Summary: If you call to the witches, they will come.1943, El Paso, teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.
In the present day, Nena’s grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta’s own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed. (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
Ashley’s Review: I’ve been having such a delightful time reading about witches that I just decided to keep on keeping on and read this book as well. First of all, the cover art is captivating so it’s not like I couldn’t read it anyway because it just looked so beautiful sitting there in my library bag. Also, the story sounded compelling. I always love a good time hop and as evidenced by my last several reviews, also really love a good witchy story.
As I just mentioned, this is a time hop and as I know I’ve mentioned before, I like my time hops to be organized. I don’t like to have to guess where I am or who I’m with. This book was not necessarily organized in a very clear cut way, however, it was organized with a character who time hops and Jaramillo did a good job of letting us know where this character’s story was taking place. I didn’t feel lost and for that I am grateful. Jaramillo is a good author–his story was very compelling and interesting, the characters are multi-dimensional without being so complicated that we can’t keep track of who all is involved. This is not an overly long book, and indeed when it seemed there were only about 30 pages left I was worried how he was going to wrap up the story but it worked out just fine.
I liked the magic in this book. I love when magic is cultural and seems like it’s not just the modern part of a culture, but a magic so ancient that over the years different parts of it have been lost because it’s passed down through oral tradition. There’s something so ancient and deep feeling with a magic that is passed down culturally through oral tradition. I loved that about this book. Ancient magic always has lots of elements that feel so out of step with our modern society and our modern social norms, and that seems to give it more power and more mystery that surrounds it. It feels uncomfortable and it feels somewhat out of control. I think Jaramillo did a good job of capturing this type of magic and with this was able to create a story that moves organically with the characters as they also find out what is going on and what actions to take next.
I enjoyed this story, even though I do wish there had been more of it. As I mentioned, the book was not super long, and I think there was a lot more to explore. As it was, because there were two stories going on with the time hop it felt almost bare bones in both situations. Resolutions were reached quickly and although the story was told, I think there could have been a lot more fleshing out.
If you enjoy witches and time hop books, I think you’ll like this one. I loved the beautiful, rich culture and the magic and the witches. Like I said, I’m not done with spooky season yet and this one was a perfect read for a crisp autumn evening.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is some language and some sex. It’s on par with the genre.
Source link
