This was an amazing story, though not for the the faint at heart.
I was drawn to this massive book, by it's size, and genre.
This novel surprised me in so many ways. It was not what I was expecting, it surprised, and horrifed me, both in equal measures. The pages kept turning, almost on their own accord, as my blood pressure raised, and my fingernails suffered.
Rowena Dangerfield, the unwanted only daughter, of a selfish opportunist mother, and an escaped outlaw father, was raised by her grandfather, in the wilds of India. After his death, Rowena is shipped back to England, to live with her Mother, and Step-father.
This is where her story begins....
Rowena is an outrageously determined survivor, in a land among men, whom all seek to possess and own her. In an age, where woman were without freedom of choice, Rowena learns how to shut one's emotions off from others, in an attempt to endure what was chosen for her. Refusing to be a victim to her circumstances, she is dubbed 'The Marble Goddess.'
Discovering her father is still alive and a rich ranch owner in New Mexico, she ventures forth to meet the man she has never known, but she learned had always loved her.
And this is where her life begins...
This novel, although a love story, is a story of one woman's survival, and the trials she endures, while in search of herself.
It's unpredictabilty was refreshing.
It confuses you, it maddens you, it consumes you. The only thing it doesn't do, is bore you.
