| The orphan's song by Lauren KateWhat it's about: Raised in a Venetian orphanage, singer Violetta and violinist Mino form a strong but complicated bond rooted in the music they share.
Read it for: sympathetic characters, a bittersweet love story, and an atmospheric setting.
You might also like: Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick, another richly detailed novel about musical orphans set in 18th-century Venice. |
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| The burning chambers by Kate MosseWhat it is: a swashbuckling saga set in 1562 Carcassonne against the backdrop of France's Wars of Religion.
Starring: Minou Joubert, a bookseller's daughter who receives an anonymous message containing a warning; fugitive Huguenot Piet Reydon, who protects Minou while fleeing his pursuers.
Read it for: secrets, star-crossed lovers, stolen relics, and the Inquisition. |
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| The electric hotel by Dominic SmithIntroducing: French film director Claude Ballard, a pioneer of cinema who once worked with the Lumière brothers and now, in 1962, languishes in obscurity as a resident of Hollywood's Knickerbocker Hotel.
His masterpiece? The Electric Hotel, a film that he made with the help of an Australian stuntman, a seductive French actress, and a theatre owner turned movie producer.
Reviewers say: "an irresistible and dizzying international tale of early cinema" (The Washington Post). |
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| The summer country by Lauren WilligWhat it is: a compelling family saga by the bestselling author of The English Wife, set in colonial Barbados and full of mystery and romance.
1812: Charles Davenant arrives in Barbados to run Peverills, his family's sugar plantation, which proves challenging to say the least.
1854: Englishwoman Emily Dawson inherits the now-derelict Peverills and, with the help of brusque but attractive local doctor Nathaniel Braithwaite, learns about its tragic past. |
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The blood of Rome
by Simon Scarrow
AD 55. As trouble brews on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro must prepare for war. The wily Parthian Empire has invaded Roman-ruled Armenia, ousting King Rhadamistus. The King is ambitious and ruthless, but he is loyal to Rome. General Corbulo must restore him to power, while also readying the troops for war with Parthia. Corbulo welcomes new arrivals Cato and Macro, experienced soldiers who know how to knock into shape an undermanned unit of men ill-equipped for conflict. But Rhadamistus's brutality towards those who ousted him will spark an uprising which will test the bravery of the Roman army to the limit. While the enemy watches from over the border.
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The lost history of dreams: A novel
by Kris Waldherr
When famed Byronesque poet Hugh de Bonne is discovered dead of a heart attack in his bath one morning, his cousin Robert Highstead, a historian turned post-mortem photographer, is charged with a simple task: transport Hugh's remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, a stained glass folly set on the moors of Shropshire, was built by de Bonne sixteen years earlier to house the remains of his beloved wife and muse, Ada. Since then, the chapel has been locked and abandoned, a pilgrimage site for the rabid fans of de Bonne's last book, The Lost History of Dreams. However, Ada's grief-stricken niece refuses to open the glass chapel for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain: before he can lay Hugh to rest, Robert must record Isabelle's story of Ada and Hugh's ill-fated marriage over the course of five nights. As the mystery of Ada and Hugh's relationship unfolds, so does the secret behind Robert's own marriage; including that of his fragile wife, Sida, who has not been the same since the tragic accident three years ago, and the origins of his own morbid profession that has him seeing things he shouldn't, things from beyond the grave. Kris Waldherr effortlessly spins a sweeping and atmospheric gothic mystery about love and loss that blurs the line between the past and the present, truth and fiction, and ultimately, life and death.
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The redeemed
by Tim Pears
It is 1916. The world has gone to war, and young Leo Sercombe, hauling coal aboard the HMS Queen Mary, is a long way from home. The wild, unchanging West Country roads of his boyhood seem very far away from life aboard a battlecruiser, a universe of well-oiled steel, of smoke and spray and sweat, where death seems never more than a heartbeat away. Skimming through those West Country roads on her motorcycle, Lottie Prideaux defies the expectations of her class and sex as she covertly studies to be a vet. But the steady rhythms of Lottie's practice, her comings and goings between her neighbours and their animals, will be blown apart by a violent act of betrayal, and a devastating loss. In a world torn asunder by war, everything dances in flux: how can the old ways of life survive, and how can the future be imagined, in the face of such unimaginable change? How can Leo, lost and wandering in the strange and brave new world, ever hope to find his way home?
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The wolf in the whale
by Jordanna Max Brodsky
A young Inuit shaman's epic quest for survival in the frozen lands of North America in 1000 AD. Born with the soul of a hunter and the language of the gods, Omat is destined to become a shaman like her grandfather. To protect her people, she invokes the spirits of the sky, the sea, and the air. But the gods have stopped listening, the seals won't come, and Omat's family is starving. Desperate to save them, Omat journeys through the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, together they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world, or save it. The Wolf in the Whale is a powerful tale of magic, discovery and adventure, featuring an unforgettable narrator ready to confront the gods themselves.
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| The last Tudor by Philippa GregoryStarring: Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, Katherine and Mary, all potential heirs to the disputed throne of England.
For fans of: Susan Higginbotham's Her Highness, the Traitor, which also depicts the political drama of the succession crisis caused by Henry VIII's death.
Should you start here? Although it's the 7th installment of the Cousins' War series, The Last Tudor can be read and enjoyed on its own. |
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| Cleopatra's shadows: A fall of Egypt novel by Emily HollemanIntroducing: Arsinoe and Berenice, the half-sisters of Cleopatra.
What happens: After their father is deposed in a palace coup, 12-year-old Berenice declares herself ruler, setting the stage for a bloody conflict that will pit sister against sister.
Try this next: The Drowning King, which is book 2 in this series; or Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, a biography of the iconic ruler that also delves into dynastic dysfunction. |
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The autumn throne: A novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine
by Elizabeth Chadwick
Imprisoned by her husband. Separated from her children. If King Henry II thought these things would push his queen into submission, he was wrong. Eleanor of Aquitaine refused to give into his tyranny. Freed by his death, she became dowager Queen of England. But the competition for land and power that Henry bred among his sons had grown into a dangerous rivalry that Eleanor must skillfully control. Eleanor would need every ounce of courage and fortitude as she crossed the Alps in winter to bring her son Richard his bride, ransom him from imprisonment and deal with his brother John's treachery. Her indomitable spirit would be tested to its limits as she attempted to keep the peace between her warring sons, fend off enemies, and negotiate a magnificent future for a chosen granddaughter.
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Katherine of Aragon: The true queen: A novel
by Alison Weir
Young Katherine of Aragon, daughter of Spain's powerful monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, was an exquisite prize in the royal marriage market. Golden-haired, sixteen years old, she was sent to England to marry the future king, Arthur, Prince of Wales. But when Arthur died a few months after their wedding, Katherine's bright future was suddenly eclipsed. It took his younger brother Henry VIII eight long years to do the honorable thing and marry her. Their union was briefly happy until Katherine failed to bear a son, and Anne Boleyn caught Henry's eye.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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