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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=L C TylerTananarive Due|title=A Masterpiece of Corruption (A John Grey Historical Mystery)The Reformatory
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1657: John GreyGracetown, law student Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at Lincolns Innthe Gracetown School for Boys, receives otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a meeting invitation brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that doesn't seem to be meant for himhave died there. Unfortunately he still goes In order to survive the meeting school governor and ends up accepting his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school'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 living in Boston, having been sent to live with a mission family who run an inn, and being made to kill Oliver Cromwellwork there from a young age. He has two problems with this: first he likes When she hears there is to be a quiet life hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and secondly he likes Oliver Cromwellwatch. In fact he already works for OliverEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's spymaster, Thurloedeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. The life expectancy of a double agent isnShe hides away, so that they don't that long find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and thatjoining the notorious Ned Low's without reckoning pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the intervention ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Aminta!Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472114965</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|isbn=0356516075}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary GibsonB0C7J9D21B|title=Gunner Girls and Fighter BoysA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it''Gunner Girls s a bordello and Fighter BoysEttore's mother died when he was born. He' is the latest book s not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in Mary Gibsonlate-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's Bermondsey seriesdifficult to obtain decent employment. This time, The stint working with the Lloyd family take centre stage: Mum, Dad, son Jack preparation of anchovies didn't work out and daughters May and Peggybastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. War is raging in Europe and Bermondsey is Ettore was nothing if not immune from daily onslaught of bombs. A tragic event one night changes everything resourceful - and home-bird May decides to fly the nest in order to participate in the war effort. The war will leave nodetermined -one unscathed; the strongest hearts can be paralysed by fear and the unlikeliest of people can emerge it was not long before he had a successful business as heroesa guide for visitors. He was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178185596X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances BrodyEssie Fox|title=Sisters on Bread StreetThe Fascination
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Julia and Margaret are The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Wood sisters, struggling Second World War) which has often led to hoist themselves out of more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a life glut of poverty media set in Leeds just before the outbreak era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of the first world warbeing cliched, hackneyed even. Well, Julia All this is struggling. Margaret sees her way out as being through marriage simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to a rich suffragette's son, Thomasdo poorly. She's an apprentice milliner and beautifulBut despite that, but both sisters have a disadvantage something about it still grabs me – and itsomething about this book's one which grows bigger description did as war approaches: their father is Germanwell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349410704</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antonia SeniorNicole Jarvis|title=The Winter IslesA Portrait in Shadow|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Scotland 1122: A son is born ''I want all of Florence to a warlord on the Scottish Islands. The warlord GilleBrideknow my name'' Cast out from Rome, is Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a man who doesn't realise his glory is recedinghome and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. One day But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the realisation does hit himpowerful Accademia, along with a Viking raid. In the heat self-proclaimed guardians of invasion his son, although only 15, must take the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power overart and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. Can a lad actually lead a people? History will tell To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and legend will embellish for that boy is Somerled change – has no place amongst them and this is his storytheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782396586</amazonuk>1803362340
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
{{newreview|author=Simon Marshall|title=The Long Drawn Aisle|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Edward and Richard Wilson are born into a comfortable and, indeed, powerful family. Their father is Set in the MP Jack Wilson who is everything a Victorian father should be: severe, near-distant and occupied with his career. As the 20th century arrives and advances all three will feel the labour pains of conflictfuture, the sons while living in Austria and a world on the Balkans and their father through the lens verge of climate collapse, Britain's Parliamentis in great peril. It will be The British Isles desperately needs a bloody birth hero (or several) to save the day and its effects far reaching as two great empires prepare to fight, drawing in rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the rest Knights of Europethe Round Table would answer the call.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1899804218</amazonuk>0356518523
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Conn IgguldenG K Holloway|title=Wars of In the Roses: Bloodline: Book 3 (The Wars Shadows of the Roses)Castles|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The Wars of We begin after the Roses continue. Margaret of Anjou becomes a catalyst for what lays ahead momentous battle in 1066 and then rescues her husband, on the debilitated Henry VI, from the forces day of Richard Neville, Earl William of Warwick and the recently executed Richard Normandy's coronation as King of YorkEngland. However YorkWilliam's last words weren't empty rhetoric: by killing position is not secure and the father Margaret new king has indeed unleashed many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the sons. Edward previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of March for one more pitched battles is out for revenge; a fact that throws over, the English throne rebels are stirring and much of the safety of Queen's spymaster Derry Brewer into grave doubtcountry does not wish to recognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071815987X</amazonuk>1800422466
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jennifer Wallace3949666079|title= Digging Up MiltonNoema|author=Dael Akkerman|rating= 34.5|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary=Digging Up Milton appealed ''This is a story about some things that happened to me because from about twelve thousand years ago.'' Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the description it sounded like something a little bit differentMesolithic era. I like that it Climate change is dark but yet not entirely seriousoccurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and I always appreciate it when an author tries further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to write do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a different wayspiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, or give a book an individual voice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909776106</amazonuk>provide solutions?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lesley J Nickell1529125898|title=Sons of York: Volume 2 (The Sprigs of Broom)Godmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=15th Century London: Through a quirk ''If it were not for the casual dereliction of fate young widow Janet Evershed finds herself running her late husbandthe odd gentleman's cloth businessduty, far from her York homethere would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all. It's in this very shop that she meets Richard Neville, Duke of Warwick and his ward Edward, Earl of March. They may be much higher than commoner Janet but she has caught Edward's eye and what Edward wants, he gets, be it a woman or, indeed, the crown of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861514603</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Jolien Janzing|title=Charlotte Bronte's Secret Love|rating=3Anne 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.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This is the second novel by Jolien Janzing, She had no experience of teaching but this was a Dutch author who lives in Belgiumcase of necessity. Originally published in Dutch as ''The Master'' in 2013 Until the death of her mother, it is already being made into Anne had a film. The flawlessly translated story zeroes in on two momentous years in Charlotte Brontë's comfortable life, 1842–3, when she and was loved by both parents although her father was a pupil and then a teacher at frequently absent from the Pensionnat Heger in Brusselshousehold. I read this in tandem When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with Claire Harman's new biography her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of Charlotte Brontë; it was particularly fascinating to see that the two books open with the same climactic episode: lovesick Charlotte making £35 a confession at a Catholic churchyear. Her maid, Agnes, even though she would receive nothing but was an Anglican parson's daughterfortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380597</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia Franck and Anthea Bell (translator)Melissa Fu |title=WestPeach Blossom Spring
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=Put yourself in I loved the shoes of a young mother prelude to two childrenPeach Blossom Spring, who declares her intention to leave the Communist East Germany for West Berlin, and thus loses her scientist joba short chapter entitled ''Origins''. What would you expect on Unfortunately it is the other side – shops full only truly poetic part of attainable products, pleasant neighbourhoods, nice neighbours, an active and busy new life, where things might feel alien but at least you speak the same language? Well, for Nelly Senff, this is hardly the casea book that I expected more from. Once past the depressing Eastern exit procedures she is confronted with more desultory interrogations Covering Chinese history from those 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family'welcoming' her to s perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the Westwar with Japan, beyond which she a young mother (Meilin) and her children four-year-old son (their father, whom she never married, is long assumed dead by the authorities, if nobody elseRenshu) are practically left in a shared accommodation in a transit campamong those who flee. The shops are full of what is still unobtainablestory follows them on their journey across China, the children hate their new school – and people still look down on them as being foreign, even if they have only moved across a cityin Renshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099554321</amazonuk>1472277538
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gregory Dowling1916072038|title=AscensionThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Alvise Marangon is an artist 'resting' between commissions We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and so using his guile and enterprise as a tour guide her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to those taking the European Grand Tour house in 18th century Venicethe hollow. Everything has The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a business as usual feel to it for Alvise until he notices a fellow gondolier paying his friend not to take a couple facade of English tourists. Thenrespectability, as the new Doge deplorable truth''. Hester is inaugurated a manfurious about Jocelyn's head is thrown into refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''. Then we are told of the crowdbirth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Showing people around a typical Venice is becoming increasingly hard for Alvise – Venice is not behaving typically!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973139</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa HiltonAnnabel Abbs|title=The Stolen QueenLanguage of Food
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Nine-year-old Isabelle of Angouleme Eliza Acton is betrothed a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to Halboil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, son of Hugh de Lusignan. She doesn't like him much but she's learning to gently manipulate those around her so she feels recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life will be interesting and rewarding. Howeverwith England's King Richard the Lionheart all changes. Isabelle will marry King John instead – a totally different prospect for all concerned. This is a match that will not only be a challenge for the young girl but will show her the true heart of her mother Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the true art world of political manoeuvring. Isabelle may be the pawn in all this but it's not a role she takes to willinglydomestic cookery, despite reinventing the nightmares of the horned man recipe book and changing the occurrences face of a certain May night that will haunt the rest of her lifecookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848874693</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony QuinnFreya Marske|title=Blind Arrows|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=1919: A cohort of British spies meet in the depths of Dublin Castle, the prison and British intelligence hub. Their main focus is the infiltration of the IRA in a bid to neutralise their leader, Michael Collins. However there is a distraction from their usual agenda: an increasing number of IRA women are escaping, only to be found murdered shortly afterwards. Martin Kant, an English journalist in Ireland is charged with investigation and reporting back to the government powers as well as his newspaper editor. Meanwhile Lilly Merrin, a Dublin Castle employee has also gone missing. Her loyalty to the Crown seems beyond question in the eyes of her boss, but others would argue with that...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843445352</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sven Hassel and Jordy Diago|title=Wheels of Terror: The Graphic NovelMarvellous Light
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=War books and anti-war books, in my mind, have a lot in common and only a couple of easy things need be changed to turn one to the other. This is dressed as an anti-war book, but here is the lead character surviving against all odds – the platoon whittled down several times while he and his few friends go strong; here he is overcoming all kinds of difficulty and adversity and still coming out the other end; here he is doing proper heroic deeds – or his colleagues saving the day at the last minute – and the war carries onwards towards its inevitable end. The difference perhaps is in the minutiae of what those difficulties and deeds need be, with the anti-war book having a simple honesty about them and their overall worth that the gung-ho, militaristic piece would patently lack. And when you face the guts and gore of the kind of warfare on these pages, you don't really expect jingoism and 'hoo-rah!' attitudes. No, even if the DNA is pretty much the same, the result here is definitely, grimly and firmly anti-war.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297609769</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shirley McKay
|title=Queen & Country: A Hew Cullan Mystery (Hew Cullan Mystery 5)
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It has been three years since Hew was banished from Scotland and manoeuvred Robin Blyth is nudged into working for Elizabeth I's spymastera job in the Civil Service, Walsinghammuch to his chagrin. His loyalties remain with the Scottish Queen Mary but he must hide them as well as he can lest There he becomes a victim of the conspiracy fever cutting through England meets Edwin Courcey and keeping learns that the hangman busystreets of London are threaded with magic. There's also another fever cutting through Scotland – the plagueDesperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, providing even more reason for Hew Robin follows Edwin to worry about the wellbeing of his sistercountryside, brother in law where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and nephewthe people shimmer with power. If he could but go home he'd have There they uncover a surprise for them. When he gets there, there's a surprise for him sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the form of a death prophesy picture, followed by a murderBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973120</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John RightenB09F4CTKJR|title=Churchill's Rogue: Volume 1 (Rogues Trilogy)|rating=5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Sean Ryan grew up in Ireland during the 20th century's first quarter and so understands death and loss. He learnt to defend what he felt right during his time as a bodyguard for Michael Collins. Therefore when Winston Churchill called upon his services in 1937 to bring a mother and child out of Germany, Ryan doesn't say no. However Ryan soon discovers this is no easy escort duty. The mother and child in question are Flights for some reason being hunted by an elite German force led by Cerberus, a code name for a sadist incarnate. On the plus side, Ryan soon discovers he's not alone. There are more like him across Europe; those with pasts that forged them into violent defenders of the vulnerable in an increasingly dangerous world. These are the Rogues and, this time, Ryan needs their help.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1492320242</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFreedom|author=Erin Knightley|title=The Duke Can Go to the DevilSteven Burgauer|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=As Regency ladies go, Mei-li Bradford is anything but conventional. For most It's the later stages of her life, she World War I and the United States has travelled just entered the world with her sea-captain father and seen exotic sights and locations that others could only dream ofconflict. Her upbringing amongst sailors Petrol Petronus is a young American who has clearly rubbed off on her, howeversigned up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. Mei-liThis company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, or May the first to be attached to her friends, can drink the RAF and curse like a man and has no respect for propriety and conventionthe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. She may look like a well-bred ladyBut before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but certainly does not act like one. Therefore, disaster surely beckons when an uptight Duke shows an interest in her. His stuffy ways and conventional habits are anathema to May's free-spirited naturemajestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benjamin JohncockChristophe Medler|title=The Last PilotMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=You'd be forgiven for assuming that debut novelist Benjamin Johncock is American: ''The Last Pilot'' has the literary weight of a Great American Novel, with a limitless desert setting plus the prospect of soon dominating space, and the spare yet profound writing style of Ernest Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy. Johncock is British, but you can tell he's taken inspiration from stories about the dawn of the astronaut age, including Tom Wolfe's ''The Right Stuff'' and films like ''Apollo 13''. His protagonist, Jim Harrison, is a fictional Air Force test pilot who rubs shoulders with historical figures like Chuck Yeager and John Glenn in the quest to break the sound barrier and conquer space.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908434848</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Merle and T Jefferson Kline (translator)
|title=Fortunes of France: City of Wisdom and Blood
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1566: Brothers Pierre and Samson de Siorac have been sent from their Perigore home to further their education at MontpellierSet against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642. During their time there they learn more than their ascribed logicAs a loyal servant of the King, philosophy and medicine. Indeed PierreHead of the Secret Service, it is Robert's focus is on his stomach duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the affairs clues to uncover one of the heart, as befitting a lusty 15 year old. Not all of most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the adventures are learned, culinary or romantic though; some lessons are a lot more dangerousKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782271244</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jemima Brigges1471187179|title=Brothers at ArmsA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Certain decisions are pivotal points Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in time; key moments that define everything that follows a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and create waves that ripple with repercussions for years Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to come. Kindly squire Tom Norberry could never have foreseen marry, produce children and spend the impact that taking in two orphaned relatives would have on his future happinessrest of her days looking after her husband and their home. This single Unfortunately, altruistic act of kindness would set in motion this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a chain result of events that would eventually cause a deep household rift chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and threaten effectively living a double life - attempting to sully infiltrate the good family name that he had worked to hard to upholdCommunist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784624454</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kevin SandsAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title= The Blackthorn KeyKokoschka's Doll|rating= 2.5|genre= Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= Seventeenth century England isn't always a comfortable place to live. Apart from the obvious differences from the modern day – no National Health ServiceWell, no laws to protect orphans this looked very much like Christopher from cruelty and exploitation, and a constant foul smell book I could love from poor sanitation the get- fear go, which is why I picked my review copy up and suspicion are a daily fact flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of lifeit. In 1665 Charles II has been back I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the throne for several years20,000s, letters used as narrative form, but not everyone is happy about his extravagant and luxurious life-style, even among those who found so on. It intrigued with the Puritan rules subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of Cromwell's time excessively strict. There are spies everywhereit mentioned, and rumours of conspiracies fill the streetstoo. It But you's a time to keep your head down ve seen the star rating that comes with this review, and avoid attention from the authoritiescan tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>014136064X</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander CordellChristina Hammonds Reed|title=Rape of the Fair Country|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=When we meet Iestyn Motymer it's 1826 and he's just eight years old, but starting work at the Garndyrus furnaces near Blaenavon. His father sees it as the right thing to do and his mother knows that the money will be needed as there's another child on the way, but Iestyn's older sister, Morfydd, is adamant that it's wrong for women and children to work in either the mines or the ironworks. She believes in the aims of the Chartist movement whilst her father, Hywel Mortymer, is loyal to the ironmasters, but events involving his own family will later force him to question this loyalty. The Mortymers are better off than many in Blaenavon, but they're still at the mercy of the ironmaster and the agent: suspension or blacklisting (which can extend to relations) can leave any family penniless and starving.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OTY1SVI</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ian Ross|title=Swords Around The Throne (Twilight of Empire)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Centurion Aurelius Castus' time in Britain is over but not his propensity for being on the wrong side of danger. Due to an adventure on the journey he comes to the notice of Emperor Constantine, and is promoted to his elite bodyguard – the swords around the throne. The multiple emperor model that has evolved to govern the Empire is shaky to say the least, riven by plots, conspiracies and worse. Therefore Castus' new job is neither safe nor easy but it's not something he can refuse… unfortunately!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081167</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robert Edric|title=Field ServiceBlack Kids
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=MorlancourtChristina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, France 1920: World War I may be over but a grisly job remains. The soldiers killed and buried in battle are reaction to be exhumedthe absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, identified and brought nearly to War Commission designed cemeteries for reburialdeath. Captain James Reid and his corps are responsible for receiving and burying in Told from the embryonic burial grounds while Alexander Lucas' detachment go out to collect perspective of Ashley Bennett, the corpses or check the veracity novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of claims that British and Commonwealth troops have been uncovered in various settings including farmers' fields. It's race, to a job that may take its toll on any man woman finding her voice and it doesembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857522892</amazonuk>1471188191
}}
{{newreview|author=Jonathan Crown and Jamie Searle Romanelli (translator)|title=Sirius|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Levi. He's a humble little dog living with a loving family. They've spent so much time with him he has learnt some tricks – not only the usual ones, of begging, or playing dead, but walking Move on two legs, somersaulting on to his two other paws, and giving the Hitler salute. If this was 2015 in the UK he would be shoe-in for Britain's Got Talent (although the Hitler salute might lose him a few votes, to be honest) but this is 1930s Berlin, and things are starting to get horrendously tough and nasty for Jewish families like his. Querying the statute laws that demand a formalisation of Jewish names his owners rename Levi after Sirius, the Great Dog in the night skies. But nobody can foresee what happens when Jews are pushed harder and harder from their neighbourhoods, and nobody can see what a Great Dog star Sirius can become, in the most unlikely of milieux – Hollywood…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081981</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ursula Dubosarsky|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, and with at least one gun of their own…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406358746</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Sally Wragg|title=The Gypsy's Tale|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=There's a new resident at Loxley. Bronwyn's niece, Lottie Colfax is tired of school, desperate to join up and 'do her bit', to the frustration of her family who hope that some time away from home will encourage her to see sense. But from her family's point of view there's a bad example at Loxley: Hettie, Duchess of Loxley has joined the WAAFS and is serving in London - usually driving people from place to place. Her grandmother's not at all pleased about this: Katherine sees Hettie's duty as being at Loxley. ''Nothing'' comes before Loxley in Katherine's view - even King and country must take second place. Fortunately Katherine doesn't know that Hettie is going to be doing something far more dangerous. In the meantime Lottie has discovered a secret in Loxley's cellars and met a young man who is also determined to join up, no matter what his mother says.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0123Q8KL4</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=David Chadwick|title=Liberty Bazaar|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= Confederate General Jubal de Brooke is sent to Britain as an envoy to raise awareness and funds from the English aristocracy for his southern brothers in arms in the American Civil War. Meanwhile slave Trinity escapes to England and immediately becomes an icon for the liberal elite. However soon Trinity realises there's more to the English support than just talk. She uncovers a secret – and highly illegal – plot with far reaching effects for her homeland, not to mention dangerous consequences for her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906582920</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]
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