Ines of My Soul

Ines of My Soul

Ines of My Soul, written by Isabel Allende, is a novel written about a young woman, who lived in the 1500's, named Ines Suarez. Ines ventures away from her home town Plasencia, Spain to go in search of her husband Juan de Malaga. Juan has left her, because of his loss of marital lust soon after there marriage and also to search for El Dorado, the lost city of gold. Ines, now sentenced to be a "widow of the new world", is to strong of woman to sit around for the rest of her life, sentenced to nothing but her skill of sewing and cooking. In thinking about her personal needs, Ines decides that she should venture to Peru with her niece, Constanza.

After Ines and her niece arrive in Peru, she gets into a fight with a man, which ends in his death. Ines is very regretful of this action because now she is a wanted woman of this unknown land. When on the run, Ines meets a man named Pedro de Valdivia, in which she falls in love with immediately after their first meeting. It is after this that she decides to go on a great adventure with Pedro scaling over a large Chilean desert and coming in contact with the Mapuche Indians, who are ruled by chief Michimalonko. This novel tells the tails of great warriors, the hardships and also prosperities which you can reach with your heart set to what it wants.

I did not like this novel although because it deserves a very strong and happy ending, which is not the case. I will say that the rest of the novel was strongly written although because once into it, it got me on the edge of my seat to turn the pages to see what may lie on the other side. If it had not been for the dreary ending, this would definatley be on my recommendation list for anyone who likes a good read about love and adventure.

Good historical narative

Although it was very brutal, I liked learning about the Spanish conquests in the Americas and Chile in particular. The book got off to a good start, but turned into more of a historical narative than a novel. I thought it was not up to Allende standard.

History Brought to Life

This book reminded me of why I am a fan of Allende's. Her writing flows. Her characters breathe. The story line never falters. All this, and a touch of the mystical besides! Loved it!

Historic Epic

If you like historical novels then this one is a 5 star choice. What an amazing book. Wow. The story, plot, characters, actual history, etc. You are almost literally transported into the book with such detail and accuracy of description. Ines' story is one every female should know about. (Though I do feel like the author actually downplayed her a bit in comparison to what I've read about her elsewhere. And it just bugged me that the cover girl who's supposed to be Ines is obviously of indian/native american decent which is stupid because the main character is from spain!)
But the book was stupendous. Could not put it down and finished it in record time.

A history text book with a fancy cover

To be straight to the point, Ines of my Soul felt like reading a 10th grade History text book on the Spanish colonies in the New World. While Allende goes into great depth in describing the locations Ines visits, and the people she meets, sometimes the depth goes a bit too far, and becomes more of a hassle than an image generator. The novel blends historical battles, and wars of conquest and, with the love life of Ines, to the point that it becomes a rather repulsive to read. The parts telling of her involvement in the Spanish conquests of South America drag on and become tedious to read, while the parts detailing her love life are a little too detailed for a casual reader like myself. This book would be a fine read for any fan of historical, or romantic novels, if they can deal with the other side of it. If not, stay away from this book.

A reviewer

I love Isabel Allende's work. Once again she has satisfied my expectations with an interesting, hard to put down novel. If you are into romance and history, you'll love her intricate plots and colorful characters.

If you like Allende, you'll like the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found Ines to be a very rich and warm main character.

If you like history...

I did not enjoy this book as much as I did Daughter of Fortune but that doesn¿t mean that this book is not interesting. Many times I felt that the main character¿s story became secondary to the historical accounts of the conquering of Chile. Ines of My Soul is very interesting especially if you like to read about history.

Dissappointing

After reading Zorro (by Mrs. Allende) I was expecting Ines of my soul to be a good read (as other novels she had written) but ended up with a not so good taste in my mouth. It is engaging and entertaining at the beginning which is short, then you go into boring details of characters followed by war episodes that are extremely long and repetitive, so much that the main characters lose strength. You end up feeling this book title should have been 'The war between Spaniards and Mapuches' It is said that Ines Suarez was the only Spanish woman conqueror in Chile's history and this novel does not fortify or diminish her image, it comes across as a plain, flat account.

the genius of Allende...

Isabel Allende continues to amaze me with her novels. Like all of her works, Inés of my Soul transposes the reader right into the story and gives you an account of the founding of the Kingdom of Chile. It is true, that in trying to keep with the accuracy of history, the novel at times can become slightly repetitive and bore down with detail, but at the same time creates a surreal account of the life of Inés Suarez and the other founders of Chile that is still full of human emotion that I could just not stop reading. Over all, an incredible book that I would recommend to anyone, especially those that enjoys Allende¿s work or history.

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