Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
==Historical fiction==
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Tananarive Due
|author=Pam Jenoff
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|title=The Reformatory
|title=The Ambassador's Daughter
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|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1919 the Great War - the First World War - was over and all that was left was to work out the terms of the peace treaty. Margot Rosenthal accompanied her father, a diplomat, to Paris, where he was part of the German delegation and in the invidious position of being disliked by the French because he was ''the enemy'' and mistrusted by fellow members of the delegation because he was JewishThey'd previously been in England where they'd simply been the enemyMargot could have gone home to Berlin but that would have taken her back to her fiance, who'd been seriously injured in the war.  She'd rather fallen into the engagement, feeling that it was what she ought to do.  Passion played no part.
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|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...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848452039</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803366532
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Katherine Howe
 +
|title=A True Account
 +
|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age.  When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watchEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious piratesShe hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's 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 ocean waves.
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|isbn=0861547438
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sarah Marsh
|author=Annabel Lyon
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|title=A Sign of Her Own
|title=The Sweet Girl
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|rating=3.5
|rating=3
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|genre=General Fiction
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|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.
|summary=''The Sweet Girl'' is a novel fictionalising the life of Pythias, the Greek philosopher Aristotle's daughter. The reader looks at the world through Pythias’ eyes, from the age of 7 until her late teens, starting in Athens, and ending up in Chalcis. One gets to delve into the experience of life in the household of a highly esteemed ancient philosopher, and the uncertainty which the main characters are thrown into after the death of King Alexander, making life unsafe for anyone previously affiliated with him – this includes Aristotle, who was once his teacher.
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|isbn=1035401614
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789952X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Claire North
|author=C W Gortner
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|title=House of Odysseus
|title=The Queen's Vow
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Queen Isabella of Spain will always be regarded as a bit of an enigma. On the one hand, contemporary sources claim that she was wise, kind and gentle, hating any kind of cruelty, including the popular sport of bullfighting. Her rule brought about the unification of Spain and heralded a new era of peace for its people. On the other side of the coin, she and her husband Fernando sanctioned the infamous Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. Her most vehement critics may also point out that her sponsorship of Columbus brought untold misery to the inhabitants of the Americas, although in her defence, there is no way that she could have predicted the eventual consequences of his pioneering voyage.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444720805</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Shiba Ryotaro
 
|title=Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Literary Fiction  
|summary=I've long been a lover of Japan, ever since a brief visit to the country more than a decade ago.  Whilst I've read several Japanese crime thrillers in translation, I've never really investigated the history of the country.  Now available in English for the first time, Shiba Ryotaro's ''Clouds Above the Hill: A historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War'' provides just that opportunity.
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|summary= ''What could matter more than love?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0415508762</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jack Wolf
 
|title=The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It doesn’t take long for Jack Wolf’s extraordinary pastiche eighteenth century novel 'The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones' to show its true stripes. Narrator Tristan Hart’s best friend Nathanial is handsome, charming and athletic, and also prone to ‘snatching blue Tits from the Hedges, and consuming them direct upon the Spot.’ In that phrase you see both the heart-stopping nastiness that pulses through ''Raw Head and Bloody Bones'' and the fascinating attitude to Gothic duality that lies at its core.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186879</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Ayana Mathis
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|isbn=0356516075
|title=The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary= Teenager Hattie Shepherd moves with her husband August, parents and siblings from the colour apartheid of the southern US to Philadelphia in search of a better life. Unfortunately this is 1920's America and so 'better life' is a mirage for Hattie.  By the age of 15 she's pregnant and subsequently gives birth to twins Jubilee and Philadelphia, the first two of 11 children. As much joy as they bring, the twins are destined to provide a tragedy that will flavour Hattie's and August's outlook and relationship for decades.  Each later Shepherd baby will develop with their own characteristics but each will also be tarnished by the past, irrespective of their attempts to escape it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009194418X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0C7J9D21B
|author=Sharon Penman
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|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)
|title=Lionheart
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|author=A J Lewis
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Lionheart'' is the latest book in the ''Devil’s Brood'' series, which focuses on the dysfunctional Angevin branch of the Plantaganets. As the title suggests, the story is a richly detailed account of the life of Richard I, covering the period from his coronation up to the end of the third crusade.
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|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's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born.  He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats.  Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors.  He was even saving some money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447205367</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Essie Fox
|author=Geling Yan and Nicky Harman (translator)
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|title=The Fascination
|title=The Flowers of War
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1937, Nanking. The war between the Republic of China and Japan has ended in defeat for China, and now Japanese soldiers are moving in to bloodily occupy the capital city. In a small American mission church, fifteen Chinese schoolgirls are hiding, trapped until the priests who look after them can smuggle them to safety. Into this already fraught atmosphere come desperate Chinese citizens looking for shelter – a rowdy group of Nanking prostitutes, a colonel on the run and two more soldiers who have survived a horrendous secret massacre. As the Japanese atrocities gather pace, the safety and survival of each of the church’s disparate members becomes uncertain, and the initially hostile girls begin to realise that there may be common ground between them and the prostitutes they have been taught to despise.
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|summary= The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099569620</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1914585526
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
  
{{newreview
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Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of 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 over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.
|author=Joanna Hickson
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=The Agincourt Bride
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary= Baker's daughter Guillaumette Dupain, aged 15, mourns for her still-born baby but her tragedy becomes others' gain. Young Mette is sent to the Hotel de San Pol, home of the French royal family to become wet nurse to the latest child produced by the sickly Charles VI and his wife, Isabella of Bavaria. The infant is Catherine de Valois; destined to be the mother 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 family.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007446977</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
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|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
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|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
  
{{newreview
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Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
|author=David Kent-Lemon
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|isbn=0356518523
|title=Blockade Runner
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=London shipbroker's clerk Tom Wells is hungry for promotion. Seeking responsibility where ever possible he's still unprepared for a proposition from his employer Mr Pembroke.  The company is to operate five cargo ships, shuttling between the Bahamas and America's southern states and he wants Tom to be on board as shipping agent; a dangerous enterprise. Why?  It's 1861 and the south is at war with the Yankee north.  President Lincoln has blockaded ports like Charleston and Wilmington in the Carolinas in an attempt to prevent revenue-providing cargo leaving or supplies (including uniforms and arms) arriving.  Mr Pembroke plans to illegally 'run' the blockade, something not unattractive to Tom partially due to the vastly increased wage attached but mostly because he has a certain interest in a certain American lady.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781590648</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=G K Holloway
|author=Kate Alcott
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|title=In the Shadows of Castles
|title=The Dressmaker
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I’ve always avoided stories with a strong link to the Titanic; it’s such a depressing and distressing topic, especially for those of us with an active imagination! However, I was attracted to this novel for different reasons. Telling the story of Tess, a talented seamstress looking for a break, the core relationship is one that is not often explored – that between employee and employer. Designer Lady Duff Gordon takes Tess on as her maid on the Titanic and quickly becomes a mentor and example as Tess develops her craft. But what happened on the voyage threatens their relationship and Tess finds herself facing all kinds of moral dilemmas.
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|summary= We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751549231</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1800422466
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=3949666079
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|title=Noema
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|author=Dael Akkerman
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=General Fiction
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|summary=''This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.''
  
{{newreview
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Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions?
|author=Charlotte Bronte and Karena Rose
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}}
|title=Jane Eyrotica
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{{Frontpage
|rating=3
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|isbn=1529125898
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|title=Godmersham Park
 +
|author=Gill Hornby
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Jane Eyre is a classic I studied to death in high school, but I didn’t mind because it’s a book I enjoyed then and still enjoy now. Jane Eyrotica is, to put it simply, a smutty version of the classic. Hot on the heels of the likes of [[Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James]] this is a reworking in which the once demure Jane beds anything with a pulse.
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|summary=''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749959428</amazonuk>
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Anne 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.  She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity.  Until the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the 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 £35 a year.  Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Melissa Fu
|author=Ken Follett
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|title=Peach Blossom Spring
|title=Winter of the World (Century of Giants Trilogy 2)
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction  
|summary= The world of 1933 seems to be about 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 Hitler's National Socialists increase their hold; a rise in popularity that invigorates their son Erik.  After visiting the von Ulrichs, young Lloyd Williams takes mental images of the brutality gripping Germany home to England, images that fire him up to fight against the fascist threat elsewhere in Europe.  Meanwhile young socialite Daisy Peshkov has marriage on her mind but isn’t considered a respectable prospect in her native USA.  (Blame her thuggish father, movie magnate Lev.)  This doesn't stop her though; if she can't have a rich American husband, there's still a bit of money left in Britain.
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|summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''Origins''.  Unfortunately it is the 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 war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710107</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472277538
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1916072038
|author=Rosemary Sutcliff
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|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)
|title=Sword At Sunset
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|author=Allie Cresswell
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Every country has its myths and legends: those stories that are told and re-toldStories that have any number of re-interpretations.  Stories, a belief in which becomes part of our national identity, even if we hold them to be true, purely because we want them to be truePart of them, at any rate.  Those parts of our favourite retelling that speak most to us as individuals. In England, Robin Hood and his merry men, is one such.  The other is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
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|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollowThe two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857892436</amazonuk>
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}}
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''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectability, the deplorable truth''.
  
{{newreview
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Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal''.
|author=Margaret Skea
 
|title=Turn of the Tide
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Family and clan count in 16th century Scotland as Munro discovers.  His allegiance lies with the Clan Cunninghame and therefore he's involved in their bloody feud with 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 to live with, sharing the hardships of a life on the edge whilst trying to protect their children.  Unfortunately the Cunninghames' victory at 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 a temporary respite, but revenge can't be side-lined forever.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909305065</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire.
|author=Sally Prue
 
|title=Song Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=A new Ice Age is coming. Winters are getting colder. There are fewer mammoths to hunt and no trees from which to fashion spears to kill them. A small group of Neanderthals is facing starvation this winter. One of them, Mica, is full of ideas to avert the impending doom, but the others simply won't listen to her. If something has never been before then it is ''nothing'' and simply not worth thinking about. Even Bear, who loves Mica, won't hear her. One night, Mica hears strange voices calling in the darkness. They fill her with a deep sense of longing. But to whom do these siren voices belong? And do they hold the key to Mica's future?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757113</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Annabel Abbs
|author=Lisa Hilton
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|title=The Language of Food
|title=Wolves in Winter
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's 1492 and Mura, an exotic-looking child of Moorish, Spanish and Viking origin enjoys an idyllic childhood living with her widowed father, a Toledo bookseller.  However she soon learns that the world is a cruel place when he's snatched by the Spanish Inquisition and she's hidden in a brothel for safe keeping. Adara, the lady of the night entrusted with Mura, betrays that trust and the child's adventurous journeys begin.  From nurtured daughter to child prostitute to Medici slave, Mura discovers the power within, nourished by her childhood tales from the Moors and 'North Men' and her gift of 'the sight'.  Mura also bears a secret but it seems that she'll be the last to discover it.
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|summary=Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874677</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398502227
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Freya Marske
|author=John Kerr
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|title=A Marvellous Light
|title=Hurricane Hole
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1942 German U-boats were wreaking havoc with Allied shipping in the Caribbean. Tom Hamilton, a young American working undercover and posing as a rich playboy, was sent to the Bahamas to investigate Nils Ericsson, a Swedish industrialist.  Sweden might have been neutral in the war but Ericsson was known to have ties to the Nazis. It wasn't long before Hamilton was certain that Ericsson was building a base for U-boats at Hurricane Hole on Hog Island.  The problem was what to do about it.  The Governor of the Bahamas was the Duke of Windsor, friend of Ericsson and himself a suspected Nazi sympathiser. As an added complication Hamilton was attracted to Evelyn Shawcross but as she was a friend of both the Governor and Ericsson, could he trust her?
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|summary=Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. |isbn=1529080886
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709099053</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|author=Will Buckingham
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|title= Flights for Freedom
|title=The Descent of the Lyre
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|author= Steven Burgauer
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Seventeen year old Ivan Gelski, the much loved son of Bulgarian peasant parents, has his bride to be and future snatched from him brutally just before his wedding.  Full of rage and vengeance, he leaves his close knit village to join the haiduti, a savage band of outlaws who kill mercilessly in order to acquire food and survival.  Years later, on one of these killing sprees, Ivan encounters Solomon Kuretic, a Viennese Jew and guitar virtuoso on his way to play for the Sultan in Constantinople.  Solomon must play for his life but, by doing so, he sends Ivan on a journey of his own spreading across Europe and into saintly veneration.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9380905076</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Deborah Swift
 
|title=The Gilded Lily
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In Restoration England, Sadie Appleby and her older sister Ella flee their home in Westmorland to try to lose themselves in London. They're forced to try and avoid the relatives of the dead man who Ella robbed and build a new life, but things aren't always what they seem in the capital and they're left trying to work out just who they can trust.
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|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330543431</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Christophe Medler
|author=Colm Toibin
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|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret
|title=The Testament of Mary
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The subject matter for Colm Tóibín's 'The Testament of Mary' is exactly what the title suggests in that it relates Mary's feelings about the death of her son, Jesus, whose name it hurts her too much to even mention. It's a curiously slight offering though. Its 100 odd pages lands it somewhere between short story and novella territory. Even so, with Tóibín's excellence as a writer and the emotive subject matter, I expected to be more engaged with the story than I was.
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|summary= 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 loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670922099</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1471187179
|author=Lawrence Norfolk
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|title=A Beautiful Spy
|title=John Saturnall's Feast
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|author=Rachel Hore
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=John Saturnall’s mother is a healer and herbalist. It was all too easy in the 1620’s for women with her skills to come under suspicion of witchcraft.  When John and his mother are hounded from their village by religious extremists the Lessoners, they hide in Buccla’s Wood. But as winter takes a grip on the land John’s mother diesJohn is taken in to work in the kitchens at Buckland ManorHis progress from scullery boy to cook is graphically recorded alongside his prickly relationship with the daughter of the house, Lucretia.  The story takes the couple through the years of the civil war, when life at Buckland comes under threat from the advancing Puritan army.
+
|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their homeUnfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretaryAs a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great BritainMinnie 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>1408805960</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Russell James
 
|title=The Exhibitionists
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=On one particular London night in 1834 three children start a journey that will mould their futures.  Newly born Maddy is abandoned in Mrs Cuthbertson's establishment (a thinly veiled baby farm) causing Maddy to spend years looking for the reasons that led her thereBaby Sam is fished out of the Thames and grows with a burning desire to uncover the truth, shaping his career as a journalist. Meanwhile Hannah is conceived that night by two people fated to live lives that don't coincide, until…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178095011X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)
|author=Diana McCaulay
+
|title=Kokoschka's Doll
|title=Huracan
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=1986 – 30-year-old  Leigh McCaulay (''White gal!'') is returning to Jamaica, the land of her birth. Her mother is dead and there is an estate to be settledHer estranged father is somewhere on the islandHer brother is in EnglandThis isn't the closest of grieving families.  Leigh doesn't even know how her mother died.  Indeed, she's a bit surprised to find out she'd gone back to JamaicaThe residual family had left the island not long after the father's desertion.
+
|summary=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 flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of itI 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 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so onIt intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, tooBut you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by themSo what happened?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845231961</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529402697
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christina Hammonds Reed
|author=Bernard Cornwell
+
|title=The Black Kids
|title=1356
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sir Thomas Hookton, aka Le Batard (a French word that's very similar in English, if you see what I mean) roams France with his band of mercenaries, acquiring plundered riches and selling their services in the war against the French.  However, Thomas' liege, Lord William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, disrupts the combative equilibrium when demands a diversion.  Monks are spreading stories about 'La Malice', (the sword with which St Peter defended Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane) and with it the power to bless or curse the owner, depending who you listen to.  So Lord 'Billy' wants it and La Batard must find it.  Meanwhile Sir Thomas has competition as unsavoury elements in the church create a special order of knights.  They mean to find it first, by foul means or even fouler.
+
|summary=Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to death. Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007331843</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471188191
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=James Long
 
|title=The Lives She Left Behind
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Jo has always been an odd child, talking to her imaginary friend Gally from almost as soon as she could talk.  Her widowed mother drags her from doctor to therapist until medication becomes the only answer.  It provides peace for Jo's mother but pushes the teenage Jo into a shady half-existence.  Meanwhile somewhere else, Luke is also a teenager leading a half-life as he co-exists with his mother and her disdainful, temperamental partner.  Luke feels more at home in the great outdoors than under a roof and gradually comes to realise why. They may have lived this long unaware of each other, but Luke's and Jo's worlds collide one summer at an archaeological dig and what they discover is beyond their wildest imaginings.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875320</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tim Severin
 
|title=Saxon: The Book of Dreams (Saxon 1)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=
 
Sigwulf is the Saxon prince of a small kingdom - that is, until the ruthless King Offa of Mercia slaughters his family. He is saved from execution for a single purpose - to be shipped off to the court of King Carolus of the Franks. Sigwulf quickly befriends the Kings nephew, Count Hroundland, a powerful and very ambitious man. However, just as quickly Sigwulf survives an attempt on his life, he also finds he has been thrown into a world of deceit and vain ambitions. Only Osric, Sigwulf's crippled personal slave, can be trusted.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230764428</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Davies
 
|title=The Year After
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Captain Tom Allen is home from World War I.  Whilst waiting to be demobbed, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Court, the stately home of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury.  He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed.  The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second son, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect.  Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that he's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering.  Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets.  Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne (who has issues of her own), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980443</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Karen Engelmann
 
|title=The Stockholm Octavo
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=As a Customs and Excise 'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholm, Emil Larsson has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelor's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luck.  Contrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something.  In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marry.  His manager believes this so fervently that there's a deadline for the wedding.  Emil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his success.  However, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742698</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest History Reviews]]
|author=Paul Dowswell
 
|title=Eleven Eleven
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's 2am in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826232</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:53, 20 November 2023

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Review of

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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... Full Review

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Review of

A True Account by Katherine Howe

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's 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 ocean waves. Full Review

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Review of

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

3.5star.jpg General Fiction

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. Full Review

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Review of

House of Odysseus by Claire North

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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. Full Review

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Review of

A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries) by A J Lewis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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 Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of mothers, though - but for someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some money. Full Review

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Review of

The Fascination by Essie Fox

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

The Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being cliched, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as well. Full Review

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Review of

A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I want all of Florence to know my name

Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of 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 over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society. Full Review

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Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

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Review of

In the Shadows of Castles by G K Holloway

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We begin after the momentous battle in 1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. William's position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to worry. While the previous king, Harold, is dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the rebels are stirring and much of the country does not wish to recognise a new overlord. Full Review

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Review of

Noema by Dael Akkerman

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

This is a story about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.

Maya is a young girl living in a hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, and food is becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the federation of villages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the wisdom of All Life, provide solutions? Full Review

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Review of

Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentleman's duty, 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 position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a case of necessity. Until the death of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the 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 £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours. Full Review

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Review of

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

3.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled Origins. Unfortunately it is the 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 war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America. Full Review

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Review of

The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga) by Allie Cresswell

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. 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 facade of respectability, the deplorable truth.

Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was asked, which has precipitated this violent and unexpected removal.

Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshire. Full Review

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Review of

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Eliza Acton is a poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face of cookery writing forever. Full Review

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Review of

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the streets of London are threaded with magic. Desperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles. Full Review

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Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel. Full Review

B095HY8SXQ.jpg

Review of

Madrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret by Christophe Medler

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

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 loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret Service, it is Robert's duty to uncover the details of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the most guarded secrets in history—especially since the plot could affect the King. Full Review

1471187179.jpg

Review of

A Beautiful Spy by Rachel Hore

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and their home. Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the 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 Communist Party. Full Review

1529402697.jpg

Review of

Kokoschka's Doll by Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)

2.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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 flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. 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 20,000s, letters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened? Full Review

1471188191.jpg

Review of

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

4.5star.jpg Teens

Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the absolution of four police officers for beating a black man, Rodney King, nearly to death. Told from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, the novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of race, to a woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage. Full Review

Move on to Newest History Reviews