Looking For a Good Book

By day, Lola de La Peña is the sweet, upstanding young lady of Coloma, daughter of the respected town elders – her mother a healer who works with the recently discovered, magical, sal negra (black salt) that, when used by someone who understands it, can heal most wounds … even mortal ones. But by night, Lola dons a mask and a sword and becomes Salvación, the vigilante who protects Coloma and the sal negra from outside foes and those who might try to make sal negra their own. She rother, the invisible half of Salvación who helps to keep the secrets and abilities of the vigilante mysterious.

One night, a terrified woman comes to town and tells of a terrible dark magic, sal roja, that destroys everything it touches. The sal roja is wielded by a powerful man, Damien Hernández, who is protected from and by the sal roja and seeks to be in control of everything around him.

When Hernández comes to Coloma with his own army of followers, Lola knows that it’s only a matter of time before Coloma is under his control. Even Lola’s parents seem to have fallen for his He needs a specific time and a specific item to make himself invincible and both are within reach.

Can Salvación stand up to Hernández and an entire army? Will the sal roja destroy the sal negra, or will the negra ‘heal’ the roja?

Author Sandra Proudman has written a truly enjoyable YA fantasy, western, adventure story with a Latina leading character. It will be almost impossible not to make comparisons to Zorro, given the time and location of the story, but this is definitely a book for modern readers.

Proudman nicely sets up the main characters, particularly Lola/Salvación. Lola is appealing and heroic without being superpowered. She will easily be admired by young readers who want a worthy hero to look up to.

The mix of western setting and fantasy elements in the magic salts blends the familiar and the mystical nicely. It feels very appropriate to anyone familiar with Hispanic culture.

We have the obvious hero and the obvious villain, but we also have the character of questionable moral certainty – which side are they on? – their loyalties constantly seeming in flux. It does add some nice intrigue to the story, though I did feel it went on one time too many.

There is also a love story because, well, it is a YA story targeted mainly toward young female readers, so of course there’s a love story. But it adds the needed complication to the character whose loyalty is in question.

The book goes on just a little bit too long for me – not just the back and forth questions about one of the characters, but some of the establishing descriptions and set-up seem to draw on. This is probably something that will prevent reluctant readers from enjoying the book, but dedicated readers won’t mind.

Looking for a good book? Salvación by Sandra Proudman, is wonderful mix of YA, western, romance, and fantasy with a female hero who can be admired.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Salvación

author: Sandra Proudman

publisher: Wednesday Books

ISBN: 9781250895080

hardcover, 336 pages