This month we read The Sisterhood by Helen Bryan
(Published April 2013, 402 pages)
Book it Sisters’ Grade: B
Menina Walker was a child of fortune. Rescued after a hurricane in South America, doomed to a life of poverty with a swallow medal as her only legacy, the orphaned toddler was adopted by an American family and taken to a new life. As a beautiful, intelligent woman of nineteen, she is in love, engaged, and excited about the future — until another traumatic event shatters her dreams. Menina flees to Spain to bury her misery in research for her college thesis about a sixteenth-century artist who signed his works with the image of a swallow — the same image as the one on Menina’s medal. But a mugging strands Menina in a musty, isolated Spanish convent. Exploring her surroundings, she discovers the epic sagas of five orphan girls who were hidden from the Spanish Inquisition and received help escaping to the New World. Is Menina’s medal a link to them, or to her own past? Did coincidence lead her to the convent, or fate? Both love story and historical thriller, The Sisterhood is an emotionally charged ride across continents and centuries.
Here is our report:
| Judy Bush | B | I enjoyed the visit to South America and Spain. It was a fun premise, possibly covering too much territory and too many people. |
| Janet Maisel | ||
| Mary Halsey | B+ | I liked the way the baby found wearing only the coin ended up back at the original convent in Spain--nice character development...such a heroic girl. I enjoyed the sisterhood throughout but at times hard to follow and keep character's straight. |
| Tricia Gadberry | B | I enjoyed the historical parts of this book, and the sisterhood that was presented, but I did have a hard time following the people and the story lines sometimes. Overall I enjoyed the book. |
| Suzanne Rigby | C | I thought the author had a great idea but had a difficult time wrapping up all the different threads of the story. There were a lot of characters, side plots and rushing to conclusions. I did enjoy the time period of the Inquisition in Spain, and I enjoyed the relationships between the nuns. A difficult read. |
| Denise Link | C+ | It was a little difficult keeping up with the characters. I liked the history and the thread of sisterhood throughout the book. |
| Cheryl Clowes | I did like the overall story but it was hard to keep track of the characters. But I enjoy the stories and the "sisterhood" of the nuns at the convent. | |
| Nina Yatsko | ||
| Megan Lewis | B+ | I enjoyed the historical aspect of the story and liked the characters although it was difficult to keep all of the characters straight esp. when they had the same name. |