Phoenix Bride

“Poetic, romantic, and steeped in seventeenth-century London, The Phoenix Bride is historical fiction at its best.”—Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love from the acclaimed author of Solomon’s Crown It is 1666, one year after plague has devastated England

Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within her older sister’s cavernous London townhouse

At the mercy of a legion of doctors trying to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no sign of improvement

Soon, her sister makes a decision born of desperation: She hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods

But he is a foreigner

A Jew

And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of sorrow that rages inside her

There is no easy cure for melancholy

David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind

Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend and struggling with his religion and his past, David is free and safe in this foreign land but incapable of happiness

The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart

He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love

Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together

The Great Fire is coming—and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible.