==Historical fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Alice Hoffman
|title=The Dovekeepers
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in the last desperate days before the Roman siege on Masada (70CE), the lives of four women collide and merge. They are Yael, the daughter of a Sicarii assassin; Revka, the wife of a gentle baker who witnessed her daughters' rape and murder; Aziza, raised as a boy with the skills of a great warrior and Shirah, born in Alexandria to a mother well versed in ancient magic. All four have crossed the heartless desert on separate journeys to arrive at the last outpost against the Roman Legion, where 900 Jews held out for many, many months. Here they have little power and less hope, but each refuses to be a victim. All are harbouring deep secrets about their pasts, as they become the Masada's dovekeepers. With supplies dwindling and certain death drawing near, their uneasy bonds to each other strengthen as their truths are unveiled. They find an uneasy comfort that becomes true loyalty and empowerment. While few in their company survive to recount the tale, their story has lived on to haunt the deepest of memories.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857205420</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pam Jenoff
|summary=At over 500 pages, this is a big book and it's also a big book in terms of the subject matters that it covers; the whole colonial situation regarding parts of the East as well as the properties and problems of the poppy's product - opium. Ghosh also crams in a wealth of very different and diverse characters so that the novel has the feel of an exotic and at times, enchanting pot-pourri of a read. I have to say at the outset that I find authors such as Rushdie wordy, very wordy. I have Ghosh's ''The Glass Palace'' in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. I wonder if the latter will be as wordy as the former. Time to find out...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719568986</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Lawrence Pietroni
|title=Ruby's Spoon
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=“This is the tale of three women – one witch, one mermaid and one missing – and how Ruby was caught up in between”.
Despite the opening, this novel is more gritty realism than fantasy – there is lots of mythical imagery but in truth, the setting for this novel is a small industrial town cut off from everywhere else by the surrounding canals. It is 1933 (the middle of the Great Depression), and a stranger arrives in town to turn Ruby’s life upside down, for better or worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540053</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Hughes
|title=The Fox in the Attic
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with a scene set to grab the reader's attention: a young girl has been found dead somewhere on the Welsh coast. And straight away I'm aware of Hughes' particular writing style. Fluid with proper sentences. It all has a traditional feel which I liked. Then we cut fairly briskly to the young Augustine who's rattling around in some pile. Due to the fallen in the First World War, many heirs did not return to England to take their rightful (I'm getting into the language, you'll notice) place in the family dynasty.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879784</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Geraldine Brooks
|title=Caleb's Crossing
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Let's start, as Geraldine Brooks has, with a fact: in 1665 the first Native American, Caleb Cheeshateaumauk, graduated from Harvard College. Around this, Brooks has created a wholly fictional story (the known facts are so few that this is largely unavoidable). The stroke of genius here is to put the story into the words of the entirely fictitious Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of an English minister on what we now call Martha's Vinyard, where Caleb lived in the Wampanoag tribe. At various points in her life, Bethia sets down events concerning her early secret friendship with Caleb on the island, to accompanying him and her brother to Harvard and the subsequent events.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007333536</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Claire Holden Rothman
|title=The Heart Specialist
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=We first meet teenager Agnes at home - dissecting a recently-dead squirrel in secret. She knows full well that her family would not approve of this unseemly behaviour, especially from a girl. She's expected to be a young lady and enjoying ladylike hobbies, like playing with dolls. Fat chance. Feisty Agnes is her father's daughter and she has an interest in medicine. It must be in the blood, in the genes. If that's the case it's skipped younger sister Laure. The two sisters are very different. Laure is a gentle and pretty girl but her health is rather delicate. Agnes is a bit of a tom-boy and a go-getter. Their grandmother despairs of young Agnes - what's to become of her? The norm is marriage and a family, this medical nonsense must be stamped out. It's out of the question. This profession is strictly for the men. Try telling that to Agnes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687947</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne O'Brien
|title=Devil's Consort
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In the year 1137 fifteen year old Eleanor of Aquitaine is an orphan. Just before her father's death he asked King Louis VI of France to take care of her, and the unscrupulous Louis took advantage of this request to marry her to his pious son Louis VII. When her new father in law passes away, the young woman becomes Queen of France and is determined to safeguard her precious lands from all who want to take them – even if it leads to conflict with her weak-willed husband. Then she meets the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey Plantagenet, and his son Henry…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304272</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Speller
|title=The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed Speller's [[The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller|The Return Of Captain John Emmett]] so I was really keen to get stuck into the follow-up. The main character, officer Laurence Bartram is also an important character in the previous book, but both are stand-alone novels in their own right. The front cover is evocative and is also as pretty as a picture - literally. With its intriguing title which had me asking all sorts of questions before I'd even opened the book, it was a good start.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844086313</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carol Birch
|title=Jamrach's Menagerie
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel is written in the first person by a young boy called Jaffy. He describes the poverty of his life at home which includes the delightful line 'We lived in the crow's nest of Mrs Reagan's house.' He also describes his struggling mother and his absent father. But I got the sense that here was a bright and resilient boy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847676561</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Karen Maitland
|title=The Gallow's Curse
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This is the eagerly anticipated, and long awaited third novel by the immensely talented author Karen Maitland. It seems as if her ever expanding and permanently loyal fan base will not be disappointed in any way by her latest offering. It's rare (if ever), that I would be moved to give a 5 star rating to any novel - but this one richly deserves the highest of accolades.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156358</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stuart Clark
|title=The Sky's Dark Labyrinth
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This book is heavily based on fact. All of the characters are real people - apart from one. Some of us may be familiar with the names of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler (due to the importance of their respective work, both men are afforded healthy chunks in my Oxford English Dictionary). Clark also has a rather impressive working CV including holding a Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society. But what I personally really liked and appreciated was the line on the book's front cover which said 'Knowledge can be a dangerous thing.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971748</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=M C Beaton
|title=The Travelling Matchmaker: Emily Goes to Exeter
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Emily Goes to Exeter is by way of 'Being the First Volume of the Travelling Matchmaker' as the subheading has it on the frontispiece: the beginning of a new series obviously.
If like me you have come to Beaton by way of Hamish Macbeth this might seem like something of a diversion. A little research shows you that in fact Marion Chesney, who writes under a number of pseudonyms (including Beaton) has a prolific work-rate. Having produced upwards of 130 books since starting writing full time in the 1980s, focussing on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014795</amazonuk>
}}
