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A review by okevamae
The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes
4.0
Puri, a Spanish chocolatier, has spent her entire life waiting for her father to return to Spain from Ecuador. Now, on learning of her father’s death, she travels to Ecuador to receive her inheritance – a cocoa plantation. But someone does not want Puri to reach her destination, and attempts to kill her on the voyage. In the struggle, her husband Cristobal is killed instead. For safety, Puri adopts the cover story that she actually did die on the voyage, and poses as Cristobal, collecting his late wife’s inheritance. On reaching Ecuador, however, she finds that more surprises are in store – including siblings she never knew she had.
This book is part historical (early 20th century) family drama, as Puri discovers the family she never knew she had, and part mystery, as she seeks answers to find out who killed her husband and tried to kill her. Most chapters are from Puri’s point of view, but some are flashbacks from the POVs of her sisters. The poisonous nature of jealousy is a heavily explored theme in this novel. Puri is jealous of her siblings, who grew up with the father she missed so badly, but the siblings grew up jealous of Puri, whom their father idealized and spoke of often. This is only exacerbated when Puri ends up inheriting the lion’s share of the plantation. But Puri, despite her suspicion, grows to like her siblings, and sees similarities between herself and them. She starts to see them as family – another theme that is key to this book.
Representation: Own Voices (Ecuadorian) author, Hispanic characters
CW: sexism and homophobia (typical of the time period)
I received an ARC of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is part historical (early 20th century) family drama, as Puri discovers the family she never knew she had, and part mystery, as she seeks answers to find out who killed her husband and tried to kill her. Most chapters are from Puri’s point of view, but some are flashbacks from the POVs of her sisters. The poisonous nature of jealousy is a heavily explored theme in this novel. Puri is jealous of her siblings, who grew up with the father she missed so badly, but the siblings grew up jealous of Puri, whom their father idealized and spoke of often. This is only exacerbated when Puri ends up inheriting the lion’s share of the plantation. But Puri, despite her suspicion, grows to like her siblings, and sees similarities between herself and them. She starts to see them as family – another theme that is key to this book.
Representation: Own Voices (Ecuadorian) author, Hispanic characters
CW: sexism and homophobia (typical of the time period)
I received an ARC of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.