End
 
|author=Helen Batten
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=
 
Katie Crisp had never intended to become a nun. Raised by non-religious parents, her family frowned upon organised religion and when Katie started secretly going to church, they strongly disapproved. When Katie ran to the aid of a stroke victim, she had a vision that changed her life. She saw herself dressed as a nun with a large silver cross hanging from her neck. She decided to follow her calling and join the community of St John the Divine, a group of Anglican nuns dedicated to nursing and midwifery. She thus shed her old identity and became known as Sister Catherine Mary.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091951771</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529125898
|title=The Luminaries
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|title=Godmersham Park
|author=Eleanor Catton
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|author=Gill Hornby
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eleanor Catton's ''The Luminaries'' is set in the New Zealand gold rush of the late 1860s. It's a story about greed, power, gold, dreams, opium, secrets, betrayal and identity, but most of all, it's a celebration of the art of story telling, both in terms of Catton's book and the stories her characters have to tell. It's the kind of book that is perfect escapism and which wraps you up in its world. If you like big, chunky books that you can get lost in for hours, then this is one for you.
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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>1847084311</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alison MacLeod
 
|title=Unexploded
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=It's 1940 and Britain lives in fear of a Nazi invasion that could happen any day.  In case the worst happens, Evelyn's husband Geoffrey has buried a little something for her and their young son Philip in the garden.  He tells her the tin contains a bit of money and his favourite photo of them.  As she digs it up from impulse rather than necessity, she discovers that there's no photo but what there is instead makes Evelyn doubt that she knows the man she married. The events that follow make Evelyn realise that indeed she doesn't.  Meanwhile the war continues and a German does invade their lives, but not in the way that either of them could envisage.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142636</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 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.
|title=The Last Runaway
 
|author=Tracy Chevalier
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Quaker girl Honor Bright is seeking escape from a failed relationshipLeaving quiet Dorset for America, a developing country about which she knows little, she hopes that accompanying her sister to the US will mean a new start within the American Quaker community. But Honor soon discovers the differences between America and England – not just in terms of weather and landscape, but also in the American culture of slave keeping.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000735035X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Melissa Fu
|title=A World Elsewhere
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|author=Wayne Johnston
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction  
|summary=Landish Druken is a great hulk of a man who lumbers through his hometown of St John's, Newfoundland. Although he thinks of himself as a writer, he has never written a word he didn't feel compelled to burn, and everyone knows him as the wayward son of accomplished sealing captain Abram Druken. Landish escaped to study literature at Princeton, where he met best friend Padgett 'Van' Vanderluyden, the 'dud' son of an industrial tycoon and a rumoured homosexual, but he broke his promise to join his father's sealing empire on his return in 1893, and now lives in poverty and disgrace.  
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099572036</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1916072038
|title=Stay Where You Are And Then Leave
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|author=John Boyne
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Alfie is just five years old when the Great War breaks out in 1914. His father joins up straightaway. Cheerful letters come from Georgie for a while and Alfie's mother reads them to him. But then the letters grow miserable and frightening. Alfie's mother stops reading them aloud and hides them away - but Alfie finds them anyway. And then the letters stop altogether. Alfie is told that his father is on a secret mission and can't write, but he sees through the lie immediately. And then, one day, a chance meeting tells Alfie exactly what has happened to his father. He's home from the front but he's in hospital, suffering from a condition nobody understood at the time: shell shock.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857532936</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Daniel Woodrell
 
|title=The Maid's Version
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Life may be tough in the Missouri town where Alma grew up but at least she has a jobShe learns and experiences a lot as maid to the wealthy Glencross family, but many of the experiences aren't the sort she'd like to relive.  To top it all off, in 1929 the Arbor, a local dance club, explodes into flames killing 42 people including Alma's younger sister Ruby.  The cause remains a mystery as factions are blamed or viewed suspiciously.  However Alma knows the truth, a truth that remains secret until decades later during a visit from her grandson.
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|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow.  The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444732838</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
|author=Graham Thomas
 
|title=The Other Woman (The Roxy Compendium)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=In the first part of [[Hats Off To Brandenburg (The Roxy Compendium) by Graham Thomas|The Roxy Compendium]] we discovered that one of our heroes had had his heart broken by a lady called Abigail Hardwoode and there were hints that this lady's history was rather unusual.  Graham Thomas isn't one to leave us in suspense for ''too'' long and he takes us back more than a quarter of a century to the time when Abigail first met her beloved Benjamin Ananas.  What she could not know was that events in France involved a British Secret Agent when his family was kidnapped - and then Abigail's parents when they were tricked into undertaking a mission to rescue them which was off the books.  When they were captured only one man, agent Hilary Weaver, believed them to be innocent and Abigail, snatched from her peaceful, high society life, headed to France to find them - and broke her lover's heart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00E05A1J6</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''.
|title=Longbourn
 
|author=Jo Baker
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=So we have had Jane Austen [[Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith|meet zombies]], and now something perhaps even more reprehensible – social realism.  This is a world where people slip up in hogshit, where rain pisses it down, and if the weekly routine washday is bad, you should try it when five Bennet daughters have their coinciding periods.  Sarah is in the middle of all this, trying to do her share of the housework with one hand at times, lest pus from her blisters get on the linen, or her callouses crack open.  But why can she not get her feelings about James, the new mysterious footman fresh from who-knows-where, straight in her head, and why is her heart turned by the mulatto servant of the Bingleys up at Netherfield?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522019</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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=Elisabeth Gifford
 
|title=Secrets of the Sea House
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary= Ruth has been raised in children's homes after losing her mother as a young child.  Her mother always told her that she was a Selkie, one of the seal people and eventually her mother would return to the sea.  Ruth prefers this version to the official death certificates: suicide by drowning.  As an adult, Ruth returns with husband Michael to her mother's native Hebrides.  This is a new start for them both in an old manse they're renovating.  However during the works they make a gruesome discovery: the buried remains of a special child.  This body has been there for over a century, since Rev Alexander Ferguson's time and, as the years roll back to reveal its origins Ruth realises this isn't the only surprise awaiting her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782391118</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rosemary Goring
 
|title=After Flodden
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary= Scotland 1513:  Louise Brenier believes her family to be cursed.  Her father dead, her elder sister dying during childbirth as the result of an affair with King James IV and now her brother Benoit missing after the Battle of Flodden.  It would be easy to believe Benoit dead too, but, whatever state he's in, Louise must know what happened.  This is what drives her on a journey across a land ravaged by war, providing more challenges than answers and encounters with those for whom Flodden remains a recurring nightmare.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972728</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=David Gilman
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|title=The Language of Food
|title=Master of War
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Young Richard Blackstone is accused of the rape and murder of a village girl and sentenced to hang.  Protestations of innocence on his behalf mean nothing and the fact he's a deaf/mute means even less.  His elder brother Thomas has protected him as much as possible throughout their lives but can do nothing this time.  However, help is at hand; Sir Gilbert Killbere ensures that the judge changes his mind and Richard is released but not completely.  Richard and Thomas are excellent archers so they're rescued in order to join the army that the King is amassing.  It's not an easy option: the year is 1346 and the conflict that history will call 'The Hundred Years War' is about to begin.
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|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>1781850100</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Sorrow of Angels
 
|author=Jon Kalman Stefansson
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Our decidedly unheroic main character has been at the café for three weeks now, so we are following on very closely from [[Heaven and Hell by Jon Kalman Stefansson|Heaven and Hell]].  After the tragedy and soul-searching of that first book, he seems settled in the ridiculous family that has formed around him there, finding employment, enjoying the literature, yet being  very intrigued by the female body.  The man who is still young enough to be known only as ''the boy'' might have latched on to stability for once, and replaced the family and best friend he had lost.  But everything is restless in this environment, and once again he might just be tempted to go on a journey, with another male companion, despite the harshness of the surrounds.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857051652</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Freya Marske
|title=Heaven and Hell
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|title=A Marvellous Light
|author=Jon Kalman Stefansson
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Iceland, a hundred years ago. From a place that is the very definition of rural and remote, a small fishing boat leaves for four hours' hard row to a profitable bank.  It carries six men on the way out, and five on the way back. The deceased is the best friend – or perhaps only friend – of the main character, who is still young enough to merely be known as ''boy''. When he returns to port he enters an almost Camus-like semi-existence, wondering just how much life is an answer, and for what, after the tragedy he has witnessed.
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|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>1849164061</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=She Rises
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Kate Worsley
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|rating=3
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Imagine, if you can, a lifelike eighteenth-century seafaring epic (something along the lines of Carsten Jensen's [[We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen|We, the Drowned]] or Carol Birch's [[Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch|Jamrach's Menagerie]]) crossed with Sarah Waters's ''Fingersmith''. If you then added in touches of Charles Dickens's ''Bleak House'', plus shades of the rest of the homoerotic Waters oeuvre (especially ''Night Watch'' and ''Tipping the Velvet''), you would just about have Kate Worsley's debut novel, ''She Rises'', in a nutshell.
+
|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>1408835894</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|title=Mistress of the Sea
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|author=Jenny Barden
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Mistress of the Sea'' is an epic adventure involving pirates, star-crossed lovers and a lust for gold and vengeance. The novel, set in Tudor times, is based on the real-life events in the life of Francis Drake, notably the raid at Nombre de Dios and the rout of the English fleet at San Juan de Ulua. Barden weaves an exciting adventure/romance story against this backdrop, which results in an immersive narrative that excites the mind and senses.
+
|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>009194922X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471187179
|author=Graham Thomas
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=Hats Off To Brandenburg (The Roxy Compendium)
+
|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It was London, 1815George III was on the throne although it was his son who was Regent, but it would be quite a while before those facts bothered the Roxy Playhouse Irregulars, who lived, loved  and had their being in the old Roxy PlayhouseMoney had always been in short supply as it tends to be when life is lived as a celebration, but they were in debt to Richard Sheridan and eventually forced to strike a bargain with him: pay their debts within one month or he would take the Roxy PlayhouseThe Irregulars took the challenge and put on a performance, only this was no three-act play on a stage.  Their performance was a tightly choreographed heist which would relieve members of the ton of some of their more valuable trinketsIf you're thinking of Robin Hood then forget it - this was going to be far more complex and bloody and it was obvious that there was more at stake than a decrepit playhouse.
+
|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburbThe book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their homeUnfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretaryAs a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great 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>0956742238</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|title=Burnt Norton
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|author=Caroline Sandon
 
 
|rating=2.5
 
|rating=2.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=After the death of his youngest son in a terrible accident, Sir William Keyt starts to lose interest in life. It takes meeting young Molly Johnson, a bright and beautiful daughter of a local landlord, to rekindle a spark for him. He brings her into Norton House as a maidservant, where she quickly catches the eye of his bookish eldest son, Thomas. But Sir William wants Molly to be more than a maid to him, and as a rich man and an MP is used to having his own way.
+
|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it.  I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on.  It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781850674</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529402697
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Bruce Macbain
+
|title=The Black Kids
|title=The Bull Slayer
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=5
+
|genre=Teens
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|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.
|summary=Years after we left him in [[Roman Games (Plinius Secundus) by Bruce Macbain|Roman Games]], Pliny the Younger has become Roman Governor of Bithynia.  Not the most hospitable of regions, its Greek residents regard the Romans with hatred; an emotion that, in many cases, is reciprocated by the Romans.  No matter how bad this is though, it gets worse when a high ranking official dies mysteriously.  Could it have anything to do with the religious sect of Mithras?  Possibly but it's not Pliny's only dilemma; at home his beloved young wife Calpurnia is acting somewhat oddly.
+
|isbn=1471188191
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781850798</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=James Heneage
 
|title=The Walls of Byzantium (The Mistra Chronicles)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Luke Magoris is heading for disgrace which means a lot since he's the son of a Varangian, the Viking-originated elite guard of the Byzantine Emperor.  Anna Lasaris daughter to a Byzantine court official and, feisty but kind, is the opposite of the Archon's daughter Zoe.  As politically adept as her brother is inept, Zoe will do anything for status and money… anything.  As the 14th century Byzantine Empire starts to crumble due to the relentless struggle with the Islamic Turks and Mistra becomes the only province left for the Turks to conquer, their paths will cross.  They're all young but they'll soon discover that treachery can emanate from friendship as much as it can from war.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782061118</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|title=Beautiful Lies
 
|author=Claire Clark
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Clare Clark's ''Beautiful Lies'' takes in Royal jubilees, London riots, newspaper editors overstepping the bounds on personal vendettas and political sex scandals - all set in the late 1880s showing how little has changed. There are even early instances and questions over photographic manipulation. Maribel, apparently a Chilean heiress and wife of radical, socialist politician Edward Campbell Lowe, has a past which she has tries to keep buried. If it were to be revealed, both her and her husband would be ruined by the scandal. Making enemies of an unscrupulous and hypocritical newspaper editor might not be the best move then.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099570467</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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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