Becoming Marta

Written by Lorea Canales

Narrated by Marisol Ramirez

Thanks to her wealthy and well-connected family, twenty-six-year-old Marta is used to getting whatever she wants. And what she wants is a good time.

That is, until her father’s wife—the woman who raised her—becomes ill. Beautiful young Marta is forced to witness her unfaithful, brutish father abandon her adoptive mother in her final moments. After her father’s swift remarriage, Marta is surprised to discover that she is now the sole heir of her late mother’s sizeable estate. For the first time, she can choose to cut ties and establish her true self, apart from her parents, her social standing, and the complications of a life of excess. From the balmy beaches of Mexico to New York City, Marta searches for clues to her unconventional heritage and seeks to shed her family’s tradition of secrecy and betrayal as she finds her own way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Gabriel Amor
• Release date: Feb 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781511342865

Lorea Canales

Lorea Canales is a lawyer, journalist, translator, and critically acclaimed novelist. One of the first Mexican women admitted to Georgetown Law, Canales worked in antitrust and electoral law in Washington, DC, and Mexico before joining the newspaper Reforma as a legal correspondent. Since then, Canales has taught law at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, edited for the New York Times Syndicate in its Spanish news service, and worked for Felipe Calderón’s presidential campaign in Mexico. In 2010, Canales received a master’s in creative writing from New York University. She published her novel Apenas Marta (Hardly Marta) in 2011 and Los perros (The Dogs) in 2013. Canales currently lives in New York.

Reviews for Becoming Marta

[arlenadean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My Thoughts...This was some read that you really had to keep up to truly understand what all is going on giving the reader some timeline that was somewhat hard to follow. But in the end this author gives the reader quite a unique way of telling a story. The chapters which were rather short really jumped around quite a bit from character to character. I believe if each chapter had been titled in such a way to let the reader know who that particular [character] was about would have helped a bit with the reading of the story. As the read was presented I found it left the story a little choppy to me. Now, this main character Marta was one complicated person ...all I will say is wow...for she was 'rich, loved to drink the spirits and was simply a spoiled person.' Will Marta ever find a happy ending...maybe becoming a runner will help? I did like how this author presented the descriptions of Mexico's culture. This was definitely a different kind of read for me that really left me thinking...just really what is this story all about? OK, this is one of those kind of reads that may leave you hanging wondering what happened in the end with that abrupt ending...a marathon run? Believe me when I say I was glad for the ending! I read this book free on Kindle First, which allows you to choose one of 6 books the month before they are released.

[mumoftheanimals · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book free for some reason I could not remember. Normally I find that freebieas are missing something but this was the exception. The characters were well-drawn and the descriptions evocative.