Into the Beautiful North- Urrerra (Book #54)

Wow, two books in a row that were riveting from start to finish. This is a story of a small town Tres Camarones, a sleepy coastal town where all the men have left to go North to find work leaving women and children behind. A group of drug cartel people discover this hidden nook and decide to take over. With no men to defend Nayeli, a teenage girl in the village decides, they must go to the U.S and bring back men to repopulate the village and kick out the bad guys. She assembles a small posse with the blessing of Auntie Irma, the town Mayor.

The story follows their struggle to the US and is more about the journey than the ultimate resolution of the story. Urrerra writes very well and I enjoyed this novel very much. The characters are so real and believable that I had to stay up until 2am to see them through. I would love to read more about them to learn how their lives ended up. I particularly love that the woman was portrayed as strong and brave and the leader of the pack.

My only complaint with this novel was the premise of why they had to leave was not adequately laid out. We knew some bad people came but we did not see much example of what happened to perciptiate such a dramatic reaction. It would have been nice to have some chapters devotecd to what was happening back home to help create more tension and a sense of understanding as to why they chose the steps they did.

Still, the novel is really good and I highly recommend it.