Isabel Allende starts a new book every January 8th. Who knows what literary gem she is shaping for us as you are reading this review? I bet the protagonist is a beautiful Latin woman with a historical or cultural mystery to solve, and the journey to truth is wrought with romance, adventure and empowerment, whether magical or real.

If this sounds like the reasons you love her many novels, then her latest must be on your TBR list. Even if you haven’t spent any time with Allende or her marvelous families, this book is for you. It’s a perfect introduction to the compelling oeuvre of one of the planet’s most respected novelists.

MY NAME IS EMILIA DEL VALLE is a rollicking adventure about a woman looking for her long-absent birth father across two continents. Emilia is raised in a heavily growing San Francisco, alongside her revenge-seeking mother, Molly, and her very kind Chilean stepfather. Her mother met her birth father while living at a Catholic orphanage where she was hoping to take her vows. When the naughty father figure impregnated her with Emilia, Molly departed the orphanage.

"MY NAME IS EMILIA DEL VALLE is one more successful notch on [Allende's] writing belt and is sure to be a hit with fans and newcomers alike."

Soon Emilia is grown up, working as a correspondent for The Daily Examiner, when she is assigned to follow a shipment of armaments to Chile where a horrific civil war continues to escalate. Paired with the brother of her first lover, Emilia takes dares and gambles her reputation and life on the high stakes of wartime journalism. Hoping to track down her father, she finds real love and terrifying circumstances mixed with the truth of her family’s legacy.

There are few authors who combine historical fact and romantic fiction better than Allende. The sweeping scope of her stories and the very personal way they’re told put her novels in a class all by themselves. Emilia and her adventurous spirit bring a compelling taste of romance and drama on top of the historical lessons we learn about the burgeoning city of San Francisco during the Gold Rush, as well as an orphan girl’s life in an American Catholic facility. Although there is no magic in Emilia’s life, what this young protagonist brings to the page doesn’t need interstellar intervention.

“Our neighbors in the Mission District wondered when I was going to marry and start my own family; they had already labeled me as an old maid. 'There must be something wrong with that girl if she hasn’t been able to find a husband yet…men don’t want a woman who knows more than them and doesn’t even try to hide it,' they whispered.” Allende makes it very clear that her lead character is pushing against so many societal standards that she barely should be able to move, yet Emilia puts herself out in the world. Her every move supports Allende’s ideals of what a woman should be --- brave, bold, uncompromising --- and this story is an outstanding girl power vehicle for all readers.

Frances Riddle is the translator who brings Allende’s poetic Spanish-language artistry to English-speaking audiences, and she deserves a lot of credit for doing so. I believe that Allende is the only writer who has had themselves portrayed in full Barbie doll form. Wearing a smart red dress and holding a copy of her debut novel, Allende’s lookalike smiles broadly and exudes the personality and elegance for which she is so well known. MY NAME IS EMILIA DEL VALLE is one more successful notch on her writing belt and is sure to be a hit with fans and newcomers alike.