Historical
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Book Review- The Murder of Harriet Monckton
Title: The Murder of Harriet Monckton Author: Elizabeth Haynes Published: 27th September Pages: 504 Genre: Historical fiction, mystery, crime Rating: 3.5/5 stars The Murder of Harriet Monckton is based on a true story that shocked and fascinated the nation. On 7th November 1843, Harriet Monckton, 23 years old and a woman of respectable parentage and religious habits, was found murdered in the privy behind the dissenting chapel she had regularly attended in Bromley, Kent. The community was appalled by her death, apparently as a result of swallowing a fatal dose of prussic acid, and even more so when the autopsy revealed that Harriet was six months pregnant. Drawing on the…
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Book Review- Romanov
Title: Romanov Author: Nadine Brandes Published: 30th May 2019 Pages: 352 Genre: YA, Historical, Fantasy, Magic The history books say I died. They don’t know the half of it. Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before. Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never…
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Book Review- The Way of All Flesh
Title: The Way of All Flesh Author: Ambrose Parry Published: 2nd October 2018 Pages: 416 Genre: Historical, Mystery, Crime Rating: 4.5/5 stars A vivid and gripping historical crime novel set in 19th century Edinburgh, from husband-and-wife writing team Chris Brookmyre and Marisa HaetzmanEdinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder.Young women are being discovered dead across the Old Town, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. In the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant and renowned Dr Simpson.Simpson’s patients range from the richest to the poorest of this divided city. His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments…
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Book Review- Enchantée
Title: Enchantée Author: Gita Trelease Published: 21st Feb 2019 Pages: 480 Genre: YA, Historical Series: Enchantée #1 Rating: 5/5 stars Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians… When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and…
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Book Review- The Removes
Title: The Removes Author: Tatjana Soli Published: 12th June 2018 Pages: 371 Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction Rating: 3/5 stars From the New York Times bestselling author Tatjana Soli, an expansive and transfixing new novel set on the American frontierSpanning the years of the first great settlement of the west, The Removes tells the intertwining stories of fifteen-year-old Anne Cummins, frontierswoman Libbie Custer, and Libbie’s husband, the Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer. When Anne survives a surprise attack on her family’s homestead, she is thrust into a difficult life she never anticipated—living among the Sioux as both a captive and, eventually, a member of the tribe. Libbie, too, is thrown into a brutal, unexpected…