Obsession (Year of Fire)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obsession (Year of Fire)

by Florencia Bonelli

Released in English: 7/23/13

 

 

I absolutely loved this very long and suspenseful book!    It is a whopping 611 pages so it has plenty of time to develop all the characters.   The main female character is Matilde, a pediatric surgeon, who is from Buenos Aires, Argentina.   She is in the airport, about to go to Paris to learn French, with her best friend and fellow doctor, Juana.  They are taking an intensive French language class to prepare for a trip to the Congo, where they plan to work as medical missionaries.   On the flight, Matilde meets Eliah Al-Saud, who is a Saudi Arabian prince with an Italian mother, who principally lives in France.   He is a great character, with many facets to his life, his past and his character. Of course, he is a very strong, very protective male who takes over the young doctor's life in a short time. He was a military pilot and now is involved in many secretive military activities.   Matilde is very beautiful, smart but vulnerable and they fall in love fast, despite their many differences.  It turns out that their families have known each other for many years, which brings complications.   One of the many things I like about this book is that even though it has the typical storyline of a not so wealthy younger woman with an older, wealthy man, they both have been married before meeting. Also, the author does a wonderful job describing the many locales in which the story takes place, including Paris, London, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and more. The story has a lot of dramatic twists and turns and plenty of steamy scenes.  The book also has a host of secondary characters to make the story interesting, including Juana, Matilde's BFF, Eliah's friend, Shiloah, who is an Israeli politician, Roy, Maltilde's husband and good friend of her father, Celine, Matilde's sister and a top European model.  Both Eliah and Matilde keep secrets from each other, that come out near the end of the story, leading to some dramatic consequences which set up the next part of the trilogy, which takes place in the Congo. The Spanish version of Obsession (Year of Fire) book came out about two years ago and the second part of the trilogy is also out in Spanish.  I looked all over for news of the Congo book being translated, but can't find it.  I hope it is translated soon. The third part is called Gaza, and I can't find it in Spanish or English, yet.  I really look forward to reading the rest of this great love story.

 

 Ms. Bonelli is from Argentina and writes her books in Spanish, so this book was translated with mostly good results.  Some of the translation is a bit off, such as Eliah refers to his mom as his "old lady."  To native English speakers, old lady commonly refers to a girlfriend, not a mother.  But, all in all, the translation is well done.   And, for the  $3.99 on Amazon, you can have many hours of reading fun!  Obsession (Year of Fire) can be bought on Amazon and from other booksellers.  It is called Caballo de Fuego in the Spanish version, which means "Horse of Fire," which refers to the type of Chinese zodiac sign he was born under and his secret name he uses at work.

 

 

FIVE STARS