Dragon Kin (Once and Future Hearts Book 2)
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Will she become the cursed king’s fifth dead wife? In Lesser Britain, drought grips the land,...
adult fiction series historical fiction historical romance romance
Primordial Threat
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The year is 2066 and the world is oblivious to the threat it faces. The fate of humanity lies on...
space science fiction adult fiction
This Brutal House
6.0
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On the steps of New York City Hall, five ageing Mothers sit in silent protest. They are the...
Literary fiction Historical fiction
How Beautiful We Were
10.0
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Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, How Beautiful We Were tells the story of a people...
Africa Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Cameroon
Shrines of Gaiety
10.0
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1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a...
Historical fiction Literary fiction London
River Sing Me Home
9.0
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We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Family Colonialism Slavery Caribbean
I Know Her Name: a poetry book from the pages of You Won't Know Her Name
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In the sixth grade, a girl’s life was turned upside down by a series of horrific bullying events. ...
poems poetry poetry collection bullying teen teens
A Little Trickerie
10.0
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Born a vagabond, Tibb Ingleby has never had a roof of her own. Her mother has taught her that if...
Historical fiction Literary Fiction medieval England
ClareR (6054 KP) rated Daughter of the Mists in Books
Nov 23, 2025
I’ve read and really enjoyed a couple of Barbara Erskine novels, and Daughter of the Mists is very much in that style.
Hanna has dreamt of a girl, a slave, since she was a teenager, and when she returns to Norfolk these dreams become much more vivid. I really enjoyed how the narrative seemed to slip naturally from one time to the other. I wasn’t left wondering what was going on, or where I was in time. I found the Roman/ Iceni timeline fascinating, and there were some uncomfortable descriptions of what life was like under the Roman rule. It was also good to see that the Iceni’s had a much more liberated view of the role of women than the Romans did!
This is an ideal book for those who enjoy historical fiction, romance and a bit of time slippage!
Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Witchfinder's Sister in Books
Mar 15, 2018
<i>The Witchfinder’s Sister</i> is based on true life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins that grew to fame during the English Civil War around East Anglia, hunting and killing “witches”. This book isn’t non-fiction, it’s fiction based around non-fiction! I love these sorts of books that create their own stories from something that was very much real. Not only does it make for good reading, they also bring in some true history facts, so you’re being educated on the subject as you read.
High praise goes to Underdown for this novel. I feel like historical fiction can be hard genre to get right, and considering this is a <i>debut</i> novel, I’m amazed at how well put together and beautiful this has turned out to be! I love reading historical fiction, every once in awhile, and this is the sort of book that keeps my love for the genre burning.
The writing in this novel was haunting and beautiful. Nine times out of ten, it was exactly as you would have imagined the 17th Century to be, but I felt there were a few slips that made the book feel modern. For example, would a lady in 1645 say the phrase <i><b>“shitting herself”</b></i>? Correct me if I’m wrong, but that feels like a reasonably modern phrase to me.
I loved our main character, Alice. Me and my mum were talking about historical fiction novels and how we find it hard to understand why women make the decisions they make in these books, because we’re so used to having some equality and independence. But I noted that in this book, even though Alice is inferior to her brother and his counterparts, she is still a risk taker; going against her brother's wishes & sneaking around. I liked that she was strong and a little rebellious, it was so much easier to connect with her because of this.
On the other hand. I <i>hated</i> Matthew. He was a despicable character. I can rarely hate a character in a book, even if I’m supposed to. I tend to find the good in them at some point, or have some sort of sympathy for them, but I absolutely despised Matthew. Well done to Underdown for creating such a hate-inducing character. It’s quite a hard feat, but she managed it perfectly. The same goes for Mary Phillips.
The tension was built so well in this novel, you could feel the mystery growing and growing with every page and I loved it! Though the story moved reasonably slowly, the book was still absolutely riveting and I found it extremely hard to put down when I knew it was time to get some rest.
I am so, so excited to read more from Underdown. This was an amazingly well put together and researched.
<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>