The mash up of a Mexican western, a generational saga, and magical realism works extremely well at the hands of this talented author.

I felt that the book is most poignant when the characters are interacting. The sense of desperation they feel everyday is something that’s felt on every page

Ms. Allende focuses on children, and how policies of cruelty use them as pawns. Only the fact that good people have attempted to help them save those children

The Rain God by Arturo Islas is a complex and layered novel beautifully portrays family dynamics and assimilation struggles in a small immigrant town.

Violeta was lives through extraordinary events, from World Wars, family tragedy, loves, lost, political turmoil, as well as women’s rights.

The descriptions in The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes of the local foods, customs, society, and certainly the cocoa industry were excellent.