Started and finished this one all in one day—I couldn’t put it down. The story follows H from childhood; following the death of her religious, overbearing father, H and one of her sisters are sent to London to live with their aunt. The events that follow see H navigating a series of triumphs and tragedies (including the plague and the Great Fire of London), doing what it takes to survive and ensure the survival of those she loves, in a time and place in which women have very little power. H was a wonderful protagonist, the story was complex and compelling, and there are few settings I love more than historic London! ✨

What an amazing book and what a prescient time to have read it. This story takes place during the plague of 1666 in London followed shortly thereafter by the great fire. During the time I find myself now, reading a book of quarantine in a time when little was known about diseases and how they spread, was very interesting.
The tale centers around H, a young orphan, and her sister Evelyn who have been given into the care of their Aunt. During the book, we are taken through different ups and downs in H's life and I found that though it was somewhat depressing subject matter times, it was very uplifting and had a wonderful character arc. The characters were all very well thought out, and I found myself wanting to know more of Godfrey and Jasper than I was given in the book itself. Though I was unfamiliar with the author previously, I feel as though she has a wonderful story laid out in this book and hope to read more from her in the future.
It was a wonderful quarantine book for me, and hopefully, it will be something you will choose to pick up in the future!
This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found the language in the book to be period appropriate, which made it a pleasure to read. I even picked up some new 17th century slang.
The story was interesting but a bit too predictable. The characters were very well drawn and very likeable. The "bad" characters were extremely unlikeable. The strongest aspect of the tale was the wonderfully described life during the Plague time in England.

I really wanted to love this book, the premise of this story is great.
A young girl ‘H’ is orphaned and sent to live with her aunt. There she faces plague, fire and the loss of her innocence. She finds herself cast out onto the streets of London, whilst London is laying under a quarantine order. (Very apt at this dreadful time!)
What follows is the story of her fight for survival. The opening scene is both wonderful and horrible, it’s the sort of scene that stages with you, and so I had high hopes for the rest of the book.
I loved the first half of the book, unfortunately for me, the book then seemed to lose direction. I found the writing hard to follow but the storyline predictable and I’m sorry to say that I skim read the last few chapters.
The character of H was also difficult to like and root for, and for me the love story added nothing but predictability.
I wanted to love this but didn’t, and I’m sorry for that as there are some good points. If the author could continue the skill she showed at the beginning of the book all the way through then it would have been brilliant.

I liked this book and found the plot interesting, the book has a lot of characters and I found it hard to follow at times.

* spoiler alert ** For the most part,this was a good entertaining read.
Involving playhouses,bawdy houses,the plague that run rampant through London,and of course the great fire.
They were all excellent backdrops to the story of H.
There were some amusing bits too,and a couple of central friendships that were quite heart warming.

At times though,it felt over long,and a bit too predictable.
Especially the ending.

Mostly though,it was entertaining