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Newest Historical Fiction Reviews (view source)
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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=V M WhitworthTananarive Due|title=The Traitors' Pit: (Wulfgar 2)Reformatory
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= WystanGracetown, one 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 Wulfgarhorrors, 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 brothersghosts – 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, has always having been sent to live with a family who run an honestinn, sturdy farmerand being made to work there from a young age. Not the sharpest sword When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the armoury perhapstown, but he pays his taxes she decides to go and remains well-respectedwatch. However that seems to have changed. Wystan is accused Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of plotting against King Edward of Wessextwo vicious pirates. Wulfgar knows Wystan is innocent She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and has three months then to prove it; three months escape them completely she runs away to stop Wystan being hanged sea, dressing as a boy and hurled into joining the open, unconsecrated grave that is the Traitorsnotorious Ned Low' Pits pirate ship as a cabin boy. Not an easy task to begin withShe soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, it becomes considerably harder when Wulfgar's liege Lady Fleda asks him to go and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on a mission he can't refuse; a mission that could take more time than he hasthe ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091947189</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Marsh
|title=A Sign of 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.
|isbn=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=Julian LeesB0C7J9D21B|title=The House of Trembling LeavesA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= To many 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 may just be another skirmish in the longstanding clan war in the Malaysia of 1936 but the explosion destroys Lu See's village dam a bordello and over 30 livesEttore's mother died when he was born. As far as Lu SeeHe's concernednot been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's time for her difficult to leave anywayobtain decent employment. Rather than face an abhorrent arranged marriage she escapes to Cambridge, England The stint working with her Tibetan servant, Sum Sum, seeking a future that combines study with her forbidden true love, Adrian Woo. Adrian comes from a rival family in the village so this isnpreparation of anchovies didn't a match that pleases everyonework out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. For now Lu See Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and Sum Sum think they've left trouble determined - and conflict behind but their futures testify differentlyit was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908737174</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= The young monarchVictorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, Edward Tudorperhaps, is dying and by the Protestants of England fear Second World War) which has often led to more than a return to Catholicism through his sister, Mary Tudorfew writers mishandling it. However, There's such a glut of media set in the Dukes of Northumberland, Pembroke and Suffolk seize era that the opportunity hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to promote self-interest in the form point of Suffolk's 16 year old daughterbeing cliched, Janehackneyed even. His eldest and 4th in line All this is simply to the throne is also young enough illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do as she's toldpoorly. In But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this way the door closes harshly on Janebook's childhood, for history knows her description did as Lady Jane Grey; a name that will be written in bloodwell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091947170</amazonuk>1914585526
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shiba RyotaroNicole Jarvis|title=Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 2Portrait in Shadow|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=If Volume 1 built up the characters ''I want all of Masaoka Shiki and the Akiyama brothers, Volume 2 is a book more about war than about people, at least as individuals. Very early in this volume, Masaoka Shiki passes away at a very young age and so fades from the story. Shortly afterwards, as the war with Russia becomes more inevitable and JapanFlorence to know my name's preparations for this really kick into gear, the Akiyama brothers blend a little more into the cast of characters working on the war effort and whilst their names appear fairly regularly, we don't follow their stories as closely as before. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0415508843</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annabel LyonG K Holloway|title=The Sweet GirlIn the Shadows of Castles|rating=34.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''The Sweet Girl'' is a novel fictionalising We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the life day of William of Pythias, the Greek philosopher AristotleNormandy's daughtercoronation as King of England. The reader looks at William's position is not secure and the world new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through Pythias’ eyes, from a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the age of 7 until her late teensprevious king, starting in AthensHarold, is dead and ending up in Chalcis. One gets to delve into the experience likelihood of life in the household of a highly esteemed ancient philosophermore pitched battles is over, and the uncertainty which the main characters rebels are thrown into after stirring and much of the death of King Alexander, making life unsafe for anyone previously affiliated with him – this includes Aristotle, who was once his teachercountry does not wish to recognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>085789952X</amazonuk>1800422466
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=3949666079
|title=Noema
|author=Dael Akkerman
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shiba Ryotaro1529125898|title=Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1Godmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I've long been a lover 'If it were not for the casual dereliction of Japanthe odd gentleman's duty, ever since a brief visit there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.'' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the country more than position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a decade agocase of necessity. Whilst I've read several Japanese crime thrillers in translationUntil the death of her mother, I've never really investigated Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the history household. When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more to do with her. No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of the country£35 a year. Now available Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in English for by some neighbours.}}{{Frontpage|author=Melissa Fu |title=Peach Blossom Spring |rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction |summary= I loved the first timeprelude to Peach Blossom Spring, Shiba Ryotaroa short chapter entitled 's 'Origins''Clouds Above . Unfortunately it is the Hill: A historical Novel only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the Russowar with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-Japanese Warold son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu'' provides just that opportunitys case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0415508762</amazonuk>1472277538
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack Wolf1916072038|title=The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody BonesHouse in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It doesn’t take long for Jack Wolf’s extraordinary pastiche eighteenth century novel 'The Tale We meet part of Raw Head and Bloody Bones' to show its true stripesthe Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Narrator Tristan Hart’s best friend Nathanial is handsome, charming Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and athleticher mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, and also prone to ‘snatching blue Tits from the Hedges, and consuming them direct upon house in the Spothollow.’ In that phrase you see both the heart-stopping nastiness that pulses through ''Raw Head The two women are angry with each other and Bloody Bones'Jocelyn is well aware of her mother' s strengths and the fascinating attitude to Gothic duality that lies at its core.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186879</amazonuk>}}weaknesses:
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanna HicksonAnnabel Abbs|title=The Agincourt BrideLanguage of Food|rating=45
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Baker's daughter Guillaumette DupainEliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, aged 15she recruits Ann Kirby, mourns for her still-born baby but her tragedy becomes others' gaina local woman with a troubled home life. Young Mette is sent to Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the Hotel de San Polworld of domestic cookery, home of the French royal family to become wet nurse to the latest child produced by reinventing the sickly Charles VI recipe book and his wife, Isabella of Bavaria. The infant is Catherine de Valois; destined to be changing the mother face of an English dynasty. But first she must live long enough to marry an English king and being a 15th century royal is a dangerous existence when your greatest enemies are in your own familycookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007446977</amazonuk>1398502227
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Kent-LemonFreya Marske|title=Blockade RunnerA Marvellous Light
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=London shipbroker's clerk Tom Wells Robin Blyth is hungry for promotion. Seeking responsibility where ever possible he's still unprepared for nudged into a proposition from job in the Civil Service, much to his employer Mr Pembrokechagrin. The company is to operate five cargo ships, shuttling between the Bahamas and America's southern states and There he wants Tom to be on board as shipping agent; a dangerous enterprise. Why? It's 1861 meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the south is at war streets of London are threaded with the Yankee northmagic. President Lincoln has blockaded ports like Charleston and Wilmington in the Carolinas in an attempt Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to prevent revenue-providing cargo leaving or supplies (including uniforms and arms) arriving. Mr Pembroke plans swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to illegally 'run' the blockadecountryside, something not unattractive to Tom partially due to where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the vastly increased wage attached but mostly because he has people shimmer with power. There they uncover a certain interest sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in a certain American ladythe British Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781590648</amazonuk>1529080886
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate AlcottB09F4CTKJR|title=The DressmakerFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I’ve always avoided stories with a strong link to It's the Titanic; it’s such a depressing and distressing topic, especially for those later stages of us with an active imagination! However, World War I was attracted to this novel for different reasons. Telling and the story of Tess, a talented seamstress looking for a break, United States has just entered the core relationship conflict. Petrol Petronus is one that is not often explored – that between employee a young American who has signed up and employerjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. Designer Lady Duff Gordon takes Tess on as her maid on This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the Titanic first to be attached to the RAF and quickly becomes a mentor and example as Tess develops her craftthe first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But what happened on before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the voyage threatens their relationship and Tess finds herself facing all kinds of moral dilemmasnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751549231</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte Bronte and Karena RoseChristophe Medler|title=Jane EyroticaMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=34
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Jane Eyre Set 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. As a classic I studied to death in high schoolloyal servant of the King, but I didn’t mind because it’s a book I enjoyed then and still enjoy now. Jane Eyrotica Head of the Secret Service, it is, Robert's duty to put it simply, a smutty version uncover the details of the classic. Hot on plan and follow the heels clues to uncover one of the likes of [[Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James]] this is a reworking most guarded secrets in which history—especially since the plot could affect the once demure Jane beds anything with a pulseKing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749959428</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ken Follett1471187179|title=Winter of the World (Century of Giants Trilogy 2)A Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore|rating=3.54
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary= Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The world of 1933 seems book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to be about live up to disprove the idea that WWI was the war to end all wars. German politician Walter von Ulrich and his wife (and former English aristocrat) Maud watch in horror as Adolf Hitlerher mother's National Socialists increase their hold; expectations and find a rise in popularity that invigorates their son Erik. After visiting the von Ulrichs, nice young Lloyd Williams takes mental images of the brutality gripping Germany home man to Englandmarry, images that fire him up to fight against produce children and spend the fascist threat elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile young socialite Daisy Peshkov has marriage on rest of her mind but isn’t considered a respectable prospect in days looking after her native USAhusband and their home. (Blame her thuggish fatherUnfortunately, movie magnate Lev.) This doesnthis isn't stop her though; if what she wants to do at all and neither does she can't have want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a rich American husbandchance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, there's still working for the secret service and effectively living a bit double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of money left in Great Britain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710107</amazonuk> 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.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rosemary SutcliffAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Sword At SunsetKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Every country has its myths and legends: those stories that are told Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and re-told. Stories that have flipped pages over several times before actually reading any number of re-interpretationsit. StoriesI found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paper, a belief chapter whose number was in which becomes part of our national identitythe 20,000s, even if we hold them to be trueletters used as narrative form, purely because we want them to be trueand so on. Part It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of themit mentioned, at any ratetoo. Those parts of our favourite retelling But you've seen the star rating that speak most to us as individuals. In Englandcomes with this review, Robin Hood and his merry mencan tell that if love was on these pages, is one suchit was not actually caused by them. The other is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857892436</amazonuk>1529402697
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret SkeaChristina Hammonds Reed|title=Turn of the TideThe Black Kids
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=Family and clan count in 16th century Scotland as Munro discovers. His allegiance lies with the Clan Cunninghame and therefore heChristina Hammonds Reed's involved in their bloody feud with debut novel is set against the backdrop of the Montgomeries. It should be straightforward but sometimes feelings don't run along genealogical lines and loyalties are torn. Munro's wife Kate finds this as difficult 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to live with, sharing the hardships absolution of four police officers for beating a life on the edge whilst trying black man, Rodney King, nearly to protect their childrendeath. Unfortunately Told from the Cunninghames' victory at perspective of Ashley Bennett, the Annock massacre has created greater problems than it solved and no one knows which side fate will eventually favour. Meanwhile King James' presence creates novel follows her evolution from a temporary respitesilent bystander when confronted with matters of race, but revenge can't be side-lined foreverto a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909305065</amazonuk>1471188191
}}