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= Chris Cleave
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{{Frontpage
|title= Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
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|author=Tananarive Due
|rating= 4.5
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|title=The Reformatory
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary= War was declared at 11:15. Mary North signed up at noon. When war is declared, Mary North leaves her finishing school, travels back to London, and immediately signs up. Expecting to be given a position of high importance or excitement, she is instead placed as a school teacher. Tom Shaw decides to give war a miss – happy in his role organising education. It's only when his flatmate Alistair enlists, that Tom and Mary are drawn into the war in ways they never could have imagined. As Mary grows to protect and defend her small band of pupils, Tom struggles to decide whether he should join the war effort. And Alistair? Many, many miles away, Alistair battles both the enemy, and his own feelings for one out of his reach.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147361869X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Dyer
 
|title=The Midnight Watch
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In the early hours of April 15th 1912, the RMS Titanic sank causing the death of over 1,500 people.  The Californian, commanded by Captain Stanley Lord was the nearest ship to it, near enough for anyone on deck that night to see the Titanic's distress rockets. This means it was near enough to go to its aid but it remained inactive while witnessing the unfolding eventsWhy? Within a day or two of the disaster American journalist John Steadman is sent to cover the Titanic's sinking but the story of the Californian's inaction intrigues him even more.
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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>1782397795</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
|amazonus=<amazonus>1782397795</amazonus>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Katherine Howe
 +
|title=A True Account
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|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 boy.  She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.
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|isbn=0861547438
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=David Sanger
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|title=All Their Minds In Tandem
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|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.
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|isbn=1035401614
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Claire North
 +
|title=House of Odysseus
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Literary Fiction  
|summary=October 1879: A stranger walks into New Georgetown, West Virginia to keep an appointment.  He calls himself 'The Maker' and has a gift that gives him access to people's minds.  Gradually he'll become deeply acquainted with the townsfolk but it mustn't sway him from what he's here to accomplish.  One man, one mission and no guarantee how it will end.
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|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784293954</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1784293954</amazonus>
 
}}
 
  
{{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.
|author= Yves Jego, Denis Lepee, and Sue Dyson (translator)
+
|isbn=0356516075
|title= The Sun King Conspiracy
 
|rating= 3
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary=''Who can I trust in this nest of vipers?'' The year is 1661 and Cardinal Mazarin, the Chief Minister to King Louis XIV of France, lies dying. As the health of the man who once governed France deteriorates, the ambitions of those beneath him strive for power in order to succeed him. Secret papers have been stolen from the Cardinal, papers that could change the course of France forever, and have fallen in to the hands of Gabriel de Pontibrand, a young actor who has become unwillingly involved in this strange conspiracy. Surrounded by scheming politicians and a secret brotherhood, the contents of these coded papers will change Gabriel's life and have the power to change the future of France.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477354</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Elaine Everest
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|title=The Woolworths Girls
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|rating=4
+
|author=A J Lewis
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It is Christmas, 1938, and three young ladies are excited about starting their new jobs at Woolworths in Erith. For each one of them, the job is a means of escape: Sarah wants to escape her snobbish and controlling mother; newlywed Maisie can't abide her bullying mother in law; and shy Freda is running away from her abusive stepfather and searching for her brother, who has escaped from prison. The ''Woolworths Girls'' soon become close friends, but with the threat of war looming large, and tragedy just around the corner, they are going to need to rely on each other more than ever before.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144729548X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Philip Dent
 
|title=Mutable Passions: Charlotte Bronte: A Disquieting Affair
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=As the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth approaches, it is a perfect time for reading about her. Philip Dent's second novel chooses a lesser known period of her life to dramatize. All her siblings are now dead; during a hard winter when she is unable to visit her best friend, Ellen Nussey, Charlotte spends her time finishing ''Villette'', her final novel. The family servant, Tabby, ribs Charlotte about her romantic prospects – including Patrick Brontë's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. Charlotte responds with indignation: 'I could no more kiss the lips of a man with a beard as big as rooks' nests than I could yours, Tabby.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178589093X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Helen Simonson
 
|title=The Summer Before the War
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Summer 1914: Beatrice Nash arrives in Rye following the death of her father, hoping to earn a living as a Latin tutor.  Despite being the sort of woman with ideas of her own, she has allies in the family of local pillar of the community Lady Agatha.  Agatha may not have realised just how modern Beatrice is but she'll stand by her after having been her sponsor for the post initially.  Meanwhile Agatha's nephew, medical student Hugh soon warms to Beatrice but his heart belongs to Lucy, his surgeon professor's daughter.  Soon, though, the events of a small town summer will fade in importance; the Balkans will explode and Europe is thrown into a war that's far from the swift, romantic, consequence-free conflict of which summer daydreams are made.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408837641</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1408837641</amazonus>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kevin Smith
 
|title=The Voyage of the Dolphin
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Dublin 1916: Among the unrest and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irish, Trinity College faculty has other distractions.  They'd like a trophy; the skeleton of an Irish 'giant' to be precise.  The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeill's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged.  There may be hope though.  They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything else.  Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with him.  So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to the bloody Arctic!''  Whether battle cry or epitaph, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anyway.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Janet Todd
 
|title=A Man of Genius
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Ann St Clair is determined not to follow the ways of her Georgian contemporaries into marriageShe earns enough as a writer of Gothic romances to keep the wolf from the door and believes that's how it will always beThen she meets Robert James, writer, self-acclaimed genius and popular raconteur, becoming totally besotted.  However Ann still thinks she can retain her independence, even when she goes to Venice with Robert to escape the boredom of English life.  However there's a darker side to this man, the unforeseen consequences of which will unlock the mysteries of Ann's own childhood.
+
|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 boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524596</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1908524596</amazonus>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Eliza Rose
 
|author=Lucy Worsley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Eliza's family isn't as wealthy as it once was. And she is well aware that her duty is to marry well in order to repair the Camperdowne fortunes. To this end, Eliza is sent from her family home at Stoneton Castle to Trumpton Hall, to be educated in the ways of noble ladies. Here, she meets the infamous Katherine Howard while she too is still a young girl. And from there, it's on to the Tudor court of Henry VIII, who is currently married to Anne of Cleves.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408869438</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ben Kane
+
|author=Essie Fox
|title=Hunting the Eagles
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|title=The Fascination
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=They say never poke a sleeping bear as they are likely to wake up and slam you with a paw. The said can be said of the Roman Empire, they were best left alone. Back in AD 09 the Germans managed to get one up on the Romans by ambushing them deep in the forest and wiping out around 15000 men, but it is now AD 14 and the Romans not only want revenge; they also want their Eagles back.
+
|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>184809406X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ernst Haffner and Michael Hofmann (translator)
+
|author=Nicole Jarvis
|title=Blood Brothers
+
|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=It's Berlin, and the Nazis are on their way to power, even if they will never cross these pages themselves.  The city – huge, glamorous, bustling, vicious in the way it can swallow people – is home to a countless hoard of teenagers, but we focus on just a few, most of whom have been in some corrective institution or other before now.  They call themselves the Blood Brothers, even if all they share is the most unglamorous drudgery of going from one doss-house to another, balancing the cost of a few cigarettes with that of a warm room for a few hours or some stale rolls to eat.  But en route to them is another 'Borstal' escapee, Willi.  Surely his fate is going to be nothing if not more of the same?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099594048</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Marina Fiorato
 
|title= The Double Life of Mistress Kit Kavanagh
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary= In early eighteenth century Ireland, young Irish beauty Kit Kavanagh lives a quiet, settled life in a Dublin alehouse with her husband, Richard. When Richard is suddenly whisked away to join the British army, Kit disguises herself as a man and enlists as a soldier, determined to follow and find her husband across war-torn Europe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473610494</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Gilman
 
|title=Gate of the Dead (Master of War)
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Tuscany 1358: A dying man brings an enigmatic message to Thomas Blackstone, the exiled English archer and current mercenary leader.  It appears to be a royal command to return home but is it an invitation to his own death?  Thomas can't take the risk of ignoring it, especially since his life is in just as much danger where he is.  It seems that he's more valuable dead than alive in many countries; it's just a case of deducing the paymaster – or paymasters - behind the assassination attempts before he runs out of time.
+
|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781852901</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.
{{newreview
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|isbn=1803362340
|author=Robert Merle and T Jefferson Kline (translator)
 
|title=Fortunes of France 3: Heretic Dawn
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=France 1568: Having persuaded his father Jean that it's safe for him to return to his studies, Pierre de Siorac goes back to Montpellier. He doesn’t stay there long though as Jean has a mission for him that will take him into the royal court in Paris. The fighting between the Medici-led Catholics and the Huguenots has quietened down but, despite sending his son into the vipers' nest, he's reluctant to consider the Peace of St Germain as being the end of the conflict. History will prove his suspicions correct as we approach the St Bartholomew Massacre of the Huguenots which occurs… in Paris.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271937</amazonuk>
 
|amazonus=<amazonus>1782271937</amazonus>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
 +
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
  
{{newreview
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Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
|author=Adriana Trigiani
+
|isbn=0356518523
|title=All The Stars In The Heavens
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=It was 1935 and Loretta Young wanted fame and success in Hollywood. Part of it was being young (just twenty one) and beautiful but she was also conscious that the money she brought in mattered to her family.  She was hungry for love too: her father had left when she was young. Her step-father had done little better and there was a ''need'' for a man she could love and look up to.  She developed a reputation for falling in love with her leading men: first it was Spencer Tracy but on the set of ''The Call of the Wild'' she fell for Clark Gable - and he for her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471136345</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Leo Tolstoy
+
|author=G K Holloway
|title=War and Peace
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1805: Napoleon Bonaparte is on the way to conquering Europe while what's left of Europe (including the Russian army led by Tsar Alexander) stands in his way. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky quickly gets a reputation as military hero although few know this is allied to his death wish. Meanwhile back in Russia the remaining aristocracy have no doubt that their motherland will win and so they continue with daily life.  Pierre, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhoff buries his life in wine, women, song and more wine but the death of his father takes him on a journey to find happiness, the long way round.  12-year-old Natasha Rostov dreams of love and happiness, searching with age-related exuberance and inexperience.  The older generation are there to help and hinder as they take their places as pawns and puppeteers in the manipulation and social climbing that's become second nature… that is until the tide of war changes.
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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>184990846X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Michael Grant
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|isbn=3949666079
|title= Front Lines
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|title=Noema
|rating= 5
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|author=Dael Akkerman
|genre= Teens
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|rating=4.5
|summary=1942: Hitler is pushing his way ever further, the USA adds its strength to the Alliance and women are allowed to fight in the military for the first time. Rio Richlin’s sister has already died in the war, Frangie Marr is desperate for a way to keep her family’s heads above water and Rainy Schulterman wants to kill the man who is murdering Jews.  All three go to war and all three are changed. Although they do they do not start together, their paths intersect as they all take on roles that leave more scars than expected.
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|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405273828</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=Jessica Blair
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|isbn=1529125898
|title=Tread Softly, Alice
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|title=Godmersham Park
|rating=2.5
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|author=Gill Hornby
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Alice Ware is finally returning home to Yorkshire, after an extended stay with friends in France. Much has changed since she left, but the most exciting development has been the arrival of an elegant new neighbour, Emma Cheevey, who has inherited the estate next to their home. Alice is particularly thrilled by the arrival of Emma's handsome soldier sons: the serious but self confident Steven and his gentle, easygoing younger brother Matthew. Both men are keen to win her heart, but which one holds the key to her future?
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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>0349407320</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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Anne O'Brien
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|author=Melissa Fu
|title=The Queen's Choice
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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=Joanna of Navarre may be married to John IVth Duke of Britany but she has views of her own and isn't afraid to voice them, even to Charles the French KingWhen she defends exiled English noble Henry Bolingbroke at the French court she does so as a friend not realising what the future holds. For Bolingbroke is the future Henry IV and fate will decree that Joanna will become his queen, roles that will take their toll on both of them as a couple and individuals.
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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>1848454074</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Ross
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|isbn=1916072038
|title=Battle For Rome (Twilight of Empire)
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|rating=5
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Be warned - spoilers ahead for the first two books…''
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|summary=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:
Aurelius Castus, tribune in Emperor Constantine's army is preparing for the battle everyone (including us) has been waiting for: the fight against Maxentius, Tyrant of Rome. Meanwhile Castus' marriage to the aristocratic Sabina has borne him a beloved son but coldness lurks between man and wife where there was hot passion. Castus' suspicions are further fed by his wife's name being on the lips of a dying officer; truth or pre-death ramblings? Meanwhile Sabina has bought a new slave and Castus swears he's seen her somewhere before…
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081205</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.
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=Guinevere Glasfurd
+
|title=The Language of Food
|title=The Words In My Hand
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=17th century life circumstances dictate that Helena Jans has to go into service and is employed by Mr Sergeant, an English bookseller living in Amsterdam. There's much excitement when Mr Sergeant welcomes his new lodger, philosopher and scientist, Rene Descartes. However the thrill becomes somewhat muted when Helena's employer realises what the stay entails.  Helena on the other hand, is totally enthralled by their guest: an enthrallment that will totally change her life.
+
|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>1473617855</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Freya Marske
|author=L C Tyler
+
|title=A Marvellous Light
|title=A Masterpiece of Corruption (A John Grey Historical Mystery)
+
|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1657: John Grey, law student at Lincolns Inn, receives a meeting invitation that doesn't seem to be meant for him.  Unfortunately he still goes to the meeting and ends up accepting a mission to kill Oliver Cromwell.  He has two problems with this: first he likes a quiet life and secondly he likes Oliver Cromwell. In fact he already works for Oliver's spymaster, Thurloe.  The life expectancy of a double agent isn't that long and that's without reckoning on the intervention of Aminta!
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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>1472114965</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Mary Gibson
+
|title= Flights for Freedom
|title=Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys
+
|author= Steven Burgauer
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys'' is the latest book in Mary Gibson's Bermondsey series. This time, the Lloyd family take centre stage: Mum, Dad, son Jack and daughters May and Peggy. War is raging in Europe and Bermondsey is not immune from daily onslaught of bombs. A tragic event one night changes everything and home-bird May decides to fly the nest in order to participate in the war effort. The war will leave no-one unscathed; the strongest hearts can be paralysed by fear and the unlikeliest of people can emerge as heroes.
+
|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>178185596X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Frances Brody
+
|author= Christophe Medler
|title=Sisters on Bread Street
+
|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Julia and Margaret are the Wood sisters, struggling to hoist themselves out of a life of poverty in Leeds just before the outbreak of the first world war. Well, Julia is struggling.  Margaret sees her way out as being through marriage to a rich suffragette's son, Thomas.  She's an apprentice milliner and beautiful, but both sisters have a disadvantage and it's one which grows bigger as war approaches: their father is German.
+
|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>0349410704</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Antonia Senior
+
|isbn=1471187179
|title=The Winter Isles
+
|title=A Beautiful Spy
|rating=5
+
|author=Rachel Hore
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Scotland 1122: A son is born to a warlord on the Scottish Islands.  The warlord GilleBride, is a man who doesn't realise his glory is receding.  One day the realisation does hit him, along with a Viking raidIn the heat of invasion his son, although only 15, must take overCan a lad actually lead a people?  History will tell and legend will embellish for that boy is Somerled and this is his story.
+
|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 secretaryAs a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great BritainMinnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782396586</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|author=Simon Marshall
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|title=The Long Drawn Aisle
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=3.5
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=Historical 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 onIt 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 them. So what happened?
|summary=Edward and Richard Wilson are born into a comfortable and, indeed, powerful familyTheir father is the MP Jack Wilson who is everything a Victorian father should be: severe, distant and occupied with his careerAs the 20th century arrives and advances all three will feel the labour pains of conflict, the sons while living in Austria and the Balkans and their father through the lens of Britain's ParliamentIt will be a bloody birth and its effects far reaching as two great empires prepare to fight, drawing in the rest of Europe.
+
|isbn=1529402697
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899804218</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Conn Iggulden
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|title=Wars of the Roses: Bloodline: Book 3 (The Wars of the Roses)
+
|title=The Black Kids
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=The Wars of the Roses continue.  Margaret of Anjou becomes a catalyst for what lays ahead and then rescues her husband, the debilitated Henry VI, from the forces of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and the recently executed Richard of York.  However York's last words weren't empty rhetoric: by killing the father Margaret has indeed unleashed the sons.  Edward of March for one is out for revenge; a fact that throws the English throne and the safety of Queen's spymaster Derry Brewer into grave doubt.
+
|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>071815987X</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

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Review of

The Fascination by Essie Fox

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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Review of

A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I want all of Florence to know my name

Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society. Full Review

0356518523.jpg

Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

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Review of

In the Shadows of Castles by G K Holloway

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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Review of

Noema by Dael Akkerman

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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

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Review of

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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

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Review of

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

3.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

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

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

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

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Review of

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1529080886.jpg

Review of

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

B09F4CTKJR.jpg

Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

B095HY8SXQ.jpg

Review of

Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret by Christophe Medler

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1471187179.jpg

Review of

A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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

1529402697.jpg

Review of

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

2.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

1471188191.jpg

Review of

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

4.5star.jpg Teens

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

Move on to Newest History Reviews