The Phoenix Bride: A Novel
“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
A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
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.
A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love from the acclaimed author of Solomon’s Crown
A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
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.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Being very generous with my rating here because I don't think the writing is bad, there were elements to the story I did like, and I think people who like contemporary sad girl millennial books might really enjoy this despite it being historical fiction. I personally hated the main character Cecilia, but it seems like the book expected me to love her. It seems like I was supposed to find her passionate and brave, but instead I found her to be selfish and insensitive.
She is incredibly self centered and fans the flames (haha) of whatever inner turmoil she's experiencing to the point that she can't function or manage her basic needs and has to rely on others, and yet blames these other people at every turn for any decision they make that isn't exactly what she wants. The book implies that Cecilia's sister (Margaret, I think) who is in an unhappy and difficult marriage, struggling with fertility issues, and trying to keep her sister alive and safe, is an irredeemable person undeserving of pity even when she sincerely apologizes in both actions and words for her failures.
Cecilia acts like marrying an incredibly kind and generous man with an adorable dog who wants nothing but friendship from her and who will allow her to live her life in comfort and however she wants (including having a lover!) is some big sacrifice, and the book seems to agree? It takes nothing less than The Great Fire of London for Cecilia to attempt to do anything for another person, and even after that she berates her working class, marginalized, homeless lover for the crime of not waking up next to her in her upper class fiancé's house??!? I feel sorry for the poor flower seller who had to deal with Cecilia's antics multiple times without Cecilia ever bothering to buy a flower from her.
David, the other POV character, is much easier to understand and sympathize with. Throughout the book he is living the reality of surviving in London as a working class Jewish doctor from a foreign country, grieving multiple losses, and trying to do the best he can by his family, friends, and patients. The book at times seems to imply that his caution and realism are somehow bad things compared to Cecilia's blind recklessness?
The audiobook narrators did a good job. David and some of the other supporting characters were great. I know there is a market for characters like Cecilia, but I found her insufferable and the way the book seemed to disagree with me on that made for a frustrating reading experience.
Content Warnings:
Moderate: Medical content, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death of parent, and Mental illness
Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry
She is incredibly self centered and fans the flames (haha) of whatever inner turmoil she's experiencing to the point that she can't function or manage her basic needs and has to rely on others, and yet blames these other people at every turn for any decision they make that isn't exactly what she wants. The book implies that Cecilia's sister (Margaret, I think) who is in an unhappy and difficult marriage, struggling with fertility issues, and trying to keep her sister alive and safe, is an irredeemable person undeserving of pity even when she sincerely apologizes in both actions and words for her failures.
Cecilia acts like marrying an incredibly kind and generous man with an adorable dog who wants nothing but friendship from her and who will allow her to live her life in comfort and however she wants (including having a lover!) is some big sacrifice, and the book seems to agree? It takes nothing less than The Great Fire of London for Cecilia to attempt to do anything for another person, and even after that she berates her working class, marginalized, homeless lover for the crime of not waking up next to her in her upper class fiancé's house??!? I feel sorry for the poor flower seller who had to deal with Cecilia's antics multiple times without Cecilia ever bothering to buy a flower from her.
David, the other POV character, is much easier to understand and sympathize with. Throughout the book he is living the reality of surviving in London as a working class Jewish doctor from a foreign country, grieving multiple losses, and trying to do the best he can by his family, friends, and patients. The book at times seems to imply that his caution and realism are somehow bad things compared to Cecilia's blind recklessness?
The audiobook narrators did a good job. David and some of the other supporting characters were great. I know there is a market for characters like Cecilia, but I found her insufferable and the way the book seemed to disagree with me on that made for a frustrating reading experience.
Content Warnings:
Moderate: Medical content, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death of parent, and Mental illness
Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry
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