A Ballad of Love and Glory

by Reyna Grande

A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain in this sweeping historical saga following a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier who must fight, at first for their survival and then for their love, amidst the atrocity of the Mexican-American War—from the author of the “timely and riveting” (People) Across a Hundred Mountains and The Distance Between Us.

The life of Ximena, a gifted Mexican healer, is tragically upended in the spring of 1846 when the United States Army marches south to the Río Grande, provoking an unjust war with México. After her husband is killed by Texas Rangers, Ximena leaves her beloved ranch to serve her country’s cause, traveling as an army nurse from battlefield to battlefield.

Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the U.S. Army, has grown disillusioned by the brutal treatment of his fellow Irishmen at the hands of nativist officers. Risking death for desertion, he swims across the Río Grande to join the Mexican Army and lead the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, a company of American deserters determined to defend México against the northern invaders.

As the war intensifies, Ximena and John are drawn inexorably to each other but face an uncertain future together. Reyna Grande’s spellbinding tale, peopled by bold unforgettable characters and inspired by actual events, explores the conflicting meanings of courage, love and loyalty, while illuminating an unsung moment in history that continues to impact the U.S.-México border to this day.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Historical, War, Audiobook, Adult

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2022

About the author

Reyna Grande is the author of three novels, Across a Hundred Mountains, which received a 2007 American Book Award; Dancing with Butterflies, which received a 2010 International Latino Book Award, and A Ballad of Love and Glory, which was a Los Angeles Times Book Club selection in 2022. In her memoir, The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012) Reyna recounts her experiences as a child left behind in Mexico when her parents emigrated to the U.S. in search of work, and her own journey to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at the age of nine. Its sequel, A Dream Called Home, was published in 2018. Her latest book is Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, an anthology by and about undocumented Americans.

Reviews

[Canadian Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a story that needs to be told. Lost or quietly forgotten in American history.

Mexico 1846. The war has begun between Mexico and the US over the Rio Grande boundary.
Irish immigrants supporting Americans in stealing land from the Mexicans. But, the Americans degraded them; mistreated them. Many deserted, crossing the raging Rio Grande to fight alongside the Mexicans, raising more than a finger in resisting them and fighting for their own dignity.

This isn’t an Irish lullaby or a Mexican fiesta. This is the grit of war, the loss of land and home. The degradation of fighting for a country not yours and suffering for it. I had no idea California & New Mexico at one time was part of Mexico.

But the dissatisfaction and mammoth detractor was in the love story. It was cringy. It could have been way more subtle than a harlequin romance. Maybe this was why I couldn’t connect with the character. ‘Twas a shame.

3.5⭐️ As the historical aspects were well researched and the maps were excellent to reference the path the war took.

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy Publication Day! 03/15/2022

4.5/5

Combining fact and fiction, Reyna Grande’s A Ballad of Love and Glory is a beautifully penned novel set against the backdrop of the Mexican American War (1846-1848). The story begins in March 1846 with Ximena Salome Benitez y Catalan, standing at a port on the Gulf of Mexico watching as Yankee ships pass through the inlet and the cavalry of the Army of Occupation of the United States of America make an entrance.

After Texas becomes the twenty-eighth state of the Union, the US looked to expand their territories and a dispute arises around the ownership of the land around the Rio Grande. Joaquin, Ximena’s husband joins the guerilla fighters in defending their homeland and in a tragic turn of events is killed by the Texas Rangers and their home and property destroyed forcing Ximena and her Nana Hortencia to flee and seek shelter with family in Matamoros. She is a gifted healer, having learned at the hands of her grandmother and she eventually becomes a nurse to injured soldiers in the Mexican Army using her knowledge of herbal remedies to ease their pain and suffering even being requested to treat the injuries of the leader/President Mexican general/president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

On the other side of the war, we meet John Riley in Fort Texas on the Rio Grande, an Irishman serving the US Army. Originally from Galway, he has left his wife Nelly and young son back in Ireland in hopes of saving earning enough money for the safe passage of his family so that they could begin a better life. After initially enlisting in the British Army, he later moved to North America finally joining the US Army where he and his fellow countrymen are paid poorly and provided the bare minimum despite being promised much more. They also face nativist hostility and humiliation in the hands of the American soldiers and leaders not to mention being given the harshest punishments for minor offenses from being bound and gagged in the harshest of heat to having their skin branded with hot iron if found drunk/hungover. Many immigrant soldiers have defected and joined the Mexican Army who treat them with respect and provide fair compensation and living conditions as compared to their American counterpart. Initially, Riley remains loyal to the vows he took while enlisting for the sake of his honor and thoughts of his family back home in Ireland which is under British dominion with the countrymen suffering in the hands of the British government. Eventually though, after bearing witness to the inhuman treatment meted out to his fellow soldiers, he joins the Mexican Army. The plight of the Mexicans reminds him of that of his homeland which faces similar treatment at the hands of the British . His superiors taking note of his years of military experience encourage him to form The Saint Patrick’s Battalion - the artillery of foreign soldiers under Irish Leadership. Ximena and Riley meet when she rescues and nurses Riley’s friend /fellow countryman Jimmy Riley back to health after he is injured while attempting to cross the river over to the Mexican side with John. They gradually grow closer and become a pillar of support for one another amid the raging war.

As the war continues, we follow Ximena and Riley’s journey from Matamoros to Monterreythen on to San Luis Potosí, Mexico City, and Churubusco. The author delves deep into the volatile political landscape and atrocities of war. Grande’s description of the war marches and the devastation of the cities and the inhabitants are hard to take in.

“This is what conquerors do to the conquered,” Riley said.“They build their empires on the stones and ones of those they defeat.”

This is an extremely well-researched novel that sheds a light on a part of history that isn't much talked about. The author in her notes talks about the historical facts that inspired this work of fiction. John Riley and his battalion are based on the real Private John Riley who deserted the US Army on April 12, 1946 and joined the Mexican Army later forming the Saint Patrick's Battalion. Ximena, the character was based on Ximena a Mexican Woman who “tends to the wounded from both sides of the battlefield” mentioned in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “The Angels of Buena Vista”.

Both Ximena and Riley and their love story will capture your heart as will the characters of Nana Hortencia, Jimmy Maloney and Patrick Dalton. This is a slow-paced but engaging read. The vivid imagery of the landscape, powerful narrative and brilliant characterization will hold you riveted. I enjoyed the historical angle immensely, not having much prior knowledge of the same. The hardships that the army and those accompanying their fighting men face – the hunger, fatigue, exposure to the harshest weather are heartbreaking. The author also sheds a light on the self-serving motives of the leaders who are responsible for the dire conditions and lack of basic amenities these brave men and women are facing and how personal ambition often overshadows concern for the greater good. The author takes special care to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices of the “Mexican “soldaderas” —wives, mothers, daughters— who followed their men into battle to serve as cooks, laundresses, and nurses, and, when the need arose, even took up arms alongside their men.” This is a story about war and survival, love and sacrifice, faith and resilience. In A Ballad of Love and Glory, the author tells us a story not just about Ximena and Riley but about all the men and women (and their countries) whose lives and destinies are changed irrevocably on account of war and its aftermath.

“Along with the other soldaderas, Ximena remained on the ridge overlooking the battle grounds. As the cannons and muskets crashed and roared, and the crack of the rifles and the clanging hooves of the cavalry reverberated over the battlefield, she thought of the worst storms she’d witnessed in San Antonio de Béxar and the Río Bravo region, when the clapping thunder and vivid flashes of lightning seemed to be splitting the heavens above. She’d never imagined she would one day witness storms even worse than those—with gunpowder flashes and bombs exploding, with a hail of cannon balls falling upon the battlefield. This darkening storm was deadlier and more sinister than any created by nature. For this one was manmade, forged by greed, vanity, tyranny.”

Thanks to Ms. Grande for sending me a digital review copy of this heart-wrenchingly beautiful novel. All opinions expressed here are my own.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Ballad of Love and Glory is inspired by actual events and explores the conflicting meanings of courage and loyalty.

Gulf of Mexico, 1846. Ximena, for eight months, has been hearing rumors of war between US and Mexico, after the Republic of Texas became the twenty-eighth state in the Union, thus leading to a dispute over this strip of land between the Rio Grande and the Rio Nueces. As long as they remain away from her and don’t disrupt her daily life, then life feels normal. But things change when her husband dies from the hands of Texas Rangers and she sees a deserter risking his life and fighting for her country. She feels as she needs to contribute to the same cause by caring for soldiers with her gift of healing.

Fort Texas, Rio Grande. John Riley has been enlisted for seven months during which time he’s seen his Irish countrymen suffer all manner of punishments at the hands of the Yankee officers. As Yankee’s ambition grows to capture the Mexico’s northern lands such as Upper California and New Mexico, John Riley sees leaflets claiming US government’s aggression against the Mexican nation and enticing men to desert. Riley quickly realizes that the US Army treats him exactly the same way as English one. They would never advance him. He’d always be a common solider. The leaflets put notions into his head.

The story is very rich in historical background, bringing many interesting facts. Half of the US Army is filled with immigrants, who are promised of a wholesome diet, comfortable quarters, and the finest medical care. None of it happens. What really happens is a lot of bullying from Yankee officers toward the immigrant soldiers. In turn, desertion follows. Who will make it across Rio Grande, how the battles will turn out and its effects keep a reader in suspense.

It was interesting to read about the formation of The Saint Patrick’s Battalion. Riley gets an opportunity to organize a battalion which is composed of foreigners and with its standards attracts more deserters. But even with the superb training, Riley knows that his crew’s equipment is no match for the range of the Yankee guns.

With poignant storytelling, the buried pieces of history come alive, weaving the lives of Irish men who just wanted to have a piece of land to call their own and not be indebted to foreign landlords on their own land. It’s also a story of a courageous woman who didn’t want her land to go under control of a foreign power. Those two colliding stories question what courage and loyalty truly mean. There is also a love nuance to the story, but it doesn’t overwhelm the story.

There are some moments when it feels as there is some telling, but at the same time there are some hooks and tensions that make it an interesting story. However, I found the first half of the story to be stronger and having a faster pace. The second half has a lot of bottles and with that it offers action, but I still found the pace slower. I wished that among all those battles, it continued with character-development to make it more engaging.

Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review originally posted at mysteryandsuspense.com

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A forgotten war. An unforgettable romance.

1846 - Mexican American War

An Army nurse, An Irish Immigrant. What were the chances that they would meet? Ximena Salomé is a Mexican Healer; John Riley is an Irish immigrant fighting in the Yankee army. Disillusioned with the war and atrocities, he forms the St. Patrick’s Battalion. This is when they meet and attraction blooms.

Lyrical and beautiful. A lush and moving book about immigrants, love, war, relationships, and survival. What makes this book even better is that it is based on real people, real events, and history.

This was a wonderfully researched and beautiful look at war and romance. I love books where I learn and feel emotion. This book provided all of those and more!

What a wonderful and moving tale. I believe this is one that I would revisit in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

See more of my reviews at www.openbookp0sts.com

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande was was a very well researched historical fiction novel about the United States and Mexico’s chilling story of war between 1846-1848. I knew little to nothing about the Mexican- American War before I read this book. This was also the first book I have read by Reyna Grande but she impressed me very much with her talent for storytelling. At one of her readings in 2013, Reyna Grande was questioned by an attendee about her knowledge of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion. Most of her prior books had been about her own personal experiences about immigration. This attendee challenged her to research the Saint Patrick’s Battalion and write about it. That was when the seeds were planted for writing A Ballard of Love and Glory and that was when she first discovered and learned about its leader, John Riley. Her character, Ximena, a Mexican woman and healer “who tended the wounded on both sides of the battlefield” was borrowed from and enhanced from the poem The Angels of Bueno Vista by John Greenleaf Whittier. A Ballard of Love and Glory was captivating and very revealing. I learned so much about the struggles Mexico faced in its early history to establish itself as an independent country and the way Irish immigrants were treated when they immigrated to the United States. Both discoveries did not make me feel proud when I learned how those early Americans treated the people of Mexico and the Irish immigrants. A Ballad of Love and Glory was about love, courage, bravery, and loyalty. It was a saga that moved me very much.

John Riley had come from County Galway in Ireland. He was a married man and had a young son as well. Ireland had fallen on hard times though. There was so much poverty and the country had been stricken with famine. In the early 1800’s, John had decided that he would seek passage to America. His plan was to secure a job and save enough money to send for his wife, son and in-laws so they could join him in America. John settled on Mackinac Island in Michigan and found a job as a laborer hauling timber and loading barrels of pelts onto barges. His employer was nice enough but was very stingy in the wages he paid John. It was hard to save enough to pay for his family’s passage to America. John had read in the local newspaper that there was an impending war. The United States was planning on going to war with Great Britain to gain control of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. It would give John pleasure to fight against Great Britain. He had fought as a Redcoat with the British and John had always felt guilty about doing that. After all, the British had kept Ireland subdued. It would have given John great satisfaction to help the Yanks defeat the British but when John joined the United States Army he found out that he would be fighting Mexico, a Catholic nation, instead. The army paid John seven dollars a month and promised to increase his wages with every promotion he earned. No matter how John strived to be a good soldier, he knew the Yanks would never promote him and that he would never see the land they promised. The Yanks abused and ridiculed the immigrant soldiers especially those from Ireland. John Riley was part of Company K of the Fifth Infantry. More than half his unit was comprised of immigrants. The Yankee officers had no respect for the foreign immigrants in their army ranks. An Irish soldier was punished for suspected to be drunk. The Yankee officers wanted to make an example of him. A Yankee officer used a branding iron and seared the letters HD that stood for habitual drunkard on the Irish soldiers forehead. The other soldiers smelled the soldier’s burning flesh as the soldier’s screams radiated out into surrounding area.

The Mexican army and its people knew that the United States Army was planning on taking more of their land. This was not the first war the Mexicans had fought with the United States. The Yanks saw the land that Mexico occupied as “part of their destiny” and the Mexicans saw the Yanks as invaders. In order to lure the immigrant soldiers, the Mexican army printed pamphlets to try and persuade the immigrants in the U.S. army to desert and join the Mexican army. The Mexican army needed reinforcements. John Riley saw Mexico’s struggles with the U.S. as comparable to Ireland’s struggles with Great Britain. John disliked the way he and his fellow immigrant soldiers were treated. The U.S. army only offered and observed only Protestant religious services and most of the immigrant soldiers were Catholic. The Mexican army was offering better pay and land when the war was over. On April 12, 1846, Private John Riley had had enough and chose to desert the US army. John Riley joined the Mexican army and was made a first lieutenant. Later that same year, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna , the Mexican general, created the Saint Patrick’s Battalion. John Riley was designated as its leader. His unit was comprised of mostly Irish immigrants that had deserted the US army along with some soldiers from Germany, Italy and Scotland. There were even some slaves who chose to join to secure their freedom.

Ximena, the female protagonist in A Ballard of Love and Glory had lived through and witnessed the atrocities of of the rebellion in Texas and the Battle of the Alamo. She had just lost her loving husband in this new battle. Ximena had been given the gift of healing and she would use that gift to help the Mexicans with the war effort. Lieutenant John Riley crossed paths with Ximena many times with the ensuing battles the Mexican Army and the Saint Patrick’s Battalion fought. There was an undeniable attraction between the two of them. John fought hard to fight it off and deny it since he was legally married. Eventually, the two succumbed to their love for each other. Right before the Battle of Churubusco they got married. The Saint Patrick’s Battalion along with the rest of the Mexican army was defeated at the Battle of Churubusco. John was taken prisoner of the US Army. He had been wounded and captured along with many other deserters. John was sparred death. Some of his fellow soldiers were hung for their crime of being deserters and traitors. That proved to be the largest mass hanging in US history. It took place in September of 1847. After a farce of a trial, John Riley was subjected to 50 lashes and was branded on his cheek with a hot branding iron. The letter D for deserter was branded not once but twice into both of his cheeks. The first attempt resulted in an upside down D so the US Army officer was instructed to do it again properly on his other cheek. Riley was embarrassed and humiliated.

The United States Army saw these soldiers of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion as traitors but the people of Mexico saw them as heroes. Reyna Grande skillfully wove the known facts about these gallant, brave and courageous men of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion with some aspects of fiction. Much of John Riley’s personal history was unknown since his records were destroyed in a fire that occurred in Ireland. His brave and fearless acts as commander of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion as he fought numerous battles were well documented though. Reyna Grande admitted to feeling a personal connection with this brave Irish immigrant. She saw a similarity between how Irish immigrants were treated in the 1800’s to the way Latino immigrants are treated today. A Ballard of Love and Glory was extremely well written and conveyed a part of American/Mexican history that I was unaware of. I recommend this book very highly.

Thank you to Atria Books and Reyna Grande for allowing me to read this advanced copy of A Ballard of Love and Glory through goodreads in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I won a copy of this book in a goodreads give away. It will be published on March 15, 2022.

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 4 out of 5]

HF readers will love this. Beautifully written. All the feels. One that is hard to put down.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just read A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande in the year 1846.

The storyline focuses on the Mexican American War and is part Historical Fiction part romance.

The US army provokes war with Mexico over the boundary of the now California/Texas border and the Rio Grande.

The main characters are Ximena Salomé, and John Riley, an Irish immigrant. Ximena is a Mexican healer, whose husband is killed. John Riley is in the Yankee army. He crosses over the river and joins in the Mexican army.

This was very interesting to me, and I learned a lot about this war. I had not known anything about this battle at all.

I did however find that it really took me awhile to get into the rhythm of the story, but once I did, I was glad that I read it through

3.5 Stars

Thank You to NetGalley, Author Reyna Grande and Atria Books for my advanced copy to read and review.

#NetGalley

[Karren Sandercock · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1846, the Mexican-American war started, fought over the land near the Rio Grande River and it was a long and bloody battle.

Ximena Salome follows in her Nana Hortencia’s footsteps, she’s a healer and has visions about the future. Her husband Joaquin owns a horse ranch, he tells Ximena not to worry about the hostilities and concentrate on having a family. When the Texas rangers kill him, burn the house and out buildings and she wants justice. Ximena and her grandmother decide to help the wounded Mexican soldiers and find themselves traveling long distances and caught up in the fierce battles.

John Riley left his wife and son behind in Ireland, working as a laborer for three years in America he realizes he will never make enough money to send for them and he joins the Yankee army. It’s made up of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany and all are subjected to severe, unjust and inhumane punishments by the officers. The Mexican army drops leaflets into the Yankee soldiers camps, if they change sides they will be given a land grants and paid more money.

Major General Zachary Taylor has warned his soldiers any deserters will be shot and a disgruntled John swims across the mighty red river and joins the Mexican army. Here he’s treated very differently, he encourages more of his countrymen to follow him and forms and leads his own artillery regiment called The Saint Patrick's Battalion.

The Mexican armies poorly equipped, the peasant and Indian soldiers have no weapons and shoes. Hungry they march long distances, in all kinds of weather, and their leaders make bad strategic decisions and they have to retreat further into Mexico and with the Yankee army in pursuit.

Inspired by true events and real historical figures, The Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande pays tribute to the brave soldiers who fought in the forgotten war and their wives, mothers and daughters who followed them into battle and took care of the sick and wounded.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review, the authors descriptions of the Mexican landscape, the Rio Grande River, and Ximena’s knowledge of edible and healing plants was extremely interesting. Seen as traitors and renegades by the Americans the men of The Saint Patrick's Battalion are heroes in Mexico and so they should be. An epic story about war, honor, tragedy, racism, religious percussion, human spirit, love and five stars from me.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reyna Grande is an incredible writer. There was so much history to learn reading this book. I had no idea that in 1846, the US wanted to expand Texas and take land that belonged to Mexico. Ximena’s life is changed so much. Her husband Joaquin is killed tying to fight to stop the aggression toward his beloved country. An Irish man, John Riley had originally joined the US Army, but is appalled by their actions. He decides to defect and help save Mexico.

It was hard to read this at times since the enemy was the United States being aggressive due to greed and power. We like to think of ourselves as The Good Guys, but of course this has proven not to be the case many times. The story flows well and I really cared about Ximena who has lost so much because of this war. It shows how people react and feel during such a turbulent time. It is an absorbing story that will stay with me, but also a story where I learned a much needed piece of history.

Thank you NetGalley, Reyna Grande, and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book.

[Emily Coffee and Commentary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating romantic drama against the backdrop of a little known aspect of Mexican and Irish history. Action packed and filled with cultural and historical details, A Ballad of Love and Glory is an ode to courage and defiance in the face of oppression

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Reyna Grande for providing me a copy of her latest book Ballad of Love and Glory. I am now offering my honest review.

I loved the book as I did Grande’s Distance Between Us. Grande researched the history of the war and the nonfictional men on both sides of the conflict. She brought Mexico alive through descriptions of the trees, shrubs, and flowers that curandera Ximena used to heal diseases and wounds. I felt like I was there, watching the sunset over the arid plains and smelling the herbs and spices.

Grande’s book is set in southwestern Texas (then part of Mexico), Matamoros, Monterrey, Buena Vista and Mexico City in 1846-1847. It depicts the Mexican-American War from the perspective of two characters. John Riley (an historical character) and Ximena, a young widow.

I don’t know about you, but I never learned much about the Mexican American War (1846-1847) in school. I knew much more about the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. I have since learned that it was an unpopular and perhaps even an immoral one. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 85 to 81 to censure President Polk because of the war. Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, among others opposed the war. It was viewed as a ruthless land grab.
" But wasn’t life like that? A powerful nation will always hunger for more power. And they will always find men like himself—starving wretches, so far from home and country and desperate to do right by their families—to do the dirty work."

We learn about the Saint Patrick Battalion (San Patricios) which was composed primarily of Irish immigrant deserters from the U.S. Army. Normally, one doesn’t extol the virtues of deserters, but in this case, it is appropriate. At this time in American history, a large influx of immigrants from Ireland landed. Many Americans (nativists) resented the Irish and were fearful of the Catholic religion they brought with them. Many Irish came to America to earn money to send home to their families in Ireland. Often, they would disembark from the ship and immediately line up to join the U.S. Army. However, ethnic hatred awaited them in the ranks of the army. The Irish were under a constant barrage of ethnic slurs, punishments (like face branding; HB for habitual drunkard, D for deserter), and humiliations. As a result, many deserted to the Mexicans, their co-religionists. Other immigrants like the Germans also deserted, as well as enslaved people who became free once they crossed the Rio Grande River to Mexico.

And that is exactly what John Riley did. He deserted. He firmly believed that if Mexico won the war, he would become a landowner and could bring his wife and child to Mexico. They would live in prosperity and peace.

I found the perspective of Riley and Ximena quite refreshing; seeing the war through the eyes of an Irish immigrant deserter and a Mexican national who has lost everything to war.

Mexico was a young country, having only achieved independence from Spain in 1821. She suffered from poor leadership. The generals fought amongst themselves, made poor decisions on the battlefield, and often were only interested in their personal ambitions. Generalissimo Antonio de Padua Maria Severino Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron was such a narcissist. Known as Santa Anna or Lopez de Santa Anna, he was known to march his men for days without eating and then sending them directly into battle. He was the commanding general of the Mexican army for most of the Mexican-American War, and is remembered as a traitor to the Mexican people. Under his questionable leadership Mexico lost to the USA the land that is now California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, part of Texas, and part of Colorado.

"They trudged northward past cultivated fields, then miserable desert. There hadn’t been enough carts and mules to transport all of the food supplies, and so each man had to carry his own weeks’ worth of rations. Some ate through theirs quickly. Others, not knowing any better, had thrown some away at the beginning of the march to lighten their loads. They soon regretted it when they were forced to subsist on half-rations of corn biscuits and strips of dried beef, piloncillo and pinole, and whatever the camp women could forage in the brush as their days turned into weeks."

Perhaps the only possible issue with the book would be the occasional Spanish or Gaelic word, phrase or sentence that were not defined. For example, “Sláinte is táinte!” means health and wealth in Gaelic. I didn’t have a problem with it, but perhaps other readers would.

I highly recommend Ballad of Love and Glory. I learned a lot of fascinating history. It is a well-researched historical fiction. And I absolutely adored John Riley and Ximena. Brava, Reyna Grande!

[KOMET · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Ballad of Love and Glory is a novel based on a true story involving 2 people from different worlds and cultures but bound by the same Catholic faith. They are thrown together in a land soon to be convulsed in a war whose outcome would enrich one country at the cost of half the national territory of its beaten foe.

The novel begins in April 1846 along the Rio Bravo, a river then separating 2 nations, the U.S. and Mexico. The previous year, the Republic of Texas (once a part of Mexico until winning its independence in 1836) was admitted into the Union as the 28th state. This action by the U.S. Congress stoked tensions between both Washington and Mexico City. Indeed, these tensions played into the hands of President James K. Polk, who was keen on adding Mexican territory to the U.S. as part of the country's quest to become a continental nation spanning both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

So it is that John Riley, a poor Irishman with prior experience in the British Army, finds himself a soldier in the U.S. Army stationed along the Rio Bravo. He had left Ireland (where he had a wife and son) to emigrate to the U.S. in hopes of making a better life for himself and sending remittances to Ireland to help his family eke out a living there. (Ireland is in the early stages of a potato famine that would eventually kill untold numbers of Irish peasants and compel thousands more to emigrate, like Riley, to the U.S.) Army life is not quite what John Riley nor many of his fellow Irish (and other foreign nationals) serving as soldiers had been led to expect. For the slightest infractions, a soldier can be whipped or denied rations. The native born officers and several of their fellow American soldiers often disparage their Irish compatriots, heaping them with many indignities. They're also derided for being Catholics. For some of the Irish soldiers, this is too much and several of them try to desert by swimming across the Rio Grande to Mexico. A very dangerous undertaking, for the undertow is strong, and for the would-be deserter who is not a good swimmer, death becomes inevitable.

John is a principled man, set on honoring his oath as a soldier. But he finds that becomes increasingly hard to do, witnessing how shabbily many of his fellow Irish are treated. One young man, Sullivan, chafed under the restraints placed upon him as a soldier, tried to desert by swimming across the Rio Grande. He was spotted by an officer who ordered a soldier to fire upon him as he was struggling to remain afloat. John saw it all as Sullivan was struck and killed. Eventually, after a lot of soul searching, John finds a way to desert one night and barely survives the swim across to Mexico. There he offers his services as a soldier in the Mexican Army, where he felt he would be given better, fairer treatment. For Mexico, like Ireland, is a proud nation whose Catholicism runs deep.

At the same time all of this is happening, there is on the Mexican side of the Rio Bravo, a strong, proud -- and as the novel will bear out, a most resilient woman named Ximena. She was a curandera or healer, married to a man she deeply loved. Together they owned an extensive ranch not far from U.S/Mexico border. Ximena had learned much of her healing skills from the time she was a child from her grandmother, Nana Hortencia, who also recognized that Ximena had certain psychic abilities, as well.

Times are tough and getting together. There have already been a number of border skirmishes between U.S. and Mexican troops. Indeed, there have also been brazen attacks by the Texas Rangers on borderline towns and properties in Mexico. This gains the Texas Rangers a reputation for carrying out gross acts of violence against Mexicans and their homes and farms. Ximena's husband is asked by friends to join a local militia as a way of helping defend their homes and lands against these depredations from the U.S. Ximena doesn't want him to join, for she had a premonition. But her husband feels duty bound to defend his country, sensing that war would soon develop between the 2 nations. So, he mounted a horse and went off to join his unit. Alas, several days later, he returned, with one of his comrades, to the ranch, grievously wounded. He dies a short time later. Ximena is heartbroken by his death. She has little time to mourn, because war soon breaks out between the U.S. and Mexico.

The novel then goes on to convey much of what impacts the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 had on the Mexican people, its army, as well as on Ximena and John Riley. This is a novel that I would encourage anyone to read, not just because it's a compelling, heartfelt story. A Ballad of Love and Glory also brings into vivid focus a war that few Americans care to remember and one that Mexicans can never forget.

[Lacey Mubanga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please take my review with a grain of salt. This book is beautifully written, but I just found it so boring. I thought it was going to be more about Ximena and John Riley, but it was more about the war and the battles and the hardships of the battles. Also, I really didn’t like how their relationship came about. This is a simple case of a book being not for me, but I can definitely understand why others are loving it so much. I was just expecting a little more romance and adventure, but it was more literary than I anticipated. I’m a hard sell on literary fiction unless I feel super connected to the characters and unfortunately, I didn’t.

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Atria books for the opportunity to read and advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this ARC from Goodreads in a giveaway with the expectation that I would write an honest review and oh boy is this going to be honest (although it is far from timely, whoops).

There are some books you read in a day because they're so good you can't put them down, and others you tear through because you're already eagerly thinking about the review dragging it you will write when you're done. This was definitely in the second camp for me. I hated this book so much that I read the reviews here and elsewhere before I was done hoping to see someone else who felt the same way, but so many other people liked it I felt like I was going nuts and we couldn't have possibly read the same book.

Because this book has problems. A LOT of problems. Let's list them.

1. It doesn't know what genre it is

Most of the other negative reviews I saw on Goodreads were from readers who went into this book expecting one genre and were disappointed to find out it was another one. I can see how that might happen because the book was unclear about what it was. Is it literary fiction? Is it the type of pulpy historical fiction you see at the airport with ladies in fancy dresses on the cover? Is it a romance? Who knows, certainly not the author!

I'm not against blending genres or one of those people that thinks there's a hard-and-fast boundary between different genres. For example, many thought-provoking works of literary fiction follow romantic developments and I enjoy many romances and think they have literary merit. However, genres have conventions and they're in place for a reason. It is possible to break genre conventions and meld different genres, but a writer needs consistency to do so. This book had overwrought descriptions that read like a parody of what disgruntled high schoolers think characterizes literary fiction, a shoehorned-in romance, and enough tedious detail about different battles to fill a textbook.

2. For a book with a point, it didn't make it

The author was very clear that her goal was to educate readers about the Mexican-American War and to puncture the nationalist propaganda around this war where realistically the United States was the bad guy. This goal is my catnip, I love historical fiction, I love history, and I love books dedicated to unraveling the pretty lies spun by the victors (especially when the victors wrap themselves in the stars and stripes). However, I think the author missed the mark on why historical FICTION can be so powerful. A fiction novel allows us to humanize the effects of grand events such as wars and conquest, to zoom in on a few people and identify with them, feel their pain, spend the novel in their skin. While the novel has characters, the writer uses them as Forrest Gump-like figures to observe major events of the war and narrate them, or recount off-screen battles, without actually HUMANIZING them. The book gets bogged down in detailing battle after gruesome battle after starvation march that at one point I checked to make sure my copy didn't accidentally reprint the same chapter because I could have sworn we JUST went on a starvation march three chapters ago.

Again, I have nothing against battle descriptions in books. I literally just got finished with War and Peace, which is famous for its tedious battle descriptions! I'm not saying every author has to be Tolstoy, but that just drove home for me how to write war scenes in a way that feels resonant, and this book is a masterclass in how not to do it. The author clearly did her research, but page after page of precise detail about battle formations and obscure military machinations made me feel as if I was reading a textbook, not a novel.

3. The characters were flat

The main characters are Ximena, who is a plucky healer but in a way that reminded me of the heroines from the soap operas I used to watch with my grandma who were "plucky" just so they had something to distinguish them but had nothing of substance beneath them, and John Riley, who is guilty. Seriously, all he ever talks about is how guilty he is. I grew up Catholic, I get it! But oh my God Johnny boy say literally anything else because I genuinely had no idea how Ximena fell in love with him, except that she recognized a kindred soul who was as profoundly boring as she is.

The side characters are not even worth talking about because they were somehow even flatter than the two leads. You can divide them into categories, again straight out of the soap operas I used to watch as a kid: evil Americans, plucky Irish, passionate yet devious Mexicans, the occasional helpful priest. Oh, and magical Indigenous grandmother.

That's because the characters are not there as characters but to deliver monologues that are essentially expositions about Mexican history and politics. I was going to count how many chapters were just dumping historical facts, such as two characters who have lived through the war in Texas having a stilted conversation that could be cribbed from a high school history textbook chapter about the period, but I lost count.

4. The romance sucked

When the central conceit of your book is the romance between two characters, you better make the readers care about that romance. I didn't hate it—worse. I didn't care.
Part of it is due to the garbage pacing and dubious authorial choices with regards to what to show and what not to show. The characters meet, the Mexican Army has to retreat, then there is a time skip and now they're in a new city, have crushes on each other, and one of them mentions off-hand that they've been going on walks together for months. If I'm supposed to care about these characters how about, I don't know, SHOWING one of those dates instead of having it take place off-screen?
Plus the main male character is married to another woman for two hundred FIFTY pages! Granted she's in Ireland and it's pretty clear that she's going to die, but it does sour on the romance when you realize it's technically cheating.

5. The pacing is so off

The pacing in this book is absolutely awful. It speeds through important passages and absolutely drags through the important parts. A few examples:

-The first fifty pages is taken up with John agonizing over whether to desert and essentially having the same argument over and over again with people around him if he should do it or not, which is even more boring when you realize that he is absolutely going to desert from, oh, reading the SUMMARY OF THE BOOK.

- Several pretty important character deaths happen in less than half a page. These are deaths of people that were fairly important to both main characters and whose deaths are stated to have emotional impact, but they're dispatched with less text than is given to describing different guns. That makes it difficult for the reader to care either, and makes the reader feel cheated, because at least I thought those were the only two characters who stood out and wanted them to get a better send-off.

These pacing issues means that there is no tension in this book, a ridiculous thing for a book dealing with such an inherently agonizing topic such as war. Too much space is dedicated to conflicts that the reader can't get invested in because we know how it will end, such as John agonizing over his family back in Ireland, which is pretty clear from the book summary how it will end but I'm putting it in the spoiler sin brackets in case someone is going into this completely blind . On the other hand, events that are important and would create anxiety and shock in the reader are sped over so quickly I barely had time to realize a city was besieged before it fell.

6. The politics are a bit dubious

To be clear, I am not one of those people that hates any critique of America because MUH FREEDOM." I'm usually the first one pointing out the stars and stripes represents some pretty gruesome stuff, so I don't have an issue with the "US = bad" portion of the book's politics. My main issue was with the "Mexico = good" part.

Namely, I felt that the book erased indigenous people. The characters keep talking about the US invading Mexico's "rightful" land in what is now the southwestern United States, but it ignores the fact that that land wasn't Mexico's either—it belonged to indigenous people!

The book's depiction of indigenous people was sometimes so bad it reminded me of the comic books I grew up with. You should not be emulating European comic books from the 1980s and 1990s in your book published in 2022. The ONLY mention of people indigenous to what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona is the main character talking about the brutal Apache and Comanche raids, an absolutely one-note portrayal.

There are a few attempts to do better, such as off-hand mentioning that indigenous people in the army are treated poorly by mestizo commanders and the character of the grandma, who is indigenous (although her character also veers closely to the stereotypical wise old Native healer), but it isn't enough to bridge this disconnect, especially since the very obvious goal of the book is to have people sympathize not so much with the people who lost their homes but the Mexican government which lost "its" land.

Plus one of the narration chapters from John's perspective uses an out-of-date, pretty offensive term for Black people which is, uh, sometimes you do nOT have to be completely historically accurate in your historical fiction.

7. The dialogue stinks

I'm getting tired so all I will say is that all the Irish characters talk like the Lucky Charms leprechaun and I really don't think it was necessary to make the Mexican characters speak in broken English. We get it, English is their second, if not their third, language, no need to humiliate your smart character by making her say "is why you go there?"

Now that I've got that off my chest, I feel a lot lighter and ready to read books that are actually good.

Tl;dr: A Ballad of Love and Glory? More like "A Squawk of Really Bad Writing"

[Donna Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We Irish know what ‘tis like to be oppressed by an aggressive neighbor.”

Reyna Grande can really write. This is the first of her novels I have read, but it surely won’t be the last. My thanks go to Net Galley and Atria Books for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

A Ballad of Love and Glory encompasses two genres, romance and historical fiction. It’s the story of John Riley, an Irish immigrant to the USA in the mid-nineteenth century, who is met at the dock by military recruiters that want him and his compatriots to serve in the US army, fighting the war against Mexico. Riley arrives half-starved and worried sick about the fate of his family that he left behind. The promise of soldier’s wages is enough to persuade him, and he enlists.

It's also the story of Ximena, a Mexican naturopath whose husband is killed by Texas Rangers. She follows the army to help care for the wounded; she and Riley are drawn together.

As for me, I am drawn to this tale by my love of military history, whether nonfiction or fiction, and by the unconventional point of view regarding the U.S. land grab. At the time of the annexation of Texas, followed by the war against Mexico, most Americans accepted the official explanation and believed that the war was initiated by Mexican aggression toward U.S. citizens across the border. Some, including an up-and-coming politician named Abraham Lincoln, saw through the ruse and understood that the whole thing was a pretext on the part of the US designed to capture Texas, California, and points in between. This is the background information that I bring with me as I begin reading this novel.

The title and book cover both focus on romance, and if a friend hadn’t mentioned this story, I would have passed it by; most romance is too sappy for my tastes. But an entire brigade of Irish immigrants that jump sides in the midst of the conflict and fight, instead, for Mexico? I have to read this!

Grande honors historical truth in her storytelling, and as such, this is one sad read. The Irish soldiers are treated more savagely by the American-born officers than I had known, and Grande gives us plenty of detail. And although I know, when I begin reading, exactly who wins this war, it’s hard to face the inevitable once I am bonded to these characters.

That said, I do think Grande does a better job with the military end of this thing, and of developing John Riley in other regards, than romance. There’s this tension between Riley and Ximena, because he is a married man with a child back home—and I can guess immediately how this conflict will be resolved. Until that resolution, the tension, part of the “honor” mentioned in the title, is drawn to nearly ridiculous proportions; at one point, as the two are straining passionately toward one another, they both stop simultaneously, whip out their rosaries, and start saying Hail Mary’s together. I threw back my head and laughed!

Nevertheless, this is a wonderful novel. If you enjoy historical fiction; unconventional points of view; working class fiction; or tales of forbidden love, this book is for you. If you are in need of a good ugly cry, this book is your catalyst.

[Magaly | Catchy Book Nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The synopsis for this book immediately drew my interest. There is so much about history that was glossed over in school and the St. Patrick’s Battalion was one of these things. While a fictional account, the details the author includes are reflective of her research and knowledge of this historical period.

Reyna Grande’s prose is beautiful. The artful details paint an elaborate picture and convey the characters’ experiences in such authentic ways.

I would classify this as a true historical fiction novel and clarify that the romance plays a secondary role in the book overall. While I would normally be disappointed about this, I found myself so enthralled in the story Reyna Grande wove that I did not mind at all.

After reading this novel I feel enriched and better connected with my history. I also feel an ache to think that we have come so far and yet learned so little as a human race. During one scene in the novel, the main character (Ximena) sees a wildcat and a wolf fighting over a corpse in a battlefield that is littered with human remains. She has the following thought:

“Don’t they understand there is no need to fight? Don’t they see there is plenty here for them all to gorge their fill?”

This observation encapsulates so much of the meaning in the novel and also feels so relevant to our world today. It made me both sad and hopeful that some day we may learn this lesson ourselves.

Overall, this is a beautiful, meaningful novel that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of historical fiction!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

[Ethel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is set between 1846-48. Ximena is a Mexican healer whose life was practically destroyed in the Spring of 1846. The dispute lead to a full-out war over a strip of land between the Rio Grande and the Rio Nueces Her husband was killed by Texas Rangers, her home ruined and with no place else to go she becomes an army nurse going from battlefield to battlefield. This is her contribution to help Mexico and honor her late husband.

John Riley is an Irish immigrant serving in the U.S. army. He is Roman Catholic and made to suffer by the insults and abuse of the Protestant American soldiers. However, dealing with the horrible and disgusting treatment of his fellow immigrant soldiers, he deserts the army and joins the Mexican cause. He is not the only deserter, there are more Irish who follow him into Mexico to fight the Yanquis. So determined were these soldiers they were actually honored by Santa Anna with their own unit, Saint Patrick's Battalion. For John it was a war similar to that of his native land, Ireland, a place where loyalty was questioned, where the English treated the Irish harshly with false promises.

Together John and Ximena meet on one of the battlefields and are quickly drawn to one another. Their love slowly evolves. Each one giving Mexico their loyalty...for her wanting to keep Mexico out of foreign hands; for him the freedom to eventually live in peace and wanting a piece of land to call his own as promised by Santa Anna.

This story is filled with emotions...friendships, loyalty, courage and love...not just romantic love, but the love of your fellow compatriot, especially in the time of war and peril. When I picked up the book I wasn't quite sure what I would find inside... how it was written, would I enjoy it. It has left me with a story that will resonate with me, filling me with a bit of history I haven't explored before. This is an outstanding novel and beautifully written, one that I would highly recommend to those who enjoy historical fiction.

[Nancy]

I hate to walk away from a book sent me by the publisher, especially through Edelweiss. But, I kept trying to read this novel but it didn't sit well with me. The theme and plot sounds very interesting and it concerns a time in history that more Americans should understand in full including American aggression against Mexico and the treatment of the Irish immigrants.
But the writing and characterization just didn't connect with me.
Sorry.

[steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really well written but far too much military jargon and day-day battle details for my personal taste. I had to force myself to finish the last sixty or so pages.

It was interesting to read about a time period I knew nothing about though!

[Jazzie077 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande. Pub Date: March 15, 2022. Rating: 3 stars. This novel takes place during the Mexican- American War and has heart, grit and timely scenes throughout. I love historical fiction, so I was excited to see this book and learn about a time in history I knew little about. The story follows Xemina, a Mexican healer and John Riley, a soldier in the Yankee Army and their struggles, survival, fight and ultimately their passion in their relationship. At its core, this story is heartbreaking and resilient at the same time. I found some of this novel to be long and drawn out, but appreciated the historical context and attention to detail of the time period. Read this book if you enjoy historical fiction! Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this free e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Loretta Miles Tollefson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel about a little-explored era of USA history, this is a real gem. Read it for the love story, read it for the exposure of American "nativism" in the 1840s, and read it to better understand the events of what is called in our history books "The Mexican-American War." But definitely read it.

[Shirley McAllister · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Saint Patrick Brigade

In the year of 1846 the Mexican-American war was fought over the Annexation of Texas and the boundary of the Rio Grande River. This is a forgotten war, but it was fought all the same.

In the American army were many immigrants from foreign countries fighting as soldiers for the Americans. They were treated very cruelly over ever minor incident, beaten, branded and other inhumane treatment. One soldier, John Riley, an Irish immigrant fighting in the American army defended the army until his friend was murdered trying to escape the cruel treatment. He then escaped and joined the Mexican army. After he joined the Mexican army he recruited fellow Irishmen to leave the American army and join the Mexican army. When there were enough men Santa Anna gave John Riley his own brigade called the Saint Patrick Brigade. They were gunners and manned the large cannons.

This is a story of the war, the two armies and the men who fought on both sides. The Mexican people living in the towns where the war was fought and even the resistance fighting outside the army itself. It was a horrible time of hunger and bloodshed.

John Riley met a Mexican war nurse named Ximena and fell in love. They both fight to su
rvive the war and to survive their love for each other. Will they live or will the war take their lives.
It was interesting to read about a war I never even knew about. Everyone knows about the Alamo, but this is a different war after the Alamo. I love learning new historical facts and it was quite interesting about the Irish fighting in this war as they neither belonged to the U.S. nor to Mexico.

I think all war is bad and a horrible experience, but it goes on even today. How nice it would be if there were no more wars. Sadly that will never happen as long as there are power hungry men in the world. My wish would be for peace and acceptance for everyone.

I really did enjoy reading this book, it took me longer than most as I kept having to look up places and facts but that made me more informed about the history of our country and that of the countries of Mexico and Ireland as well. I love to read and if I can learn something while enjoying my read that is an inspiration for me to read more.

I would definitely recommend this book as a great Historical Fiction read.

Thanks to Reyna Grande for writing a great story, to Atria Books for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the themes of this book and the historical parts.
The romance "ew-ed" me, as it seemed one dimensional.
I wasnt quite engaged with the writing either, felt weak and dragging.

Actual rating: 2.5

[Pedro Chávez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some stories need to be told, even if they’re just a fiction take on the original tale, the one that was also fabricated by the usual suspects, you know, by the historians in charge of supposedly telling it like it is. Reyna Grande’s A Ballad of Love and Glory is one of those fictional takes on a historical time in our past that will help correct a faulted script and bring some light into the minds on both sides of the tale. It’s a book scheduled to be published next year, on March 15, 2022, to be more exact.

Having had the chance to read an advanced e-copy of the novel, my humble, though somewhat biased opinion, of a mexicano who grew up in Mexico and often abhorred the land-grabbing acts of the manifest destiny driven country to the north, I will tell you that the author, Reyna Grande, is about to open a proverbial can of worms. Which is good, according to me. She’s just gotta be ready for it.

Bring it on, Ms. Grande. Not that I’m taunting you; I’m just glad that an American author is willing to truly tell it like it was, even if it is just in fictional art. Thanks.

The novel delves in a narrative that illustrates the pains of war through the eyes of Ximena, a tejana, and John Riley, a San Patricio, an Irish immigrant and a U.S. Army soldier who decides to fight on the side of the Mexicans. Riley’s story and that of other St. Patrick’s Battalion’s volunteers have been told before. Their doings and their sufferings are already part of myths and lore in the country to the south. The author, however, weaves her words into a love story that is not only believable but also heart wrenching.

A Ballad of Love and Glory also reminds us of an asqueroso, the creepy eleven-times Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna, a double-crossing traitor who gave away parts of Mexico to the U.S. and whose acts will forever remind us of an insane time in the history and the annals of the country to the south. For folks like me, though, for someone who grew up in Mexico and knew long ago about of the pendejadas, the idiocies committed by Santa Anna, reading about them turns the telling into a painful process. But, even if it hurts, we need to be reminded of it again, to attempt to stop history from repeating itself.

There are many historic names included in the plot, like Canales, Falcón, and a couple of Chenos, whose real acts were never really etched in stone or in the scrolls of history, but which Ms. Grande tends to mix into the narrative. Like most creative minds that write about that kind of fiction, she takes plenty poetic license and includes those tejanos in the plot. I’m okay with it, especially since it’s coming from a writer that’s messing with Texas in a way that goes beyond the message in the original slogan, the “Don’t mess with Texas” phrase, which was created as a warning to folks that littered the roads.

My take? Buy the book once it’s out next year. Or before. Read it, think about the subject matter, the uncalled-for land grab executed by a country gone wrong and besieged by a convenient fad called manifest destiny. Ponder over the actions of the St. Patricks and about their decisions to go fight on the Mexican side. Think about Ximena and John Riley and about their dubious battle. But also about their love story.

But most of all, think about all the tejanos that lost their land, their homes, after the greedy, slave holding Texians took over a chunk of Mexican soil, the now called Lone Star state.

Again, buy the book. And read it. Thoroughly.

AUTHOR: Pedro Chávez

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment for me. I was really looking forward to this, although the research appears spot on, the writing failed. I am sorry to say that I never connected with the characters and hoped for something more than a cheap romance. The author bored me to tears with the story-needing this for a challenge is all that kept me going.

This is a period in history that I knew very little about and will look for something/someone else to tell me the story from a Mexican viewpoint.

[Norma Cantu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los San Patricios! Finally a story of the Irish soldiers fighting in the US-Mex war. Ximena is a memorable character in this historical novel that reads like a film!!!

[Jenifer Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautifully written - but so hard to read about war. Extra bump in my rating for teaching me something (else) horrific about American history, and the bravery of the Irish in joining with Mexico.

[LeeAnna Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mexican-American War is barely a footnote in American history books, but it changed Mexican history forever. Between 1846 and 1848, battles raged near the Rio Grande and in the northern territory of Mexico. By the time the ink had dried on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, half of Mexico had been seized by the American troops, and the United States doubled its size. When an author uncovers a little known chapter of history and creates a narrative that transports readers to its time and place, the magic of historical fiction happens. A Ballad of Love and Glory is the story of the Saint Patrick's Battalion, later called the Foreign Legion of Patricios. They fought against the United States in the Mexican–American War. Its members were mostly Irish men driven to escape their enlistment in the U.S. army because of extreme discrimination and physical abuse. They found acceptance and shared values with the Mexican troops. Their Catholic faith had been minimized and mocked, but their beliefs were shared by the Mexican soldiers. The man who led the Patricios, Irish immigrant John Riley, is the main character. He is based on an important figure in the conflict, and even today, he is celebrated as a hero of the Mexican-American War. Ximena, the other lead character, is fictional, but represents the culture and folkways of her Mexican homeland. She is a healer who follows the Mexican army to tend to the wounded and dying. The battle scenes are gory, but Grande writes gorgeous passages of the Mexican landscape to soothe the violence. I learned so much from the novel, and isn't that the best by-product of reading good fiction? (Reyna Grande is the recipient of the Tulsa Library system's 2024 Hummingbird Award "which is given to a distinguished individual of Latinx-descent who has shifted the narrative for the Latinx community and paved the way for future generations through their outstanding work.") Recommended.

[Picture_pretty_books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4 stars!!
Grande uses two real people a) Irishman John Riley of St. Patrick’s Battalion, deserter of the US Army and b) Xemina a Mexican Army nurse to create a fictional story to shed light on the Mexican-American War in 1846.

I’m not a history expert so I can only say it feels very well researched and informative. The book is clear concise and has pretty good pace, alternating in linear dual POVs. There are many deep in the trenches wartime scenes and I never was confused with the political agendas.

Now, I don’t typically notice or care if a book is written in first or third person. I also don’t typically think about tropes so take what I say next with that grain of salt..… I was trying to think of why it wasn’t 5 full stars as I really did enjoy it and would recommend it. I think it would have helped me if it were written in first person.

I didn’t completely connect to the MC’s and felt something was lacking within their love story. I think having it written in third allowed the author to more easily inform about the war which she did well! But on the flip side that’s where it shone and not the emotional tugs which is what I love most about reading.

There is still a lot of emotional turmoil, heartache, sadness, and near the end a grueling scene in particular.

I can see how many others will give this one 5 stars. And I definitely would read more from this author!!

Thank you Atria for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Ken McDouall · Rating 3 out of 5]

We know that history is often written by the victors in a war, but this novel gives us a glimpse into the events of the Mexican-American War from the perspectives of those who experienced defeat, conquest, and occupation. Our narrators are the real life figure John Riley, an Irish immigrant who joined the U.S. Army in the 1840s and found himself the target of the kind of harassment and abuse he experienced from the English in his home country; and Ximena, a Mexican indigenous healer who becomes a nurse for the Mexican Army. Riley defects to the Mexican side after the beginning of the war, forming an artillery company of fellow Irish defectors that named themselves the San Patricio (or Saint Patrick's) Battalion. From that base, Grande constructs a love story that weaves in and out of the battles, privations, and separations occasioned by war. This is a generally refreshing look at a war we learn too little about in a standard school curriculum, and the plot moves along briskly. The weakness of the novel comes in deficient character development: the dialog, emotions, and reflections of the characters are painted with a broad brush, often falling into cliché. However, it's easy to overlook this flaw and enjoy the novel for its stirring story and foray into the lives of those who experienced this war as an invasion and subsequent large scale theft of land. Thanks to Atria Books for providing an advance reader copy for my review.