I wanted to like this book because St. Augustine is my favorite city in the world. However, the main character was so disappointing that I found I couldn't enjoy the novel. Maria is unappreciative (and undeserving) of her friends, obsessed with wealth, and filled with arrogance. The story's conclusion was less than satisfying with Maria apparently learning little from her pathetic, wasted life. The only characters that make this novel moderately readable are Luciano de Herrera and John Edward.

I couldn't put this book down. After visiting St. Augustine, then reading the book, I was truly walking the streets with Maria. I saw the same building she did and have the same awe for the town as she did. I read this book in two day...I couldn't put it down. Looking for the other two books in the trilogy. Can someone help.

Eugenia Price combined her outstanding writing skills with meticulous research and attention to detail. This was my first introduction to her work -- no one can surpass her mastery of historical fiction. Her work helped me to introduce History as a living thing to my own children.

A very ambitious story in that it tackles a sticky, sort of unknown time in history - 1700's Florida back when it was a ping-pong game between England and Spain over who ruled the territory. That's not the interesting part though. The best part of this book is the character of Maria, or Mary, once the resident of what is now known as St. Augustine's Oldest House. Maria is an intelligent, resourceful, very beautiful woman who is very far ahead of her time. She comes through tragic loss and grief but somehow (you often wonder how) she is back up again, alive and battering life's doors once more. Read the book to know her if nothing else. A few love stories are intertwined as well. Well worth it. The first Price book I ever read and today I've read nearly all.