The Spaniard's Innocent Maiden Review

Benicio is in love but he cannot marry the woman of his dreams, Luisa, until he earns enough money. It doesn't help that his two brothers are also trying to win over Luisa. So, he decides to set sail for the New World, or Mexico to be more precise. Tula is an indigenous woman whose people are paying tribute and living under the Aztec empire when the Spanish arrive. She doesn't care much for the Spanish either.

I picked up The Spaniard's Innocent Maiden because you don't often find a historical romance set during this time period. I was a little hesitate going into this book though because a romance between a conquistador and an indigenous woman can easily be written insensitively. However, I do feel like the author did a good job not romanticizing the Spanish conquest of Mexico. In fact, it seemed obvious that what Cortes and his men were doing was wrong from Benicio's point of view. Once Benicio overcame his greed lead by love that didn't even last, he became more likable and redeemable. Unlike the other men around him, Benicio never took advantage of the women or people around him. He only wanted enough wealth to marry his childhood friend and sweetheart.

Benicio and Tula meet on a beach after she witnesses Benicio and another Spanish man fighting. Tula ends up getting caught up in the fight and finds out that Benicio has a valuable ring and a map leading to treasure. For her, a huge treasure could allow her people to afford more food and to not have to give up sacrifices to the Aztec empire. So, Tula lies to the foreigner and makes up her mind to try to get the ring and map from him.

There's also a little steamy scene in the sand and this is when the passion and lust starts to develop between the two characters. However, they can't talk to each other so it ends up going no where for now.

The fact that the two main characters could not really communicate throughout most of the story - Tula ends up learning Spanish near the end and Benicio begins to pick up her native language - did annoy me a little bit. When characters cannot talk to each other, it's hard to develop a meaningful relationship between the couple that goes beyond just lust and having the hots for each other.

By the time we get to the ending of the story, Benicio and Tula are in love and can more or less talk with each other. I felt like the true love aspect was lacking in the build up. It was pretty much just explained in the last chapter but there probably wasn't any other way to do it. I honestly found myself more interested in the plot to free Tula's sister and the other captives from her homeland than in the actual romance. There just wasn't enough time to build up the romance beyond the passion and lust for me to find it as interesting.

Another reason why I picked up this book, is because I'm trying to find more romance novels that have a pagan/polytheist feel to them. So, either books set in the ancient world that acknowledge the pagan gods, or contemporary romances featuring pagan characters. I thought The Spaniard's Innocent Maiden might have some of that in this. The gods are mentioned but they don't play a huge role which is to be expected.

The Spaniard's Innocent Maiden is a pretty decent book and does not glorify the Spanish conquistadors. If you're interested in a story of a Spanish man falling in love with an indigenous woman, you might also like The Queen and the Conqueror on Netflix. I started watching that telenovela this month as well. Although, that story takes place in Colombia.