The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley

I received a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pulley once again knocks it out of the park. The Kingdoms lays claim to the rarely-owned space of books which I wanted to devour as quickly as possible but also didn’t want to end.

An absolutely fantastic historical fiction (fantasy?) novel, The Kingdoms follows excels at:
The story. No spoilers, but honestly there’s intrigue, relationships, characters from a range of ethnically diverse backgrounds, LGBT+ rep, a strong focus on feminism - all wrapped up in a multifaceted, multilayered narrative that grabbed me almost immediately. The stakes are high and we really are thrown in at the deep end as the main narrator(s) have to come to grips with an entirely new setup that they couldn't possibly have imagined.
Worldbuilding. Speaking generically to avoid spoilers - I think that Pulley did a cracking job in crafting a world at once familiar and alien - both in terms of specific locations but also tones, political systems, and different modes of living. The world seemed to be alive, and even though I don’t have a great understanding of the background info for this story, the author fleshed it all out well enough for me to extrapolate and add little details here and there (which added to a sense of ownership of the story - which is a discussion for another time).
Characters. Wide-ranging, well-developed, individual, meaningfully crafted characters. They are densely developed it must be said, but I think that as a package they were more than good enough for the story. There are one or two areas that I think could have benefitted from a little more attention, but no book is perfect here.
The tension. Oh, the tension. The last two or three chapters, especially the last 10 pages. Flipping heck. I didn’t know what to do with myself, but my heart was pounding.



If I were being picky, I would have liked:
A few more curveballs. There are a couple of conundrums in this story, and I pretty much had them both pegged straight away. Maybe this is my sceptical mind, or maybe I’m used to looking for these in Pulley’s novels by now, but I think a bit more subtlety in the curveballs, or even just a couple more of them in general, would have made the narrative a bit more consistently gripping.


The Kingdoms further cements Pulley as one of my favourite modern authors, and I cannot implore enough to read this. It is fantastic.

First shared on https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3652872106

I feel as if I've been on a proper old style adventure with this book.
Sailing the seas and caught up in war.
There were times I had my hand over my mouth at the crucial time,willing it to go right,for everyone to be ok.
The characters in this book are great. The central one,Joe will have you on his side and desperately trying to work out who and why with him.
Full of mystery and mayhem,this book is sure to do well.

The Kingdoms, like Natasha Pulley's other books, plays with the concept of time and history loosely.

Joe Tournier stands on a train station platform and cannot remember anything about who he is or where he is. He's told he's an English slave to a French lord, he's told he has a wife called Alice and a deceased brother, but he doesn't remember anything except for a woman called Madeline, a lighthouse in Scotland, and a man waiting there for him. When he gets the opportunity to make a trip there, he discovers a space where two timelines bend together and his actions in one will shape his future.

Natasha Pulley's writing is wonderfully detailed, and engaging to read. The mystery of who Joe really is keeps you engrossed. I also enjoyed the characters of Kite, even if his morally greyness, and Agatha who so clearly doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. The relationship between Kite and Joe is emotional and sweet.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Kingdoms as much as I enjoyed reading all her previous books and will no doubt enjoy all future books!

Another phenomenal book from Natasha Pulley, one of my favourite must-read authors and in The Kingdoms she has produced a masterpiece. This time-slip novel ebbs and flows seamlessly through multiple chronologies with its roots emerging from the real-life mystery surrounding the Eilean Mor lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. The main characters are well-formed and highly likeable, the plot is incredibly complex, the naval research impeccable and the alternative history element is fascinating – what would “Britain” have ended up like if France had won the Battle of Trafalgar? Unless you have a phenomenal memory, I recommend jotting a few notes down as you read through to piece bits together and keep track of what’s occurring where and when. OK I’m biased, however this is an exceptional book which deserves high praise for its intrigue, attention to detail and perfect execution.

I really like books by Natasha Pulley but found "The Kingdoms" more of a complex read than her previous novels. I think it is the type of book which will benefit from a second or third reading. Books about time travel are difficult in their very nature, as timelines are all over the place. At times I was unsure if this was the "current" timeline, looking back at the past or another timeline that they had sailed into.

On another note, this is the second book in a few months that has covered the topic of the three lighthouse keepers' disappearance from a remote Scottish location in the early 1900s.

Enjoyable book, likeable characters but time travel complexities of plot.

What an amazing book! I read it in one sitting, staying up till near 3am on a work night as it was just too gripping, the action in the last few scenes was just too tense to pull away. I was in tears by the end, it was all so well written and heartfelt .

Natasha Pulley is one of my favourite authors, I don't even need to know what the book is about but knowing it's written by her means you're in for an immersive, mind bending experience. The characters in The Kingdoms all feel very real and fleshed out, even more so than in 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street' which is one of my favourite of all time books.

I've already preordered a physical copy to reread. It was a little tricky at some points to remember which timeline we were in, which would be solved by flicking back to a chapter heading, but not so easy on a Kindle for someone who isn't used to ereaders. I cant wait to read it again to catch all the little details I missed first time round!

Huge thank yous to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the e-arc of The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

What would Britain be like if France had won the Napoleonic Wars? I totally admire any author who rewrites history! The joining of time lines across 2 dimensions, joining all those dots - a totally immense task that bring out the wibbly, wobbly timeline admirer in me.

Joe, a slave with a skill for engineering who suffers from paramnesia, a mysterious lighthouse, and time travel, all feed into an interesting, albeit convoluted story.

I did find the story somewhat overly complicated and slow at the midpoint, but overall fell for the key characters and invested in their ultimate outcome.

However, I would only recommend to those with a pre-existing admiration for Pulley’s work or those with a key interest in historic fantasy or time travel.

The Kingdoms is a fun and exciting history-based time travel adventure slash romance, taking place in Great Britain around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. While it is much more heavy on the reflective, atmospheric and emotional side than the adventure one, though there is plenty of seafaring gore and is very gay. While I enjoyed The kingdoms on the whole, I did find it frustrating that once we got the first flashback and understood the MC's pervious life and what was going on around them it did feel quite slow at times and as though we were waiting for the penny to drop for the characters and realise all that was happening. Overall very enjoyable and I will be picking up some of the author's other books.

Thank you for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed the concept of the book, what would happen has Britain lost the Napoleonic war? It was detailed, and immersive but it got to a point where I struggled to follow what was happening.

I love Natasha Pulley's novels and I thought this one was a brilliant read. The time slip / time travel theme was so cleverly done, and the way she weaves history together with other possible outcomes and alternative lives is absolutely fascinating. The detail about the navy during the Napoleonic wars was so well researched and realistic, though with a steam punk vibe. She writes really sympathetic characters and I really wanted them to have a good ending, even if it was not the one I was expecting.

This was an interesting read read with lots of detail that captured me from the beginning but at over half way through I found my interest waning and I got completely bogged down with the plot. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the book as I did but I think it was just too long and I felt the plot line got a bit lost at times and also it was in parts quite difficult to follow. Maybe my concentration was just not there I’m not quite sure but overall the book was beautifully written and full of details that you would want in a historical novel.
So a book that in many ways I can’t fault but for me something was missing and I did struggle it just wasn’t what I was expecting although in all fairness how can you ever know quite what to expect when you first pick up a book however it was different and I’m sure that others will enjoy perhaps more than I did.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was very excited to read Natasha Pulley’s latest book as I have loved her other books (The Bedlam Stacks & The Watchmaker of Filigree Street). I enjoyed the first half of the book but unfortunately as the story progressed I found the storyline difficult to follow. The premise of this book intrigued me as a historical fantasy that follows the story of Joe a diagnosed amnesiac man trying to find answers that sends him on a journey through the Napoleon War with the French. Despite the book being beautifully written I struggled to connect to the characters and to capture my attention.

Thanks NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am delighted with this book. It’s got a haunted lighthouse, a rift in time, and an alternate history following the battle of trafalgar where England is now a colony of the french empire and the King is Napoleon IV in the year 1900. England isn’t exactly in the shape one would wish her to be in. The main train station in Londres is the Gare du Roi, there are steelworks blighting the skyline and St Paul’s is half in ruins, its dangerous to speak English or have written English on your person. Scotland is the last bastion of rebels, of course. Many English men and women are slaves working for French masters. Everything is very weird and wrong, and our main character knows it. But he doesn’t really know what’s wrong, or for that matter, who he is. At the beginning of the book, he has severe amnesia and can’t remember anything at all from before he got to the train station. There’s also a character named Missouri Kite, what a name. Queue a lot of weird time stuff and napoleonic era ships. One thing I did struggle with slightly was the frequent flipping to different moments in time. It was alright when it was 100 years back and forth, but when we were then also flipping from 1807 to 1805 as well and other things, it got a bit confusing. But, I’m not sure what the author could have done to counteract this as it’s fairly essential to the plot. There was a nice resolution to the book.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Bloomsbury, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

What would Britain have been like if it had lost the Napoleonic Wars? "The Kingdoms" considers the possibilities, in a dazzling mixture of historical fiction, time travel and steampunk. A great read!
Read the full review via the link below.

Natasha Pulley's fourth novel, The Kingdoms, retains her signature mix of fascinating nineteenth-century historical detail intertwined with an unsettling speculative mystery, although there's a darkness about this story that I'd say is absent from her other books, except perhaps The Bedlam Stacks. Joe Tournier can't remember anything about himself or his previous life when he arrives at the gare du Roi station in central London - or, as everybody else calls it, Londres - in 1898. It becomes rapidly clear to the reader that we are operating in an alternative version of history where the French won the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but this doesn't explain Joe's personal mystery. The only clue he has to his true identity is a postcard of an isolated lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides, which he believes was sent to him by a mysterious woman from his past, Madeline. But when Joe decides to travel to the lighthouse to see if he can find out anything more, he is swept into something bigger than he could have possibly imagined.

As she did with clairvoyance in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, and with supernatural powers in The Bedlam Stacks, Pulley uses time travel in this novel to explore loss, love and memory. I wasn't as invested emotionally in the central romantic relationship in The Kingdoms, but I still loved its clever plot and the haunting fate of the characters that find themselves stranded between one timeline and other. The alternate history elements are also well-handled, although I was a little unsure about the narrative decision to show London as a slave-owning society in the late nineteenth century, seemingly regardless of race. While I imagine this stemmed from Napoleon's reintroduction of slavery to the French colonies in 1802, I felt that it ran the risk of playing into harmful present-day narratives about 'white slavery' and propping up the myth that Britain's decision to abolish the slave trade in 1807 is somehow more important than her continued oppression of enslaved people both before and after the Act. As this element didn't seem essential to the story, I felt it might have been better to remove it. However, that aside, this was another brilliant novel from Pulley, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

I will post this review to my blog and to Goodreads closer to the publication date.

Back to the future in the Napoleonic Wars! Or back to the days of futures past??🤔 I don’t know I admire any author who decides to play with time, it’s complicated and my brain doesn’t work that way so I just let myself accept whatever they tell me. So yes it’s perfectly acceptable to me that there is a rip in the space time continuum that is either caused or marked by a lighthouse built on the wrong side of it. Sure why not?
Natasha Pulley is one of those authors who has grown on me like mould, with each book I have grown to love her - and the devastatingly heartbreaking men she writes - a little more. The Kingdoms is my favourite so far. Joe is charming and Kite is a psychopath and I love him. I shouldn’t! he’s a psychopath! But dammit I love him none the less. That is the power of the Pulley.
There is however a striking similarity in all her plots and I suspect the heartbreaking men are actually one heartbreaking man given a different name/face/time that I constantly fall for. But actually who cares! They are so good! They all are so beautiful. And they love each other 💗💘 and they gets babies the end.
I do have a gripe, she gives us potentially amazing women and never gives enough of them and then usually they die. What’s that about? She just throws them away. 🤷‍♀️ So yeah. I loved the Kingdoms.
But what happened to tortoise 4????

This was an interesting read. I've really enjoyed Natasha's previous books and while this has a similar vibe, it is quite distinct.
I liked the initial set up with the mystery of the main character's amnesia and the tie into the Eilean Mor lighthouse mystery. My main problem with the book was that the plot could get quite convoluted in places and a little confusing to follow.
I also didn't find the lead characters interesting enough to be that invested in the ending.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read but not one I think I would be running out to reccomend.

Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey with Napoleonic Wars-era boaty ships (not space-y ships)
I think it's safe to say that Natasha Pulley is one of my favourite authors, a definite auto-buy. Pulley's writing is immediately immersive; precise and flowing, atmospheric and detailed, but without dipping into flowery.
The plot is difficult to explain without risking spoilers. In the late 1800s, a man arrives at a train station in London, or rather Londres (Napoleon won and absorbed most of Britain into his empire), but he suddenly has no idea who he is, the places are familiar but the names seem wrong. He's returned to his "family" his wife and their owner (slavery is alive and well) but receives a post card of a remote Scottish lighthouse that seems vaguely familiar and so, eventually, he manages to engineer a path that allows him to visit only to thrust into a war long lost...
There are multiple timelines at work, not only moving backward and forward to see what characters were up to and different times but also throwing in alternate timelines for added confusion. Personally, I didn't have much trouble following this, with the occasional check back to the date at the start of the chapters, this may not be for everyone but I think it's worth persevering with to find out how everything untangles.
The characters are interesting, complex and manage to be sympathetic, infuriating and both likeable and unlikeable, often within the same page. I liked that we could see the everyday life and personalities on a warship as well as the hard-nosed, cut-throat violence that would have been necessary and normal.
Do I have any criticisms? Without spoilers, I felt the section just before the ending was a bit rushed/convenient but equally, I always enjoy and find more layers in Pulley's work on subsequent readings so I don't consider that a fatal flaw.
A page-turning, historical speculative fiction with a twisty-turn-y mystery - I recommend rereading the first chapter straight after finishing to complete the loop.

I received this book from Bloomsbury via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pulley on twitter has called this her best work yet and I wholeheartedly agree. What as astounding piece of historical fantasy this was! The book itself takes place during a war and the violence in it is stark at times and the character’s themselves are also a lot more twisted. I actually really enjoyed this change but it’s definitely worth mentioning that this is a lot darker than Watchmaker.

It’s honestly hard to talk about this novel without wandering into spoiler territory so apologies in advance if I sound a bit vague about certain details in this review. There are so many twists and turns in this book that you really need to experience them for yourself.

Like previous Pulley books this one is very intricately and delicately plotted. There are several flashbacks that provide pieces to the overall story, and you get glimpses of the truth here and there. I will admit that there is one aspect of the novel that seems glaringly obvious right from the very beginning. It was a bit frustrating having to spend almost the entire novel waiting for the truth to finally come out but the journey there was an intriguing one and I actually enjoyed watching the characters work it out for themselves. It seems clear-cut to the reader, who has been privy to some of the backstory scenes, but for Joe, our main, oblivious character, it’s very easy to see why he can’t come up with the same conclusion.

At its heart The Kingdoms is another love story with some very deeply flawed characters. We have Joe, who spends most of the novel confused and desperate to return home. Then we have Kite who it would be so easy to hate because of all the despicable things he does. And some of it is definitely awful. His past is fully explored and so we see how it has shaped him into the man he is during the events of the novel, but some of his actions were really hard to read. It should make it hard to root for them but there are flashes of vulnerability beneath his harsh exterior and I found myself warming to him unexpectedly. He’s definitely an anti-hero type of character, but much like Pulley’s character Mori, his motives for the things he does always come back to same thing.

I absolutely adored their relationship, all the turns it took and the many shapes it changed into. It was beautiful and achingly wrong at the same time. It’s definitely one of the most turbulent relationships I’ve ever read. Pulley has a wonderful way of showing you just how strongly the characters feel for one another, even when it’s never explicitly stated. This one doesn’t have the beautiful love declaration that Pepperharrow featured at the end but my gosh the character’s actions more than make up for it.

The last few chapters are more fast-paced than the rest of the novel, and they feature some of the most emotionally wrenching and heartfelt scenes of the entire novel. I stayed up all night to finish it and was in tears by the ending. If a book can move you that much it definitely and rightly deserves a 5 star rating.

For me this was another win by Natasha Pulley and has definitely solidified my trust and faith in her as a writer. Up to this point I have loved everything she has ever written and I cannot wait to read whatever she releases next!

Natasha Pulley’s ‘The Kingdoms’ has definitely joined my favourite fantasy books. It’s so atmospheric, engaging and heartbreaking, and I loved every bit of it.

In some ways, ‘The Kingdoms’ is a retelling of several big conflicts and battles, but predominantly is a story of remembering, forgetting and also grieving. We meet Joe in the 19th century England occupied by the French, when he arrives at the station in London, with no recollection of who exactly he is. But he has flashes of life that doesn’t seem possible. I enjoyed the split narrative between the 19th and 18th century and getting to know both Joe and Kite in two timelines, their lives entangled, Joe’s life changing, not just once. In ‘The Kingdoms’, the future is a fragile thing.

‘The Kingdoms’ is, despite being set against the backdrop of war (in parts), it’s a quite slow read, especially initially. But it’s atmospheric and absolutely engaging from the start. Natasha Pulley’s vivid and rich descriptions are definitely something I enjoyed. I also liked how some of the characters, and especially Kite, are not necessarily good and honest people at all times, their actions often reprehensible. And yet, they are interesting, raw and real. I really enjoyed the diverse cast of Natasha Pulley’s novel, and it’s definitely an author I’ll be reading more from in the future.

While some aspects from the plot, the reader can figure out much earlier than the protagonist himself, we are still waiting for the answer on how those events come to pass, and the journey is both emotional and, in later chapters, fast-paced.

I’m certain I will be getting a physical copy as soon as it’s out, and that re-read will happen in the future!

The review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon and blog closer to the publication date.