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Title: it just gets worse
Review: After reading Isabel Allende's brilliant The House of the Spirits back in the 80s, I looked immediately for other books by her. Of Love and Shadows was pretty good, but then things started going downhill when Eva Luna came into the picture. And this, Daughter of Fortune (Hija de la Fortuna) has to be the low point. It is little more than one of those pink-jacketed historical romances you can buy at the drugstore. Just because the author throws in a ghost or two and some Chinese medicine doesn't make this book magical, spiritual, or deep. It doesn't even feel particularly historically accurate. It's more like the writer just picked a random time in history and did a minimal amount of research into the era. Shallow, poorly defined characters don't help, either. Altogether a disappointment.
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