The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova is about a family trying to live with the actions of their matriarch, Orquídea Divina. The Montoya family is used to having to go through life without any explanations from their matriarch. They know better than to ask Orquídea why even though she never leaves her home at Four Rivers, her supplies never seem to run out.
Orquídea sends her family an invitation to her “funeral” with strict instructions they must follow if they want to collect their inheritance. The family is confused because they didn’t know that she was ill or on her deathbed. Reluctantly, the family travels to Four Rivers in hopes to learn the secrets that Orquídea has kept closely guarded their entire lives. When everyone gathers, Orquídea mentions that everyone would be given an inheritance that they must protect and it will protect them in return. Instead of explaining more about her past or the inheritance, Orquídea turns into a ceiba tree, leaving the family to find answers for themselves.
The gifts that her family members Marimar, Rey, and Rhiannon received from Orquídea seven years prior, all have manifested differently for them. Some of them were given special blessings or powers that they can wield. As they try to understand their budding powers, a mysterious figure that Orquídea has warned them about has started to hunt them down. The trio is desperate to save the rest of their remaining family and travel back to Ecuador, where Orquídea hailed from. They hope that they can understand more about their inheritance and why Orquídea fled from Ecuador and never returned.
The book is told from alternating points of views and timelines. It was confusing to keep track of the different characters as there were quite many of them. I didn’t really like any of the characters and it was hard to remember how they each related to the story. Then there were characters that had many pages dedicated to them but didn’t serve any purpose to the main story. The characters felt flat and bland. I wish they were fleshed out a bit more.
The story would jump from the past to the present. I found myself drawn more to Orquídea’s past than the current timeline. I thought it was more interesting and wished that the entire book just contained her life story as it was very interesting to me.
The novel took a bit for me to get into. There would be pages and pages where nothing was happening. I didn’t care for the writing style as it seemed overly wordy and at times I would have to reread the same sentence a few times to understand what the author was trying to portray. I felt like the book was trying too hard and it fell flat for me. I wish the author spent more time explaining some of the magical elements. Instead, we were just told that the magical elements just exist with no further explanation. I can understand why some people would enjoy the book but it wasn’t for me.
