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