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The Sisterhood, by Helen Bryan
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Menina Walker was a child of fortune. Rescued after a hurricane in South America, doomed to a life of poverty with a swallow medal as her only legacy, the orphaned toddler was adopted by an American family and taken to a new life.
As a beautiful, intelligent woman of nineteen, she is in love, engaged, and excited about the future—until another traumatic event shatters her dreams. Menina flees to Spain to bury her misery in research for her college thesis about a sixteenth-century artist who signed his works with the image of a swallow—the same image as the one on Menina’s medal.
But a mugging strands Menina in a musty, isolated Spanish convent. Exploring her surroundings, she discovers the epic sagas of five orphan girls who were hidden from the Spanish Inquisition and received help escaping to the New World. Is Menina’s medal a link to them, or to her own past? Did coincidence lead her to the convent, or fate?
Both love story and historical thriller, The Sisterhood is an emotionally charged ride across continents and centuries.
- Sales Rank: #719 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-04-30
- Released on: 2013-04-30
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"There is much to admire in Helen Bryan's second novel … the research that Bryan has invested in this novel shows, making the historical parts of the book a fascinating look at 16th-century Spain and early South America. Those who love romance and like to explore alternatives to the overtly male-centered version of Christianity would like this book." —Historical Novels Review
"The author kept me on the edge of my seat ... I cannot wait to read more." —Night Owl Reviews, 4 ½ stars Top Pick
About the Author
After ten years as a barrister, Helen Bryan left law to write full time. In 2003, she received the Award of Merit from the Colonial Dames of America for her biography Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty. Her first work of historical fiction, War Brides, was a bestseller on Amazon. She is also the author of the law handbook Planning Applications and Appeals. Raised in Tennessee and Virginia, she currently resides in London with her family.
Most helpful customer reviews
429 of 444 people found the following review helpful.
A saga that spans twenty centuries and three continents
By J. Chambers
Author Helen Bryan has hit a home run with her sprawling saga, The Sisterhood. The novel is composed of two intertwined stories, with one story played out against the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, the other taking place in modern times. The modern story followed Menina Walker, who had been rescued from the sea off the coast of South America, taken to an orphanage run by Catholic nuns, and later adopted by an American family. The older story was the remarkable tale of a remote Spanish monastery that sent several nuns and four young girls on a perilous voyage to the New World, along with a special treasure that had great significance for the monastery. The two stories converged when the now grown-up Menina, her dreams shattered after a broken engagement, fled to Spain to do research for her college thesis. Due to a disastrous series of events after her arrival, she ended up stranded in a crumbling old monastery filled with elderly nuns. She soon learned, however, that her misfortune may have been serendipitous, since the monastery could hold some clues to her own origins. Ultimately, her discoveries threatened to shake the foundations of the Christian church to its core, but may also offer a path to peace between warring religions.
Kudos to the author for writing a marvelous piece of historical fiction, one that seamlessly blended a very compelling story with an authentic historical backdrop of the tumultuous 16th century, when the Inquisition terrorized all in its path. The four young girls the Las Golondrinas monastery sent to the New World would have been burned as heretics had the nuns not sent them away to Spanish America. The Sisterhood was really their story, as they adapted to their strange new home while the nuns searched for husbands for them. More than four centuries later, Menina Walker read their stories in the book she was given by the South American monastery's Abbess when she was adopted, and made the connections to some musty old paintings found in the Spanish monastery.
The Sisterhood was one of those rare novels where I raced to the last chapter, but hated to see the book end. It had great stories, characters I really got to know and care about, and a stunning outcome.
191 of 204 people found the following review helpful.
A Book You Will Devour... and then it will Really Bug You.
By K. Varraso
... at least I did. And then I was sad that the story didn't go on.
In 1983, after the worst hurricane that South America has seen in years, a boat is found washed up on shore. Inside is a sunburned toddler, naked except for a small medallion on a chain wound around her neck. The medallion is of a swallow, the symbol of a nearby convent and orphanage. She is brought to the decrepit orphanage that lacks everything but love for the children in their care, The child's story of survival is so miraculous that reporters take her photograph for the worldwide press, but then life goes back to normal.
Until an American couple sees the photo and makes the trek to the way-way-way off the beaten path convent to adopt the child in the photo. They name her Menina, which means lady-in-waiting. Little Menina Walker heads back to the United States with her medallion and an old book embossed with the same swallow as on the medallion, a gift from the convent, with the instructions that she read the book at some time after she turns sixteen. The Walkers head home with their new daughter who is American in every way but her appearance, which is Hispanic to the core.
Menina's story winds back and forth with the story of the Spanish Inquisition and how it affects the nuns contained in the Chronicle, part of the book that she had been given by the nuns when she was adopted. Little does she know that the Chronicle and rest of the book will do more than change her life: it will change the way the world views itself and its Creator forever.
That's enough from me -- I don't want to give away any of the story and spoil it. I did have some complaints - that some of the sub-threads never amounted to anything, and one big huge complaint that is a major spoiler. Enough of a gotcha that I changed the review from five stars (which it deserves for its wonderful and engaging writing) to three (because this is an error of major proportions). If you insist, you can see the spoiler at the end of this review.
Still, I would absolutely recommend reading this book on a day when you have no other obligations: I thought I'd read a chapter or two each day until I finished "The Sisterhood." Hah! I was up until 4:30 am reading, until I had read every word. It helps if you know something about the history of the Inquisition, and the conquering of Moorish Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, who immediately changed it to the very Catholic nation it is today. I found myself remembering some of my catechism and the religious lessons I learned in childhood as well as some European history I learned in college. This book definitely requires a reader who wants to think, not just absorb a story passively. I definitely winced at the violence of the Inquisition and the general behavior of some of the story's men from that time to this. No matter, the story is compelling enough that I was able to deal with the cruelty that is so much a part of this story. Read it. It will bind you into "The Sisterhood" too.
**** Spoiler Below ****
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***** Do you really want to spoil some of the story? If so, it's below *****.
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Sorry to be the bringer of bad news. I hate having to write things like this spoiler.
SPOILER: Contained in the Chronicle is a gospel of the childhood of Jesus Christ which conflicts with everything taught by mainstream Christianity. The child Jesus is vindictive and sometimes murders or maims those who are cruel to him and their families, enough so that the other kids are afraid of him. He also heals the sick and dying and confuses the Rabbis who are lectured to by a youth who seems to know more about their faith than they do, as is more mainstream. I found it really hard to wrap my head around that one. The real stunner is this: Mary,the ever-virgin mother of God, and the link between Man and God didn't remain a virgin. (Poor St. Joseph is never mentioned) Jesus has a sister. One who looks like Jesus, acts like Jesus and shows a hint of the same power that Jesus has. How did this ever get past the editors!?!?!
Much of the book worries about the reaction of the Catholic Church to a book which makes such claims. Supposedly, the gospel in the book was contemporaneous with the life of Christ, and was originally written down before the Council of Nicea, the 4th century one that proclaimed Mary, the mother of Jesus, Holy and Ever-Virgin, able to intercede for us to Jesus, her son and ONLY CHILD. At one point some people from a shadowy ultra-conservative Catholic organization (Opus Deii??) are chasing after Menina, eager to seize the book and the medallion, which was supposedly created by Jesus to give to his sister. They follow her from the orphanage in South America to the US to Spain and then ... they just disappear. Although they put up many wanted posters for Menina, no one ever seems to tell them where she is. We hear no more about them because the gospel story just happens to be publicized by Menina's childhood friend who just happens to be a crack reporter (at age 22!!??). The New York Times picks up this newly minted but amazingly reputable journalist's story as fact and without any further investigation, they publicize the Chronicle and the new Gospel around the world.
The convent where the Chronicle originated is not questioned or excommunicated or anything by the Catholic authorities. This is a different Catholic Church than the one I have been in my entire life, which would have had some problems with the whole "other gospel." Jesus as a Murderer?! Mary with more than one child? Jesus' little sister starting a religious order which survives to this day?? And not a peep from the Vatican!?!?! No Way. All this is left unanswered and left me feeling more than a little bothered by the whole main premise of the book. Menina and her sweetie are just left to help make the convent into a UNESCO World Heritage Site and museum without even a whisper from Rome?! Perhaps it's because today is the day that Pope Francis I was elected, but I cannot imagine that such a conservative body would take all that information in stride.
Minor nit: All this stuff happens and the Spanish convent is awash in money from selling copies of the Chronicle and medallion and some art that just happens to be waiting for Menina, a brand new Art History student to find. Anyway, the convent is a World Heritage Site and all that but they don't give one dime to their sister convent in South America, which kept the Chronicle safe from the Inquisition and the Church for five hundred years. Not Even a Thank You. That was the place that took care of Menina until she was adopted by the Walkers, and even they forget to send a Euro their way. sheesh. It is minor, but it bugged me after being drained from reading an otherwise amazingly well written story. (My big concerns about the Roman Catholic Church came to me afterward)
285 of 301 people found the following review helpful.
The Sisterhood
By N. Cousino
The Sisterhood is about a young woman in the present named Menina who knows nothing about a mysterious chronicle and medal that she inherited from a nun when her parents adopted her. Her search leads her across countries and centuries, spanning the globe and time as she learns the truth about her mysterious possessions and her own identity and reveals a secret that will impact the world. Along the way she experiences and learns about love, betrayal, loyalty, forgiveness, redemption and faith.
While the story was very interesting and in certain parts reminded me a little bit of The Da Vinci Code, the writing style in areas seems a bit unpolished. I found the beginning of the book difficult to get into- I didn't think it was a smooth transition into the real `meat' of the story. There are a lot of little side stories that make up the bulk of the book that can get a bit confusing, taking place in different times and locations. I found the ending rather abrupt and disappointing - after the big `secret' is discovered, they just wrap up the story neatly at the end as if it's not that big of a deal. Too many parts of the story are just difficult to swallow and seem incomplete. I think this could have been written better - made a bit longer and more interesting.
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