Age 12+
Rees's novels have a Keira Knightley approach to history: glamorous, courageous, post-feminist young heroines in fancy dress engage in derring-do and challenge men's preconceptions, while simultaneously breaking hearts. That's the quibble about Sovay. Authentic it ain't, but it is a compulsive, rollicking read full of colour and facts (some racy) about a feisty highwaywoman in 18th-century England, and about France in the worst days of the Terror. Seventeen-year-old Sovay holds up her suitor's coach to expose his fickleness and gets a taste for high boots and pistols. She then falls foul of a devilish spymaster, Dysart, at a time when England is paranoid about a revolution of its own. Dysart's evil ambitions and his stately home with torture chambers would not disgrace a Bond villain. In a swift, intricate plot scattered with handsome rogues and heroes, Sovay braves the worst of dangers and chooses one of the less interesting chaps. Keira should option it now.

Sovay by Celia Rees
Bloomsbury £10.99 Buy the book £9.89 plus free delivery

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