Margaret Barr
The Concubine
The popularity of historical fiction about historical women in general and Boleyn women in particular has resulted in the republication…
Royal Harlot: A Novel of the Countess of Castlemaine and King Charles II
Editors' choice
Having previously provided a fictional memoir of Sarah, first Duchess of Marlborough (Duchess, an Editors’ Choice), Scott brings to vivid life another of the 17th…
Voices of the Night
Former pickpocket and secret murderess Maggie King has run afoul of London’s most notorious criminal. She and her “chavies,” the…
Bluebird, or the Invention of Happiness
Editors' choice
Upon occasion a reviewer is familiar with the source material for a fictional biographical novel, and therefore dreads the transformation…
The Deception of the Emerald Ring
Letty Alsworthy, the responsible member of an eccentric family in early 19th century England, is seriously concerned about her beautiful…
The Rose of York: Fall from Grace
While Worth’s ambitious novel offers a sympathetic representation of King Richard the Third, she also depicts him as humanly flawed…
Love in a Bottle
Sophie Andrews is more interested in botany than in her parents’ plan to marry her off advantageously, as befitting a…
Lady Katherne’s Wild Ride
At the start of Westin’s lively Restoration romp, Lady Katherne Lindsay suffers the indignities common to a poor and dependent…
Brookland
The novel opens with a confessional letter from an unusual woman to her grown daughter, Recompense, living far from…
The Code of Love
In her latest work, Sawyer (The Chase) charts the conflicted relationship between an aristocratic British intelligence officer and a…
About our Reviews
Over the last 15 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 12,000 historical fiction books. We plan to upload them all and make them searchable here.
