Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

I’m in love with the Montoya family this book filled with secrets, mystical happenings and one huge crazy family!! The story follows the offspring of Orquidea Divina Montoya after her death, as they try to figure out the truth behind her secretive past and how it is still out to get them.

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mrtvavrana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to give this book 5 stars, but the random explicit sex scenes including teenagers really put me off.

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ailiscr32's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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marissasa's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is a wonder of a generational family story filled with magic and love. I really enjoyed the alternating timelines and perspectives which built the story up from present day and slowly revealed more about Orquidea's past and why her family is the way it is now. The writing was stunning especially when it highlighted the magical realism of miracles like

flowers blooming from skin, vines rising from the earth, a skeleton smoking a cigarette, and a door at the bottom of a lake.

I was immersed in this book and its main characters, although I do wish the book was a bit longer to give more attention and development to some of its side characters as well. The themes of generational trauma and the ties that run deeper than blood that bind us to our families were really well explored and I loved seeing the cousins protect each other without a second thought.

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elly29's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Oof, this was a hot mess. I’m kinda sad it’s my first completed read of 2024. It kept on trying to be the Ecuadorian “1100 Years of Solitude” Lite™️, complete with magical realism. But, it just felt all over the place: the magic system was haphazard, the giant cast of characters poorly fleshed-out, we zigzag from past to present, and it started out achingly slow but then wrapped up far too fast. I’d argue that Tatinelly’s and Rey’s roles could have been consolidated into one character, and the parts about the family condensed. Or, to give everyone adequate treatment, it could have been 8x longer. The ending was okay, but I have so many unanswered questions, though. (Poor Mike Sullivan.) I admit I was skimming, but it felt like the relevant parts (like Pena and Marimar talking about the door at the bottom of the lake, for example, and how the fish get in) hadn’t been referenced earlier in the novel. Or, that it was lazy writing when Tatinelly spread her father Felix’s ashes in the river — I didn’t care! Or that Ana Cruz intercepted them in Guayaquil felt fake, like a setup, and so nefarious, that I didn’t trust Ana Cruz for the next few chapters. It was too easy and convenient. Ugh, this was not a novel for me.

I mean, sure, it’s a generational “saga” where we learn that toxic masculinity is Bad, and toxic men with power is one of the most dangerous foes one can face. Anything else? Yeah… it felt like a halfway decent travelogue for Ecuador, and I know that there are 444 steps to the top of the hill in whatever city they were in.

This felt so much like that Erin Morgenstern sequel, “The Starless Sea.” Pretty writing, but boy did the story not make sense to me.

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