Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
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|author=Martin Davies
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{{Frontpage
|title=Havana Sleeping
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|author=Tananarive Due
|rating=4.5
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|title=The Reformatory
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Hector, a night watchman is murdered at work.  There's nothing unusual about that – it happens all the time.  The reason being that this is Havana halfway through the 19th century; a place of intrigue, political posturing (and worse) as pro- and anti-slavery conflicts cause bubbles under the surface of society.  It's a place where an apparently lowly British civil servant like George Backhouse can be posted to influential positions.  It's a place where the Americans don't trust the British, the British don't trust the Americans and everyone fears what the Spanish may do.  Meanwhile a courtesan named Leonarda just wants to find out why the man she loved died.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980451</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert Merle and T Jefferson Kline (translator)
 
|title=The Brethren (Fortunes of France)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=After fighting for France for most of their adulthoods, the two Jeans, de Siorac and de Saveterre (nicknamed 'The Brethren') take over the chateau and settlement at Mespech in the Perigore region of France. There the newly founded community flourishes as people like Jonas the stone-cutter move in, signalling growth.  De Siorac does his bit by producing a family.  However this is the 16th century and conflict is never far awayNationally France is threatened by Spain and England but it's also a threat to itself as brother fights brother – Catholic versus HuguenotIndeed, the Brethren live in fear of the consequences of their own Huguenot faith although de Siorac doesn't make life easy for himself – his wife Isabelle is Catholic.  His personal battles reflect those of the country and have effects that, for him, are just as critical.
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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>1782270442</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Katherine Howe
 +
|title=A True Account
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|rating=4.5
 +
|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 ageWhen 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 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 boyShe 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
|author=Kate Mosse
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|title=The Taxidermist's Daughter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Connie is the daughter of once renowned taxidermist Crowley Gifford.  Times have changed though.  Crowley may once have been famous with his own museum proudly exhibiting intricately prepared bird and animal tableaux but he's now addled by alcohol and deep melancholy, leaving Connie to continue the art in much reduced circumstances.  A decade before Connie (then aged 10) had an accident that robbed her of her memory.  The past refuses to stay hidden though, returning with a vengeance and explaining the shell that Crowley has become.  'A vengeance' isn't a throwaway choice of words either – its return will upturn all that Connie has believed and even threaten her life and the lives of all those whom she holds dear.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409153754</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Soldier's Daughter
 
|author=Rosie Goodwin
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Briony Valentine lives a contented life with her mum, dad and younger siblings in a close-knit community in Nuneaton. She doesn't have much to worry about, other than the fact that she and her best friend both have a crush on the same boy, Ernie. However, the clouds of war are gathering and threaten to turn Briony's peaceful world upside down. Dad and Ernie enlist in the army and Briony has her own war to fight when she and her siblings are evacuated to Cornwall to stay with their stern Grandmother. The black sheep of the family, the unsavoury uncle Seb, clearly wants Briony out of his way, but how far will he go to make sure that she does not interfere with his sinister plans?
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472101723</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035401614
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Claire North
|title=The King and the Slave
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|title=House of Odysseus
|author=Tim Leach
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Literary Fiction  
|summary=The scene is set: a group of the king's closest acquaintances sit feasting around a table in almost total darkness. Wine flows freely. This is a place for political games, a place where the tension in the air is palpable. Wise men learn to play the rules; to be 'shadow men' under the ever-watchful gaze of a suspicious king who sees treachery in every smile. Invisibility is key to survival.
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|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857899228</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{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 New World
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|isbn=0356516075
|author=Andrew Motion
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Following the success of his sequel to Treasure Island, [[Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion|Silver: Return to Treasure Island]], poet Andrew Motion continues the adventures of young Jim (the son of the original Jim Hawkins) and Natty (daughter of Long John Silver) following a shipwreck which leaves them washed up on the shores of the New World. The good news is that the bar silver recovered from the island has survived the journey. The bad news is that the natives have spotted it too...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097946</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|author=Elizabeth Buchan
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|title=I Can't Begin to Tell You
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|author=A J Lewis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=War came to Denmark in 1940 and people found that they had to take sidesBritish-born Kay Eberstern wasn't completely involved to begin withShe had obvious sympathies with the British but her husband had German ancestry and she could see Bror's point of view. But Bror went a little further than she thought necessary and openly sided with the occupying force because he felt the need to protect the family estate and the people who worked thereGradually Kay came to realise that she could not - ''would not'' - accept this and she became increasingly involved with the Resistance movement.
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|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful SwallowsIdyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was 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 boatsEttore 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>0718178912</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|title=The Fair Fight
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|title=The Fascination
|author=Anna Freeman
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Set in the grimy streets of Bristol, we follow the journey of Ruth – born to a Madame in a brothel, and constantly outshone by her prettier sister Dora, Ruth learns to stand on two feet and to defend herself – something which is picked up on by a regular client of Dora’s, Mr Dryer. Plunged headfirst into the world of fighting, Ruth soon meets Grenville Dryer’s wife, Charlotte, a woman scarred by smallpox and trapped in a loveless relationship with her husband, and a toxic one with her brother.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297871951</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Wake
 
|author=Paul Kingsnorth
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Paul Kingsnorth refers to his Booker-longlisted fiction debut, ''The Wake'', as 'a post-apocalyptic novel set 1000 years in the past'. This ambitious story traces the three-year Ely resistance movement that followed the Norman Conquest. The guerrilla fighters were led by a figure named Hereward the Wake – thus the title. The first thing any review must note is the language: set in 1066-8, this historical novel is written in what Kingsnorth calls a 'shadow tongue' or 'pseudo-language', not quite the Old English you encountered reading Chaucer or ''Beowulf'' at school, but similar. I would strongly recommend that any diligent reader start by perusing the partial glossary and 'A Note on Language', both appended at the end of the text.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908717866</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview <!-- 26/8 -->
 
|title=The Leopard of Dramoor
 
|author=P De V Hencher
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Stephen, Earl of Northumbria, known to popular legend as the Leopard of Dramoor, is past his best fighting days. But warfare is never far away in medieval England, particularly in the border country. And it's not far away now. A combined force of Scottish and French troops are massing and intend to attack one of Stephen's castles. Stephen's son David is captain of the castle but he's spoiled and lazy and his father knows he won't defend it successfully without help. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1493588192</amazonuk>
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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.
 +
|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
|author=Karen Maitland
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|title=The Vanishing Witch
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=More and higher taxes are being levied on the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France.  They may cause annoyance to the rich but they're breaking the poor, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his family.  Meanwhile some of the better off are facing problems from other quarters.  Cloth merchant Robert of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders.  It's not a good time to be English and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and the peasants will be revolting.
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147221501X</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=Steven Galloway
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=The Confabulist
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Martin Strauss has an unusual affliction that causes him to reinvent his life from false memories, convincing even himself.  As a confabulist he's unsure of his past and whether he actually had a happy relationship with the woman he loved. But there is one thing of which he's convinced: he killed the famous Ehrich Weiss twice. You've not heard of Ehrich Weiss?  Oh but you have for Ehrich was Harry Houdini, the best escapologist (among other things) that the world has ever known.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782393994</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 Shadow of War
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|isbn=0356518523
|author=Stewart Binns
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary='The Shadow of War' is the first book in a sprawling series with a new book being released once a year for each year of the First World War. Binns writes about five British communities, all very different – an aristocratic Scottish family, a family of working class Welshfolk, a group of friends in a Lancashire factory town, a pair of Cockney soldiers, and Winston Churchill, alongside his wife Clemmie and various government figures. The groups interact at various points in the book, which leads to some very genuine and touching relationships forming, in particular the one between Margaret, a nurse, and Bronwyn, youngest daughter of the Welsh community.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718179978</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=G K Holloway
|author=CC Humphreys
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|title=Plague
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Highwayman Captain William Coke stops a carriage in the line of his chosen career and soon discovers he's not the first to have assailed it.  The driver is dead and all those within have been brutally skewered.  He flees the scene but unfortunately leaves a pistol behind.  This is all thief-taker Pitman needs to arouse his interest and attempt to track the Captain down with a noose in mind.  Meanwhile nature has an equally random mode of death that's soon to be let loose on London.  This is 1665 and the Great Plague is about to begin.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780891423</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Windsor Faction
 
|author=D J Taylor
 
|rating=2.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I jumped at the chance to review this novel. I enjoy reading books based within this period and was fascinated by the premise of ''what if?'' proposed on the back cover. The prologue was beautifully written and I hoped that was an indicator for the rest of the book.
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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>0099578891</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=3949666079
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|title=Noema
 +
|author=Dael Akkerman
 +
|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
  
{{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=Jacqueline Winspear
 
|title=The Care and Management of Lies
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=The long hot July of 1914 is a good one for friends Kezia and Thea. Kezia marries Thea's brother, Tom, bringing them even closer as life-long friends.  Kezia then learns how to be a farmer's wife, translating her love into imaginative meals – sometimes overly so.  Out of the two friends, Thea is the passionate one, fighting for women's universal suffrage and, as war approaches, pacifism. However, when war starts, Thea goes to the front as well as Tom, leaving Kezia at home to be more than the farmer's wife; necessity dictates she's now the farmer.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749016833</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529125898
|author=Robert Wilton
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|title=Godmersham Park
|title=The Spider of Sarajevo
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|author=Gill Hornby
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Four enterprising free thinking people are invited to speak to the military in London: James Cade (fiercely independent business man), David Duval (ladies' man and occasional cad), Fiona Hathaway (a young woman too intelligent to squander in marriage) and Ronald Ballentyne (anthropologist and Balkans expert).  It's spring 1914 and their military hosts are actually recruiting spies on behalf of the Comptroller General for Scrutiny and Survey.  The four think that they're serving their country and they are, but not in the way they think: they're bait.  They are the flies that the high-ups hope will lead British intelligence to the anonymous phantom figure that is the Spider of Sarajevo.
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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>1782391916</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Livi Michael
 
|title=Succession
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=15 year old Margaret of Anjou is brought to England to marry King Henry VI, little realising she'll rule in his stead in all but name.  Then little 3-year-old Margaret Beaufort marries John de la Pole, son of the Duke of Suffolk. This is the first of three marriages she'll embark on by the time she's 14, one of which will produce a king and all will produce suffering.  The War of the Roses and the Tudor dynasty are both waiting in the wings; these are the women who will raise the curtain.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146240</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 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 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=Shirley McKay
 
|title=Friend and Foe (A Hew Cullan Mystery)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=1583 and King James VI of Scotland is paranoid and, after the events of the Ruthven raid the year before, who can blame him?  Surely this won't affect humble academic lawyer Hew Cullen? Oh but it will, eventually causing more turmoil than even he is used to.  Back at the beginning though, while Hew continues, unaware of what's to come, he has more pressing domestic worries that, for once, don't affect his herbalist sister Meg or his doctor brother-in-law Giles.  Indeed, this time the concern is the love of Hew's own heart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972175</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Melissa Fu
|title=I, Hogarth
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|author=Michael Dean
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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=How similar in many ways was Hogarth’s London in the middle of the Eighteenth Century to the London of today. A city where it was easy enough to end up in debtor’s prison, as indeed did Hogarth’s beloved and unworldly father, having been condemned to the Fleet; a sad fate for a brilliant Latin scholar and writer of erudite texts. He opened a Latin speaking coffee house in St John’s Gate. Here the governor and authorities were open to high levels of corruption, as later in Dickens time and very reminiscent of the scandals of G4S today.
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|isbn=1472277538
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715647512</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1916072038
|author=P S Duffy
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|title=The Cartographer of No Man's Land
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Canadian sailing boat captain Angus McGrath joins the army in 1917 as a cartographerHowever, the cosy London war offices are full of map makers and artists and what's more the career choice is a luxury when the high mortality rates at the front means the infantry needs constant replenishment.  Angus therefore finds himself in France as a 1st lieutenant in the Canada Corps.  Meanwhile his family continue their life in the small fishing village back home in Nova Scotia, his wife worrying about her brother who has been declared missing in actionAngus is ideally placed to look for him but there are also other things demanding his attention, staying alive being only one of them.
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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>1905802986</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
|author=Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
 
|title=Goodbye Piccadilly
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's July 1914 and the world is becoming unsettled.  There's fierce unrest brewing in Ireland and Sarajevo is being put on the map for all the wrong reasons.  Back in England life is continuing as usual – at the moment.  Viscount Dene, Charles Wroughton wants to marry for love rather than materialism.  Laura Hunter is fighting for women's suffrage.  As for Beattie Cazalet, her main worry is the rumour concerning the manner in which her servant Ethel is carrying on in public.  All fears are about to deepen and worries put in sharp relief though: war is coming and a war like none the world has fought before.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751556262</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''.
|author=Alison Weir
 
|title=The Marriage Game
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Elizabeth I ruled England for 45 years and she is widely regarded as one of our most successful monarchs. Yet controversy surrounds her. Was she legitimate or illegitimate? Why did she never marry? What was her relationship with Lord Robert Dudley? Alison Weir follows the story of her reign and gives us her own theories about the Virgin Queen and her motivations and intentions, whilst describing the colour and pageantry of the English court. It's going to be a must-read for all Tudor fanatics.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091926254</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 Wedding Gift
 
|author=Marlen Suyapa Bodden
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Half-sisters Clarissa and Sarah couldn’t lead more different lives. Clarissa is a typical 'Southern Belle'; the apple of her daddy's eye with every whim dutifully indulged. Sarah, the daughter of a slave, lives in a cabin on the plantation with her mother and has been born into a life of servitude. Their father is plantation owner Cornelius Allen, a man prone to violent mood swings: at one moment a benevolent patron, the next, a cruel tyrant.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099579987</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|title=Dodger of the Dials
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|title=The Language of Food
|author=James Benmore
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Dodger is back! And oh, how I’ve missed him! Benmore’s excellent debut novel [[Dodger by James Benmore|Dodger]] left me hungry for more Dickensian escapades and it was with greedy anticipation that I began the sequel, ''Dodger of the Dials'', eager to see what our eponymous hero had been up to in the two years since his last adventure. Quite a lot, it would seem, as Dodger has reclaimed the coveted spot of ‘'Top Sawyer' and has a gang of his very own, as well as the heart of the fair Lily, the new lady in his life.
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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>1780874685</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Vanora Bennett
 
|title=The White Russian
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's 1937 and Evie leaves her home and controlling mother in the US to look up her estranged grandmother, Constance, in Paris.  Constance is a mystery no one talks about so Evie is distraught when she dies soon after Evie's arrival.  However, Evie chooses to stay for a while to discover more about her grandmother and carry out her last wish: to track down a mystery man from her past.  Not only is it a difficult mission, it'll expose Evie to danger in a city harbouring fierce enmities from the Russian ex-pat community that Constance nurtured.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890044</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Freya Marske
|author=Patricia Watkins
+
|title=A Marvellous Light
|title=DYFED ODYSSEY: Connell O'Keeffe and The Spider's Web
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Connell O'Keeffe looked to be settled.  His stud was prospering.  He was deeply, enduringly happy with his wife who was expecting their second child and despite the loss of his arm some years before which had put an end to his acting career, life was good. Then one morning Morgan, his manservant brought bad news before he was even out of bed. Khayri, one of his brood mares, was missing from her stable and there was a ransom demand.  Reluctant to lose the mare - or to be beaten - O'Keeffe and Morgan set off to retrieve Khayri, hoping to be back that night, or - at the worst - the next day. Little did O'Keeffe know that it would be many months before he saw his home again.
+
|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>0957210469</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Michelle Lovric
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|title=The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The seven Swiney sisters are growing up during Ireland's 19th century potato famine so know what it is to go without. Therefore when their eldest sister Darcy works out a way for them to earn money using their talent and long, long hair, the other six follow on.  (They'd be daft to cross the dangerous Darcy anyway.)  Gradually their hair becomes their future and the 'Swiney Godivas' are created. However, fame doesn't always bring happiness with the adventure; in fact for the sisters it brings notoriety – a different thing altogether.
+
|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>1408833417</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|title=The Flower Book
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|author=Catherine Law
+
|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Violet’s flower book is her secret treasure; a way to glimpse inside her soul. So much more than a mere diary, Violet uses the secret language of flowers to convey her innermost thoughts and feelings. She takes inspiration from nature and uses it to tell a story across the pages of her private journal. A simple pressed gorse flower brings back warm memories of a carefree day at the cove with her best friend, a bold peony is a bitter reminder of an unwelcome suitor and a handful of poisonous tansy is the key to her biggest secret of all...
+
|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>0749015829</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471187179
|author=Helen MacInnes
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=Home is the Hunter
+
|author=Rachel Hore
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Seventeen years after he left home to fight in the Trojan War (that's also seven years after it had finished!) Ulysses returns home.  A lot has changed; his wife is at home with eleven men for a start! Penelope is being held under virtual house arrest by eleven strangersHow will Ulysses manage to free her and regain his hearth with only his son and a pig herd to help?  Gods only knows!  Meanwhile Penelope is visited by another man.  His name's Homer and he wants to write an epic poemNot a good time Homer, not a good time at all!
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781163316</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
 +
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
 +
|rating=2.5
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of itI found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on.  It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, tooBut 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 themSo what happened?
 +
|isbn=1529402697
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Justin Go
+
|title=The Black Kids
|title=The Steady Running of the Hour
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Tristan Campbell, an American graduate, receives a phone call from an English law firm summoning him to London for a secret meeting. Mountaineer and adventurer Ashley Walsingham died in 1926 without any direct heirs.  Since then his family's legacy has been in limbo while an heir is traced.  They believe Tristan could be that lucky person but there's a catch.  He has to prove the family connection within 7 weeks (when the 80 year limitation on the fortune runs out).  The clock is ticking while Tristan starts a hunt that will take him across Europe.
+
|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>0434022330</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]

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

1914585526.jpg

Review of

The Fascination by Essie Fox

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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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

1800422466.jpg

Review of

In the Shadows of Castles by G K Holloway

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

3949666079.jpg

Review of

Noema by Dael Akkerman

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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

1529125898.jpg

Review of

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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

1472277538.jpg

Review of

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

3.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1916072038.jpg

Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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

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

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

1398502227.jpg

Review of

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1529080886.jpg

Review of

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

B09F4CTKJR.jpg

Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

B095HY8SXQ.jpg

Review of

Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret by Christophe Medler

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1471187179.jpg

Review of

A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1529402697.jpg

Review of

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

2.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

1471188191.jpg

Review of

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

4.5star.jpg Teens

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

Move on to Newest History Reviews