==Historical fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Jean Teule
|title=Monsieur Montespan
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The Marquis de Montespan is totally in love with his new wife Athénaïs and she with him, so much so that when she becomes a lady in waiting at the palace of Versailles, she begs her husband to remove her in case she falls for the charms of the famous Sun King. The Marquis refuses because of the prestige and fortune her position brings them – but it's a decision he quickly regrets, as Louis XIV
indeed manages to cuckold him. With all of France talking about the new woman in the king's life, Montespan is expected to take the rewards offered to him in exchange for his wife and leave the couple alone. But many years before the French Revolution, instead he takes the unprecedented step of standing up to the king, ignoring his offers and proclaiming his cuckoldry by adding horns to his coat of arms. Can the man who's become a figure of fun throughout the country win back his wife?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040303</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul R Spiring and Hugh Cooke
|summary=Claudia is seven when this book opens, in Liverpool in 1926. She's a careful girl, perhaps a little spoilt, although clearly not wealthy. She enjoys the protection of thirteen-year-old Danny who comes from a poorer family, and evidently has something of a crush on Claudia. Even in this first chapter, she comes across as somewhat self-centred, wanting people to think well of her, but not naturally generous or empathic.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520265</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=G. De Beauregard and H. De Gorsse
|title=The Stamp King
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in 1896, this is the story of William Keniss and Betty Scott, two young American philatelists each intent on owning the world’s only complete stamp collection. The rarest specimen of all is one issued by the Maharajah of Brahmapootra but never placed on general sale, although one copy did pass through the postal system, and it is one of only two in the entire universe. The Maharajah owns this one himself - and our collectors are determined to get their hands on the other.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852597460</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julie Orringer
|title=The Invisible Bridge
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Beverley Eikli
|title=Lady Farquhar's Butterfly
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Olivia - Lady Farquhar - has recently been widowed. This does not upset her in the least; indeed, as becomes clear through the novel, her husband was an unpleasant bully who subjected her to all kinds of abuse. Unfortunately, however, the terms of his will have ensured that her beloved toddler Julian has been taken away to live with his uncle Max until such time as Olivia marries someone considered to be above reproach. For that reason, she is seriously considering marrying Nathaniel, a clergyman who has helped her for many years. The only problem with that is that she finds him increasingly repulsive...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090579</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anita Diamant
|title=Day After Night
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=First of all, I really liked the unusual pitch for a Second World War novel, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after the liberation of Europe. The war machine has ground to a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrants. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp is emotionally a halfway house between the past and the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties and in limbo for an indeterminate period, the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all their loved ones.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847398618</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jennie Rooney
|title=The Opposite of Falling
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It is 1862 and when wealthy Liverpool girl Ursula Bridgewater finds herself single and restless after her fiancée Henry Springton leaves her for another woman, she soon turns to travel as a means of escape and sets off on her first expedition. But she has agreed to stay friends with Henry and cannot quite escape him completely as they continue to write to each other. Ten years later and Ursula has travelled all over the world and is about to embark on a trip around America, but this time she decides to take a companion.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701182687</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Iain Pears
|title=Stone's Fall
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I read Iain Pears' ''The Portrait'' a year or so ago and loved it so I was really looking forward to reading this novel. The front cover is strikingly handsome and hints of good things to come between its covers. The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks of three. Three different decades and three different locations. Pears then dips in and out of the main characters' lives, telling the reader basically what makes them tick.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516179</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nicola Cornick
|title=Confessions of a Duchess
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow with her young daughter. But when the village squire decides to invoke the Dames’ Tax, a law requiring every unmarried woman to give up half her wealth to him, the town becomes a hotbed of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife and carry out a murder inquiry on behalf of Lord Liverpool. The last thing Laura and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years ago. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin them both.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303802</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gill Schierhout
|title=The Shape of Him
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The story is told in the first person by Sara Highbury. She's running a small business in an efficient but rather detached fashion. She's all washed up. She starts to recount her earlier, happier life when it meant something to her. And the reader soon discovers that a diamond digger called Herbert was - and still is - the love of her life. And here Schierhout gives us a taster of the hard and dirty work digging for stones (they're never called diamonds by the workers apparently). The danger and precarious nature of the work is laid bare. But Herbert seemed to be a natural. Why?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535777</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne-Marie Vukelic
|title=Far Above Rubies
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Shy Catherine Hogarth first meets Charles Dickens at her parents' house when he hilariously comes in through the window to dance a jig before the assembled guests, before leaving and then entering again via the front door. Employed by her father George, the editor of the Evening Chronicle, as a reporter and sketch writer, Charles is at the start of his writing career and soon becomes a regular visitor to the Hogarth household.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090536</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Chadwick
|title=To Defy A King
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=#Set in the traumatic and violent period leading up to the Magna Carta, Chadwick concentrates on the fortunes of two extended families. The Marshals, close to the throne for their expertise, political and military might, and the Bigods, who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespee, son of the family matriarch, and John’s father. Banished from Court, and forced to leave her son there, Ida marries Roger and founds a strong patriarchal dynasty. However, tension is never far from boiling point, with the two half brothers tolerating each other at best, loathing each other more often than not, due to their opposing natures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>
}}
