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Mary's Apostles
Join die-hard skeptic Sofia and Catholic Sister Lily as they race to comb through real history, legends, and Marian sightings for the hidden clues that lead to the "Holy Grail" of lost prophecies: The Third Secret of Fatima.
It all started twenty-five years ago when Sofia Auru-Soto survived a traumatic event that everyone around her celebrated as a divine miracle.
Today, Sofia is a psychologist running from her past and dedicated part time to discrediting irrational occurrences. Her life will take an unexpected turn when her estranged twin, Lily, a Catholic sister and historian, shows up without warning, accompanied by an enigmatic journalist, Michael Amir, asking for her help. She claims to have discovered a coded message in a papal homily that reveals the existence of a surprising alignment of Marian shrines across Europe. Convinced it is a divine path leading to the lost prophecy of Fatima, Lily seeks Sofia’s analytical genius to help her construct the final segment to its hidden location. But they must hurry; dark forces trail Lily and have already attempted to thwart her progress.
For Sofia, an innate rational thinker, the request makes her uncomfortable for obvious reasons, but suspicious of the obscure influence the charming Michael seems to have over her sister, Sofia agrees to collaborate. The next forty-eight hours unfold into an enriching journey of bonding and growth for the two sisters as they navigate a remarkable chain of interlocking riddles disseminated throughout history to complete Mary’s Path ... And what they find at its end is nothing short of prodigious.
It all started twenty-five years ago when Sofia Auru-Soto survived a traumatic event that everyone around her celebrated as a divine miracle.
Today, Sofia is a psychologist running from her past and dedicated part time to discrediting irrational occurrences. Her life will take an unexpected turn when her estranged twin, Lily, a Catholic sister and historian, shows up without warning, accompanied by an enigmatic journalist, Michael Amir, asking for her help. She claims to have discovered a coded message in a papal homily that reveals the existence of a surprising alignment of Marian shrines across Europe. Convinced it is a divine path leading to the lost prophecy of Fatima, Lily seeks Sofia’s analytical genius to help her construct the final segment to its hidden location. But they must hurry; dark forces trail Lily and have already attempted to thwart her progress.
For Sofia, an innate rational thinker, the request makes her uncomfortable for obvious reasons, but suspicious of the obscure influence the charming Michael seems to have over her sister, Sofia agrees to collaborate. The next forty-eight hours unfold into an enriching journey of bonding and growth for the two sisters as they navigate a remarkable chain of interlocking riddles disseminated throughout history to complete Mary’s Path ... And what they find at its end is nothing short of prodigious.
- GenresFiction
360 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 9, 2016
4 people are currently reading
909 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Caro
9 books13 followersAuthor of the celebrated historical thriller "Mary's Apostles", Victoria now surprises us with its timely sequel "The Quixote Pact".
"It has been 250 years since the start of the American Revolution, and you'd be surprised how many secret schemes and unsung heroes wait to be discovered. The Quixote Pact, in the form of an intriguing riddle-solving adventure, is my attempt to bring some of them to light.
So, I invite you to join Sofia and Lily, once again, as they rake through American icons and Founders' writings in search of veiled clues leading to a secret covenant between George Washington and the Spanish King Charles III ... And believe it or not, most of it is true ...."
"It has been 250 years since the start of the American Revolution, and you'd be surprised how many secret schemes and unsung heroes wait to be discovered. The Quixote Pact, in the form of an intriguing riddle-solving adventure, is my attempt to bring some of them to light.
So, I invite you to join Sofia and Lily, once again, as they rake through American icons and Founders' writings in search of veiled clues leading to a secret covenant between George Washington and the Spanish King Charles III ... And believe it or not, most of it is true ...."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 21, 2025
I won this in a giveaway and I tried reading it but it just wasn't for me. The storyline seems intriguing though. I'm sure other people would probably enjoy this book.
August 8, 2025
Won from a Goodreads giveaway.
This book got my attention as I find history/secrets/conspiracy theories surrounding the Catholic Church fascinating. I've always been drawn toward those sorts of things. However, I did not enjoy how this book was executed.
I wondered the same as Michael. This quote came at 43% of the way through the book, and about 40% of it to that point had been Lily giving Sofia - and me - a gigantic history lesson. (And the history lessons continued for most of the rest of the book.) Parts of it were interesting, which is why I kept reading, but eventually, I just wanted the history to be the main story, to immerse myself in those people and places and events, and toss Lily and Sofia out of the picture. There was little to no character development, and until the last handful of chapters, the characters seemed like they were primarily there as vehicles to communicate vast amounts of information.
This is at 73%, and "summarize the situation" had been virtually the entire book to this point. I got annoyed with characters taking turns vomiting up loads of info then another character jumping in to recap. If the book was written in a different format, such as the characters doing more of their research in the moment and perhaps traveling to places they were talking about instead of just telling each other what they already knew, it might have been more compelling. But they mostly just sat around (in a park, in a church, in a library, in mom's house) talking. It was the exact opposite of the "show, don't tell" guideline to writing. As a reader, I was just told everything via the near-constant lecturing. But I wanted to be shown the investigation, to be part of it, not be lectured at like I was in a university class.
There were also scattered typos throughout the book (missing letters, wrong tenses, subject/verb agreement, etc.). They didn't really detract from anything, but given how many there were, they should have been easily fixed with another proofread.
I did ultimately finish the book, though it was because I wanted to know what the heck sort of conclusion it was going to lead to after throwing so much history together and drawing seemingly wilder and wilder conjectures.
This book got my attention as I find history/secrets/conspiracy theories surrounding the Catholic Church fascinating. I've always been drawn toward those sorts of things. However, I did not enjoy how this book was executed.
"It's Michael. He's asking why it's taking us so long."
"Two thousand years of history, that's why..."
I wondered the same as Michael. This quote came at 43% of the way through the book, and about 40% of it to that point had been Lily giving Sofia - and me - a gigantic history lesson. (And the history lessons continued for most of the rest of the book.) Parts of it were interesting, which is why I kept reading, but eventually, I just wanted the history to be the main story, to immerse myself in those people and places and events, and toss Lily and Sofia out of the picture. There was little to no character development, and until the last handful of chapters, the characters seemed like they were primarily there as vehicles to communicate vast amounts of information.
"Let's think," started Sofia, and then she did what she always did, summarize the situation to register it better.
This is at 73%, and "summarize the situation" had been virtually the entire book to this point. I got annoyed with characters taking turns vomiting up loads of info then another character jumping in to recap. If the book was written in a different format, such as the characters doing more of their research in the moment and perhaps traveling to places they were talking about instead of just telling each other what they already knew, it might have been more compelling. But they mostly just sat around (in a park, in a church, in a library, in mom's house) talking. It was the exact opposite of the "show, don't tell" guideline to writing. As a reader, I was just told everything via the near-constant lecturing. But I wanted to be shown the investigation, to be part of it, not be lectured at like I was in a university class.
There were also scattered typos throughout the book (missing letters, wrong tenses, subject/verb agreement, etc.). They didn't really detract from anything, but given how many there were, they should have been easily fixed with another proofread.
I did ultimately finish the book, though it was because I wanted to know what the heck sort of conclusion it was going to lead to after throwing so much history together and drawing seemingly wilder and wilder conjectures.
July 31, 2025
Thank you for the giveaway copy.
I had high hopes for this book. It ended up being hard to get through. The book is 80% clues to the mystery being thrown at you. (So many clues, it has to be repeatedly recapped.) There wasn't any real character development. While there were some interesting things along the way, and it had a moment of excitement towards the end, overall, it fell flat for me.
I had high hopes for this book. It ended up being hard to get through. The book is 80% clues to the mystery being thrown at you. (So many clues, it has to be repeatedly recapped.) There wasn't any real character development. While there were some interesting things along the way, and it had a moment of excitement towards the end, overall, it fell flat for me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews