Note that I listened to this as an audiobook on Audible, but am reviewing this as a paperback.

On Audible, this book is rated 4.2 stars and is 9 hrs. and 42 minutes long. On Amazon, the paperback is rated 4.1 stars and is 305 pages. Amazon currently has it rated as #13 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction.

This historical fiction novel is set primarily in 1920 Ecuador. A Spanish woman whose estranged father recently died discovers she's been left the majority holder of his cacao plantation in Ecuador. She'd started a chocolate shop in her native Spain to stay emotionally connected to her father who never reached out, but upon hearing of his death, she talks her husband into going see the plantation and meeting her siblings whose existence she only just discovered.

On the voyage to Ecuador, her husband is murdered as he attempts to stop the attacker from killing her. Both her husband and her attacker fall overboard and are lost at sea so she has no answers and no support as she travels toward a strange land where, no doubt, the person who hired her murderer lives.

After being warned about how dangerous it was for her to travel as a single woman in Ecuador, she decides to dress as a man, her husband, to claim her portion of her inheritance, which would have fallen to him, as her only heir, while works to uncover who murdered her husband and wanted her dead.

In Ecuador she meets an overachieving sister, another sister who the area reveres as a saint for having seen the Virgin Mary as a child, and her brother, the priest. She sorts through her new family as well as neighbors, employees, and other assorted people related to the family and/or plantation to discover who wanted her dead. There are so many suspects, yet they all seemed to be innocent. She must stay hidden in plain site, dressed as a man, until she can uncover the motive and the murderer.

Those who enjoy historical fiction, bits and pieces about chocolate, and mysteries.

I liked how the author wove chocolate throughout the story. She also kept us interested with new characters and twists throughout the book. But I think my favorite part was where she talked about the differences in how she was treated and expected to act as a man vs. a woman. Very interesting to me.

This book made me really curious about the history of cacao in Ecuador. Did people really spend their lives working and even owning plantations without having ever tasted chocolate? Was there really some disease that wiped out most of the plantations in Ecuador, or at least this region?

Had a creative idea and obviously did research on the time period and region she was writing about.

It was a fun and interesting read. It didn't drag on as some books I've read, but also, when it was finished, I was glad. It seemed to be about the right length, to me, and left me content with the ending. I learned things and enjoyed myself while doing it. I enjoyed this book.

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Created Apr 15, 2022 at 1:57pm • Submit your own review...