Forbidden love

The Phoenix Bride: A Novel by Natasha Siegel    

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good historical novel. When I first picked this up I just wasn’t in the mood, for something quite as deep. So I read a few lighter novels and then returned. I’m so glad I went back. The story has it all, illicit love, tragedy and rebirth.

I loved the sound premise to this story. Set in 1666 London. Time of the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy and King Charles. Cecilia Thorowgood’s husband has died of the plague. Cecilia is distraught. She’s suffers various doctors paraded before her trying to cure her of melancholy. David Mendes is a physician come Portugal, now living in a Jewish neighbourhood in Aldegate. He has been asked to treat Cecilia. 

The story extends into a burgeoning friendship between Cecelia and David, Cecilia’s increasing fear of entrapment, a proposal of marriage from her sister’s husband’s nephew, her growing love for David, his fear of the harsh opinions of others (with good cause) all overshadowed by the Great Fire of London, when lives will be reshaped from the crucible of terror, just not in the way expected.

A Penguin Random House ARC via NetGalley.                                                                                

Many thanks to the author and publisher.