I am not a big reader of historical fiction, but something about this drew me in, it’s set in Elizabethan England, where Susan who was taken from Ghana as a child navigates a world of tension and division, religion being one of the largest causes of this, Susan is a servant in a Catholic household so we have priest holes, invisible ink and underground press, it was an interesting story. However I do have a few issues with this, given it’s a white author writing about a black character during a period of slavery, I’m not saying white authors can’t or shouldn’t be writing about black characters or history, (I am saying this as a white reader) I just think with the emphasis on own voices and the struggles black authors have in getting published whether writing about their own history or not, it just seems uncomfortable to me to have a white author telling you about black experiences. I like Kate Morrison as an author and this was a good book, I just don’t necessarily feel it was her story to tell, I know she said she wanted to challenge the myth and fantasy all-white English past, but no amount of research can give you the experience of living a black life in white supremacy , wether present or history and I think it should be left for those who live these experiences to tell these stories, their stories.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I am a big fan of historical fiction set in the Tudor period and A Book of Secrets is a welcome and thoroughly researched addition to the genre because it features a black female protagonist, Susan, who was taken from Ghana as a baby and grows up as a servant in a Catholic household in England. Susan becomes involved in political and religious intrigue as Catholics have to hide their faith in a Protestant country. An excellent book.

3.5 stars

Susan as a baby was torn with her family from their country of Guinea and brought to England. With her mother, they became a fulfillment of one family for “one Blackamoor lady and a child for the little one.” Susan’s childhood was happy. She “was brought up as an English lady’s maid, learning the ways of a great household.”

England, 1563. Susan is of marriageable age and needs to make a decision between two men. When Catholic faith is turned into a crime in the realm, there is still some hope with a secret printing press, and Catholics spreading forbidden manuscripts in secret from household to household. With her marriage to a printer, she puts her “great skill with secret inks and other devices for passing messages” into use. The idea of serving her faith and the country appeals to her.

The premise of the story is interesting, shedding light on Africans living and working in Tudor England. They married English people and owned property.

I was engaged with the protagonist at first, but then the writing becomes more descriptive and I struggled to stay engaged.

The methodical writing brings the story of a black woman who searches for her identity and her brother and as her story unravels it brings the historical events of the time. I like stories rich in historical background, but what could stand out as something original gets lost with all events that were told in other stories. At times, it felt like historical background was brought only because it fitted the time frame with the heroine, but it didn’t have a natural flow. It felt forced. Also, the historical background is there, but it doesn’t capture the language or the behavior of the people of the time.

I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover of this novel on a chance scroll through NetGalley and the plot sealed the deal that this had to be my next read. A Book of Secrets tells the story of Susan Charlewood who was born in Ghana and sold as a baby along with her mother, where she is brought to England and raised in an English Catholic household. When she comes of age, she is married off to a printer living in London where she is exposed to a dangerous world where her husband’s printing press is used to supply illegal texts and the uncovering of a rebellious plot puts Susan and the household at great risk. I was hooked into this story from the very beginning. Straight away I cared about Susan and was interested in everything to befall her. It was fascinating to read about the process of printing during this time, both the legitimate and the illicit sides, as Susan is shown the ropes by her new husband. Overall it was such a turbulent time as people at all levels pay service to Queen and are willing to deceive and backstab at every turn to stay in favour. This story is not short of characters more than willing to betray for a chance of reward. This is one of my favourite periods in history and it was refreshing to read a novel with a person of colour at its heart. We only briefly visit Ghana at the start of the novel where we meet Susan and her mother for the first time, but I enjoyed the snippets of Susan’s heritage as she discovered them. The exploration of race, especially against a backdrop of slavery, was present in the story but did not overwhelm it, so I thought that was handled well. Susan is a great heroine of her own story; she’s intelligent and curious but very genuine and believable as a person. This is the kind of book I love to have on my reading list; historical fiction that is stimulating and intelligently written with wonderful characters and an exciting storyline, and A Book of Secrets is all of these.