I can only describe this book as painfully, tragically beautiful. Is it possible to give it 6 stars out of 5? Or 10? I’m just gonna go with yes and do that. So 6 + 10 = 16 stars out of 5. Fight me. All I wanted to read about was the time slip and it was barely about that and mostly about war and battle. Halfway through the book, the love interest Kite reveals to the protagonist that he has a letter written by a woman that the protagonist remembers from his past life, and was holding onto it for petty personal related reasons. He offers to give this letter to the protagonist so that he will forgive another man on their ship who tried to set him on fire in his sleep (again, implausible characters). I said the premise of the book was good. Too bad after the first third the book abandons the premise and turns into what is ostensibly a roadtrip book. They spend their time pottering from place to place on a boat, taking part in shenanigans of all sorts in the past. The book does little to explore any of the sci-fi stuff that might come out of a premise like this. It also doesn't flesh out the worldbuilding needed to make it a satisfactory alternate history. I haven’t even mentioned what the story is actually about yet (which I think speaks to how much my enjoyment of it was down to emotional connection, though that’s not to say the plot isn’t also great). It starts in 1898, as a man named Joe steps off a train and realises he has lost all his memories. He finds himself in a world that is unfamiliar – to him, naturally, but also to us, as this is an alternate history in which the UK is under French rule. The London skyline is dominated by massive steelworks, households still keep slaves, and Edinburgh is occupied by a terrorist group known as the Saints.

The second book of this series is called ‘The Lost Future of Pepperharrow’. It was also released by the Bloomsbury publication in 2020. This novel takes place in 1888, five years after the events in the first novel unfolded. At the start, it is mentioned that the unassuming translator, Thaniel Steepleton, and the watchmaker having the ability to remember the future, Keita Mori, are taking a journey to Japan. Steepleton has received a posting to Tokyo-based British legation, while Keita has some business of his own in Yokohoma. As Thaniel Steepleton arrives at the legation, he is informed that several staff members have been witnessing ghosts. So, he sets himself on the task of finding out what is really happening there. But, while he stays with Keita Mori, Thaniel himself begins to see ghostly happenings. Keita Mori appears to be frightened upon learning about the ghostly happenings, but he does not share the reason behind it. The postcard has been held at the sorting office for ninety-one years, waiting to be delivered to Joe Tournier. On the front is a lighthouse – Eilean Mor, in the Outer Hebrides. The context here is the love interest, Kite, has bodily thrown a literal 14 year old boy off the boat for attempting to divulge a secret. The characters react to Kite killing him -- and also pretty much every other kill by Kite or otherwise -- the same way they might react to a puppy tearing up the furniture. This is NOT meant to be comedic, this book takes itself VERY, VERY seriously). At first I thought that the characters didn’t have too much personality, and I thought they were unrealistic, that I couldn’t get attached to them at all… But as the story progresses they develop perfectly, this book has one of the most beautiful and well written relationships that I’ve ever read so far. It doesn't feel mechanical or fake, I don't know how to describe it well but it's like: Lots and lots of spoilers next, and plot ramblings, likely all very messy and some very shallow observationsthis year i discovered the voice of natasha pulley and oh goodness, what an enchanting voice to know. singing a siren song, spinning a rich golden tale, an undercurrent of tender magic wrapping around and pulling you under. where has this been all my life? Cliss, Sarah. "Natasha holds author's event at Ely and meets up with some familiar faces" . Retrieved 2 September 2016. And so Joe’s quest to find answers for questions he can hardly form begins, taking him from the attic room he shares with his precious daughter and a wife he does not love to the seemingly haunted lighthouse on the Outer Hebrides. It’s a time travel book and it’s a mystery, and it’s literally about changing history. There are giant ships fighting, there are guns, there is so much violence & blood in that book. It could probably not be more eventful. And yet at its very core, The Kingdoms is about love.

I finished this some hours ago now and I am still dazed. What a staggeringly tense, emotional, perfect ending. Natasha Pulley is definitely now up there with my very favourite authors.

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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (hardcovered.). Bloomsbury Circus. pp.1–325. ISBN 978-1408854280. The Kingdoms’ by Natasha Pulley proved a unique and fascinating novel; complete with wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey bits and inventive alternative histories. I complemented my reading with its unabridged audiobook edition for an immersive experience. I’m hooked on Natasha Pulley’s writing, and I want to read all her other books as soon as I can! Not want. NEED. The Kingdoms was the second one I read, and I am in awe. Again. Joe is told that he is a British slave, one of many throughout the French empire. He is even married. Not long after this he is officially freed though chooses to remain with his wife and child in the household of their former master. Yet he remains haunted by fleeting memories of another life in which English is spoken in England, rather than French.

Let's lay down some parameters here. Yes, this is fantasy, where anything is possible in theory. Yes, this is an alternative history where anything might have happened. But it's essential to any fantasy that it follows its own rules - so if you set up a story in which ships and naval warfare of the 18th and 19th century are a major part, then those ships and that warfare has to be consistent with the world you are creating. For fans of Matt Haig, Stuart Turton and Bridget Collins comes a sweeping historical adventure from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Author Natasha Pulley’s perhaps most prevalent theme when you consider her list of works as a whole is the concept of time – whether it’s knowing the future, seeing the past unfurl before your eyes in the forms of ghosts, or in the case of her new novel The Kingdoms, seeing the web of timelines, present, future, and potential, unravel and reshape before your very eyes as a consequence of your actions. i think about how delicate this story is, how intimate every single scene is because it’s like a ghost, like sea mist. blink and you miss it. something that can’t last and may get ripped away anytime, like fading into nothingness.I've very rarely met books that were written specifically for me--there are a handful, yes, and I will be very glad to have this book join their ranks.

But, oh, oh, this book was written for me. Elegiac, liminal, fragile, aching. This book hurts but in such a good way. A spooling, non-linear narrative, that should be tangled and unparseable, but is instead clever and slowly unwinding until you understand the heart. Characters who are brittle and fragile as glass, complex and unthinkingly brave. Time travel with consequences, messy and completely probable alternate history, a slow-burn of a romance that is absolutely devastating and somehow perfect. Already, this is an extremely artificial way of witholding information, but the worse part is that the protagonist reads one quarter of the letter, decides he is TOO OVERWHELMED to keep reading, and then puts it away and lets the plot happen for a few chapters. Then he feels good enough to try reading it again, takes it out and reads ANOTHER QUARTER before putting it away again. Rinse, repeat 4 times. As such, it takes us, the readers, an entire third or more of the book to actually learn all the information and context the letter provides us. The table next to Joe's erupted laughing. Everyone threw things at a West Indian man, who flapped like a giant depressed fairy. The writing is also a bit weird, particularly the dialogue, which sometimes feel a bit 21st century. Some descriptions, narratives are very good though, and the pace, the dripping of tantalizing details is very good.I had already put some pieces together, but when I got to the last two parts of the story, my heart started to melt and beat faster and faster at the same time. What a glorious ending! I have to restrain myself from reading another of Natasha's books right away, and I can't wait for her new book (sci-fi, the blurb reads like Winter’s Orbit) to come out in March 2024! The premise of this book is intriguing: what if the French had won the Battle of Trafalgar and occupied France for most of the 19th Century? Pulley paints a vivid picture of Britain under French rule and the battle scenes are truly outstanding, especially the brutal French conquest of London as the King and his cowardly entourage flee for Edinburgh. The scenes of the hardships of life on board a 19th century battleship are equally riveting. Pulley has clearly done her research. Kind of slow. Much more heavy on the reflective, atmospheric and emotional side than the adventure one, though there is plenty of seafaring gore. This is impossible. A vessel that is drifting with the current cannot be steered. It must be moving through the water before the rudder can have any effect. That's what steerage way means. A sailing in that situation would be all but helpless, and would probably try and anchor until the fog lifted and some wind arrived. Once you see these problems, you start to wonder what else is wrong. The telegraph, for example, which plays a significant part in the plot. I don't know much about it - is what she says about it true or possible?