Ojalá (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781647197117)

Ojalá, translated as "God willing", is set in the early seventeenth century in Andalusia, Spain and the Mexican Yucatán. The young hero, poor and shy, is attached by her powerful master. The panicked girl manages to defend herself by inflicting a life-threatening injury on her master. She runs away to escape the gallows and during her flight she finds a sailing pass. She cuts her hair and changes into trousers to pass as a boy. She boards the ship headed for the New World. After her femininity is discovered, she becomes the caregiver of María de Montejo, a wealthy child. When the ship makes its first port stop, the two are kidnapped along with a sailor who has secrets of his own. The three are shipwrecked on a beach paradise and the constraints of proper Spanish life soon give way to unadulterated fun.

Through trial and error the three sharpen their survival skills as they learn to trust one other. The castaways are discovered by an indigenous village. The laws of the ancient Maya civilization challenge the Spaniards to examine their own prejudices. Once the girl confronts her own demons with the help of the sailor, she evolves into a confident woman. The two form a surprising partnership that blossoms into love.

On their perilous return to the Spanish culture of Mérida, they refuse to bend to societal discrimination of the Montejo family who rule the Yucatán. The girl is charged with the murder of her master. The shy girl has become a formidable woman who finds the courage to uncover the real culprit if the murder.