The gift comes at an awkward moment, when the king is absent and an attack from a neighboring kingdom threatens her home. While she is only a child, as soon as the attacking king learns of her new powers, he wants to harness them for himself and he tries to detain her. To prevent that from happening, Solimar flees the castle and tries to find her father so she can warn him. She hopes that he'll find allies, beat back the attackers, and also save the butterflies. An epic voyage through uncharted waterways awaits!
Like all of Ryan's other novels, this one has a distinctly Hispanic flavor and the setting is vaguely Mexican. That is manifested mostly through terms, titles, and foods, but also the context (the attack occurs while Solimar is planning her quince). I always enjoy this stylistic twist in her books although in this case it would have been nice to have a glossary at the back to help with less familiar terms.
More problematically, I didn't enjoy the story very much. Unlike many of her novels, the stress here is on action. Character development gets a very short shrift. Solimar is supposed to go through a great transformation in her ordeal, but I didn't understand what it really was and I actually didn't care much either. As for the action, it isn't well told, often requiring reading and re-reading passages to understand what is happening. There's a lot going on and never a dull moment but it is hard to follow. Definitely not in the same class as Ryan's Esperanza Rising or Becoming Naomi Leon.
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