Pages: 451Published: 13th May 2021Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Misogyny, sexual content, sexual harassment Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den... Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by … Continue reading Book Review – The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
Pages: 343Published: 6th February 2020Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Violence, Rape, Sexual references, Misogyny Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the … Continue reading Book Review – The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Pages: 398Published: 21st January 2021Genre: Historical Fiction/Gothic HorrorContent warnings: Injury detail, child death As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then … Continue reading Book Review – The Shape Of Darkness by Laura Purcell
Pages: 399Published: 10th January 2019Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Misogyny This was another book I read with Pauliina @ The Bookaholic Dreamer, and it gave us lots to discuss along the way! When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a … Continue reading Book Review – Blackberry & Wild Rose by Sonia Velton
Pages: 377Published: 14th October 2021Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Child death, sexual harassment Alone in the world, Elspeth Swansome has taken the position of nanny to a family on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea. Her charge, Mary, is a troubled child. Distracted and secretive, she hasn't uttered a word since the sudden death of her twin, William—just days after … Continue reading Book Review – The Whistling by Rebecca Netley
Pages: 382Published: 22nd April 2021Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Animal death/cruelty, suicide, allusions to rape, misogyny Lancashire, 1620. Young Sarah Haworth and her family live as outcasts. They are 'cunning folk', feared by the local villagers by day, but called upon under cover of darkness for healing balms and spells. Against the odds, love blossoms when Sarah meets Daniel, the … Continue reading Book Review – Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee
Image credit: ITV/Drama Republic Hello everyone, Back in the summer of 2020 I read The Confessions Of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins. It was a remarkably powerful and moving character portrait written with immense depth, also containing a forbidden romance and an intriguing murder mystery. Frannie Langton herself has such a unique and sophisticated voice, and her … Continue reading TV Adaptation Review – The Confessions Of Frannie Langton
Pages: 416Published: 31st March 2020Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Misogyny, sexual content Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father's feet as he and his team gather words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. One day, she sees a slip of paper containing a forgotten word flutter to the floor unclaimed. And … Continue reading Book Review – The Dictionary Of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Pages: 304Published: 14th April 2021Genre: HorrorContent warnings: Child abduction, sexual references This was a buddy read with Noly @ The Artsy Reader. We had been planning to read it for ages, but finally we got round it in August! Captivated by books and stories, Rose dreams of a life away from the confines of the Sunnyside Care Home she … Continue reading Book Review – The Cottingley Cuckoo by A.J. Elwood
Pages: 400Published: 7th July 2022Genre: Historical FictionContent warnings: Racism, sexual content Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, winter has set in - her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and … Continue reading Book Review – The House Of Fortune by Jessie Burton
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