About:
Rocamora by Donald Michael Platt is a historical fiction book taking place in 17th Century Spain. This book was the 2012 finalist in the International Book Awards for Historical Fiction.
My rating for Rocamora — 5
Buy this book in paper or electronic format*
More Books by Donald Michael Platt
Thoughts:
Rocamora by Donald Michael Platt (website) is based on the life of Vicente de Rocamora a poet, fighter and Dominican priest who was thrust into the scheming court of King Philip IV. Rocamora became the confessor for the king’s younger sister, the beautiful Infanta Doña María and was considered as a strong candidate for Inquisitor General.
I found this book to be a first-rate historical novel; I learned a lot of history from the book, about life in Spain and the Inquisition, as well as following the story in vivid detail. Mr. Platt weaves his story around the history and doesn’t change the facts to fit his story (at least I couldn’t find any glaring cases of such).
The novel certainly let’s the reader feel the glory of Spain fading during the reign of Philip IV, while Count Duke Olivares acting as prime minister (in today’s terms). The author also weaves in the consequences which Spain suffered under religious fanatics, anti-Semitism and corruption of the aristocracy.
This is a solid, well written historical novel with plenty of historical background, the dialogue is believable with Spanish words and phrases peppered throughout (the author always manages to translate them or let you know what they mean based on further reading). The narrative keeps the reader turning the pages with. The author describes each outfit, room, weapon and characters to extreme detail, while it sometimes weighed down the story I found them to be interesting as well as part of the charm and authenticity of the book.
Buy this book in paper or electronic format*
More Books by Donald Michael Platt
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account
The plot, while historically interesting, goes on irrelevant side stories. The ending is just OK,…
May Sarton (3 May, 1912 – 16 July, 1995) was a writer, poet, journalist and…
If you want to build excitement around a book release and grow a loyal readership…
The plot might be overstuffed, but I enjoyed the new characters. Moneypenny is COO of…
A.H. Raskin (26 April, 1911 – 22 December, 1993) was a reporter, writer, and assistant…
I hated the author’s passive-aggressive agenda. It just rubbed me the wrong way and seemed…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
I thank you for the postive review.
Much appreciated.
Donald
Nice to have the author comment on your review and post! The books have to be read slowly, I agree, as they have so much detail!