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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan HillTananarive Due|title=Black SheepThe Reformatory|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations...|isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mount of Zeal Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a mining villagefamily who run an inn, and no mistakebeing made to work there from a young age. Three concentric semi-circular streets align across the side of When she hears there is to be a hill, like the rows hanging of seats some pirates in an amphitheatre, with little thought at all allowed for the life above the crest of the hilltown, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a lot of effort and dreams focused on the coal mine young boy's death at the village's corehands of two vicious pirates. The Howker family (and how evocative that name isShe hides away, so akin to the noise of hawking coal dust from onethat they don's lungs)t find and kill her too, and Ted and Rosethen to escape them completely she runs away to sea, the youngest of the clan, in particular, will face the destiny the environment they grow up in gives them – with only the merest glimmers of hope dressing as a boy and joining the faintest of sparks to latch on to notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as regards a likeable futurecabin boy. But if that She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a faint sparkmutiny on board, then how safe is it so close to and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the tinderbox of a coal mine?ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009953956X</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katherine WebbSarah Marsh|title=The Night FallingA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=In 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 summer use of 1921sign language was seen as something only savages do, Leandro returns Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to his birthplace lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in Italy. He another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has made his fortune, been teaching the deaf and his aim is to transform using a crumbling palazzo into an opulent mansionsystem called Visible Speech. But At the outside world same time, Bell is still reeling from the Great Warworking on other inventions and ideas, and Leandro’s nephew, Ettore, is one of those most Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in need a complicated tangle of help. Reluctantly, Ettore asks his uncle for assistanceespionage. But Ettero could not have foreseen what was to come from that request…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409131491</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire North
|title=House of Odysseus
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara EwingB0C7J9D21B|title=The Petticoat MenA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1871 Ernest Boulton (aged 22) When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and Frederick Park (aged 23) were arrested Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in London; an arrest that shook society all the way late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the toppreparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Their crime? They dressed Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as women, which hinted at homosexuality, then a crime that carried a heinous prison tariffguide for visitors. Their infamous trial He was watched closely by society because Stella and Fanny (as they were known when frocked) performed regularly at house parties and soirees attended by the higher echelons and so if these performers should fall, who would go down with them?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781859965</amazonuk>even saving some money.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily PurdyEssie Fox|title=The Boleyn BrideFascination
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Elizabeth Howard wants The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a noble marriage but at 16 she's married off to Thomas Boleynsetting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, a jumped up nouveau riche who tries by the Second World War) which has often led to hide his humble roots any way he can. It's not more than a love match on either sidefew writers mishandling it. So to compensate for her husbandThere's shortcomings, Elizabeth throws herself into such a collection glut of lovers and media set in the lives of two of her three children. Yes, she dreams of rosy futures for Mary and George, but for era that the third child Anne, born as ugly as a monkey, Elizabeth canhallmarks we't envisage any future so wastes neither dreams nor love on her. However when Henry VII dies and his second son eventually takes ve come to associate with it are familiar to the thronepoint of being cliched, Elizabeth realises she may not hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be rightan easy thing to do poorly. Having Henry VIII But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as a son-in-law may do both Anne and the family a lot of goodwell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349405956</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=L C TylerNicole Jarvis|title=A Cruel Necessity (A John Grey Historical Mystery)Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Once home from her role as a photo-journalist in Afghanistan, Jo decides to move into the Brighton flat that her great aunt Elizabeth has bequeathed her. While searching through the belongings that go with the home, she finds Elizabeth's WWI diaries from the time that she nursed wounded servicemen from the Indian Corps at the Brighton Pavilion. These entries cause her to reflect on her time recording the more current war and enables her to open up to her ex-lover Susie in a series 'I want all of letters, telling her how it was, the lives of those she met out there, what it did Florence to them and, indeed, to her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883342</amazonuk>}}know my name''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Lives of Stella BainG K Holloway|authortitle=Anita ShreveIn the Shadows of Castles|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The opening We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of this book is a brilliant one, being thrust into the midst William of Stella’s confusion Normandy's coronation as she wakes with no memory in a first aid station near the front lineKing of England. She knows nothing other than the fact that she can drive an ambulance, William's position is not secure and the reader knows nothing more than hernew king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. She soon discovers that she can drawWhile the previous king, tooHarold, and this is a really nice angle to help learn about her dead and her past without having to unveil everything all at once. I think the use likelihood of present tense within this novel works incredibly well in order to keep more pitched battles is over, the reader at rebels are stirring and much of the same speed as the character, and it’s also country does not wish to recognise a writing style I enjoy as a whole because it’s a little bit unusual and brings a different pace to the textnew overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349123578</amazonuk>1800422466
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=The English Girl3949666079|author=Margaret Leroy|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Stella Whittaker moves from a quiet English town to Vienna in 1937 to improve her music skills. Staying with old family friends, the Krauses, she feels less comfortable than she expects as a sense of mysterious menace hangs over the household. Nevertheless, Stella enjoys her new life and the sophistication of the city. More than anything, she enjoys falling in love with Harri, a young Jewish doctor. And despite many warning signs, Stella’s love for him blinds her to the possibility of trouble when it seems inevitable to others.|amazonuktitle=<amazonuk>0751551775</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNoema|author=Christopher Bland|title=Ashes In The WindDael Akkerman|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=John Burke and Tomas Sullivan may go to the same primary school in Kerry but even in 1908 they're on two sides of a great divide. John is Anglo Irish protestant and comfortably off, being the heir to Derriquin Castle whereas Tomas 'This is Irish Catholic, living in poverty and raised to feel the resentment of the oppressed. The fact that John has been brought up to believe in Home Rule tragically makes no difference as John, Tomas and their future generations live with the consequences of a centuries old struggle. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781859337</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Laura Andersen|title=The Boleyn King (Anne Boleyn Trilogy 1)|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In this alternative history, Anne Boleyn's son William has become the king known as Henry IX. As he nears the age of majority (18), he also approaches the age at which he will rule solo rather than through his regent and uncle, George Boleyn. However, he's inherited a troubled kingdom. Not only are England's enemies knocking at the door, there are enemies within Will's own household. It begins with the sudden death of one of the court's young ladies in waiting. Where will it end?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009195648X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Valerie Fitzgerald|title=Zemindar|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=1850s India: Laura Hewitt accompanies her newly married cousin Emily Flood and Emily's husband Charles to the exotic sub-continent for a visit to Charles' half-brother Oliver Erskine. Although none of the travellers have ever met Oliver, many of the people they encounter have heard of him and the way he rules his small fiefdom as its Zemindar. These stories tantalise Laura as the information conflicts and she's unable to develop a mental picture of the man. That's not all story about some things that's conflicting: there's an increasing feeling of unrest in this furthest outpost of Queen Victoria's empire which will eventually lead happened to one of the bloodiest episodes in Indo-British historyme about twelve thousand years ago. Laura, Emily and Charles are naïve, but that won't save them from what's to come – something beyond their worst nightmares. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>178185954X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Conn Iggulden1529125898|title=Wars of the Roses: Trinity (Wars of the Roses 2)Godmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A bewildered Henry VI has awoken from ''If it were not for the catatonic state that took him away from the business casual dereliction of ruling – and living – for over a year. His job is now to regain the reins of his kingdom that was a little too ably ruled by Richard Neville, Duke of York in his absence. Henryodd gentleman's wifeduty, Margaret of Anjou, thinks Richard enjoyed the regency so much he's plotting a permanent takeover. The bigger problem is communicating it there would no women to Henry as she's increasingly sideteach well-linedbred daughters at all. The approaching storm is gathering momentum threatening the House of Lancaster and a convalescing king whose recovery may only be temporary, even if he lives that long.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718159853</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diane PearsonMelissa Fu |title=CsardasPeach Blossom Spring |rating=43.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Hungarian Jewish banker Zsigmond Ferenc rules his family with an iron fistI loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. As Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a proud Hungarian he feels book that he needs I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to maintain standards2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. His wifeWhen their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, Marta secretly gambles behind his back, his sparkling younger daughter Eva takes the heart of every man she meets a young mother (including his ownMeilin) and his two sons need leadership and guidance. Then there's his eldest child, Amale her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who fears she will never fall in love which may be a disadvantage as he looks around for a fitting matchflee. Although whatever The story follows them on their preoccupations may be at the moment everything journey across China, and in Hungary (and indeed Europe) is about to change; historyRenshu's timings can be cruel and the advent of World War I is perhaps one of its cruellestcase eventually to America. To say the Austro-Hungarian Empire won't be the same again is an understatement.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781857512</amazonuk>1472277538
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Davies1916072038|title=Havana SleepingThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Hector, a night watchman is murdered at workWe meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. There's nothing unusual about that – it happens all Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the timehollow. The reason being that this two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is Havana halfway through the 19th century; a place of intrigue, political posturing (and worse) as pro- and anti-slavery conflicts cause bubbles under the surface well aware of society. Ither mother's a place where an apparently lowly British civil servant like George Backhouse can be posted to influential positions. It's a place where the Americans don't trust the British, the British don't trust the Americans strengths and everyone fears what the Spanish may do. Meanwhile a courtesan named Leonarda just wants to find out why the man she loved died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980451</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The King and the SlaveAnnabel Abbs|authortitle=Tim LeachThe Language of Food
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The scene Eliza Acton is set: a group of poet who has never had the king's closest acquaintances sit feasting around a table in almost total darknessslightest inclination to boil an egg. Wine flows freely. This is When tasked with writing a place for political gamescookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a place where local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the tension in the air is palpable. Wise men learn to play world of domestic cookery, reinventing the rules; to be 'shadow men' under recipe book and changing the ever-watchful gaze face of a suspicious king who sees treachery in every smile. Invisibility is key to survivalcookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857899228</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The New WorldFreya Marske|authortitle=Andrew MotionA Marvellous Light|rating=34
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Following Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the success of his sequel to Treasure IslandCivil Service, [[Silver: Return much to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion|Silver: Return to Treasure Island]], poet Andrew Motion continues the adventures of young Jim (the son of the original Jim Hawkins) his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and Natty (daughter of Long John Silver) following a shipwreck which leaves them washed up on learns that the shores streets of the New WorldLondon are threaded with magic. The good news is Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the bar silver recovered from countryside, where the island has survived hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the journeypeople shimmer with power. The bad news is There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the natives have spotted it too..British Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224097946</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth BuchanB09F4CTKJR|title=I Can't Begin to Tell YouFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's the later stages of World War came to Denmark in 1940 I and people found that they had to take sides. British-born Kay Eberstern wasn't completely involved to begin with. She had obvious sympathies with the British but her husband had German ancestry and she could see Bror's point of viewUnited States has just entered the conflict. But Bror went Petrol Petronus is a little further than she thought necessary young American who has signed up and openly sided with joined the occupying force because he felt 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the need first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to protect the family estate RAF and the people who worked therefirst to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. Gradually Kay came But before that can happen, Petrol has to realise that she could not - ''would not'' - accept this and she became increasingly involved with master flying the Resistance movementnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178912</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Fair FightChristophe Medler|authortitle=Anna FreemanMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=54
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in against the grimy streets backdrop of Bristolthe English Civil War, we follow a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the journey summer of Ruth – born to 1642. As a Madame in a brothelloyal servant of the King, and constantly outshone by her prettier sister DoraHead of the Secret Service, Ruth learns it is Robert's duty to stand on two feet uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to defend herself – something which is picked up on by a regular client uncover one of Dora’s, Mr Dryer. Plunged headfirst into the world of fighting, Ruth soon meets Grenville Dryer’s wife, Charlotte, a woman scarred by smallpox and trapped most guarded secrets in a loveless relationship with her husband, and a toxic one with her brotherhistory—especially since the plot could affect the King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297871951</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1471187179|title=The WakeA Beautiful Spy|author=Paul KingsnorthRachel Hore|rating=3.54
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Paul Kingsnorth refers to his Booker-longlisted fiction debut, Minnie is an 'ordinary'girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The Wake'', as 'a post-apocalyptic novel book is set 1000 years in the past1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother'. This ambitious story traces the three-year Ely resistance movement that followed the Norman Conquest. The guerrilla fighters were led by s expectations and find a figure named Hereward nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the Wake – thus the titlerest of her days looking after her husband and their home. The first thing any review must note is the language: set in 1066-8 Unfortunately, this historical novel is written in isn't what Kingsnorth calls she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a 'shadow tongue' or 'pseudo-language'secretary. As a result of a chance meeting, not quite the Old English you encountered reading Chaucer or ''Beowulf'' at schoolshe finds herself drawn into espionage, but similar. I would strongly recommend that any diligent reader start by perusing working for the partial glossary secret service and 'A Note on Language', both appended at effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the end Communist Party of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the textCommunist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908717866</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- 26/8 -->Frontpage|titleauthor=The Leopard of DramoorAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|authortitle=P De V HencherKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Stephen, Earl of NorthumbriaWell, known to popular legend as this looked very much like a book I could love from the Leopard of Dramoorget-go, which is past his best fighting dayswhy I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. But warfare is never far away I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in medieval Englandthe middle on darker stock paper, particularly a chapter whose number was in the border country20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. And It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it's not far away nowmentioned, too. A combined force of Scottish and French troops are massing and intend to attack one of Stephen's castles. Stephen But you's son David is captain of ve seen the castle but he's spoiled star rating that comes with this review, and lazy and his father knows he won't defend can tell that if love was on these pages, it successfully without helpwas not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1493588192</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen MaitlandChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Vanishing WitchBlack Kids
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=More and higher taxes are being levied on Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John backdrop of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France. They may cause annoyance 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the rich but they're breaking the poorabsolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his familynearly to death. Meanwhile some Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the better off are facing problems novel follows her evolution from other quarters. Cloth merchant Robert a silent bystander when confronted with matters of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due race, to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders. It's not a good time to be English woman finding her voice and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and the peasants will be revoltingembracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147221501X</amazonuk>1471188191
}}
