I've read almost all of Ruta Sepetys's books and enjoyed every one of them. If I had to rank them, this one would be my least favorite, but it's still a good book! It's set in Spain in 1957 during the rule of dictator General Francisco Franko. The story follows a group of teenagers who have very different lives. One of them is an American tourist and photographer who wants to learn about his mother's home country. The other characters live in Spain and are struggling to survive in a dictatorship. Their lives collide when they all get caught up in an adoption scandal involving kidnapped babies.

I love how the author shows the two sides of Spain. The country relies on tourist dollars, so the government is very concerned with creating a beautiful tourist playground. It's less concerned with the wellbeing of its own citizens. They're living in poverty and doing unethical things to survive.

I vaguely remember learning about the Spanish Civil War in my high school European history class, but I think I learned more from this book than I did in school. That's another thing I love about Ruta Sepetys. She takes little-known bits of history and makes them real. You'll fall in love with these characters. Even though they've had difficult lives, they're still hopeful about their futures.

This book has a steep learning curve. There are a lot of characters, and the author throws you right into the action. I struggled to keep up. I spent about half the book going, Wait, who's that? How are they related? What are they doing? Why am I supposed to care about this person? It took me a long time to feel comfortable with the setting and characters. That's my only criticism. I'll happily pick up whatever Ruta Sepetys writes next.