Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
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{{newreview
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  <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|author=Rachel Billington
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{{Frontpage
|title=Glory
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|author=Tananarive Due
|rating=4
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|title=The Reformatory
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Sylvia Fitzpaine comes from a titled family with all the advantages of class that the aristocracy can offer in 1915.  These are grossly troubled times though, with men including her father the Brigadier General and her fiancé Arthur away at war.  The Brigadier General seems safe at the moment in Cairo but Arthur has been sent into the thick of it.  He sits in a ship awaiting embarkation just off the coast of a little known Turkish region, the very name of which will one day summon images of terror and ill-thought-out tactics.  Arthur is on his way to Gallipoli.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409146235</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Fremantle
 
|title=Watch the Lady
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Queen Elizabeth I is in her autumnal years and becoming increasingly pre-occupied with fear of potential plots and coups catching up with her – and perhaps justifiably so.  This is how young Penelope Devereux finds Her Majesty (Penelope's godmother) on Penelope's acceptance at court. It's a dangerous time to be a royal maid, especially in young Miss Devereux's case with a banished mother, a step-father who is one of Elizabeth's favourites and the realisation that the girl has been placed there to spy for the family.  However the Devereux interests will be served even if the game that Penelope plays is a fatal one.
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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>071817710X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
}}
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}}  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Elizabeth Loupas
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|author=Katherine Howe
|title=The Red Lily Crown
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|title=A True Account
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Florence 1574: Chiara Nerini only approaches Francesco de' Medici to sell him her late father's alchemical equipment.  She and her family are starving and a sale would mean survivalHowever the soon to be Emperor has other ideas and abducts Chiara to become his assistant in the quest to find the Philosopher's StoneIf he finds it she will go free.  If not... Best not think about that option!
+
|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 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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571536</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861547438
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rosemary Goring
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|title=Dacre's War
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|rating=5
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=1523, ten years after the Battle of Flodden and the death if James IV of Scotland.  Henry VIII has decided on a scorched earth policy and sends agents over the borders to burn Scottish towns and plunder their churches and monasteries to fund his coffers.  One such agent is Thomas, Baron Dacre, Keeper of Carlisle and, ironically, friend of the dead Scottish ruler.  While working for the English crown Dacre also has his own private war to fight.  Clan chief Adam Crozier hears that Dacre ordered Adam's father's murder and wants his revenge.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973112</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eve Makis
 
|title=The Spice Box Letters
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving her and her mother a journal in Armenian and a spice box full of mysterious lettersThey're special to them both because they're the legacy of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable to the monolingually English pairHowever a holiday abroad to get over a recent break up brings a random encounter for KaterinaWhen Katerina meets Ara she also meets the key to her grandmother's secret past.
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|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing.  Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changesLiving in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signingFrom here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible SpeechAt the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035401614
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=MRC Kasasian
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|author=Claire North
|title=Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)
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|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=While the best personal detective in the known Victorian world (in his opinion anyway) Sidney Grice is away on a case, his ward March is left to her own devices.  As luck would have it, one of those devices is an invitation to meet a previously unknown relative.  March visits Saturn Villa with a sense of curiosity and encounters Uncle Tolly whose afternoon tea is one she will never forget.  Let's hope she knows a good detective!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178185971X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Cesca Major
 
|title=The Silent Hours
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre= Literary Fiction  
|summary=Adeline is an enigma. She has lived in a nunnery ever since her rescue, several years ago. She cannot speak, nor can she remember much about her previous life. She tries desperately to piece together the ephemeral fragments that come to her in fitful dreams. Something has taken everything away. Something so powerful that it has rendered her speechless.
+
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782395687</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Louisa Treger
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|title= The Lodger
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|rating= 5
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|author=A J Lewis
|genre= Historical Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary= A writer writing about writers writing. What more could a reader, a book reviewer, a tentative writer and lover of words want from a book? Not forgetting the setting – England, early 1900s, clear class divisions and social expectations – and the characters – fascinating, colourful, and above all, real. This book has everything I look for in a story.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1250051932</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Antonia Hodgson
 
|title=The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A few months after we left Tom in the 1720s we return to find him living in sin and love with KittyOr it would be sin if they ever get round to the bed bitJust as he promised underworld gang leader James Fleet, Tom has taken in James' son Sam to train him in the ways of being a gentlemanAll seems to be going well in that department until Tom receives a visit from an old enemy and a brush with the country's ultimate powerThen both collide to create fear and an offer that Tom isn't able to refuse, no matter how hard he tries.
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|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful SwallowsIdyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was bornHe's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boatsEttore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitorsHe was even saving some money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775456</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Martine Bailey
+
|author=Essie Fox
|title= The Penny Heart
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|title=The Fascination
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary=After living a life of crime in order to scrape by, Mary Jebb is spared from the gallows – and banished to Australia. Before leaving for the penal colony of Botany Bay, she sends two engraved penny heart tokens to key players in her world. One of these takes us to Delafosse Hall, where Mary’s story meets that of shy artist Grace Moore – and yet more confidence tricks begin.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444769855</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Amitav Ghosh
 
|title=Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy 3)
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1839 and the repercussions of the sinking of the Ibis and the Chinese clampdown on opium smuggling go on.  Now widowed by the marine disaster, Shireen Modhi is given an opportunity to discover her late husband's legacy although it means journeying alone from India to China.  Former sailor Zachary Reid finds life landside to be a little complicated when he becomes a 'mystery' (craftsman) attached to the Indian home of a British opium trader, despite its fringe benefits. East India Company sepoy officer Kesri Singh is also a little unsettled, especially when he discovers he must prepare for a war that, in some way or other, will affect them all.
+
|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>0719569001</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jean Ravencourt
+
|author=Nicole Jarvis
|title=A Lover's Pinch
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Hettie (Henriette to be formal) has grown up in straitened times. Her mother was a former mistress of Charles IX but now Henri IV is on the throne.  A different king means different favourites and Hettie’s family have to live on the memory and favours of others. However Hettie has attracted the attention of Henri which is enough to give her mother ideas. She’s not the only one though: King’s mistress Gabrielle d’Estrees also has plans for the teenage girl.  Hettie is definitely embarking on an adventure but the twists it takes are unforeseen by anyone and dangerous to all.
+
|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00UEL4XLW</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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.
 +
|isbn=1803362340
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
 +
|summary= ''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.
 +
|isbn=0356518523
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Patricia Duncker
+
|author=G K Holloway
|title=Sophie and the Sibyl: A Victorian Romance
+
|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Sophie and the Sibyl'', consciously modelled on John Fowles's ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'', is a postmodern blending of history, fiction, and metafictional commentary. Brothers Max and Wolfgang Duncker really were George Eliot's German publishers, but the accident of their surname matching the author's makes them her clever stand-in. As the novel opens in 1872, the venerable English author is exploring Homburg and Berlin in the company of her 'husband' while ushering her latest novel, ''Middlemarch'', into German translation. Max, a young cad fond of casinos and brothels, has two tasks: ensuring Eliot's loyalty to their publishing house, and securing Countess Sophie von Hahn's hand in marriage.
+
|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>140886052X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Laura Beatty
+
|isbn=3949666079
|title=Darkling
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|title=Noema
|rating=2.5
+
|author=Dael Akkerman
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Brilliana Harley is a seventeenth century Puritan, and a Roundhead in a county of Puritans. Driven to defend both her beliefs and home in the front of total aggression, Brilliana must take charge and defend her home, all the while consumed with longing for an absent husband. She soon comes under a brutal and unrelenting siege, and will struggle to survive. In the present day, Mia Morgan is researching the life of Brilliana Harley, hoping to finish a book begun by her late ex-lover. As she struggles to come to term with her grief, and to rebuild a life from what she has left, Mia finds her life becoming irrevocably entwined with that of the tragic Brilliana.
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|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009958414X</amazonuk>
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|summary=''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?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ben Kane
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|isbn=1529125898
|title=Eagles at War
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|title=Godmersham Park
|rating=4
+
|author=Gill Hornby
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=War, what is it good for?  Looking at the ever buoyant historic fiction genre it would appear that war is great for selling booksThis is especially the case with the Romans; there are more books about Ancient Roman battles than there were mad CaesarsOne of the leading names in the historic fiction genre is Ben Kane and when he releases the first book in a new series fans of the genre take notice, but would they be right to do so?
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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>1848094043</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Diney Costeloe
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|author=Melissa Fu
|title=The Throwaway Children
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction  
|summary=They seemed like a perfect little family unit: Mavis and her two young daughters, Rita and Rosie. But widowed Mavis needed a man in her life and violent bully Jimmy was only too happy to enjoy the perks of such a relationship, even if it meant putting up with her troublesome children. When Mavis finds herself pregnant with Jimmy's baby, he agrees to marry her on one condition: the girls have to go. Distraught Mavis chooses her man over her children, setting in motion a tragic chain of events that leads to the girls being sent to an orphanage thousands of miles away in Australia. “The Throwaway Children” follows the lives of Rita and Rosie as they struggle to make sense of this new, unfamiliar world.
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|summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784970018</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Suzannah Dunn
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|isbn=1916072038
|title=The Lady of Misrule
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
 +
|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Elizabeth Tilney volunteers to accompany Lady Jane Grey to the Tower of LondonElizabeth would be attendant to the young deposed Protestant queen while Jane's husband Guildford Dudley is kept in an adjacent towerHer feelings for him are less than devotional whereas he still feels a responsibility towards her, mixed with his fear and anger at what has gone before and what may lie ahead.  However Jane is treated well by the new Queen Mary despite the difference in the new and old queens' faiths. Does Jane have anything to fear?  Spending her time with Jane and as a messenger to Guildford, Elizabeth hopes not but she hears rumours...
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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>1408704668</amazonuk>
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 +
''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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dan Simmons
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|title=The Fifth Heart
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|title=The Language of Food
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=On a rainy night in March 1893 Henry James stands on a Paris bridge, about to end it all. Next to him sidles Sherlock Holmes, about to do the same.  Instead of jumping, Holmes drags James off for a drink and decides that they will go to America to solve a 17-year-old murder case. The supposed victim, socialite Clover Adams, is believed to have committed suicide but that doesn't deter Sherlock.  He's off, Henry James is going with him and that's that!
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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>0751560952</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Katherine Clements
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|author=Freya Marske
|title=The Silvered Heart
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|title=A Marvellous Light
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Katherine Ferrers is a young orphan – growing up in the turbulent period of the English Civil War, she has little choice but to marry for the sake of her family, and to trust her considerable inheritance into the care of her husband. As the war comes to an end, and those who supported the losing King are punished severely, Katherine finds herself with no money, few friends, and a house that has become a prison. Wishing for a life away from her cold, oft absent husband, Katherine meets a man who changes her life, with Katherine choosing to join him in a life that provides her with the excitement she craves – and yet may prove all too dangerous…
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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>1472204247</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lydia Syson
 
|title=Liberty's Fire
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Paris in the uneasy and violent months between March and May 1871 is an inspired setting for this tense, dramatic novel. ''Liberty's Fire'' is Lydia Syson's third work of fiction and certainly ensures that she will not be stereotyped into any single historical period.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147140367X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Laura Madeleine
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|title=The Confectioner's Tale
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|title= Flights for Freedom
 +
|author= Steven Burgauer
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Petra is researching the life of late historian, author, critic and greatly missed grandfather JG Stevenson when she should really be writing a dissertation for her doctorate. While looking through his belongings she comes across a photo taken in Paris at the turn of the 20th century and an intriguing note in his handwriting.  Petra has never consciously realised that Grandpa Jim (as he was to her) had been to France so the revelation spurs her on against all odds, an unscrupulous competitor and academic pressure.  Gradually the search reveals a romance and notorious scandal; the sort of scandal would lead a man to regret it for the rest of his life. Meanwhile in 1909, Guillaume du Frere moves to France from the provinces in order to escape poverty and changes his life completely, although not in the way he'd expected.
+
|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>1784160725</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sally Wragg
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|title=The Angel and the Sword
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|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=We met the people from Loxley New Hall in [[Loxley by Sally Wragg|Loxley]] but we've moved on quite a few years as we rejoin them for the story of ''The Angel and the Sword''.  Harry, eleventh Duke of Loxley is dead and the title has been inherited by his daughter - she's a lucky girl as that doesn't happen too often in the world of Debrett's. She's only in her mid teens, but Katherine, her grandmother is uneasy about her friendship with Bill, a local boy.  She was very sniffy when her son married Bronwyn, the daughter of a doctor and only really came around to the idea when Bron made a good fist of running the estate when the Duke went off to the trenches with every able-bodied man on the estate.
+
|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>0719814308</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Barbara Erskine
+
|isbn=1471187179
|title= The Darkest Hour
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
 +
|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= In the summer of 1940, at the start of the Battle Britain, Evie Lucas has two things on her mind. She paints pictures of the war and she has fallen in love with Tony, a young pilot.
+
|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 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.
Seventy years later, Lucy, an art historian, begins a study into Evie’s life.  Lucy is recently widowed and hopes to find solace in the engrossing project. Instead, she finds secrets that people have been working hard to protect for over half a century – and her discoveries have a profound impact on her own life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007513151</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jessie Burton
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|title=The Miniaturist
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|rating=5
+
|rating=2.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The Miniaturist'' is a meticulously researched wonder of a book. Burton, her imagination fired by a trip to the Rijksmuseum, where she viewed the wealthy Amsterdammer merchant’s wife Petronella Oortman’s elaborate 1686 cabinet dolls' house, revels in creating her fictional world. She imbues it with authentic details including descriptions of actual rooms, pieces of commissioned art, a parrot’s cage, food made from wax, furniture made to exact scale and miniature puppets. She is a word smith, painting a rich canvas of imagery and emotions for the reader. Her ‘Nella’ Oortman is a tentative rural bride of 18 embarking on a union with an older, learned man of languages who has a warehouse full of strange curiosities.
+
|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 themSo what happened?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447250931</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529402697
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrea Chapin
 
|title=The Tutor
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Katherine de L'Isle comes to live with her uncle Sir Edward's family at Lufanwal Hall when she's widowed after only a year of marriage.  A fine home and the bosom of the family should be a place of safety but not in this case.  This is 1590 in Queen Elizabeth's protestant England and Katherine's family are Roman Catholics; something they thought was a secret till their priest is found murdered on their land.  Life must go on though.  The children of the household are raised and educated almost on the periphery of Katherine's vision until she meets their tutor, a certain Midlands' glove maker's son called William Shakespeare.   
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024196816X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Fannie Flagg
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|title=The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
+
|title=The Black Kids
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=2005 Alabama: Sookie Earle awakes one morning a 59 year old happily married female Methodist with American roots that go way back in history and a wonderfully steadfast dentist husband.  However before she goes to bed that night all that (apart from the married and female bits) will change.
+
|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.
 
+
|isbn=1471188191
1940s Wisconsin: a Polish immigrant family lose their men to wartime conscription and so have to make a go of their family gas station alone.  Fritzi and her sisters rise to the challenge and then take on another more dangerous adventure, taking to the skies for the war effort.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593149</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Williams
 
|title=The Storms of War
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=England - 1914. The de Witt family live in Stoneythorpe Hall, an English manor that allows them to lead lives of relative luxury. Behind the ornate doors and heavy drapes of the house though, things are less than ideal - the approaching shadow of war makes things increasingly difficult for German born Rudolf, and Verena struggles to find her role in both the home and society. With their sons studying, one daughter marrying and one fast growing up, war will change all that these people know, and force them to either adapt, or suffer untold consequences.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409144887</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
 
|title=A Place Called Winter
 
|author=Patrick Gale
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=''A Place called Winter'' is the story of Harry Cane, a young man in Edwardian England. Left with a sizeable inheritance, Harry follows tradition, marrying and raising a young child. A passionate affair, however, forces Harry into exile, separated from all that he knows, and forced to try his hand as a farmer in the plains of Canada.
 
  
In Canada he finds love and acceptance, although the fragile happiness is soon threatened by the return of an old enemy, war, and madness.
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472205294</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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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