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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon ScarrowTananarive Due|title=Hearts of StoneThe Reformatory|rating=3.5

|summary=Wars are often written about 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 further back you go help of the more unreal school's ghosts – only they feelhave their own motivations...|isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4. The description of 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a Roman Soldier family who run an inn, and being killed seems made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to have little impact on our lives todaybe a hanging of some pirates in the town, butshe decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, what about IraqHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, Afghanistanso that they don't find and kill her too, Vietnam? How far must one go back before we feel detached from events? World War Two ended 70 years agoand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, but it still ripples through to todaydressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. There are stories still to be told from this timeShe soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, but they must be written well and sensitivelyfrom there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755380223</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cynthia Harrod-EaglesSarah Marsh|title=Keep the Home Fires Burning: War at Home, 1915A Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary= As the calendar page turns to 1915 Jack Hunter is fighting the frontAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. The same goes for Charles WroughtonSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, leaving his new fiancée Diana to face his aristocratic family (including dreadful Rupert) aloneeverything about her life changes. The country's men are going off Living in greater numbers a time when the use of sign language was seen as enlistment fever begins something only savages do, Ellen is sent to build and women are being brought in a school where she is taught to do men's jobslip read, but physically restrained from signing. (YesFrom here, really!) Diana's sister Sadie continues to train horses to be sent to she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the French front, making her feel as if she's doing something usefuldeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. There are also other benefits to At the jobsame time, seeing more of local vet John Courcy for instance, although their relationship Bell is purely professional… yesworking on other inventions and ideas, really! Not everything is focused on France though; there's talk of opening and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a new front further east on the Turkish coast at a place called Gallipolicomplicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751556297</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel BillingtonClaire North|title=Glory|rating=4|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 House 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 LadyOdysseus

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Queen Elizabeth I is in her autumnal years and becoming increasingly pre''What could matter more than love?'' The follow-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 (Penelopeto the excellent ''s godmother) on PenelopeIthaca's acceptance at court. It's picks up a dangerous time to be a royal maidfew months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, especially in young Miss Devereux's case with a banished motherdelicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, a step-father who is one of Elizabeth's favourites sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the realisation that throne of the girl has been placed there to spy for the familyWestern Isles. However Having survived – politically and physical – the Devereux interests will be served even if the game chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope plays is on the brink of a fatal onefragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071817710X</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth LoupasB0C7J9D21B|title=The Red Lily CrownA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=Florence 1574: Chiara Nerini only approaches Francesco deWhen we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it' Medici to sell him her late fathers a bordello and Ettore's alchemical equipmentmother died when he was born. She and her family are starving and a sale would mean survival. However the soon to be Emperor has other ideas and abducts Chiara to become He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his assistant background in the quest late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to find obtain decent employment. The stint working with the Philosopherpreparation of anchovies didn's Stonet work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. If Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he finds it she will go freehad a successful business as a guide for visitors. If notHe was even saving some money... Best not think about that option!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571536</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rosemary GoringEssie Fox|title=Dacre's WarThe Fascination|rating=54

|summary=1523The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, ten years after perhaps, by the Battle Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of Flodden and media set in the death if James IV of Scotland. Henry VIII has decided on a scorched earth policy and sends agents over era that the borders hallmarks we've come to burn Scottish towns and plunder their churches and monasteries associate with it are familiar to fund his coffers. One such agent is Thomas, Baron Dacre, Keeper the point of Carlisle andbeing cliched, ironically, friend of the dead Scottish rulerhackneyed even. While working for the English crown Dacre also has his own private war All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to fightdo poorly. Clan chief Adam Crozier hears But despite that Dacre ordered Adam, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's father's murder and wants his revengedescription did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973112</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eve MakisNicole Jarvis|title=The Spice Box LettersA Portrait in Shadow

|genre=General Historical Fiction|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving '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 mother a journal in Armenian and a spice box full of mysterious lettersfuture can thrive rather than stagnate. They're special to them both because they're But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the legacy self-proclaimed guardians of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the monolingually English paircity and its citizens from plagues and curses. However a holiday abroad to get The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over a recent break up brings a random encounter art and architecture for Katerinacenturies and guard it above all else. When Katerina meets Ara she also meets the key to her grandmother's secret pastTo them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=MRC KasasianThomas D Lee|title=Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)Perilous Times|rating=43|genre=Crime (Historical)Fantasy|summary=While ''Hate is the best personal detective path of least resistance'' Set in the known Victorian near-distant future, in a world (in his opinion anyway) Sidney Grice is away on a casethe verge of climate collapse, his ward March Britain is left in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to her own devicessave the day and rescue what little remains. As luck would have it, What no-one expected was that one of those devices is an invitation to meet a previously unknown relative. March visits Saturn Villa with a sense the Knights of curiosity and encounters Uncle Tolly whose afternoon tea is one she will never forgetthe Round Table would answer the call. Let's hope she knows a good detective!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178185971X</amazonuk>0356518523

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cesca MajorG K Holloway|title=The Silent HoursIn the Shadows of Castles|rating=4.5

|summary=Adeline 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 an enigmanot secure and the new king has many challenges. She has lived in Imposing authority through a nunnery ever since her rescuecoronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, several years ago. She cannot speakis dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, nor can she remember the rebels are stirring and much about her previous life. She tries desperately to piece together of the ephemeral fragments that come country does not wish to her in fitful dreams. Something has taken everything away. Something so powerful that it has rendered her speechlessrecognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782395687</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Louisa Treger3949666079|title= The LodgerNoema|author=Dael Akkerman|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary= A writer writing ''This is a story about some things that happened to me about writers writingtwelve thousand years ago. What more could '' Maya is a young girl living in a readerhunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, a book reviewerthe Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, a tentative writer and lover food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of words want from a bookvillages muster peaceful ways to cope? Not forgetting Can the setting – EnglandTraveller, early 1900s, clear class divisions and social expectations – and a spiritual figure who interprets the characters – fascinatingwisdom of All Life, colourful, and above all, real. This book has everything I look for in a story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1250051932</amazonuk>provide solutions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Antonia Hodgson1529125898|title=The Last Confession of Thomas HawkinsGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=A few months after we left Tom in ''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the 1720s we return odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to find him living in sin and love with Kittyteach well-bred daughters at all. Or it would be sin if they ever get round '' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the bed bitposition of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. Just as he promised underworld gang leader James Fleet, Tom has taken in James' son Sam to train him in the ways She had no experience of being teaching but this was a gentlemancase of necessity. All seems to be going well in that department until Tom receives Until the death of her mother, Anne had a visit comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from an old enemy the household. When her mother died, her father cast her off and a brush would have nothing more to do with the country's ultimate powerher. Then both collide to create fear and No explanation was offered but she would receive an offer that Tom isn't able to refuseannuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, no matter how hard he trieswould receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775456</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Martine BaileyMelissa Fu |title= The Penny HeartPeach Blossom Spring |rating= 3.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=After living a life of crime in order I loved the prelude to scrape byPeach Blossom Spring, Mary Jebb a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is spared from the gallows – and banished to Australia. Before leaving for the penal colony only truly poetic part 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 a book that of shy artist Grace Moore – and yet I expected more confidence tricks beginfrom.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444769855</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Amitav Ghosh|title=Flood of Fire (Ibis Trilogy 3)|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=1839 and the repercussions of the sinking of the Ibis and the Covering Chinese clampdown on opium smuggling go on. Now widowed by the marine disaster, Shireen Modhi is given an opportunity history from 1938 to discover her late husband2005 as viewed through one family's legacy although it means journeying alone from India to Chinaperspective. Former sailor Zachary Reid finds life landside to be When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a little complicated when he becomes a 'mystery' young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (craftsmanRenshu) attached to the Indian home of a British opium trader, despite its fringe benefitsare among those who flee. East India Company sepoy officer Kesri Singh is also a little unsettled, especially when he discovers he must prepare for a war thatThe story follows them on their journey across China, and in some way or other, will affect them allRenshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0719569001</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ravencourt1916072038|title=A Lover's PinchThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell

|summary=Hettie (Henriette to be formal) has grown up in straitened times. Her mother was a former mistress We meet part of Charles IX but now Henri IV is on the throneTalbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. A different king means different favourites Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and Hettie’s family her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to live on the memory and favours of othershouse in the hollow. However Hettie has attracted the attention The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of Henri which is enough to give her mother ideas. She’s not the only one though's strengths and weaknesses: King’s mistress Gabrielle d’Estrees also has plans for  ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the teenage girldeplorable truth''. Hettie  Hester is definitely embarking on an adventure but 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 twists it takes are unforeseen by anyone birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and dangerous to allisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00UEL4XLW</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patricia DunckerAnnabel Abbs|title=Sophie and the Sibyl: A Victorian RomanceThe Language of Food|rating=45

|summary=''Sophie and Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the Sibyl''slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, consciously modelled on John Fowles's ''The French Lieutenant's Woman''she recruits Ann Kirby, is a postmodern blending of historylocal woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, fictioncraft, refine and metafictional commentary. Brothers Max and Wolfgang Duncker really were George Eliot's German publishers, but reshape the accident world of their surname matching the author's makes them her clever stand-in. As the novel opens in 1872domestic cookery, reinventing the venerable English author is exploring Homburg recipe book and Berlin in changing the company face 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 marriagecookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140886052X</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura BeattyFreya Marske|title=Darkling|rating=2.5|genre=Historical Fiction|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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>009958414X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ben Kane|title=Eagles at War|rating=4|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 books. This is especially the case with the Romans; there are more books about Ancient Roman battles than there were mad Caesars. One 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?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848094043</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Diney Costeloe|title=The Throwaway ChildrenA Marvellous Light

|summary=They seemed like Robin Blyth is nudged into a perfect little family unit: Mavis and her two young daughtersjob in the Civil Service, Rita and Rosiemuch to his chagrin. But widowed Mavis needed a man in her life There he meets Edwin Courcey and violent bully Jimmy was only too happy to enjoy learns that the perks streets of such a relationship, even if it meant putting up London are threaded with her troublesome childrenmagic. When Mavis finds herself pregnant with Jimmy's babyDesperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, he agrees Robin follows Edwin to marry her on one condition: the girls have to gocountryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. Distraught Mavis chooses her man over her children, setting in motion There they uncover a tragic chain of events sinister plot that leads to threatens the girls being sent to an orphanage thousands lives of miles away all magicians in Australia. “The Throwaway Children” follows the lives of Rita and Rosie as they struggle to make sense of this new, unfamiliar worldBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784970018</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Suzannah DunnB09F4CTKJR|title=The Lady of MisruleFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|summary=Elizabeth Tilney volunteers to accompany Lady Jane Grey to It's the Tower later stages of LondonWorld War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Elizabeth would be attendant to the young deposed Protestant queen while Jane's husband Guildford Dudley Petrol Petronus is kept in an adjacent tower. Her feelings for him are less than devotional whereas he still feels a responsibility towards her, mixed with his fear and anger at what young American who has gone before signed up and what may lie aheadjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. However Jane is treated well by This company was the new Queen Mary despite first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the difference in first to be attached to the new RAF and old queens' faiths. Does Jane have anything the first to fear? Spending her time with Jane and as a messenger be sent into the skies to Guildfordfight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Elizabeth hopes not Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but she hears rumours..majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704668</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan SimmonsChristophe Medler|title=The Fifth HeartMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=On Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a rainy night secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse 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 samesummer of 1642. Instead As a loyal servant of jumpingthe King, 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 AdamsHead of the Secret Service, it is believed to have committed suicide but that doesn't deter Sherlock. HeRobert's off, Henry James is going with him duty to uncover the details of the plan and that's that!follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751560952</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine Clements1471187179|title=The Silvered HeartA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore|rating=5 4

|summary= Katherine Ferrers Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a young orphan – growing up leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the turbulent period of the English Civil War, she has little choice but 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry for the sake of her family, produce children and to trust her considerable inheritance into spend the care rest of her days looking after her husbandand their home. As the war comes Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to an end, do at all and those who supported the losing King are punished severelyneither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a chance meeting, Katherine she finds herself with no money, few friendsdrawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living 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 double life, with Katherine choosing - attempting to join him in a life that provides infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her with duty and the excitement friends she craves – has made - and yet may prove all too dangerous…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472204247</amazonuk>likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lydia SysonAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=LibertyKokoschka's FireDoll|rating=42.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Paris 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 uneasy middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and violent months between March and May 1871 is an inspired setting for this tenseso on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, dramatic noveltoo. But you''Liberty's Fire'' is Lydia Syson's third work of fiction ve seen the star rating that comes with this review, and certainly ensures can tell that she will if love was on these pages, it was not be stereotyped into any single historical periodactually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147140367X</amazonuk> 1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura MadeleineChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Confectioner's TaleBlack Kids

|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=Petra Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is researching set against the life backdrop of late historian, authorthe 1992 Los Angeles riots, 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 reaction 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 absolution of scandal would lead four police officers for beating a black man to regret it for the rest of his life. Meanwhile in 1909, Guillaume du Frere moves to France from the provinces in order Rodney King, nearly to escape poverty and changes his life completely, although not in the way he'd expected.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784160725</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Sally Wragg|title=The Angel and the Sword|rating=3death.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=We met the people Told 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 perspective of ''The Angel and the Sword''. HarryAshley Bennett, 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 novel follows 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 evolution from a good fist of running the estate silent bystander when the Duke went off to the trenches confronted with every able-bodied man on the estate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719814308</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Barbara Erskine|title= The Darkest Hour|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= In the summer of 1940, at the start matters of the Battle Britainrace, 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.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 – woman finding her voice and embracing her discoveries have a profound impact on her own life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007513151</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jessie Burton|title=The Miniaturist|rating=5|genre=Historical 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 curiositiesheritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447250931</amazonuk>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 Move on another more dangerous adventure, taking to the skies for the war effort.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593149</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]