Status Updates From Daughter of Fortune

Her glance was attracted to the outside walls. There were rows and rows of curious brown circles, misshapen and shriveled. She walked closer then gasped, looking back to Diego for an explanation.

-"Apache ears," he said.

She shook her head, thinking of Christobel and the woman crooning softly to her baby in the Tesueque pueblo. But, of course, they were good Indians, not Apaches.

Then we will meet in heaven for we are in Purgatory now.

No, It was not wrong for us. But did anyone ever ask them?

So we are not dead?

Are we the only Spaniards left alive in New Mexico?

Oh my. I won't quote, but this not a PC romance, not recommended for the fluffies and should not be read at mealtime.

Smoke was heavy in tbe air, mingled with the odor of cooked flesh.

The air was filled with screams.

The idea of Diego Masferrer marrying a penniless nobody would flame the fires of gossip long past the first frost.

If I cannot gratify my relatives and die, then I must live. There is revenge of sorts in that, she told herself as she started north on the road out of Santa Fe.

I'd say the descriptions of the Indian attack gets this a place on the not recommended for the fluffies shelf.

It's about time somebody said something sensible - bravo Emiliano! He's right, they weren't the king's to give away. Diego might be one of the fairer 'masters' but he is being a little dense right about now

Building up to the Pueblo revolt...I wish Cristobal wasn't getting the short end of the stick so much, the disenfranchised-bastard-half-brother-torn-between-two-cultures thing seems so cliché.

It would be easier to enjoy this story if I could forget he politics of Spaniards vs Indians but then that's what makes the story and I suppose that's what complicates Maria, Diego and Cristobal's lives as well...what a shame how people were set up for inequality and exploitation

This novel is definitely NOT fluffy. More great writing from Carla Kelly, but not one of her regencies. More history I had no clue about. Spaniards in New Mexico, El Camino Real, Indian slaves, rancheros, Apaches, Pueblos, and the 1680 uprising? Wow. Maria's path? No roses here. In fact, that attack on the caravan was tough to read. Glad it looks to be clean as far as romance, but what romance? This story is serious.