3.5

Well that only took me /over a year/ to read. Good lord. I hate when it takes me this long to get through a book, but this little historical fiction novel wasn't really what I was expecting. It felt much more like a biography than I was initially expecting, and it didn't really get very interesting until the end. It was a really well researched story, however, and I enjoyed the author's note in the back. Levine is one of my go to authors, and I typically love her work, but this was just really slow for me. I think adding a few additional elements would have helped this to be more engaging, as I can't see many middle schoolers getting through this.

I really loved Loma's character. She wasn't an overly brave or spunky protagonist, but she was doing a lot of brave and spunky things. I wish certain elements to her had been more explored--like what she might like instead of a husband, which she was very fixated on, and how she might use her connections for good, etc.--but in the end I think it left her in a place for a lot of growth in that area. It was set in the middle ages, so there weren't many options for women back then, but Loma's unique life would have set her up splendidly. I would be interested in a sequel!

So overall, this had many elements of Jewish history, especially concerning the expulsion from Spain in 1492 which the whole book is building to, and is a very rich historical novel about a young Jewish woman's life.