Changes

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim FlanneryLivi Michael|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island FetishElizabeth and Ruth|rating=3.5

|summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave 'Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Venus IslandsVictorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, where he's lived best known for the last five yearsher first novel Mary Barton (1848), and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office in a radical critique of the museum and fill it with all treatment of the cultural artefacts heworking class published under a pseudonym. The ''Ruth's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled. Thatfrom Livi Michael's not to ignore the fact he'll count title appears in her novel as something quite alien himselfPasley, with his filled-out frame, nearly all-over suntan a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a child and totemic tattoo, finds herself in amongst other changes to his body. But whatManchester's this? When he gets back, he finds one of the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there New Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at life. Set in the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish maskManchester between 1839 and 1842, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanished. Is novel examines the weird society of harsh conditions endured by the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger Victorian working poor and more violent than interrogates the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell extent to?which the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>1784633682

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toby ClementsTananarive Due|title=Kingmaker: Broken Faith (Kingmaker 2)The Reformatory

|summary=This contains spoilers 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 Kingmaker 1Boys, so thatotherwise known as the Reformatory. It's probably best read first; you won't regret it! Now where were we? 1462: The War 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 Roses rages onschool's ghosts – only they have their own motivations... |isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is at Cornford Castleliving in Boston, posing as Lady Margaret Cornfordhaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, wife of the now blind Richard Fakenhamand being made to work there from a young age. Not even he realises her true identity but When she feels it's only hears there is to be a matter hanging of timesome pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. The man who Katherine really loves Enthralled and assumes deadhorrified in equal measure, Thomas Everingham is suffering from Hannah finds herself embroiled in a head injuryyoung boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. HeShe hides away, so that they don's just remembered enough t find and kill her too, and then to make his way escape them completely she runs away to his childhood home but 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 unaware a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of his more recent past; he can remember how to fight though – and just life on the ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as well! a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. On Suddenly plunged into a wider canvasworld of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the war has denuded Englanduse of sign language was seen as something only savages do, most of its food having gone Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to feed the armieslip read, but physically restrained from signing. King Henry VI From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has fled to been teaching the northeast deaf and Warwick, using a system called Visible Speech. At the Kingmaker himselfsame time, Bell is coming for him. The worst isn't over yet thoughworking on other inventions and ideas, not for anyoneand Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780891709</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=G K HollowayClaire North|title=1066: What Fates ImposeHouse of Odysseus

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Perhaps England should realise it's in trouble when King Edward '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 Confessor takes one look palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at his naked bride Troy and decides to remain chastethen by divine intervention never returned home. This signals a lack As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of royal offspring the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and a succession crisis physical – the chaotic storm that becomes so important the vultures flock Clytemnestra brought to fight even before heIthaca's illshores, let alone dead. The jockeying for position as next in line to the throne or next in line's favourite has begun. Indeed England Queen Penelope is famous for its royal succession wars and this is one of on the best; a story brink of a journey fragile peace. One that will finish near Hastings as a deadly stand-off between shatters however with the return of Orestes, King Harold Godwinson and Norman Duke William in that year that every British school child is taught: 1066.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062207</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Natasha Pulley|title=The Watchmaker of Filigree Street|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=London 1883: Thaniel Steepleton, a telegraphist in a government officeMycenae, finds himself living and working in a city at siege during a Clan na Gael bombing campaign. It's around this time that he also realises that his pocket watch seems to have some odd, previously unnoticed functions. Grace Carrowsister Elektra, a 'bluestocking' physics student also owns such a watch. The two total strangers may think their watches odd, but 'odd' takes on a new meaning when they meet Mr Mori, the Japanese watchmaker. His clockwork pet octopus is only a small measure of the oddity aheadseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408854287</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katharine McMahonB0C7J9D21B|title=The Woman A Captive in the PictureAlgiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=In February 1926 London was tense When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and divided between those who supported the principle he lives at The House of a general strike and those who were prepared to break Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it at whatever cost to themselves. Evelyn Gifford is 's a newly qualified solicitor bordello and whilst sheEttore's sympathetic to the miners shemother died when he was born. He's preoccupied by two cases from opposite ends 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 social spectrumpreparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Trudy Wright is a maidservant accused of theft Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and Evelyn has undertaken this case ''pro bono'': her argument is that the 'theft' it was of not long before he had a letter asking for successful business as a reference guide for Trudy, but she was too frightened to hand it to her bullying employer, so only she was the loservisitors. The Wright family worm their way into Evelyn's life: the father is a bullying, drunken, wife beater, the mother is scared and brow beaten, but the son, Robbie, is deeply involved with the unionsHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297866036</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon ScarrowEssie Fox|title=Hearts of Stone|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Wars are often written about and the further back you go the more unreal they feel. The description of a Roman Soldier being killed seems to have little impact on our lives today, but, what about Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam? How far must one go back before we feel detached from events? World War Two ended 70 years ago, but it still ripples through to today. There are stories still to be told from this time, but they must be written well and sensitively.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755380223</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Cynthia Harrod-Eagles|title=Keep the Home Fires Burning: War at Home, 1915Fascination

|summary= As the calendar page turns to 1915 Jack Hunter The Victorian era is fighting the front. The same goes incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for Charles Wroughtonhistorical fiction (matched only, leaving his new fiancée Diana perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to face his aristocratic family (including dreadful Rupert) alonemore than a few writers mishandling it. The countryThere's men are going off such a glut of media set in greater numbers as enlistment fever begins the era that the hallmarks we've come to build and women associate with it are familiar to the point of being brought in to do men's jobscliched, hackneyed even. (Yes, really!) Diana's sister Sadie continues to train horses All this is simply to illustrate that it would be sent an easy thing to the French frontdo poorly. But despite that, making her feel as if she's doing something useful. There are also other benefits to the job, seeing more of local vet John Courcy for instance, although their relationship is purely professional… yes, really! Not everything is focused on France though; thereabout it still grabs me – and something about this book's talk of opening up a new front further east on the Turkish coast at a place called Gallipolidescription did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751556297</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rachel BillingtonNicole Jarvis|title=GloryA Portrait in Shadow|rating=4.5

|summary=Sylvia Fitzpaine comes ''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 titled family with all 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 advantages self-proclaimed guardians of class the healing magics that through paintings have the aristocracy can offer in 1915. These are grossly troubled times though, with men including her father power to protect the Brigadier General city and its citizens from plagues and her fiancé Arthur away at warcurses. The Brigadier General seems safe at the moment in Cairo but Arthur all-male Accademia has been sent into the thick of hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard itabove all else. He sits in a ship awaiting embarkation just off the coast of a little known Turkish regionTo them, the very name of which will one day summon images of terror Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and ill-thought-out tactics. Arthur is on his way to Gallipolitheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409146235</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth FremantleThomas D Lee|title=Watch the LadyPerilous Times|rating=53|genre=Historical FictionFantasy|summary=Queen Elizabeth I ''Hate is in her autumnal years and becoming increasingly pre-occupied with fear the path 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 Penelopeleast resistance's acceptance at court. It's a dangerous time to be a royal maid Set in the near-distant future, especially in young Miss Devereux's case with a banished motherworld on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a stephero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-father who is one expected was that one of Elizabeth's favourites and the realisation that Knights of the girl has been placed there to spy for Round Table would answer the family. However the Devereux interests will be served even if the game that Penelope plays is a fatal onecall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071817710X</amazonuk>0356518523

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth LoupasG K Holloway|title=The Red Lily CrownIn the Shadows of Castles

|summary=Florence 1574: Chiara Nerini only approaches Francesco deWe begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy' Medici to sell him her late fathers coronation as King of England. William's alchemical equipmentposition is not secure and the new king has many challenges. She and her family are starving and Imposing authority through a sale would mean survivalcoronation is important. And William is right to worry. However While the soon to be Emperor has other ideas previous king, Harold, is dead and abducts Chiara to become his assistant in the quest to find likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the Philosopher's Stone. If he finds it she will go free. If country does notwish to recognise a new overlord... Best not think about that option!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099571536</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosemary Goring3949666079|title=Dacre's War|rating=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>}}{{newreviewNoema|author=Eve Makis|title=The Spice Box LettersDael Akkerman

|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving her and her mother 'This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.'' Maya is a journal young girl living in Armenian and a spice box full hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of mysterious lettersGrass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. They're special What to them both because they're do? Can the law givers in the legacy federation of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the monolingually English pair. However a holiday abroad to get over Traveller, a recent break up brings a random encounter for Katerina. When Katerina meets Ara she also meets spiritual figure who interprets the key to her grandmother's secret past.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=MRC Kasasian1529125898|title=Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)|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>}}{{newreviewGodmersham Park|author=Cesca Major|title=The Silent HoursGill Hornby

|summary=Adeline is an enigma''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 has lived in had no experience of teaching but this was a nunnery ever since case of necessity. Until the death of her rescuemother, several years agoAnne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. She cannot speak When her mother died, nor can she remember much about her previous life. She tries desperately to piece together the ephemeral fragments that come father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with her in fitful dreams. Something has No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken everything awayin by some neighbours. Something so powerful that it has rendered her speechless.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782395687</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Louisa TregerMelissa Fu |title= The LodgerPeach Blossom Spring |rating= 3.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= A writer writing about writers writing. What more could a readerI loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a book reviewer, a tentative writer and lover short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of words want from a book? Not forgetting 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 setting – Englandwar with Japan, early 1900s, clear class divisions a young mother (Meilin) and social expectations – and the characters – fascinating, colourfulher four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and above all, real. This book has everything I look for in a storyRenshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1250051932</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Antonia Hodgson1916072038|title=The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A few months after we left Tom House in the 1720s we return to find him living in sin and love with Kitty. Or it would be sin if they ever get round to the bed bit. Just as he promised underworld gang leader James Fleet, Tom has taken in James' son Sam to train him in the ways of being a gentleman. All 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 power. Then both collide to create fear and an offer that Tom isn't able to refuse, no matter how hard he tries.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775456</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Martine Bailey|title= Hollow (The Penny Heart|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|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' (craftsmanTalbot Saga) 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719569001</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jean Ravencourt|title=A Lover's PinchAllie 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 Romance|rating=4|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 Language 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140886052X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Laura Beatty|title=DarklingFood|rating=2.5

|summary= Brilliana Harley Eliza Acton is a seventeenth century Puritanpoet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, and a Roundhead in local woman with a county of Puritanstroubled home life. Driven to defend both her beliefs and home in the front of total aggressionTogether, Brilliana must take charge and defend her homethey test, all the while consumed with longing for an absent husband. She soon comes under a brutal and unrelenting siegecraft, refine and will struggle to survive. In reshape the present dayworld of domestic cookery, Mia Morgan is researching reinventing the life of Brilliana Harley, hoping to finish a recipe 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 changing the face of the tragic Brillianacookery writing forever. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009958414X</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben KaneFreya Marske|title=Eagles at WarA Marvellous Light

|summary=War, what Robin Blyth is it good for? Looking at nudged into a job in the ever buoyant historic fiction genre it would appear Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that war is great for selling books. This is especially the case streets of London are threaded with the Romans; there are more books about Ancient Roman battles than there were mad Caesarsmagic. One of Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the leading names in countryside, where the historic fiction genre is Ben Kane hedgegrows bristle with incantations and when he releases the first book in people shimmer with power. There they uncover a new series fans sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the genre take notice, but would they be right to do so?British Isles. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848094043</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diney CosteloeB09F4CTKJR|title=The Throwaway Children|rating=4|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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784970018</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFlights for Freedom|author=Suzannah Dunn|title=The Lady of MisruleSteven 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 to her) had been reaction 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 , Rodney King, nearly to regret it for death. Told from the rest perspective of his life. Meanwhile in 1909Ashley Bennett, Guillaume du Frere moves to France the novel follows her evolution from the provinces in order a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to escape poverty a woman finding her voice and changes his life completely, although not in the way he'd expectedembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784160725</amazonuk>1471188191