This was a very unique, and very original book. It was based on some historical figures that I’d heard of before very briefly and with very limited details. I loved that the author included a little extra at the end telling the actual story of those figures and what she’d changed or added to make the story something more fascinating. Because this was a vivid, beautiful tale of a world with magic and lots of twists and turns. While it is set in a historical time, and the views and actions of many of the people are definitely to be expected from that time period, some of it definitely still resonates with the world today.

The characters are unique, there is the gay aspect between the women, but then there are also the men that are in powerful positions that surprise with how they react and actually deal with the situations. Then there were things that had to do with the types of self-punishment the religiously zealous people often used to subject themselves to. That was hard to read about, but really made the story that much deeper. The struggle that Ysabel went through, when all she wanted was to take care of her people and have peace among all of them. So much in this book to read and the writing as I said was so vivid that I pictured many of the scenes as if I was seeing them in front of my eyes.

Review first appeared on Lisa Loves Literature.