Forged in the Fire (Quaker Trilogy #2) by Ann Turnbull

Forged in the Fire (Quaker Trilogy #2) Reviews

• 
  Anne Osterlund

  Susanna has been waiting years for William. For him to learn a trade, save funds, and escape prison. William isn’t a criminal. He’s a dissenter. A Quaker. As is Susanna. Both of them are determined to remain loyal to their Friends and their faith. And to pay the price for their beliefs.
  
  But the two are also anxious to marry.
  
  And at last William sends the letter, to tell Susanna it is time.
  
  The year is 1665. The setting is London.
  
  And two of the greatest catastrophes in history are about to test their romance.
  
  I really enjoyed this novel, definitely my favorite in a recent spurt of historical fiction reading. To me the greatest element of historical fiction isn’t the incorporation of famous events or fine, accurate detail, but the story’s ability to place the reader into the heart of a character that sees the world from a different point of view. A unique time and place, yes, but more importantly, a unique perspective. Forged in the Fire has plenty of action and excitement, but Susanna and Will’s faith is what makes this story special. Their eyes, witnessing the tragedies of history through the lens of persecution. And love.
  
• 
  Judy

  This is a sequel to "No Shame, No Fear," about Quaker life in England in the 1660s. They both focus on two young people in love - in this book, Will turns 21, and Susanna is 19. This is set mainly in London during the time of the plague and the great fire. I have thoroughly enjoyed these books - they really flesh out what it was like to be a Friend in that time and place.
• 
  Alicia

  I expected a little more from this book. I thought there would be a more tragic and desperate love that can overcome the obstacles of the plague in London in the 1600s. Yet, I was left needing more from the characters, especially the two lovers who are finally united after a few years apart. Maybe I need to go back and read the prequel (which I was unaware of) to care more about Will and Susanna.
• 
  Ellie

  An interesting book but I expected it to be better.
  On a positive note, I liked the characters and the settings. However, the writing style felt stiff and unnatural and I was very tempted not to finish the book at all. Also, quite a lot of the decisions the characters made were plot conveniences and didn't seem natural.
• 
  Michele

  Not quite as compelling as the first book. I was disappointed in heat-of-the moment choices made by the main characters who profess to be religious and feel no remorse afterward. Somehow it doesn't feel true to the Quaker belief system to me.
• 
  Sheryl

  I actually liked this one better than it's prequel. An interesting look into the life of a quaker in the 1600's in London.
• 
  Tilden

  Good ending to the story. I learned quite a bit about the plague and fire in London and about the persecution of the Quakers in England. The story was well told.
• 
  Kate Hornstein

  I give Ann Turnbull four stars for what must have been a ton of research on the Plague and the Great Fire of London. She really tried to bring these events to life through the eyes of her young characters (especially Will). Full disclosure: did not read the first book in the series. Confession: I had a hard time getting into the Susanna and Will characters--they didn't seem well developed (but maybe more developed in Book 1?)
  
  Also a query and maybe an annoying correction: I don't think Quakers used "thou" very much--I think they used "thee" for almost all instances of non-Plain-speech "you." And I think they almost never called themselves Quakers as the characters do here--they would have used "Friends." The Quaker was almost derogatory.
  
  Also kudos to Turnbull for writing sex/romance scenes that are sexy, but still pre-teen appropriate: not easy!
• 
  M.J. Colewood

  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Great Fire of London was brought to life by Ann Turnbull's meticulous attention to detail. We see the story unfold through both Susanna's and William's eyes, giving us a clear insight into their thoughts and feelings. Although this book is part of a trilogy it can also be read as a stand alone novel.
• 
  Lora

  Though I had read Samuel Pepys' account of the plague year and the great fire, I've never read any other accounts, so the story of London's refugees during the fire was captivating. I'd like to find out if there are any extant diaries or accounts of that time from a perspective other than Pepys'.
• 
  Morgan Raye

  Just like its prequel, No Shame, No Fear, I was completely drawn into the story. I love historical fiction, and love learning about English history and religious history. The love is sweet in this book. I recommend it.
• 
  Sabrina Zee

  William akhirnya berhasil menemukan pekerjaan di toko buku London. Ia mengumpulkan setiap sen yang didapatkannya demi bisa menikahi Susanna. Di tengah wabah pes yang melanda kota itu, William merasa terancam dan berhati-hati menjaga kesehatan. Namun statusnya sebagai seorang Quaker kembali membuatnya dipenjara di antara lautan orang-orang sakit. Sungguh sebuah keberuntungan ia hanya mengidap demam Scarlet saja. Ia diselamatkan oleh seorang pedagang kaya yang juga menganut kepercayaan sama dengannya.
  
  Sementara itu, Susanna yang tidak mengetahui nasib Will berkeras ingin menyusul pria itu. Sayangnya, yang ia temukan di London adalah William yang sedang tertawa dikelilingi anak-anak gadis pedagang kaya yang sudah menyelamatkan pria itu. Menyadari kalau ia sudah merenggut Will dari kehidupan mewah juga keluarga pria itu, Susanna merasa bersalah dan juga marah karena cemburu. Namun Will tetap setia. Pada akhirnya, tanpa penghasilan tetap mereka pun menikah.
  
  Sebagai pasangan baru, mereka berdua berjuang di tengah kehidupan sulit yang melanda Kota London. Wabah pes terus merajalela hingga puncaknya Kota London harus dibakar demi memusnahkan penyakit itu. Dan untuk sekali lagi, Will dan Susanna kehilangan rumah dan pekerjaan mereka.
  
  Yang membuat buku ini menarik adalah settingnya yang cukup jauh di masa lalu. Saya selalu menyukai hal-hal tradisional dan kuno sehingga saya betah sekali membaca buku ini. Pandangan hidup dan perjuangan hidup Will dan Susanna benar-benar menggambarkan situasi yang hanya terjadi di masa lalu. Mereka menemukan kebahagiaan hanya dalam keberadaan pasangan masing-masing. Begitu sederhana dan jauh berbeda dari kehidupan masa kini. Memang kehidupan mereka tidak tenang dan selalu diburu ketidakpastian, tapi entah kenapa ada keindahan tersendiri dalam kekacauan itu. Selain itu, budaya surat-menyurat semakin memperkental nuansa kunonya. Berita begitu sulit didapat karena surat tidak selalu sampai ke tujuan. Saya juga menyukai bagaimana Susanna berusaha keras menjembatani hubungan Will dan ayahnya yang rusak karena dirinya. Saya terharu saat sang ayah muncul di tengah kacaunya pengungsian yang terjadi di London.
  
  Namun sayangnya, suara Will dan Susanna tidak ada bedanya sama sekali. Sudut pandang yang bergantian di antara mereka cukup membuat saya pusing karena saya kerap kali tidak yakin narasi siapa yang sedang saya baca. Keduanya sangat mirip dalam cara berpikir, berbicara, dan bersikap.
  
  Tinggal satu buku lagi. Saya penasaran apa lagi yang akan terjadi pada pasangan ini.
  
  
  http://sabrinazheng.blogspot.com/2014...
• 
  Jennifer Wardrip

  Reviewed by Mechele R. Dillard for TeensReadToo.com
  
  The streets of 17th-Century London come alive in author Ann Turnbull's FORGED IN THE FIRE. The sequel to Turnbull's 2006 NO SHAME, NO FEAR, this well-written novel stands alone, dually answering readers' current questions while offering just enough ambiguity to pique their interest in the prequel.
  
  Romance is alive and well in the plague-infested streets of 1665 London. But, times are hard and death is rampant, especially for Quakers such as Will and Susanna, who find themselves fighting against a close-minded religious establishment in addition to disease and poverty. Readers are left to breathlessly concede that a happy ending, no matter how deserved, is far from guaranteed.
  
  Turnbull is skilled at entertaining readers while covertly educating them. Her scenes are full and powerful, bringing excitement and history to the forefront, yet never overpowering or heavy-handed. Readers will fall wholeheartedly into the love story of Will and Susanna, while simultaneously aching for the thousands of actual lives truly lost to sickness, disaster and ignorance in the London of yesteryear.
  
  This, readers will understand, was a time of great fear, but not a time beyond equally great faith: "We ate with relish and felt glad to be alive," recalls Will. "The plague was in the city--but danger was always present. We must go about our lives as usual and trust in God" (p. 25).
• 
  Laura

  I've read this book twice and both times never realised that this is actually a sequel to another of Ann Turnbull's books "No Shame, No Fear". However, not reading the first part of the series didn't take away from my enjoyment of this novel at all. I'd class this novel as YA historical romance. Will and Susanna, two Quakers, have loved each other for a while and are desperate to become husband and wife, but Will wants to earn enough money to be able to properly support and look after Susanna and doesn't want to marry her until he can do this. The pair remain faithful to their promises to each other and eventually Will tells Susanna that the time is right and that he wants her to come to London to be with him! Although 1665, when this book starts, isn't the best time to be in London as the Plague is on the rampage and 1666 isn't a great year either as another pretty catastrophic event occurs ... Anyway, while the Great Fire of London and the Plague are obviously two really interesting things to read about in a story it's actually the characters and their personal stories that make this such a good read, not the big action scenes. I should really get round to reading the prequel at some point - there might even be a sequel by now!
• 
  Stephanie A.

  2008: "Quakers! Plague! New thing where I imagine "Will" as Will Turner, minus the pirate setting! Even better than its predecessor."
  
  2017: I just reread both novels back to back, explicitly intending to view the story as a Will/Elizabeth AU with fortunes reversed, but I failed to keep my intended casting in mind about 50 pages into the original and just let Will and Susanna have the run of it. I love their steadfast devotion to each other, aside from the latter's brief fit of self-deprecation in this one, and how they've grown from impulsive young teenagers into somewhat more worldly and seasoned young adults. I might normally be scandalized at how little this author shies away from hammering in their physical attraction to each other, albeit with a lot of euphemisms, but it gets a pass under the "have been trying to get married for years" clause. Their romance really takes two full books to feel complete, so I'm glad they get that (and apparently a smidge more, according to the new third book on the horizon that was not there last time around!).
• 
  Little Black Car

  To be fair, this was aimed at preteens, and I haven't been a preteen in a very long time.
  
  Overall, I got the feeling that the author wanted to have her cake and eat it, too: The romance of a historical setting but with modern sensibilities (for the record, 17th-century Quakers did not wink at premarital sex. You could get read out of meeting for that).
  
  It was utterly unbelievable that the heroine would agree to be separated from her lover for three years and then would give up on him based on a split-second glimpse of him doing absolutely nothing incriminating with the daughter of a friend and benefactor To have that incident in the plot completely undermined the premise that Susanna was a mature and independent young woman, and made the rest of the novel seem like a silly teenaged romance, which didn't fit with the very serious circumstances.
• 
  Sarah

  I was certainly on edge after reading this intriguing historical fiction detailing a round of the plague in London and the fire of 1666. The circumstances captured many of my own fears about disaster. Although I know little about the Quakers prior to their arrival in America, I felt as I read about these characters that I had a better sense of the feelings and persecution that drove my own Puritan and Separatist ancestors to leave the Old World. The only scenes that jarred me where the romantic ones, which were shockingly detailed and intimate compared to the usual distance the characters created between us and the events, and which seemed more characteristic of their old-fashioned approach to storytelling.
• 
  A. R.

  A good conclusion to the "No Shame, No Fear" story. While others thought the book dragged, I did not. I was as interested in how a person made a living, dealt with setbacks - even imprisonment, and in general what life was like in London in the 1600s.
  
  While I can see why people didn't think this installment as good as the first, it still held my interest. The characters will still important to me, and although I could have seen several ways the story could have veered in a new direction...maybe given the author a trilogy...it was satisfying to see William and Susannah come together. There were other relationships wrapped up as well, which made for a genuine happy ending despite the tragedies of the London fire.
  
  A good, wholesome, clean read.
• 
  Andrew

  Being a young adult novel this was a pretty easy read but was engaging and enjoyable..basically it's love at the time of plague with a great fire thrown in towards closure and is a follow on book...I enjoyed this and found it a decent contained tale in itself however as I hadn't really the book prior to this.
  The tale of Quaker persecution throughout was of interest too and makes the backdrop of the central romance more interesting..I'm not really one for romantic fiction period or otherwise but I did enjoy this.
  The book reads more as a journal than anything else as it leads through a period of time and doesn't rely on twists and multiple characters to drive it..that is in part the reason I found it so easy to read.
• 
  Ashley Carr

  You know, I've checked this book out of the library sooo many times and, although I always seem to get further and further into it, I just cannot bring myself to finish it. Being someone who loves stories set in this time period, and loves romance, I thought I would love this book. Every time I picked it up I had to force myself to read it. I don't know if it was because of the way it is written (jumping from one perspective to the other), the characters, or the plot line but I wanted to throw this book out the window. I was bored the entire time.
• 
  Mike

  I liked No Shame, No Fear, but maybe it's because of my European History degree background, I knew where this story was going once I saw the dates at the beginning of the book. Plague and fire and London. I also was exaspertated at Susanna's preteen attitude when she saw Will in London actually enjoying himself. A better ending would have been Will marrying Catherine and Nat going off with Susanna, with a little smoldering fire (pun not intended) between Will and Susanna. Instead we got a "happily ever after" ending.
• 
  Vicki

  the 2nd book about Susanna and Will, who have waited 3 years to be married. This story examines the world of the Quakers living in England in the 1600's. In the book, just as they are about to be married, the Great Fire of London occurs in 1666. Can they survive the separation and castrophe around them? Great
• 
  Sarah

  I don't even know why I bothered with the sequel. I hated the first one, but I was kind of hoping that the second part would make more sense and be more appealing.
  
  It wasn't.
  
  The sequel was even stupider than the first part. This is historical fiction at its worst.
• 
  Maria

  The first one was better, but this was still enjoyable.
• 
  Tiffany

  Great love story. Based losely about the quakers during the time of the great plague and fire in London.
• 
  Adna

  An interesting book. Apparently it is a book 2 of 2. I haven't read the first one ("No shame, No fear") but I found out that this one can stand on its own.
• 
  Minky

  After reading NO Shame No Fear i wasn't able so read the second book. I will never forhet i reading these books i started to have a passion to reading.
• 
  Finvarra Penn

  What a great book. I read through this so quickly...it rarely left my hands. I have to say I like, 'No Shame, No Fear' better though, although the sequel was great too!