Books read in 2015

Here is a list of all the books I’ve read in 2015 in chronological order. I have given each book a rating, with five stars being the highest (based purely on how much I enjoyed the book). I try to review every book I read, though not necessarily in the order that I finish reading them!

January

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005) ***
2. Fair Helen by Andrew Greig (2013) ****
3. The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory (2014) ****
4. Pure by Andrew Miller (2011) ***
5. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (2006) *****
6. Heir to a Prophecy by Mercedes Rochelle (2014) ****
7. Bellarion by Rafael Sabatini (1926) *****
8. Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson (2014) ****
9. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (2002) *****
10. The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato (2008) ****
11. Mary of Carisbrooke by Margaret Campbell Barnes (1956) ***
12. The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer (1951) *****
13. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850) *****
14. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (2003) ***
15. The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor (2014) ***

February

16. Death in Kashmir by M. M. Kaye (1953) *****
17. The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome (1886) ***
18. The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland (2014) ****
19. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (1932) ****
20. The Royalist by S.J. Deas (2014) *****
21. The Widow’s Confession by Sophia Tobin (2015) **
22. Jakob’s Colours by Lindsay Hawdon (2015) ***
23. HMS Surprise by Patrick O’Brian (1973) *****
24. Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004) ****
25. The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay (2004) *****
26. The Goddess and the Thief by Essie Fox (2013) ****

March

27. Ross Poldark by Winston Graham (1945) *****
28. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (2008) ****
29. Temeraire by Naomi Novik (2006) *****
30. Dark Fire by CJ Sansom (2004) ****
31. Romola by George Eliot (1862) *****
32. City of God by Cecelia Holland (1979) ****
33. The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (1919) ***
34. The Tapestry by Nancy Bilyeau (2015) *****
35. An Accidental Tragedy by Roderick Graham (2009) ****
36. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (2010) ****
37. Rebellion by Peter Ackroyd (2014) ***

April

38. The Edge of Dark by Pamela Hartshorne (2014) *****
39. The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction by Nick Groom (2012) ****
40. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope (1871) ****
41. Edwin: High King of Britain by Edoardo Albert (2014) *****
42. The Child from the Sea by Elizabeth Goudge (1970) ****
43. The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye (2015) *****

May

44. The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife & the Missing Corpse by Piu Eatwell (2014) *****
45. The Invention of Fire by Bruce Holsinger (2015) ****
46. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (2008) *****
47. A Country Doctor’s Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov (1975 – in this translation) ****
48. Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2015) ****
49. The Tutor by Andrea Chapin (2015) ***
50. Girl at War by Sara Nović (2015) ****
51. The Chosen Queen by Joanna Courtney (2015) ****
52. The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson (1993) ****

June

53. Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton (2015) *****
54. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604 – first performed c.1594) ***
55. Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran (2015) ****
56. If You Go Away by Adele Parks (2015) ***
57. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895) *****
58. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (1996) *****
59. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897) ****
60. Godwine Kingmaker by Mercedes Rochelle (2015) *****

July

61. The Devil on her Tongue by Linda Holeman (2014) ****
62. The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart (1973) *****
63. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (2013) *****
64. Dacre’s War by Rosemary Goring (2015) *****
65. The Lady of Misrule by Suzannah Dunn (2015) ***
66. Day’s End and Other Stories by H.E. Bates (2015 – first published 1928) ***
67. Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac (1846) ****
68. Imperium by Robert Harris (2006) *****
69. The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas (1847) *****
70. Isabella by Colin Falconer (2013) ***

August

71. 1066: What Fates Impose by G.K. Holloway (2013) ****
72. The Odd Women by George Gissing (1893) ****
73. The Raven’s Head by Karen Maitland (2015) ****
74. The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson (2015) *****
75. The Thief of Time by John Boyne (2000) ***
76. She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor (2011) ****
77. Gildenford by Valerie Anand (1977) *****
78. Kit by Marina Fiorato (2015) *****
79. The Old Man’s Birthday by Richmal Crompton (1936) *****

September

80. The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami (2014) **** [Review to follow at Shiny New Books]
81. Glorious Apollo by E. Barrington (1925) ****
82. April Lady by Georgette Heyer (1957) ***
83. Nelly Dean by Alison Case (2015) ***
84. What Angels Fear by CS Harris (2005) ****
85. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (1878) ****
86. The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Sir Walter Scott (1818) ***
87. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory (2015) ***
88. Oswald: Return of the King by Edoardo Albert (2015) *****
89. The Queen’s Man by Sharon Penman (1996) ****
90. The Last Queen by CW Gortner (2006) *****

October

91. A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie (2014) ***
92. Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer (1932) ****
93. The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier (1963) ***
94. Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh (2015) *****
95. My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918) *****
96. Beau Geste by P.C. Wren (1924) *****
97. Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell (1936) ****
98. Hammer for Princes by Cecelia Holland (1971) ****
99. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles (1969) ***
100. Non-Combatants and Others by Rose Macaulay (1916) ***

November

101. The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (1979) *****
102. The Silvered Heart by Katherine Clements (2015) ****
103. Lustrum by Robert Harris (2009) *****
104. Master of Shadows by Neil Oliver (2015) ***
105. The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson (1889) ****
106. Death in Venice & Other Stories by Thomas Mann (1912) ***
107. Dickon by Marjorie Bowen (1929) ***
108. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (1915) ***
109. Royal Mistress by Anne Easter Smith (2013) ***
110. The Georgian Menagerie by Christopher Plumb (2015) ****

December

111. The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley (2015) *****
112. The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini (1915) *****
113. The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis (2016) ****
114. The Winter Crown by Elizabeth Chadwick (2014) *****
115. The Golden Horn by Poul Anderson (1980) ***
116. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838) *****
117. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (2015) ****
118. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938) ****
119. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – re-read (1847) *****
120. Lionheart by Martha Rofheart (1981) ***