I thoroughly enjoyed the prequel to this book and this picks up where that left off. Sarah and Hannah have fled from London by using a health certificate belonging to a dying woman and her servant, taking with them a baby girl in order to deliver her to her Aunt’s house in far away Dorchester after her family have perished in the plague. But Hannah has left behind her sweetheart Tom and can’t wait to get back to London. After visiting their family in Chertsey, it is decided that Sarah will stay on to help her mother who is expecting a baby, and so Hannah persuades her mother and father to let her take her younger sister, Anne, to help out in the shop.

However, disaster strikes when a fire takes hold in the city, and starts to spread. As the Londoners try in vain to contain the fire, Hannah and Anne find themselves in grave danger, and Hannah once again risks losing all that is dear to her.

This was as good as, if not better than, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum. Once again Hooper writes in a way that captivates the reader and draws them in. Her descriptions are excellent and one can almost feel the heat and fear of the terrible events of 1666. A great read for children and adults alike. ( )

This is the sequel to the author's gripping story set during the Great Plague. Hannah returns to London after the plague has subsided only to be caught up in the Great Fire. The descriptions of the confusion, mayhem and devastation caused by the fire are told in fairly simple but vivid language, drawing on Pepys and other contemporary sources for anecdotes about individuals' behaviour and phenomena like the attempts by some Londoners to scapegoat their French, Dutch or Catholic neighbours for the inferno. A good follow up novel, though perhaps not quite as taut a piece of writing as its predecessor. ( )

Having survived the terrible Plague of 1665, escaping with her older sister Sarah from the horrors of London at the conclusion of At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, Hannah returns once again to the great metropolis in this second story devoted to her (mis)adventures. Accompanied this time by her younger sister Anne - Sarah having elected to stay behind at the family home in Chertsey - Hannah finds London mostly as it was before the terrible events of the previous year, with its bustling crowds and its gay pageantry once more to be seen. Some things have changed, however, from missing neighbors to buildings that still bear the dread mark of the plague, and as Hannah and Anne begin to set their sweetmeat shop, The Sugared Plum, to rights, Hannah searches for her friend Tom, an apothecary's apprentice who stayed behind in London, when she and Sarah escaped. Did he, as neighbors report, die during the last outbreak of the plague? If so, why does the magician's assistant, that she sees at the theater one day, look so much like him? Most of all, having finally found him again, can she escape a second calamity, when a terrible fire begins to move through the city...?

I found Petals In the Ashes to be every bit as engrossing as its predecessor, and was immediately drawn into the story, which picks up right where At the Sign of the Sugared Plum left off, as Hannah and Sarah arrive in Dorchester, with infant Emma in tow. Although I had expected that the events of the Great Fire would take up more of the story than they did - the fire doesn't begin until roughly two thirds of the way through, after Hannah and Anne have been in London for some time - I wasn't disappointed in the book as a result, as it never failed to engage my interest. There were moments, reading along - notably, when the sisters encounter a man leading a chained bear, and a number of patients from the madhouse through The Bartholomew Fair, advertising their services as "entertainment" for the quality - that I was reminded of that famous L.P. Hartley quotation about the past being a "foreign country." But there were moments of recognition too, and experiences that felt familiar, from Hannah's first brush with romance, to Anne's sense of resentment, at her sister's behavior. The chapters involving the fire itself were by turns terrifying and heartbreaking - the thought of the king's wild menagerie, trapped in their cages, and unable to escape the heat and the smoke, as they died slow and painful deaths, made me feel sick to my stomach - and I simply raced along, wanting to know what happened next.

All in all, this was another excellent work of historical fiction from Mary Hooper, and I recommend it to all fans of the genre. Now, if only the author would pen a third story involving Hannah! Perhaps something involving Tom, and another return (hopefully successful) to London...? ( )

Not quite as wonderful as its predecessor, but still very good. ( )

This book is a sequel to "At the Sign of the Sugared Plum." It follows Hannah and Sarah as they try and deliver an orphaned baby to its rich relatives during the plague. Rather than received with thanks, they are sent to a pesthouse for forty days. Afterward, they return to their home town where Sarah meets a new beau. Hannah and her younger sister Anne return to London and reopen their sweetmeats shop. Only after Hannah is reunited with her fiancé and business begins to pick up does the Great Fire of London ravage the city.

Overall, I thought this was a well written book. The characters were engaging and interesting. I thought the plot moved a bit slower than the first book and was not quite as smooth. However, I really enjoyed this book and plan on looking for more books written by Ms. Hooper. ( )