I don't think I would have ordinarily picked up this book myself, but my book club chose it as the January pick, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected. It has a bit more of a slow pace, and we mostly follow Tere's journey in Spain, which produces more questions than answers for her. Instead, she meets a crew of people who help solidify who she is, what she cares about, and what she wants to do. The story is all about self discovery and it was really really nice to read about it in relation to a 60-year-old; it's never too late to pivot in life. And Tere was just so fun to read about and follow. She's 60, but she has many tattoos; is an educated professor but is open to mysticism. She's so kind and open, and she really made the story come together. Despite there not being a lot of explosive action, I was never bored when reading this book. It was actually quite refreshing to read such a philosophical, comforting book amidst my usual action, high stakes reads.

The dialogue took me a few pages to get into because it didn't seem wholly realistic, but that feeling went away fast. The writing serves its purpose very well, and nothing stood out to me as sounding weird. The plot has an emphasis on religion but not in a preaching type of way, which I liked. Tere has lots of opinions about the church and holds a soft spot for her saintly ancestor. I enjoyed learning more about the history of Saint Teresa, who I had not heard of before this.