Genre: Historical Fiction 

Publisher: Atria Books, published November 24th

Format: Ebook ARC from Simon and Schuster Canada 

Pages: 464

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (Goodreads):

Midsummer Eve 1670. Two unexpected visitors arrive at a shabby warehouse on the south side of the River Thames. The first is a wealthy man hoping to find the lover he deserted twenty-one years before. James Avery has everything to offer, including the favour of the newly restored King Charles II, and he believes that the warehouse’s poor owner Alinor has the one thing his money cannot buy—his son and heir.

The second visitor is a beautiful widow from Venice in deepest mourning. She claims Alinor as her mother-in-law and has come to tell Alinor that her son Rob has drowned in the dark tides of the Venice lagoon.

Alinor writes to her brother Ned, newly arrived in faraway New England and trying to make a life between the worlds of the English newcomers and the American Indians as they move toward inevitable war. Alinor tells him that she knows—without doubt—that her son is alive and the widow is an imposter.

Set in the poverty and glamour of Restoration London, in the golden streets of Venice, and on the tensely contested frontier of early America, this is a novel of greed and desire: for love, for wealth, for a child, and for home. 

My Review:

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book.
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Although I didn’t love this one as much as the first book, the story was still engrossing with lots of different things happen. This book takes place years after the first one, and Alinor and Alys have worked hard to get by and support their children. I really liked how the author portrayed their struggles and strength in their situation and how they overcame the trauma from the first book. I love the character of Alinor and kinda wanted to see more from her, and her daughter Alys was super annoying in this one just like the first book.
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This book covers a lot of historical content including how difficult it was for a woman to get by in society without a man, the process of apprenticeship and how women were paid less than male apprentices, as well as life in the colonies of North America, depicted through Alinor’s brother. I found these scenes a bit less intense than the other ones, but I liked how the author showed the colonists in the America’s and the relationship between the colonists and the Indigenous people of the land. Finally, we also got to read about Venice and the Doge, and the secrecy that was seeped within Venetian society. I also liked that we got to read about what life was like for Jewish people in Venice and we got to see how they were marginalized in society.
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Life in restoration London was not easy, and it was nice to read about this time period and these historical events.