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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eva StachniakTananarive Due|title=Empress of the NightThe Reformatory|rating=35
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=RussiaGracetown, 1796 and the ruler is dying from Florida. June 1950. After a stroke. As each new symptom hits and her life recedes scuffle with a little further she remembers how she came this far. Her recollections begin when she was Sophiewhite boy, Princess of Anholttwelve year-Zerbstold Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, sent to young Russian Grand Duke Peter otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a marriage prospectbrutal and dark reputation. The wedding plans go through and her new life But the segregated reformatory is accompanied a chamber of horrors, haunted by a name change: Princess Sophie becomes Catherine Alekseyevna but history will christen her Catherine the Greatboys 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...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00J8KYE14</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Love Like BloodKatherine Howe|authortitle=Marcus SedgwickA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=HorrorGeneral Fiction|summary=One day towards the end of World War TwoHannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, Charles Jackson and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is dragged to be a museum hanging of antiquities just outside a newly liberated Paris by his commanding officer during their downtimesome pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. While the other looks at the unusual ancient artefactsEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Jackson Hannah finds something much more horrific – a man herself embroiled in a wartime bunker in young boy's death at the grounds, squatting over a female figurehands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, blood on his lips so that could only have come from they don't find and kill her neckline. Years latertoo, Jackson returns and then to Paris for reasons escape them completely she runs away to do with his medical careersea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds the same man herself in the company thick of someone who, were he only aware of the factthings when there is a mutiny on board, is to become the first and possibly only love from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of his lifeon the ocean waves. But that's not the only time the paths of Jackson and the mysterious male are destined to cross – the prologue was set in the late 1960s…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>144475193X</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lesley GlaisterSarah Marsh|title=Little EgyptA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Twins Isis and Osiris are now in their 90sAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, living together in Little Egypt, the English manor house where they were born and brought upEllen Lark loses her hearing. Their names are Suddenly plunged into a clue to their parents' near fetish for world of silence, everything Egyptianabout her life changes. In fact this near fetish leads their parents to Egypt itself, Living in search a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a big discovery back in the 1920sschool where she is taught to lip read, demonstrating more enthusiasm than savvybut physically restrained from signing. Having left the twins From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the care of deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the housekeepersame time, they never return. Isis Bell is working on other inventions and Osiris are now bound to the houseideas, tied not by love or memories but dark secrets that won't let goand Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190777372X</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''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.|isbn=0356516075}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne O'BrienB0C7J9D21B|title=The Scandalous DuchessA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1372: Lady Katherine de Swynford When we first meet our hero, his name is widowed Ettore and in reduced circumstances he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a resultbordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born. She remembers a more sumptuous life before her marriage; a life in the service He's not been short of Queen Philippamothers, mother though - but for someone of Johnhis background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, Duke of Lancaster. In the hope of reprising her past lifestyle she goes it's difficult to the Savoy Palace to beg the Duke for a role in his householdobtain decent employment. He willingly employs her to help his new wife, Constanza, The stint working with the Princess preparation of Castille, with her imminent birth but this is a dangerous moveanchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. As John Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and Katherine fall in love determined - and Katherine becomes John's mistress they endanger more than their hearts; their attraction provides ammunition it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for their enemies, risking fatal resultsvisitors. He was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848452985</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Juliet GreenwoodEssie Fox|title=We That Are LeftThe Fascination
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Hugo and Elin are settling down to life at home in Hiram Hall now Hugo The Victorian era is back from incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Boer Second World War. He refuses ) which has often led to speak about his experiences in Africa but carries the psychological effectsmore than a few writers mishandling it. However, appearances count for There's such a lot so they both continue to run glut of media set in the house, gardens and staff while Elin tries to ignore era that the deficiencies in their marriage. She succeeds as well but then two things change her outlook: the arrival of daring adventurer Lady Margaret ('Mousehallmarks we' ve come to associate with it are familiar to her friends) and the less welcome outbreak point of World War Ibeing cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. Both will leave their indelible mark so But despite that, for Hugo, Elin something about it still grabs me – and many others around that time, theresomething about this book'll be no going backs description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190678499X</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Nicole Jarvis
|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher RushG K Holloway|title=WillIn the Shadows of Castles
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=ItWe begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's March 1616 and coronation as King of England. William Shakespeare, 's position is not having long to live, sends for his lawyer secure and old friend Francis Collins the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to draw up his willworry. While Francis works (at both the will previous king, Harold, is dead and eating Shakespeare out the likelihood of house and home) William's mind meandersmore pitched battles is over, regaling Francis with stories the rebels are stirring and opinions from a life well-lived in a nation in turmoil. After all, Mr S could never resist an audience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972787</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Last Quarter much of the Moon|author=Chi Zijian|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=An old woman has been left alone in the mountain camp. Not totally alone, her grandson An'tsaur has stayed with her, country does not wish to do the chores that she no longer has the physical strength to dorecognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555654</amazonuk>1800422466
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=3949666079
|title=Noema
|author=Dael Akkerman
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Scott1529125898|title=The KeptGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Elspeth and her 12 year old son Caleb have been beset by one ''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the worst types of tragedy. As a result, fuelled by Calebodd gentleman's need for revenge and Elspeth's motherly loveduty, they set out on a journey that brings them there would no women to the small Lake Erie town of Watersbridgeteach well-bred daughters at all. With their new setting comes a greater understanding of their past which is a mixed blessing that must be met head on before they have to face their future.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091944503</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=WakeMelissa Fu |authortitle=Anna HopePeach Blossom Spring
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Wake: 1 Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep<br>2 Ritual for I loved the dead<br>3 Consequence or aftermath We often hear the term ''Broken Britain'' in reference prelude to modern societyPeach Blossom Spring, but the Britain presented in a short chapter entitled ''WakeOrigins'' epitomises the term completely. This Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a country reeling book that I expected more from the aftermath of the Great War. Unemployment Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is rifeset ablaze during the war with Japan, food scarce a young mother (Meilin) and every family has been touched her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and scarred forever by the events of the preceding yearsin Renshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857521942</amazonuk>1472277538
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1916072038|title=Keane's CompanyThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Iain GaleAllie Cresswell|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=There is one fictionalised character that straddles recent historic fiction set during We meet part of the Napoleonic Wars like a Colossus and that man is Bernard Cornwell’s Richard SharpeTalbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. To take on this level of success is no easy taskTwenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, but with Sharpe books no longer being released, there is room for a new manto the house in the hollow. Is that man James Keane, star of Iain Gale’s ‘Keane’s Company’? This The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is a book that forgoes some of the deeper literary elements in favour well aware of action her mother's strengths and thrills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782064524</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca MascullAnnabel Abbs|title=The VisitorsLanguage of Food
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Adeliza Golding Eliza Acton is comfortably off by Victorian standardsa poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. She lives in When tasked with writing a not insignificant housecookery book, her parents can afford servantsshe recruits Ann Kirby, Liza's father owns and runs a hop farmlocal woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, but... The but is considerable as Liza is different from most: she's deaf/blind craft, refine and isolated from reshape the world with only 'of domestic cookery, reinventing the visitors' for company recipe book and communication in her mind. Almost in desperation when Liza is six, her father calls on Charlotte Crowe for help. Lottie penetrates Liza's lonely world by teaching her finger changing the face of cookery writing. However, in doing so she unlocks revelations that Lottie would rather be kept secret. For not everything changes; the visitors remain, whoever they are and whatever they wantforever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444765205</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Pursuit of Mary Bennet: A Pride and Prejudice NovelFreya Marske|authortitle=Pamela MingleA Marvellous Light|rating=34
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Mary Bennet seems Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to have a serious case his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of 'middle child syndrome'London are threaded with magic. The third of five sistersDesperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, she has always been isolatedRobin follows Edwin to the countryside, lacking where the close bonds formed between her older hedgegrows bristle with incantations and younger siblingsthe people shimmer with power. As There they uncover a result, Mary has become bookish, withdrawn and socially awkwardsinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0062274244</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert LyndonB09F4CTKJR|title=Imperial Fire|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Nine years after his return from the perilous trek to the Middle East, Frankish mercenary Vallon is now a general in the Byzantine army. He leads the 'Outlanders', a Babel of a mercenary force from every corner of the known world fighting those threatening the Empire. However, The Emperor has plans for them. On hearing about the [[Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon|Hawk Quest]] expedition, the Emperor wants to send Vallon and his men on a more challenging trip: to bring a new wonder weapon back from far off China. The good news is that this 'fire drug' is more destructive than anything they already have. The bad news is that they could be away Flights for at least 3 years and that Lucas, a young stranger accompanying them, has a secret that could prove as dangerous as the journey.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847444997</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFreedom|author=Meg Clothier|title=The EmpressSteven Burgauer|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's 1179 the later stages of World War I and Agnes, daughter of King Louis VII the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is sent to Byzantium to marry the a young son American who has signed up and heir of joined the Emperor17 Aero Squadron. However This company was the chap first US Aero Squadron to be trained in questionCanada, young Alexios, is more a drip than a chip off his father's block. This leaves Agnes the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to work on her own strategy for survivalfight the Germans in active combat. For this is a world where everyone is paranoidBut before that can happen, and with good reason as everyone is a target and Agnes isn't just a woman, she's a stepping stone Petrol has to powermaster flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553147</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|title=The Web and the WingFrontpage|author=Teresa Raftery|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178088561X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewChristophe Medler|title=Colossus|author=Alexander ColeMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I would not want to be in Set against the front line backdrop of any armythe English Civil War, but one that a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is facing discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. As a row loyal servant of battle worn elephants must be the worst These huge beastsKing, that don’t smell particularly nice, are charging towards you, their tusks tipped in armour. You’ll find me cowering somewhere near and Head of the baggage train. Not GajendraSecret Service, he it is an ambitious young man in Alexander’s all conquering army. He has a special relationship with Robert's duty to uncover the details of the largest elephant in Alex’s army, Colossus. This close relationship between man plan and beast will lead Gajendra follow the clues to a higher level than he uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could ever have imagined for a poor boy from Indiaaffect the King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857891154</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1471187179|title=The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for GirlsA Beautiful Spy|author= Anton DiSclafaniRachel Hore
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Theodora Atwell Minnie is torn away from 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 much-loved brother at mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the age rest of 15, to be sent far from her days looking after her husband and their home in Florida . Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to Yonahlossee, where do at all and neither does she's want to have continue working as a fresh start after secretary. As a result of a mysterious event chance meeting, she blames finds herself drawn into espionage, working for. Set in the 1930s secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the backdrop Communist Party of the Depression, we follow Thea Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as she tries to navigate her new surroundings duty and come to terms with the damage friends she's caused to her familyhas made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755395190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|title=LionheartFrontpage|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 Afonso Cruz 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>}} {{newreviewRahul Bery (translator)|title=Black Venus|author=James MacManusKokoschka's Doll
|rating=2.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Anyone familiar with Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the numerous biographies of Charles Baudelaire will know there get-go, which is an absence in the middle why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any 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 I found things to haunt potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the books published by his critics and admirers alike: just what, they ask themselvesmiddle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number 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 Duval20, one with a backstory000s, hopesletters used as narrative form, and feelings? If you think this is so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a bad ideaman hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, then too. But you're too lateve seen the star rating that comes with this review, because this is the 'eureka!' moment and can tell that spawned James MacManus's exasperating new novelif love was on these pages, ''Black Venus''it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715647423</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sebastian FaulksChristina Hammonds Reed|title=Jeeves and the Wedding BellsThe Black Kids|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=Bertie Wooster had a glorious time in Cannes, not least because Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the presence of Georgiana Meadowes. He wondered if she should be allowed out at all1992 Los Angeles riots, 'such a hazard did she pose reaction to male shipping' - and that was before he'd experienced her driving. Butthe absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, being a gentlemanRodney King, Wooster's hands were tied: Georgiana is soon to become engaged nearly to anotherdeath. The two would meet again before too long as WoosterTold from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, along the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with his gentleman's gentleman, were invited to stay at the home matters of Georgiana's uncle - butrace, for reasons which you'll need to read for yourself, ''Jeeves'' was there as a member of the aristocracy woman finding her voice and Wooster was his gentleman's gentlemanembracing her heritage. Confused? Oh, excellent!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091954045</amazonuk>1471188191
}}
