Woman of Light: family, discrimination and the fight for survival

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo Anstine is a multigenerational story of betrayal, love and fate of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West. Luz “Little Light” Lopez is a tea leaf reader and laundress who lives with her Tia Maria Josie and her older brother Diego in 1930s Denver, Colorado. When Diego is run out of town by a violent white mob, she is left to fend for herself and finds herself fighting against bigotry and racism. She begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland of the Lost Territory. She thinks back to her ancestors’ origins, how her family has been threatened and how they have survived. Luz begins to realize that it is up to her to save the family stories and ensure that they will be passed on and remembered. What will she discover about her family’s secrets and their will to survive? 

Woman of Light is beautifully written, weaving past and present together like a tapestry of one family’s heartaches and joys. It is slow paced as the story weaves in and out of time. Unfortunately, I felt no connection to Luz or her family. The story ended abruptly leaving me with a lot of questions. I did enjoy the mystical aspects of the story which added an air of mystery. However, the story still felt wanting, like something was missing. There were historical aspects of the 1930s that didn’t seem to fit into the story and out of place. For example, the constant newsreels of Bonnie and Clyde. I understand that the nation was following their exploits but how does it connect with Luz? Why would she care? If the premise of Woman of Light, I recommend giving it a read. Maybe it will speak to other readers more than it did for me. 

Woman of Light is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. 

Hold Your Breath: a romance with a mystery twist

Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle is book 1 in the Search and Rescue Series. It is a story of mystery, romance and one woman’s struggle to leave her old life behind.

Louise “Lou” Sparks has left the comfortable life in Connecticut to live in the Colorado Rockies as a member of the Field County Rescue Dive Team. She is taking part in ice-rescue training when she hits something in the water and causing a headless corpse to rise to the surface. With Team leader Callum, Lou begins to investigate who this person might be and how he ended up in the lake. As they do, the two became close. Are those sparks falling between them? Meanwhile, Lou has the strange feeling she’s being followed and watched. Does she have a stalker? Who is the body they pulled from the lake? Are her stalker and the body connected?

Hold Your Breath is a typical romantic mystery with one little twist. The murder isn’t solved by the end of the book. In a way, I like that. It’s new and it certainly carries my interest to future books in the series. But then I wanted to know who killed this person!!!! Overall, I enjoyed the romance between Callum and Lou. I liked their chemistry and their capability. If you enjoy romance novels, you will enjoy Hold Your Breath.

Hold Your Breath

is available on Amazon

and Barnes and Noble.com

in Mass Market Paperback for $5.99

on the Kindle for $3.82

or on the NookBook for $4.99