This was a mixed bag. I really loved the world and the way the author described it—it felt lush, beautiful, and so vivid. The focus on Mexican history and Mesoamerican mythology was fascinating to me, and I'm genuinely happy we're getting more and more books like this.

Unfortunately, the characters and the plot are a let down.

Once again, this falls into the pitfall of being labeled an adult book, but reading like a YA book, with a heroine whose entire character development is about her finding her place in the world. I wanted Leonora to be more confident. If this is a reimagining of Zorro, then I want to see someone who is fearless, and who understands that the price of resistance is bloody sometimes. Instead, she got wobbly in her convictions more than once, and it made parts of this really drag.

The other issue is that there were way too many different plotlines. It starts with Leonora opposing the Spanish, and dealing with an arranged marriage with the prince of Spain. She doesn't care about him, by the way, but when he sleeps with someone else and she finds out, she barges into his room all huffy with a speech about how he can't hurt her pride like this. Then she meets Andres, who she thinks is a pirate and who stole something from her, and they develop a "will they won't they" romantic vibe. Also, there's a prophecy about her death, and another one about the end of the world, and actually the end of the world is closer than we think, and also there are all these gods walking among people, and who is Leonora, really?

It's not even a very long book, but this could've been 200 pages shorter, focused on 1-2 plot lines, and then used the rest to build up a series. I honestly just wanted a bit of a fun romp with a female Zorro, but that's not really what this is.