There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

While not usually my cup of tea, something about the description of this book inspired me to pick it up - and I'm incredibly glad I did! While not a perfect book by any means, the reading experience was enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to recommending it to others!

Thanks Pegasus Books and netgalley for this ARC.

Blew my socks off! Bull fighting in Mexico in the 50's took guts and nerves of steel, and more courage than most men could claim. A coming of age novel more visual and real than any I've read before.

This book had some scenes that I couldn't get through. However, there may be others that will enjoy this book. This just wasn't for me.

Kathleen Boyd has dreamed of being a matador since she was a child. Against her mother's wishes she quits Art School and begins to train, in 1950s Mexico, under the watchful eye of Fermin, a brash and arrogant former matador. The novel follows her progress and relationships both in and out of the bullring.

I'm pretty sure that contentious subject matter will put many off reading this book. I'm very much against bullfighting and the arguments put forward through the narrative did little to persuade me in its favour. That said, it is possible to put the bullfighting to one side and be engrossed in Kathleen's attempts to balk convention and follow her dream.

The novel has a great cast of characters; Fermin, her trainer, is largely unsympathetic but also a fantastically well drawn character full of bravado and machismo; Fermin's wife Carmen contrasts brilliantly with the passive-aggression of Kathleen's own mother; the growth of Kathleen as a person is also very involving.

There were occasional blips in the writing, mainly in the form of ill placed similes, but generally this was a well-written and engaging story.