Changes

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ursula DubosarskyLivi Michael|title=The Red Shoe|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=They may be quite far apart, but three houses in a row in the rural suburbs of 1950s Sydney contain some incredibly unusual people. In one, a solitary old man of very few words, shuffling to the end of his days, but brandishing a Japanese sword he's purloined after WWII, and with a gun in the corner of his lounge. In the middle, a family of five, with a father figure suffering from PTSD due to the same war, a mother feeling friendless and alone in the isolated time and location, and their three daughters – one of whom has given up on school after an alleged nervous breakdown, the middle one who barely speaks more than the neighbour, and Matilda, our key interest, who likes the idea of spies, and has an imaginary friend who came out of the radio. The third house however might be where the most interesting people live – after all, it had been empty, but now the luxurious building is home to several shady men in suits, who turned up out of the blue in luxury cars, Elizabeth and with at least one gun of their own…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406358746</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Sally Wragg|title=The Gypsy's TaleRuth

|summary=There's a new resident at Loxley. Bronwyn's niece, Lottie Colfax Elizabeth and Ruth'' is tired a work of schoolhistorical fiction wrought from the life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, desperate to join up and 'do best known for her bit'first novel Mary Barton (1848), to a radical critique of the frustration treatment of her family who hope that some time away from home will encourage her to see sensethe working class published under a pseudonym. But The ''Ruth'' from her family's point of view thereLivi Michael's title appears in her novel as Pasley, a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a bad example at Loxley: Hettie, Duchess of Loxley has joined the WAAFS child and is serving finds herself in London - usually driving people from place to place. Her grandmotherManchester's not at all pleased about this: Katherine sees Hettie's duty as being New Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at Loxleylife. ''Nothing'' comes before Loxley Set in Katherine's view - even King Manchester between 1839 and country must take second place. Fortunately Katherine doesn't know that Hettie is going to be doing something far more dangerous. In 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the meantime Lottie has discovered a secret in Loxley's cellars Victorian working poor and met a young man who is also determined interrogates the extent to join up, no matter what his mother sayswhich the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0123Q8KL4</amazonuk>1784633682

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David ChadwickTananarive Due|title=Liberty BazaarThe Reformatory

|summary= Confederate General Jubal de Brooke Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sent sentenced to Britain six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as an envoy to raise awareness the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and funds from dark reputation. But the English aristocracy for his southern brothers in arms in segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the American Civil Warboys that have died there. Meanwhile slave Trinity escapes In order to England survive the school governor and immediately becomes an icon for his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the liberal elite. However soon Trinity realises thereschool's more to the English support than just talkghosts – only they have their own motivations.. She uncovers a secret – and highly illegal – plot with far reaching effects for her homeland, not to mention dangerous consequences for her.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906582920</amazonuk>1803366532}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lloyd ShepherdKatherine Howe|title=Savage MagicA True Account

|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=London, 1842: Magistrate Aaron Graham Hannah Masury is missing his wife. She's left himliving in Boston, taking their daughter having been sent to live with her cousin in a very uncousinly way. Yet her distance doesn't prevent her discussing the goings on at her new home with Graham; as these goings on resemble witchcraft family who run an inn, and seem being made to be taking work there from a toll on his daughter's health Aaron is rightly worriedyoung age. He calls upon Constable Horton to investigate… this When she hears there is the Horton whose wife Graham encouraged to enter one be a hanging of some pirates in the more exclusive madhousestown, she decides to go and watch. Under Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the circumstances it seemed 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 right thing to do but Horton still hasnnotorious Ned Low't forgiven his superior for its pirate ship as a cabin boy. However, as She soon finds herself in the investigation goes on and Graham thick of things when there is distracted by a murder case with a rising body countmutiny on board, these bubbling undercurrents of enmity reduce and from there we are caught up in importance. The important thing for each her rip roaring tale of them has become survivallife on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471136086</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dominic LukeSarah Marsh|title=Dreams That VeilA Sign of Her Own

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=12-year-old Eliza Brannan is looking forward to After a bout of scarlet fever as a wonderful summerchild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. She and Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her older cousin Dorothea will be joined at home by Eliza's university student brother Roderick and the sun-drenched days will stretch out before themlife changes. Unfortunately the reality isn't Living in a time when the same use of sign language was seen as the dream; this 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 summer when life changesdeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. Dorothea At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and Roderick will pursue futures that no one had predicted ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a foreign house guest will open Elizacomplicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|author=Claire North|title=House of Odysseus|rating=5|genre= Literary Fiction |summary= ''What could matter more than love?'s eyes ' The follow-up to the world outside 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 outgrown nurseryhusband, 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. There againHaving survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, this Queen Penelope is 1914; on the brink of a year heralding a change in life for more than just fragile peace. One that shatters however with the Brannan householdreturn of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191020823X</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura AndersenB0C7J9D21B|title=The Boleyn Reckoning A Captive in Algiers (Anne Boleyn TrilogyMuhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 1 & 2 AHEAD: Henry IX When we first meet our hero, his name is still in love with his childhood sweetheart Minuette Ettore and is determined to marry her, despite being betrothed to Princess Elisabeth he lives at The House of France for political reasonsBeautiful Swallows. What he still doesn't realise is that Minuette is married to the third member of their childhood trioIdyllic as this might sound, his trusted advisor Dominic, Duke of Exeter. Meanwhile there are some who feel that Henryit's sister Princess Elizabeth would make a better ruler than bordello and Ettore's mother died when hewas born. Then thereHe's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his halfbackground in late-sistereighteenth-century Amalfi, Lady Mary, who is starting to realise what sheit's given up for Henrydifficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn's futuret work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. The beginning of the end has started… but whose end/ends will Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956501</amazonuk>was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Vaughn EntwhistleEssie Fox|title= The Dead AssassinFascination|rating= 4|genre= Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=LondonThe Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, 1895. Arthur Conan Doyle is summoned perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to the scene of more than a mysterious crime – few writers mishandling it. There's such a senior member glut of media set in the era that the Government lies murdered. Close by, hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the body point of the attacker is foundbeing cliched, riddled with bulletshackneyed even. The dead assassin All this is identified, however, as a man who was hanged several weeks previouslysimply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. Mystified by the strange incident, Arthur Conan Doyle calls on a friend for advice – Oscar Wilde. TogetherBut despite that, the two of them are swept up into a bizarre investigation something about it still grabs me – one that threatens their lives, their families, and the very establishment itselfsomething about this book's description did as well. It seems that someone is reanimating corpses, and programming them for murder…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783292687</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dido Butterworth and Tim FlanneryNicole Jarvis|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island FetishA Portrait in Shadow|rating=34.5

|summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave the Venus Islands, where he's lived for the last five years, and return I want all of Florence to Sydney, where heknow my name'll take his office in the museum and fill it with all the cultural artefacts he's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled. That's not to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himself, with his filled- Cast out framefrom Rome, nearly all-over suntan Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and totemic tattoo, in amongst other changes to his bodywhere her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But what's this? When he gets backas some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, he finds one the self-proclaimed guardians of the main Venus Islands artefacts healing magics that caused him through paintings have the power to go there in protect the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artworkcity and its citizens from plagues and curses. And some of the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanishedThe all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. Is the weird society of the museum he's returning toTo them, perchance, even weirder, stranger Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and more violent than the cannibalistic their society he's waving farewell to?.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toby ClementsThomas D Lee|title=Kingmaker: Broken Faith (Kingmaker 2)Perilous Times|rating=53|genre=Historical FictionFantasy|summary=This contains spoilers for Kingmaker 1, so that's probably best read first; you won't regret it! Now where were we? 1462: The War Hate is the path of least resistance'' Set in the Roses rages near-distant future, in a world on. Katherine is at Cornford Castle, posing as Lady Margaret Cornford, wife of the now blind Richard Fakenham. Not even he realises her true identity but she feels it's only a matter verge of timeclimate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The man who Katherine really loves British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and assumes dead, Thomas Everingham is suffering from a head injuryrescue what little remains. He's just remembered enough to make his way to his childhood home but is unaware What no-one expected was that one of his more recent past; he can remember how to fight though – and just as well! On a wider canvas, the war has denuded England, most Knights of its food having gone to feed the armies. King Henry VI has fled to Round Table would answer the northeast and Warwick, the Kingmaker himself, is coming for him. The worst isn't over yet though, not for anyonecall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780891709</amazonuk>0356518523

{{newreviewFrontpage

|title=1066: What Fates ImposeIn the Shadows of Castles|rating=4.5

|summary=Perhaps We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England should realise it. William's in trouble when King Edward position is not secure and the Confessor takes one look at his naked bride and decides to remain chastenew king has many challenges. This signals Imposing authority through a lack of royal offspring and a succession crisis that becomes so coronation is important . And William is right to worry. While the vultures flock to fight even before he's illprevious king, Harold, let alone is dead. The jockeying for position as next in line to and the throne or next in line's favourite has begun. Indeed England likelihood of more pitched battles is famous for its royal succession wars over, the rebels are stirring and this is one much of the best; a story of a journey that will finish near Hastings as country does not wish to recognise a deadly stand-off between King Harold Godwinson and Norman Duke William in that year that every British school child is taught: 1066new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783062207</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha Pulley3949666079|title=The Watchmaker of Filigree StreetNoema|author=Dael Akkerman

|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=London 1883: Thaniel Steepleton, ''This is a telegraphist in story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.'' Maya is a government office, finds himself young girl living and working in a city at siege hunter gatherer village during a Clan na Gael bombing campaignthe Mesolithic era. ItClimate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's around this time that he also realises that his pocket watch seems to have some oddforest home, previously unnoticed functionsand food is becoming more and more scarce. Grace CarrowWhat to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, 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, spiritual figure who interprets the Japanese watchmaker. His clockwork pet octopus is only a small measure wisdom of the oddity ahead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408854287</amazonuk>All Life, provide solutions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katharine McMahon1529125898|title=The Woman in the PictureGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby|rating=4.5

|summary=In February 1926 London was tense and divided between those who supported ''If it were not for the principle casual dereliction of a general strike and those who were prepared the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to break it teach well-bred daughters at whatever cost to themselvesall. Evelyn Gifford is a newly qualified solicitor and whilst '' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she's sympathetic arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the miners she's preoccupied by two cases from opposite ends position of the social spectrumgoverness to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. Trudy Wright is a maidservant accused She had no experience of theft and Evelyn has undertaken teaching but this was a case ''pro bono'': her argument is that of necessity. Until the 'theft' was death of her mother, Anne had a letter asking for a reference for Trudy, but she comfortable life and was too frightened to hand it to loved by both parents although her bullying employer, so only she father was frequently absent from the loserhousehold. The Wright family worm their way into Evelyn's life: the When her mother died, her father is 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 bullyingyear. Her maid, drunken, wife beater, the mother is scared and brow beatenAgnes, would receive nothing but the son, Robbie, is deeply involved with the unionswas fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297866036</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon ScarrowMelissa Fu |title=Hearts of StonePeach Blossom Spring

|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Wars are often written about and I loved the further back you go the more unreal they feelprelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. The description Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a Roman Soldier being killed seems book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to have little impact on our lives today, but, what about Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam? How far must 2005 as viewed through one go back before we feel detached from events? World War Two ended 70 years agofamily's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, but it still ripples through to todaya young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. There are stories still to be told from this timeThe story follows them on their journey across China, but they must be written well and sensitivelyin Renshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755380223</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cynthia Harrod-Eagles1916072038|title=Keep the Home Fires Burning: War at Home, 1915|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= As the calendar page turns to 1915 Jack Hunter is fighting the front. The same goes for Charles Wroughton, leaving his new fiancée Diana to face his aristocratic family (including dreadful Rupert) alone. The country's men are going off House in greater numbers as enlistment fever begins to build and women are being brought in to do men's jobs. the Hollow (Yes, really!) Diana's sister Sadie continues to train horses to be sent to the French front, 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; there's talk of opening up a new front further east on the Turkish coast at a place called Gallipoli.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751556297</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rachel Billington|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 of terror and ill-thought-out tactics. Arthur is on his way to Gallipoli.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409146235</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Fremantle|title=Watch the Lady|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Queen Elizabeth I is in her autumnal years and becoming increasingly pre-occupied with fear of potential plots and coups catching up with her – and perhaps justifiably so. This is how young Penelope Devereux finds Her Majesty (Penelope's godmotherTalbot Saga) on Penelope's acceptance at court. It's a dangerous time to be a royal maid, especially in young Miss Devereux's case with a banished mother, a step-father who is one of Elizabeth's favourites and the realisation that the girl has been placed there to spy for the family. However the Devereux interests will be served even if the game that Penelope plays is a fatal one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071817710X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Loupas|title=The Red Lily CrownAllie Cresswell

|summary=Florence 1574: Chiara Nerini only approaches Francesco de' Medici 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 sell him her late father's alchemical equipmentthe house in the hollow. She The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her family are starving mother's strengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a sale would mean survivalfacade of respectability, the deplorable truth''. However the soon  Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to be Emperor do as she was asked, which has other ideas precipitated ''this violent and abducts Chiara to become his assistant in the quest to find the Philosopherunexpected removal''s Stone. If he finds it she will go free. If not.. Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Best not think about that option!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571536</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rosemary GoringAnnabel Abbs|title=Dacre's WarThe Language of Food

|summary=1523, ten years after the Battle of Flodden and the death if James IV of Scotland. Henry VIII Eliza Acton is a poet who has decided on a scorched earth policy and sends agents over never had the borders to burn Scottish towns and plunder their churches and monasteries slightest inclination to fund his coffersboil an egg. One such agent is ThomasWhen tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, Baron Dacrea local woman with a troubled home life. Together, Keeper of Carlisle andthey test, ironicallycraft, friend refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the dead Scottish ruler. While working for recipe book and changing 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 revengeface of cookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973112</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eve MakisFreya Marske|title=The Spice Box Letters|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving her and her mother a journal in Armenian and a spice box full of mysterious letters. They're special to them both because they're the legacy of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable to the monolingually English pair. However a holiday abroad to get over a recent break up brings a random encounter for Katerina. When Katerina meets Ara she also meets the key to her grandmother's secret past.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=MRC Kasasian|title=Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Series)A Marvellous Light

|summary=Adeline Robin Blyth is an enigma. She has lived nudged into a job in a nunnery ever since her rescuethe Civil Service, several years agomuch to his chagrin. She cannot speak, nor can she remember much about her previous lifeThere he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. She tries desperately Desperate to piece together the ephemeral fragments remove a curse that come threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to her in fitful dreamsthe countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. Something has taken everything away. Something so powerful There they uncover a sinister plot that it has rendered her speechlessthreatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782395687</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Louisa TregerB09F4CTKJR|title= The Lodger|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= A writer writing about writers writing. What more could a reader, a book reviewer, a tentative writer and lover of words want from a book? Not forgetting the setting – England, early 1900s, clear class divisions and social expectations – and the characters – fascinating, colourful, and above all, real. This book has everything I look Flights for in a story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1250051932</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFreedom|author=Antonia Hodgson|title=The Last Confession of Thomas HawkinsSteven Burgauer|rating=4.5

|summary=A few months after we left Tom in It's the 1720s we return to find him living in sin later stages of World War I and love with Kittythe United States has just entered the conflict. Or it would be sin if they ever get round to Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the bed bit17 Aero Squadron. Just as he promised underworld gang leader James Fleet, Tom has taken in James' son Sam This company was the first US Aero Squadron to train him be trained in Canada, the ways of being a gentleman. All seems first to be going well in that department until Tom receives a visit from an old enemy attached to the RAF and a brush with the country's ultimate powerfirst to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. Then both collide to create fear and an offer But before that Tom isn't able can happen, Petrol has to refuse, no matter how hard he triesmaster flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775456</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Martine BaileyChristophe Medler|title= 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)Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=1839 and Set against the repercussions backdrop of the sinking 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 Ibis King, and Head of the Chinese clampdown on opium smuggling go on. Now widowed by the marine disasterSecret Service, Shireen Modhi it is given an opportunity to discover her late husbandRobert's legacy although it means journeying alone from India duty to China. Former sailor Zachary Reid finds life landside to be a little complicated when he becomes a 'mystery' (craftsman) attached uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of 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, most guarded secrets in some way or other, will history—especially since the plot could affect them allthe King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0719569001</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ravencourt1471187179|title=A Lover's Pinch|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Hettie (Henriette to be formal) has grown up in straitened times. Her mother was a former mistress of Charles IX but now Henri IV is on the throne. A different king means different favourites and Hettie’s family have to live on the memory and favours of others. However Hettie has attracted the attention of Henri which is enough to give her mother ideas. She’s not the only one though: King’s mistress Gabrielle d’Estrees also has plans for the teenage girl. Hettie is definitely embarking on an adventure but the twists it takes are unforeseen by anyone and dangerous to all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00UEL4XLW</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBeautiful Spy|author=Patricia Duncker|title=Sophie and the Sibyl: A Victorian RomanceRachel Hore

|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary'Sophie girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and the Sibyl'', consciously modelled on John FowlesMinnie is expected to live up to her mother's ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'', is expectations and find a postmodern blending of history, fictionnice young man to marry, produce children and metafictional commentary. Brothers Max and Wolfgang Duncker really were George Eliot's German publishers, but spend the accident rest of her days looking after her husband and their surname matching the authorhome. Unfortunately, this isn's makes them her clever stand-int what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As the novel opens in 1872a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the venerable English author is exploring Homburg secret service and Berlin in effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the company Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her 'husband' while ushering her latest novel, ''Middlemarch'', into German translation. Max, a young cad fond of casinos duty and brothels, the friends she has two tasks: ensuring Eliot's loyalty to their publishing house, made - and securing Countess Sophie von Hahn's hand in marriagelikes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140886052X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura BeattyAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=DarklingKokoschka's Doll

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary= Brilliana Harley is Well, this looked very much like a seventeenth century Puritanbook 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 Roundhead weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a county of Puritans. Driven to defend both her beliefs and home chapter whose number was in the front of total aggression20,000s, letters used as narrative form, Brilliana must take charge and defend her homeso on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, all too. But you've seen the while consumed star rating that comes with longing for an absent husband. She soon comes under a brutal this review, and unrelenting siegecan tell that if love was on these pages, and will struggle to surviveit was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|isbn=1529402697}}{{Frontpage|author=Christina Hammonds Reed|title=The Black Kids|rating=4. In the present day, Mia Morgan 5|genre=Teens |summary=Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is researching set against the life backdrop of Brilliana Harleythe 1992 Los Angeles riots, hoping a reaction to finish the absolution of four police officers for beating a book begun by her late ex-lover. As she struggles to come to term with her griefblack man, Rodney King, and nearly to rebuild a life death. Told from what she has leftthe perspective of Ashley Bennett, Mia finds the novel follows her life becoming irrevocably entwined evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with that matters of the tragic Brillianarace, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009958414X</amazonuk>1471188191