Book Review Blog | BookBeforeULeap

Category: Historical Fiction

#TheOnceAndFutureWitches

In 1893, there’s no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the three Eastwood sisters…
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#LongHand

Malcolm George Galbraith is a large, somewhat clumsy, Scotsman. He’s being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why. So he leaves her a handwritten note on the kitchen table (well, more a 300-page letter than a note). In it, Malcolm decides to start from the beginning and tell the…
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#Spirited

A beautifully haunting and atmospheric historical novel about three brave women with unspeakable truths – perfect for fans of The Binding, Once Upon A River and The Familiars. Three women carry unspeakable truths in their heart. At what cost will they find their freedom? In Victorian England, Viola is an amateur photographer struggling with the…
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#TheStrangeAdventuresofH

Orphaned young, H is sent to live with her doting aunt in London. H s life is a happy one until her lecherous cousin robs her of her innocence, and the plague takes away the city and the people she loves. H is cast out friendless, pregnant and destitute into the rapidly emptying streets of…
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#TheseLostAndBrokenThings

Maiden-Mother-Murderer How dangerous is a woman with nothing left to lose?The year is 1905. London is a playground for the rich and a death trap for the poor. When Sofia Logan’s husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her penniless with two young children, she knows she will do anything to keep them from the workhouse. But can…
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#Hamnet

A stunning new departure for Maggie O’Farrell’s fiction, Hamnet is the heart-stopping story behind Shakespeare’s most famous play. On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away,…
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#ThePhilosophersDaughter

4th April 2020 A tale of two very different sisters whose 1890s voyage from London into remote outback Australia becomes a journey of self-discovery, set against a landscape of wild beauty and savage dispossession. London in 1891: Harriet Cameron is a talented young artist whose mother died when she was barely five. She and her…
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#OnWilderSeas

Monday 30th March 2020 THE WOMAN ON THE GOLDEN HIND April 1579: When two ships meet off the Pacific coast of New Spain, an enslaved woman seizes the chance to escape. But Maria has unwittingly joined Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage and he’s about to set sail on a secret detour to find the fabled Anian…
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#ChildrenOfWar

29th March 2020 Hassanakis is a young Muslim boy of Turkish descent growing up on Crete during WWI. Fifteen generations of his family have lived on the island and until now he has never had any reason not to think he is a Cretan. But with the Great Powers tussling over the collapsing Ottoman Empire…
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#ThisLovelyCity

The drinks are flowing. The music is playing. But the party can’t last. With the Blitz over and London reeling from war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Fresh off the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next…
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