What a wonderfully surprise!

This book is an alternative history, that very adeptly conceptualises an England who lost the Napoleonic wars. An England that is now ruled by France. We follow Joe who recalls nothing before stepping off a train in London, but this definitely isn’t his London.

The story takes us on a journey through time lines, different battles, different times, different locations and different outcomes. The writing is so masterfully handled that the reading is lead along easily and without feeling overwhelmed.

It’s twisty, engaging and heart breaking. I’d high recommend for anyone that loves a time travel story. If you haven’t been convinced yet there’s also some cool tortoises, and a friendly tiger!

With thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing, and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy.

Despite its fair length, I devoured 'The Kingdoms'!

I had previously read Pulley's debut, 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street'. I struggled to finish that, partly because the twists and the concepts were too opaque for me. In this book, it's the rules of time that Pulley plays with, but it wasn't as confusing - more rewarding, as understanding gradually dawned on me (and even since finishing, little details and realisations keep bubbling to the surface of my mind).

I didn't start 'The Kingdoms' in the best of moods, so I was surprised by how quickly it gripped me. The narration has a charming warmth to it, peppered with little moments that elicited a smile or even a chuckle from me. The mystery presented in the beginning is utterly compelling, and the author has a devious way of making the reader think they understand fully, only to reveal another layer hidden beneath. It was so hard to put down - rarely does a book make me itch this badly with the need to know what's going on, and what will happen.

Romantic love between men must be a theme of Pulley's writing, as I recall it featured in her debut novel too; it's tenderly done in 'The Kingdoms', though if I had to venture a criticism, it would be that the romance is too chaste. Are the characters meant to be asexual? Perhaps. I'm not too good at figuring out the nuances of relationships, myself. What I do know is that I finished the story with an enormously satisfying bittersweet joy.

(With thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for this ebook, in exchange for an honest review)

This is now my 4th Pulley novel and I think it’s my favourite. It, as with all her books, leaves you not quite understanding until the end which then paints everything that came before in a different light. And I cried horrendously for the last 50 pages.

A little disclaimer that I feel like I now have to make after four books: in one book or even two, I could write it off but four books where the front running female character serves the exact same role? Girl... what’s the deal? Every woman is sort of jealous, overly ambitious and a plot device to stop the men from getting a happy ending. Oh, and they usually die. Just a note.

But this is still a 5 star review, because the way Pulley writes women is so inconsequential to the actual plot (which is the problem, but also means I can compartmentalise my feelings about it) and is more a critique of her work in general, rather than this novel specifically. This book, like her others, is a fabulist dream that keeps you on the edge of understanding until the end. Joe’s first memory is getting off a train in Londres, a London in a version of time where England did not defeat France at Trafalgar or Waterloo, and his only link to the lost memories is a postcard of a lighthouse asking him to come home if he remembers. It’s magical but very grounded and it always feels like two butterfly flaps away, this world could exist. It plays heavily on the butterfly effect in a beautifully sad way, and explores how Joe is torn between ending a war, and preserving the life he’s created.

This book is tense from the very start and the violence that permeates the story makes the book raw, emotional and very exciting to read. It packs a punch, and doesn’t hold back on the violence that exists in war. If you’re a fan of pirates, you’ll enjoy this like I did. Most of this book is set on ships during a war that was primarily fought by the navy and it’s easy to imagine. All of the action in this book is backed up by Joe, who is a very sympathetic lost soul of a main character, and Kite, the captain who might possibly hold the secrets to Joe’s lost memories. Kite borders the line of deeply sad and disturbingly violent and reminded me so much of James Flint from Black Sails, that I’m convinced he must have been the inspiration.
Joe was a character I immediately connected to because his caution and confusion because of his lack of memories, was a visceral feeling I latched onto. The tension between them and the lack of information you have about either of their stories is very compelling and I sped through 300 pages in two days because the story that unfurls is a very sad one, but one with tension, action and hope.

The way the story weaves in the different timelines and drip feeds you hints was very well done, and kept me guessing the entire time. And if you’re familiar with Pulley’s work, it’s a story that you trust you’ll understand by the end. By the time I started getting answers, I was already sobbing.

I loved the cover, I loved the premise, I loved the fact there was going to be a lighthouse... but sadly I just didn't get on with this book. The world created - with an England where Napoleon had won at Waterloo - was intriguing, but unfortunately it didn't convince me enough to keep me reading, and I didn't care enough about the amnesiac central character to want to find out what happened to him.

This isn't a criticism of the novel, just a recognition that it didn't work for me.

I have never read (or to be honest heard of) Natasha Pulley, I have been falling down the grim dark hole that is the Warhammer universe for quite a while and this book not only pulled me back out of the hole but put a bit of light and joy back in my world, the other reviews of this book give synopsis and breakdowns so I am just going to say how much pleasure this book gave me and how it lifted my spirits, especially during lockdown 2

I have just put the book down on the last sentence and had to sit there for a bit because this novel is just so beautiful. I loved the quiet moments between the characters and in those spaces, the words unsaid that mean so much to the story and the reader.

Pulley knows how to create space in her tales for the characters to breathe. and she explores the small soft moments in relationships and uses them to give her reader a picture of the whole relationship in the silence. This only heightens these relationships and makes them more real than if we saw any big declarations of love and fireworks. This is so effective and kept me on tenterhooks the entire time reading The Kingdoms.

This story is beautifully woven into three timelines that jump us across time periods to focus on the things that really matter to us - the people who feel like 'home'.

I’m a big fan of Natasha Pulley's writing and find the world that she creates wonderfully magnetic and easy to loose yourself in. We are sent to an alternative timeline where Napolian won the battle at Trafalger and England was part of the French Republic.

Joe, our main character, is pulled between his own time and the 1800 unwillingly when he is kidnapped by a mysterious sailor named Kite. Pulley expertly changes the fabric of the world around her characters, examining those little ripples that one change affects all – even when we didn’t mean them too.

Joe has lost his own memories, so we learn about the world as he does. As the story unfurls and we see how his timeline comes together, it broke my heart for not only, Joe and Jem but Kite as well. The man who tried to be strong for everyone but is breaking inside. Kite's POV chapters were my favourite. I do think I will need to re-read The Kingdoms to see everything fully but I wasn't lost as I saw some reviewers were. I thought Pulley made it quite clear what was happening with the timelines that were shifting and changing around our main characters.

Kite broke my heart over and over and yet somehow he always fixed it again too. There aren’t enough words to explain how Kite made me feel, he was at once a scared child and a scary man all rolled up together in a Kite shaped mess. And I loved him for it.

I absolutely loved this stunning adventure story which at its heart is about losing but finding love through all its struggles and obstacles. Overall a stunning 5 star novel!

A glorious, time travelling, long distance love story. With some big ships and a friendly Tiger thrown in for good measure. An incredible novel

You know those books that you finish and immediately want to read again? That, for me, was The Kingdoms. And, yes, I did go back and reread it a day later. And, no, I still don’t know how I’m supposed to review this book.

I’m almost certain I said, after reading The Lost Future of Pepperharrow in February, that that was my favourite Natasha Pulley book. I’m fairly certain I said similar after finishing The Bedlam Stacks previously. So, this statement may not stand the test of time but I’ll say it anyway: The Kingdoms is my favourite Natasha Pulley book.

I definitely believe that it’s her best book yet, at least. It has an added punch to it that the others did not, as much as I did still love them. In part, I think that was the setting. In part, it was a lot more visceral and raw than previous books. Those had a gentleness to them that, while it wasn’t lacking here, it was less prevalent. I don’t know if I’m phrasing this in at all an understandable way — I just have a lot of feelings about this book and not many words.

Where Pulley’s other books are somewhat fabulist, this is solidly more on the science fiction end of things, involving time travel, changing the course of history, and other such things. We follow Joe, a man who, at the start of the book, has had a sudden onset of amnesia, who doesn’t know anything beyond his name and the moment he is currently living in. Then he receives a postcard that has been held for him for over 90 years, showing a picture of a lighthouse up in the Outer Hebrides. When, a few years later, the opportunity arises for him to travel to that lighthouse, he does so. Which is when strange things start to happen.

I think one of my favourite things about this book is the slow unspooling of the plot, which is typical of Pulley’s books, but works all the better here. Joe doesn’t know who he is, although Kite and Agatha seem to, so you don’t know who he is (although you have your suspicions. Actually one of the best things about rereading it was seeing the clues to the reveal all laid out, once you knew where to look). And when you get to the reveal, you think back and you think oh and it makes total sense (and also becomes about a thousand times more painful).

And, as ever, it’s a very character-driven novel. Possibly the balance is a little shifted, so that there is more plot driving it too, but it’s still very much focused on the characters. It definitely then helps that I loved the characters (okay, well, loved the characters I was supposed to love, because you aren’t catching me feeling the slightest bit positive about Lord Lawrence any time soon!), most notably Joe and Kite. I think it definitely helps though, with the latter, that you do get chapters in his POV. At times, on the first read, before I knew everything, he frustrated me, but those chapters helped (and the reveal… going back and re-evaluating it all).

I think, then, overall this is a book that, if you already loved Natasha Pulley, you will love this one. If this is your first introduction to Natasha Pulley, I think it’s an excellent one to start with.

[Gifted]
A beautifully written, funny and paradoxical time-slip story set during the Napoleonic War, if it all went in France's favour. Romantic, full of ships and battles and lighthouses, this is so inventive and fun. There were a few parts which genuinely made me gasp (the freezing sea, the London Underground, the final train journey). Other times, I found myself scratching my head a bit. There were a few missing jumps in logic - I found it hard to follow all of the many battles and voyages over different time periods, and it was very frustrating that Jem didn't seem bothered about being in the past or use his knowledge of the future in any way. But I loved the characters (some of Kite's more....immoral behaviour aside) and I was truly hooked - I read this in one sitting.