This was such a beautiful story about the importance of preserving our stories from our roots. When the Spanish came to central and southern America they destroyed many churches and libraries that help so much history. They wanted to rewrite everything.

For Catalina the knowledge of her ancestors was a double edged sword since she wasn’t allowed to share it with anyone. Only her mother since she was mixed indigenous and Spaniard. Through out the book you are thrown into her life of wanting to be true to herself but struggle to also be what others want her to be.

To know that this actually happened in real life is just sad. The way women were treated then too was just like property. I really enjoyed this tale.

Beautifully narrated. Loved the pronunciation of the indigenous words and the story was just beautiful.

In all honesty - the reason why I am writing something here after so many months is that I signed up to listen to the audiobook on NetGalley and I need to write something otherwise my rating will be terrible… so here it is, my thoughts on the audiobook:

My sister Ana Lucia Robleda, who is a professionally trained theatre and voice actor, narrated the story. She is both fluent in Spanish and English and I am incredibly proud of her and the work she did. She was one of several actors who auditioned for the role & she really nailed both the audition and the rendition. We worked very closely together with Professor Allen Christensen who translated the Popol Vuh into English and who is an expert in the K’iche’ Maya language, and who also read my novel from start to finish when it was still in draft mode, to ensure historical and cultural accuracy. For the audiobook, he also helped us with the pronunciation of the K’iche’ Maya words, which was incredibly important to us to get as right as possible.

I especially loved my sister’s rendition of the Spanish accents - a real feat. It was really strange to listen to my story brought to life, and to hear my sister’s voice and her own interpretation, but I’m so glad she got the part!

"I'd write it alone if I had to, and I'd blaze over whoever stood in my way."
▪️Sofia Robleda, Daughter of Fire

Synopsis:
"Fiercely independent, Catalina struggles to honor her father and her late mother, a Maya noblewoman to whom Catalina made a vow that only she can preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now forbidden history of the K’iche people."

The historical fiction aspect of this novel is amazing! I learned things I didn't know about Guatemala. But the voice of the novel is young and contains on the page sexual content; a combination I find icky. The fantastical parts were hard to follow at times.

The audiobook is narrated by Ana Lucia Robleda. Her voice is beautiful, but I found her challenging to follow and had to listen at a slower speed than usual. Published August 1 from Brilliance Audio.

Audiobook arc from Brilliance and NetGalley to read and review. All opinions are my own..

Despite reading the description I came into this expecting a more fantasy bend to the story. Instead, this historical fiction takes the reader back to the conquest of Latin America and the ruling of that area by the Spaniards.

The trauma of the main character that came from her mother's brutal death and the understanding of how much heritage matters leaves the reader sucked into a story that is important. There are fantastical elements related to mythology and old beliefs but overall this felt very historical.

Thank you to Net Galley and Brilliance Publishing for the audioARC!

This narrator really took me out of it sadly!! It normally doesn't bug me when people switch vocal tones depending on the gender of the person speaking in the book, but her method was bad so i had to stop. i'd read the physical copy tho!

Powerful story!
I do really appreciate how the author mixed fantasy elements to kind of retell historical happenings. These type of fantasy historical books make me go back and google all these events to see if they were real.
Behind all the deep power and magic I truly did feel the analogy for a mixed heritage, and fighting to keep the stories of your ancestors alive. I find although brutal, still beautiful.

The plot did jump around a bit and lost me a couple of times. I found myself lost as well, during said times.
But overall great experience.

Colorful and mystical, this engaging story does not read like a historical fiction. I learned about the indigenous peoples of Guatemala and their interaction with the Spanish colonizers of the 16th century- a subject I knew nothing about. Catalina de Cerrato is a strong female protagonist. Her story weaves both the Spanish and Mayan cultures together in such a way that the reader can understand the decisions made by the characters to protect their heritage and to honor their emperor. Thanks to NatGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing this ARC.

Young Catalina de Cerrato is caught between her tumultuous present and the heritage she promised to preserve. Set in 1551 Guatemala, roughly thirty years after the Spanish invasion, Catalina is the daughter of mixed blood. Her father is the ruling Spaniard, while her late mother was a native noblewoman.

Catalina vowed to her mother to save her people's sacred and now forbidden text. To do this, she would risk her life and dishonor her father. She must do it in secret and preserve what history she can before it is lost.

The story feels quest-like as Catalina retraces her and her mother’s history. Rich and vivid descriptions convey the wonder and awe of ancient Mayan culture. Intertwined in the plot is a romance, but I felt that Catalina’s coming-of-age and journey were the central focus.

While this contains historical depictions of the cruelty and oppression that took place at this time by Spanish colonizers, the author weaves it into this beautiful and haunting tale of heritage, culture, and empowerment.


Thank you @otrpr @sofiarobleda and @amazonpublishing for a spot on tour and a gifted book.

Thank you @brilliancepublishing for the gifted audiobook.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Daughter of Fire is a vividly written and beautifully fascinating story with history and culture that many readers will enjoy.

I had a lot of fun with this one. The writing was beautiful, and the characters were very interesting. I loved the incorporation of storytelling, culture, and history. I’ve read multiple versions of the Popol Vuh and enjoyed how Sofia incorporated it into the story. The romance was very sweet, and the character development was great. I hoped for more storytelling scenes and more action and adventure, but overall, it was a lovely story. I would recommend interested readers give it a read!

I enjoyed the audiobook narration for this one. The accents fit the characters well, and Ana Lucia presented the story with wonderful energy.

Thank you to the publisher for the free ALC!

What a lyrically written and powerful story of a period of history that remains much a mystery. Sofia has done a beautiful job of incorporating artistry into her prose and captivating her readers from the very first chapter. This story has elements of fantasy and mysticism anchored with the reality of historical fact. It’s a beautiful journey for a reader who wants to both learn and escape. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to have read and reviewed the powerful Daughter of Fire!

I am always excited to see books written on the parts of history that for a long time have been shoved under a carpet. I adore seeing a culture, place, mythos, presented in creative ways. it's through these worlds that many are introduced to the forgotten. It can be a gateway to generate interest into the facts and time that these types of stories are based on. So it always pains me when I come across a work that tries to uplift these things but just doesn't quite hit. Such is the case with "Daughter of Fire".

Even when conquests and revolutions are talked about, it is far more rare to highlight transitional periods and the fall out. I commend Robleda for tackling not only this time slot but to explore it in the unique way of what it meant to be biracial, cultural, and a sort of living embodiment of this forced integration. I found the scenes in which myth is brought to life beautiful and as entrancing as if I were under that ceremony. Having been introduced to some of these tales in the last year or so, I feel like I connected more and understood these beliefs better than plain retellings. it felt like there was context.

Unfortunately, even in those cases, all of the rest of the book seemed to not go quite far enough. Possibly it was a matter of scope. It almost felt like the author had so much they wanted to touch upon that they didn't commit to what exactly they wanted the novel to be. Was it to primarily be a historical family drama? Was it to focus on a forbidden romance? Was it about what happens to a culture when it's pinned down? Is it magical realism? Yes and no to all of the above.

The book starts being about the suppressing of culture and family, it starts to move towards a hint of godly interference that serves only for one real moment without really coming back again, it turns from a potential mystery collaboration to what has to be the quickest possible allies to enemies-to-lovers case I've probably ever read, to dropping in a criminal rebel element, and continues on this cyclone for the rest of the novel. More often than not I was frustrated when I would just start to get into the vibe of the situation and we'd have a new element, or character, or snap resolution to something that was just brought up.

While this book is listed as adult, and given that it's talking about genocides and death sentence it does contain heavy material, if I hadn't double check I would have sworn to you that it was for young adults. It has nothing to do with the character starting at sixteen. The book failed to give me a real sense of space or a progressive character growth. I understand that teenage hormones will always be a factor at that age. Catalina has an astonishing lack of emotional maturity or adolescent stubbornness for someone who is supposed to be shaped, motivated, and forced to grow up as a result of trauma. I attribute this as well to the writing rush.

example, there's one relationship that she muses that this person just uses her to their advantage. I don't doubt that. the way that person treats her sadly is all too real of an issue. Instead of really addressing it, we actually see more of how Catalina has been using them to achieve her goals. these incidents she refers to being put on display we might be told in passing, but we're never really shown that or her response in the moment.

I do not mean to dissuade readers from giving this a shot. This type of reaction only occurs in books where I am passionate about the potential it had. This could be a beautiful introduction for someone to this place and time. It just didn't come together as tightly as I would hope. With full respect to the age marketing ranges as I've seen spectacular and deep material in young adult, this absolutely did not feel as fleshed out as the majority of adult historical fiction that I've read.