Petals in the ashes by Mary Hooper

Hannah and Sarah are two sisters who had a sweetmeats shop in London. At the time, London was suffering many losses from a terrible plague. Luckily, they were able to flee, with a mission to take an orphaned baby safely to her relatives.

About a year later, when numbers of death from plague decreased, the sisters headed their parents’ home in Dorchester. Sarah was happy to stay with her parents for a while, whereas Hannah went to London to run the shop with her younger sister Anne. Hannah’s ‘sweetheart’ Tom was rumoured to die from plague, but surprisingly, she found he was alive and working for a magician. But their happiness didn’t last long as a fire spread out the whole city. They had to abandon their home to save their lives. Despite of the losses, Hannah believed that she can rebuild her shop again soon.

‘Petals in the ashes’ is a fiction book, but it was based on a real historical event: the Great Fire of London in 1666. I really like this book as the narration told by a character, Hannah, with her point of view. That makes the chaos and dangers of this fire become more vivid, and also shows how strong human spirit can be through difficulties and hardships by telling her own experiences and feelings. This book is a sequel to a story ‘At the sign of the sugared plum’ but its plot is easy to catch, so you can read this without its first part, like I did :)