The Phoenix Bride is set in 1666 and Cecilia Thorowgood and David Mendes have both recently lost their great loves to the plague. David has thrown himself into his work as a doctor, taking on more clients outside his small Jewish community and Cecilia has fallen into a depression, staying at her sister’s London house and refusing to see company. Her sister employs David as a last resort, considering his medicine practice close to paganism. David seeks to heal Cecilia’s emotions as much as her health and they fall into a tenuous friendship that they both know has an expiration date. As Cecilia regains her will and strength, she seeks further connection with David, despite her sister’s restrictions on her movement in London and David’s religious identity. David is dealing with the loss of his best friend, Manuel, and unspoken romantic feelings he harbored for the man, as well as pressure to marry within the small community of Jewish Portuguese immigrants in London. Siegel writes an incredibly romantic love story the definitionally is a romance novel, but with an unconventional happily-ever-after.

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