by Anya Seton
First published 2001
Fé Cameron enters the world in 1850 as New Mexico breaks free from Mexican rule and encounters American influence. Her Castilian mother dies in childbirth, and her Scottish father Andrew Cameron passes away when Fé turns seven. Raised by a Mexican nurse, she experiences a poor but joyful childhood in the high desert beneath the Sangre de Cristo mountains. As she grows older, frustration takes hold. Fé carries mixed blood and belongs fully to neither world around her. The territory itself faces the same division, torn between its traditional ways and the new American values of displayed virtue, racism, and money worship. Uncertain of her place, Fé ventures into the wider world seeking a role to fill and a reputation to build. She struggles to find genuine identity while America's heart beats between two poles: Santa Fe's authentic desert spirit and New York's narrow society of wealthy bankers poised to control everything.
Genres: romance, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: New Mexico, New York, Santa Fe, Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Period: 1850, Mexican Rule
450 pages · Paperback · PHEBUS