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Title details for The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes - Wait list

The Spanish Daughter

by Lorena Hughes
Frankie Corzo
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Set against the lush backdrop of early twentieth century Ecuador and inspired by the real-life history of the coastal town known as the birthplace of cacao, this captivating novel from the award-winning author of The Sisters of Alameda
Street tells the story of a resourceful young chocolatier who must impersonate a man in order to survive ...
As a child in Spain, Puri always knew her passion for chocolate was inherited from her father. But it's not until his death that she learns of something else she's inherited—a cocoa estate in Vinces, Ecuador, a town nicknamed "París Chiquito."
Eager to claim her birthright and filled with hope for a new life after the devastation of World War I, she and her husband Cristóbal set out across the Atlantic Ocean. But it soon becomes clear someone is angered by Puri's claim to the estate ...
When a mercenary sent to murder her aboard the ship accidentally kills Cristóbal instead, Puri dons her husband's clothes and assumes his identity, hoping to stay safe while she searches for the truth of her father's legacy in Ecuador. Though
freed from the rules that women are expected to follow, Puri confronts other challenges at the estate—newfound siblings, hidden affairs, and her father's dark secrets. Then there are the dangers awakened by her attraction to an enigmatic
man as she tries to learn the identity of an enemy who is still at large, threatening the future she is determined to claim ...

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 28, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705052372
      • File size: 279476 KB
      • Duration: 09:42:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 22, 2021
      Hughes follows The Sisters of Alameda Street with an engrossing mystery/romance set in early 20th-century Ecuador and Spain. In 1920, Spanish chocolate shop proprietor María Purificación “Puri” de Lafont y Toledo learns that her father, who left when she was two, has willed his cacao plantation in Ecuador to her and, to her surprise, to children from his secret other marriage. As Puri and her husband, Cristóbal, sail to Ecuador to claim her inheritance, a stranger attempts to strangle her on the ship, and in the struggle both the assailant and Puri’s mortally wounded husband fall overboard. For her protection, Puri dons a beard and disguises herself as Cristóbal. Legalities buy Puri time to investigate who killed her husband and targeted her. Fans of historicals will appreciate the descriptions of dress, local foods and customs, social stratification, and the cacao industry, a source of an economic boom and bust in early 20th-century Ecuador. In the end, Puri predictably finds romance (as a woman, with a man) and prosperity, but Hughes shakes up the formula by showing how Puri wins out by adopting Cristóbal’s assertive traits, which help her as she figures out what to do with the plantation and navigates the business world. As addictive as chocolate, this ends on a modern and satisfying note. Agent: Rachel Brooks, BookEnds Literary Agency.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2022

      Upon news of her father's death in Ecuador, Puri travels from Spain to South America to meet her father's new family and make a fresh start at the cocoa estate she has just inherited. As a chocolatier, Puri had become an expert at turning cacao beans into the extremely popular hot chocolate drink and truffles Europeans craved. In South America, she finds that the cultivators of these beans know little of the products created from them. Someone is upset about Puri's claim to the estate and murders her husband in an attempt on her life. Every member of the family, plus several estate workers, might have wanted her dead, but who? Puri decides to pretend to be her husband while she investigates the matter. Narrator Frankie Corzo calmly and evenly lays out Puri's thoughts and deductions as she teases out the killer. Corzo's Castilian pronunciations will transport listeners. With this novel, Hughes (The Sisters of Alameda Street) explores an exciting historical period in her native Ecuador while considering gender roles and colonialism in South America. VERDICT Recommended for public libraries.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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