Great summer read for history lovers
359038
I very much enjoyed reading The California Wife. Plot-driven, the novel yet weaves in detail on history and daily lives of turn-of-the-century France and California. From the Paris World's Fair to a San Francisco operating room, the read is taken to all corners of contemporary life--and walks away expecting to find dust on her shoes. A great read!
309731
Timothy Ashby's Devil's Den is absolutely one of the best books I have read this summer. This historical novel is a murder mystery which follows the investigation by a WWI veteran who is also the grandson of two Confederate grandfathers who served at Gettysburg. The protagonist works for the Bureau of Investigation and is assigned to investigate a murder which occurs on the Gettysburg battlefield. He weaves the political circus occurring at the time with the internal struggles and emotions his main character must work through during his investigation. I look forward to more work by this author!
4379970
I was looking for a good beach read and I absolutely found it in Ella Carey's 'The House by the Lake'. I'm a sucker for historical fiction, and I loved the way she wove history and modern-day together. The main character is developed, but not complex, and the story moves at a steady pace.
2886761
I really enjoyed this book.  It was engaging and compelling - a good read. The protagonist and her partner are interesting and keep it from getting bogged down with the violence of the subject matter.  If you're looking for a fun summertime read, I highly recommend it.
2483275
A good summer read, especially for civil war buffs. A fascinating subject; very well researched; not so well edited, but if you can overlook the mistakes, it immerses you in the time period, which is what historical fiction is supposed to do.
1759850
Really loved the book.  It was a perfect summer read . Loved the history and the twist at the end.
Highly recommend this book.
4247456
While searching for a summer reading book I was looking for something simple and informative at the same time. I also wanted a book that had the topic of U.S history, so when I found this book I was excited to find out what it had in store for me. I would recommend this book to other readers  because it takes a few very long and complicated topics such as the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis and the Assassination of Kennedy and puts it into a more simple easier to understand context . This book met my expectations because it was fun to read, essentially when the author tells both sides of event, from the perspective of Lee Harvey Oswald and also the perspective of John Kennedy himself.  This book made history fun and relatable
 so it didn't feel like I was learning as I was reading.
S Murphy age 14
2421972
I enjoyed this unique and lovely story, since it was fun to read more about the history of the Amish and Mennonites during the great revival in the mid 1800's. I didn't realize how it affected the Amish and Mennonites, so it was totally new territory for me! The characters are wonderful and I like that there is a lot going on with the story. This is a fun summer read! I received this book from Celebrate Lit in exchange for my honest review.
2660341
I truly enjoyed Pictures of the Past and have even bought it for several of my friends.  It is the perfect combination of a wonderful vacation read and serious historical fiction Book Club read.  It includes a family saga that travels back and forth in time and has an emotional love story, but it is set against important events that many of us like to read about, including World War II.  It reminded me of The Invisible Bridge and Those Who Save Us.
361429
As a big fan of time travel stories, and also fascinated by the Kennedy assasination, I found this to be a fantastic story, combining history and fiction. It was worth the 1000 pages. A great vacation read.  My only complaint is that I could not open the extra video included in the e-reader.
2537079
Thoroughly charming and delightful book, great easy read for summertime. It is described as an historical novel, and it is set in an historical setting, but it is not heavy on the history. The author gives enough historical facts to set the scene and frame the story, but doesn't burden the reader with intricate details of the times. Some of the action might seem a bit improbable, but is written in such a charming way, the stretch of reality is forgivable. Good entertainment reading.
3258532
This was our book club selection in November, and I really loved this book.  The characters and prose were fresh and interesting, with a great sense of time and place, and I really enjoyed learning more about this part of history. I look forward to reading more from this author!
1276862
Motivated to read this because I overheard the author talking about her trip to Italy for research, everyone should be lucky to do this kind of research....
A little more than halfway through it and it's a read I want to get back to every evening to see what is going to happen next.
The book traveled from England in quicker than expected time and arrived in great shape.
The story hooks you pretty quickly, unfolding with each chapter a voice of one the characters.
A great summer beach read!
2332714
If you want a great read for summer that keeps you wanting to turn pages then get this exciting book with history and future living all entwined. Thanks Jodie this was a great read and glad I got to read over the summer holidays, was very different to what I would usually read but my imagination was working over time with the past and future eras. I was glued from word 1 and couldn't put it down and was very sorry when the story finished with my imagination working on where and what could happen to the characters next, so I am  very pleased to know the sequel is being written as I write this review.  So I recommend you to buy  this book and get reading
705807
Told through the eyes of a bookbinder's daughter, the story of power, loyalty and intrigue  keeps one in suspense and wanting more at the Winter Palace. Great summer read.
3216864
This is a great sequel to The Summer Queen. In fact, I liked it even better. The history in both books is very interesting to me as I enjoy learning from the books I read. Of course, I had to do some on-line research about Eleanor to see how close to truth the book was and found that the author had woven the fictional aspects that flesh out the characters around historical fact and pivotal moments in history. That made me appreciate the book even more. I can't wait for the last book in the trilogy to come out so I can get the rest of the story!
585996
I looked forward to picking up this book while I was reading it, and was sad when I was too tired to keep reading before I went to bed. To me, this is the mark of a great summer read. In addition, the ending was satisfying - another mark of a great summer read. I went into this book with prior interest in the Kennedy assassination and as a moderate Stephen King fan (I have read and enjoyed The Stand, Carrie, and some of his short stories), and came out an even bigger fan.