Palomita: Dove of the Gabilans

"Set in the turbulent 1860s' California, Palomita is a sequel to Maria Inâes and The Caballero's Son (Five Star, 2016, 2021). A romantic, historically accurate portrayal of an era when women are treated as commodities. For Seänorita Elena Dolores Maria Matera, family, pride, and a good marriage are everything. Nicknamed Palomita by her doting father, she is 14 when her father and brothers lose their lives in a fight to retain their lands against the American courts. Palomita struggles to keep her family alive after they are evicted from their rancho. Her hatred for men includes the young American her sister marries and the countryman stepfather she believes to be the family's salvation, but who controls her destiny and his own fortune by selling her to a wealthy suitor. Betrayed by the handsome Miguelito Robles, the mixed race vaquero she falls in love with, Palomita's story is the betrayal and redemption of a highborn Spanish girl who stands to lose everything but her pride. It has been likened to "a modern-day Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson.""--