Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
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|author=Meg Clothier
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Empress
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|author=Tananarive Due
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|title=The Reformatory
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's 1179 and Agnes, daughter of King Louis VII is sent to Byzantium to marry the young son and heir of the EmperorHowever the chap in question, young Alexios, is more a drip than a chip off his father's blockThis leaves Agnes to work on her own strategy for survival.  For this is a world where everyone is paranoid, and with good reason as everyone is a target and Agnes isn't just a woman, she's a stepping stone to power.
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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>0099553147</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Katherine Howe
 +
|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 watchEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious piratesShe 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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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|title=The Web and the Wing
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|author=Teresa Raftery
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
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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 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.
I love a good family saga, don't you? ''The Web and the Wing'' begins at the end of World War I. Claire returns to her pre-war job as a maid at Ardleagh Hall, home of the Earl of Eglinton. But Claire wants more than a life in service. She wants education and independence. And she wants away from Ardleagh for another reason too - rigid social rules mean that she can never declare her love for James, heir to the Eglinton title. James feels the same about Claire but he too has personal reasons for wanting to escape - his father will not countenance his musical ambitions. After the disastrous miners' strike of 1926, James leaves for Berlin to become a concert pianist. From here, he observes the rise of Hitler with mounting concern.
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|isbn=1035401614
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178088561X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Claire North
 +
|title=House of Odysseus
 +
|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=Colossus
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|isbn=0356516075
|author=Alexander Cole
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=I would not want to be in the front line of any army, but one that is facing a row of battle worn elephants must be the worst  These huge beasts, that don’t smell particularly nice, are charging towards you, their tusks tipped in armour. You’ll find me cowering somewhere near the baggage train. Not Gajendra, he is an ambitious young man in Alexander’s all conquering army. He has a special relationship with the largest elephant in Alex’s army, Colossus.  This close relationship between man and beast will lead Gajendra to a higher level than he could ever have imagined for a poor boy from India.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891154</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|title=The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|author= Anton DiSclafani
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|author=A J Lewis
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Theodora Atwell is torn away from her much-loved brother at the age of 15, to be sent far from her home in Florida to Yonahlossee, where she's to have a fresh start after a mysterious event she blames herself for. Set in the 1930s to the backdrop of the Depression, we follow Thea as she tries to navigate her new surroundings and come to terms with the damage she's caused to her family.
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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>0755395190</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|title=Lionheart
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|title=The Fascination
|author=Stewart Binns
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Richard the First. Richard the Lionheart.
 
 
 
Even those of us who didn't pay attention much in history lessons, those of us who are pretty dodgy on which King came when, will be familiar with some of them and be able to put them more or less in their time context. We know William the Conqueror, we know Henry the Eighth…
 
 
 
… and, up to a point, we know about the Lionheart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405913606</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Black Venus
 
|author=James MacManus
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Anyone familiar with the numerous biographies of Charles Baudelaire will know there is an absence in the middle of his life: Jeanne Duval. The facts about this mysterious woman are rather sparse, although it is commonly agreed that she was a Haitian cabaret singer - and Baudelaire's perennial muse. And it is Baudelaire's fascination with Duval that continues to haunt the books published by his critics and admirers alike: just what, they ask themselves, was the great man's obsession with the woman he dubbed his Black Venus? But if there's little more to say on the biographical front, what about in the realms of fiction? What about using the scattered facts to build a three-dimensional Duval, one with a backstory, hopes, and feelings? If you think this is a bad idea, then you're too late, because this is the 'eureka!' moment that spawned James MacManus's exasperating new novel, ''Black Venus''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715647423</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sebastian Faulks
 
|title=Jeeves and the Wedding Bells
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Bertie Wooster had a glorious time in Cannes, not least because of the presence of Georgiana Meadowes. He wondered if she should be allowed out at all, 'such a hazard did she pose to male shipping' - and that was before he'd experienced her driving.  But, being a gentleman, Wooster's hands were tied: Georgiana is soon to become engaged to another.  The two would meet again before too long as Wooster, along with his gentleman's gentleman, were invited to stay at the home of Georgiana's uncle - but, for reasons which you'll need to read for yourself, ''Jeeves'' was there as a member of the aristocracy and Wooster was his gentleman's gentleman. Confused?  Oh, excellent!
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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>0091954045</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
|author=Linda Spalding
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|title=The Purchase
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1798: Daniel Dickinson moves his five children and 15-year-old second wife away from the Pennsylvanian Quaker community he used to call home, towards Virginia.  While on an equipment-buying trip he comes across a slave auction and decides to be true to his abolitionist beliefs in an unusual way.  He buys Onesimus, a young slave boy, in order to change the lad's life, intending to offer him a home and fairness in place of captivity.  However, reality is more difficult and the Dickinsons find that their new servant will actually change their lives instead.
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908737514</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.
|author=Kent Wascom
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=The Blood of Heaven
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=1799 in America and Angel Woolsack is the son of an itinerant preacher, travelling around Louisiana.  Life 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 community.  Eventually 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 loves. Angel 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611855713</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
 +
|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.
|title=The Ice-Cold Heaven
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|isbn=0356518523
|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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|author=G K Holloway
|title=The Reluctant Bride
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|author=Beverly Eikli
 
 
|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= 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>1781890862</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=3949666079
|author=Conn Iggulden
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|title=Noema
|title=Wars of the Roses: Stormbird (Wars of the Roses 1)
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|author=Dael Akkerman
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General 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=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718159837</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=Elaine Neil Orr
 
|title=A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa
 
|rating=4.5
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425261301</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529125898
|title=Close to the Wind
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|title=Godmersham Park
|author=Zana Bell
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|author=Gill Hornby
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|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.
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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>1781890269</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 AustenShe 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 herNo 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.
|author=Bernard Cornwell
 
|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 clergyHowever this time it's in a big way: he murders an abbot while trying to reclaim his eldest sonAs 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, AelfricThere'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=Melissa Fu
|title=The Night Flower
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|author=Sarah Stovell
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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=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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|isbn=1472277538
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906994218</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1916072038
|author=Colum McCann
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|title=TransAtlantic
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical 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 allIn 1919 Alcock and Brown climb into a rickety aircraft to fly the Atlantic and land in LimerickIn 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=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 hollowThe two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408829371</amazonuk>
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}}
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''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
  
{{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=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>
 
}}
 
  
{{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.
|title=The Luminaries
 
|author=Eleanor Catton
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847084311</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=Alison MacLeod
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|title=The Language of Food
|title=Unexploded
 
 
|rating=5
 
|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
 
|title=The Last Runaway
 
|author=Tracy Chevalier
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Quaker girl Honor Bright is seeking escape from a failed relationship. Leaving 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.
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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>000735035X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Freya Marske
|title=A World Elsewhere
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|title=A Marvellous Light
|author=Wayne Johnston
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|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=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>0099572036</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|title=Stay Where You Are And Then Leave
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|title= Flights for Freedom
|author=John Boyne
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|author= Steven Burgauer
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|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.  
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|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>0857532936</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|author= Daniel Woodrell
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|title=The Maid's Version
+
|rating=4
|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 job. She 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.
+
|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>1444732838</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471187179
|author=Graham Thomas
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=The Other Woman (The Roxy Compendium)
+
|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|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 unusualGraham 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 booksWhen 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.
+
|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>B00E05A1J6</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|title=Longbourn
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|author=Jo Baker
+
|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 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?
|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 periodsSarah 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?
+
|isbn=1529402697
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522019</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Elisabeth Gifford
+
|title=The Black Kids
|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
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|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.
+
|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>1846972728</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Gilman
 
|title=Master of War
 
|rating=5
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781850100</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Heaven and Hell
 
|author=Jon Kalman Stefansson
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849164061</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:53, 20 November 2023

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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