The Queen of the Valley

May 15, 2023
Mari� Purificaci�n, or Puri, hasn't received cacao beans from Martin Sabater for months. Not only is she unable to make her chocolate, she is worried about her close friend. Traveling from her home in Ecuador to Sabater's plantation in Colombia, Puri arrives at the same time as the 1925 earthquake, experiencing the immediate and long-term devastation firsthand. Learning that Martin died months ago under suspicious circumstances, Puri joins Martin's household in the hacienda turned into a Catholic hospital disguised as a nun and begins investigating. The sequel to Hughes' The Spanish Daughter (2022), this can be read on its own, but readers will enjoy it more as part of a series. The many story lines connect the past and the present, and all converge to create a satisfying conclusion while cultural and historical facts reflecting this time and place are both clues and red herrings in Puri's search. But it's the wide range of engaging characters that will pull in most readers. For fans of historical fiction and works by Christina Baker Kline and Lisa Wingate.

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July 1, 2023

Told in the alternating viewpoints of three protagonists, this novel by Ecuador-born-and-raised Hughes paints a vivid picture of 1920s Ecuador and Colombia. When Ecuadorian chocolatier Puri learns that Martin, her cacao-supplier and father of her son, has disappeared in neighboring Colombia, she decides it is up to her to find him. It is 1925 and dangerous for a woman to be traveling alone, so she dresses as a nun in hopes of protecting herself. When she reaches Martin's plantation, however, she discovers that it has been turned into a hospital by Martin's friend Farid. Hoping to investigate without revealing her connection to Martin, Puri maintains her disguise and is subsequently put to work by Sister Camila. Nursing first Martin's friend Lucas, who was injured in an earthquake, and then the cholera patients who follow, Puri begins to suspect that she is not the only one at the hacienda who is harboring secrets. VERDICT While familiarity with Hughes's previous novel, The Spanish Daughter, is not essential, it can offer helpful context to alleviate potential confusion. This book will appeal to readers who enjoy family conflict, historical details, and the exploration of lost love.--Lucinda Ward

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2023
Buried secrets, personal tragedies, and natural disasters unfold on a Colombian hacienda. On April 7, 1925, a gala organized by Dr. Farid Manzur and Martin Sabater at Martin's Colombian cacao plantation turns dark when Martin rides off on horseback to give some guests a tour of the estate and never returns. Months later, Mar�a "Puri" Purificaci�n arrives from Ecuador with her young assistant, Paco, her "guardian angel," to visit Martin, an old friend and, unknown to him, the father of her young son. Tragedy strikes on two fronts. While riding in a landau to their destination, Puri and Paco are attacked by bandits who kill Paco. Shortly after, an earthquake temporarily puts Puri's journey to see Martin--she still doesn't know he's missing--on hold. Though Hughes' floridly written tale is grounded in history, she heightens anticipation by jumbling the narrative timeline and presenting the story in short chapters from the perspectives of three different first-person narrators. Puri, the resourceful heroine of Hughes' novel The Spanish Daughter (2021), is joined by Farid's sister Camila, a loving and compassionate nun but far from a submissive helpmeet, and Lucas, a womanizing outsider and old friend of Martin's who reconnected with him shortly before the disappearance. Flashbacks illuminate Martin's checkered past and his relationships to the three narrators, while the present-day plot follows Farid's attempt to gain control of Martin's estate and folds in a handful of other backstories against the backdrop of a cholera epidemic that sweeps through the region following the earthquake. A juicy potboiler with a palpable sense of history.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 17, 2023
Hughes revisits Spanish-born chocolatier Puri in the kinetic sequel to The Spanish Daughter. In 1925, Puri, whose full name is María Purificación de Lafont y Toledo, travels from her adopted Ecuador to Colombia to try to find her cacao supplier and onetime lover, Martin Sabater, after his shipments of cacao beans unaccountably cease. Soon after Puri steps off the train, ruffians rip her dress, and the nun who had been her seatmate lends her a habit to wear. Puri arrives at Martin’s hacienda and learns it has been turned into a hospital by Farid Manzur, a haughty, ambitious doctor and old boarding-school chum of Martin’s, who claims Martin was killed by a jaguar. As a cholera outbreak rages, Puri pitches in to treat the afflicted, despite her lack of medical training. She also keeps up her disguise as a nun, which puts those around her in a confessional mood as she tries to uncover what really happened to Martin. Meanwhile, romance blooms between Puri and one of her patients, who is another close friend of Martin’s, and their forbidden love adds more tension to the suspenseful story. Hughes’s fans will devour this delectable confection. Agent: Rachel Brooks, BookEnds Literary.