- Date Read: April 2022
- Publication Date: January 2020
- Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
- Format: Audio book
- Page Count: 462
- Listening Time: 16 hours 47 minutes
- Print Publisher: Tinder Press
- Audio Publisher: Macmillan Audio
This book had a stronghold on my attention from chapter one and never let go. In this story we meet Lydia and her son Luca on one of the worst days of their lives, when their family is being murdered by a drug cartel. From there we learn the backstory of how and why this came to happen to them, intermingled with their harrowing journey to migrate to the United States.
This book is long (almost 17 hours on audio) with every minute well used – it never dragged or felt like unnecessary scenes. It allowed space to build the characters and delve into the immigration process. There were deeply emotional scenes with the inner monologue of a mother trying to protect her child along with truly gripping scenes, where I felt their lives hanging in the balance. This is much more than a drug cartel book, it is a story of love, fear, bravery, and perseverance. It exposes the nearly impossible conditions facing migrants and takes the reader along on the journey. If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend it.
Content warnings: Rape, Murder, Violence, Miscarriage