Spain 1493: Isabel has broken her mother’s heart by becoming a sincere convert to Christianity. But when she is noticed by Friar Alonso at La Casa Santa, the Holy House, she is forced to flee the Inquisition by entering into a loveless marriage and sailing with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. But all too soon Isabel is forced to struggle alone in her new life and new faith. With all the risks and hardships how is she to survive? And will she ever find love in this strange land? And what of the dangerous Enrique Vivar? Will his hidden agenda cost her her life?
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Okay, total confession here -- I was not overly impressed with the cover on this book. It looked kinda cheezy, a bit of a hackneyed homemade Photo Shop job. It may not be fair of me, but because of the cover I was initially not expecting much from the story. I was thinking it was going to be another so-so read. Well, surprise surprise -- I ate this story up, immediately moving it to my favorites for this year! The story was SO good! There was humor, heart, drama, action, everything!
Isabel is a teenage Jewess in Inquistion-era Spain, acting as a practicing Christian in public but practing Judaism in secret. To protect her, her parents marry her off and put her and her new husband on one of the boats sailing in Columbus' second voyage. Isabel and the other passengers end up setting up a colony in La Navidad & Santo Domingo (present day Haiti & Dominican Republic). While initially optimistic about developing a community, after a time Isabel sees that her new home is quickly becoming a place full of discontent, class division, prejudice, starvation, violence and rampant illness.
The poor girl suffers through so much before she's even 18! Isabel finds that her faith is one of the few things that keeps her spirit up in the face of such strife and tragedy. I liked how real the story felt, in the way that while there were moments of such sadness, there were also many moments of levity, just the way life is! I especially laughed at the funny, "shaking my head" ways that Isabel and the few other women in the colony fought against female inequality. I loved how when the men got so obsessed with finding gold, the women took it upon themselves to go speak with the local Native American women, asking them how to plant crops, identify and gather local herbs & edible plants, how to make bread... because somebody has to make sure people don't starve, right! But one of the funniest lines in the story was when Isabel expressed to her parents her interest in continuing her education and her mother's response is basically that's all well and good up to a point, but "women who study too excessively get wandering wombs." X-D Also, the relationship between Antonio & Isabel was a thrilling mix of sweetness, innocence, and swoon-worthyness!
I believe this is the first book I've read that talks about what could have happened on Colombus' other voyages, what the people in those other colonies might have been like. which is perhaps partly why I found it so fascinating. We hear so much about his discovery of the Americas, that it's often forgotten that he actually went on FOUR separate voyages. I would recommend this story to anyone who loves historical fiction, a good adventure story, and is always on the search for books with believable, life-like characters.
FTC Disclaimer: BookCrash.com & Heritage Publishing House sent me a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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