This book wasn't as fun as Zorro, the only other book I've read by Isabel Allende, but it was vibrant and exciting to read. I had trouble keeping some of the minor characters strait, since the names were Spanish and I was listening instead of reading. I also felt like some sections were glossed over and could have been filled out more, since other sections had lots of detail. I imagine that's what it's like to read an abridged version of a book.
I learned a lot about the Spanish colonization of South America- what an interesting, sad history- and the period.

The story of European settlement of Chile (and, more specifically, the city of Santiago). The heroine, Ines Suarez, becomes the mistress of Spanish commander Pedro de Valdivia and plays a crucial role in the founding of Chile and Santiago. I picked this book up because we had just returned from a cruise around South America which began in Santiago and continued on down south through the rest of Chile and beyond. I thought I might be interested in learning a bit more about the history of the area, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was exciting, well-written and very interesting as well as historical.