Book Review: The Summer of the Spanish Woman by Catherine Gaskin

Uprooted from their home in Ireland, young Charlotte Drummond and her glamorous mother, Lady Pat, must adjust to life in Jerez, Spain. In Ireland, Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Drummond had access to her ancestral estate but as the circumstances forced she lost it to her lover Richard Selwin, new Lord Blodmore. Though they both were in love but he was manoeuvred to marry someone else. And she being forbidden had to exit, hoping never to return to Ireland and her love. She and her mother find refuge in a crumbling mansion which was once secretly bought by her grandfather.

There where the grapes cluster thick on the hillsides, Charlotte enters the exciting world of sherry vintners. Staunchly she holds her ground against the powerful Marquesa, the legendary feisty Spanish woman her grandfather had loved. And in the arms of Carlos Santander, she tries to forget her own faraway love, never daring to hope he might be hers again.

‘The Summer of the Spanish Woman’ is a terrifying book on love and family intrigue during the war days set, mostly, in Spain. All in all, the book is part romantic; part tragic; impressively a well-written book. Subtly, it is covering the tumultuous days of the Spanish Civil War in the heat of World War II. A compelling story of passion, violence and family conspiracy and engrossing along with a slew of complex characters!

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