This was an interesting one for me, in that it took me literally months to read the first third of the book. I was not connecting with Valentina at all. She didn't seem to have too much of a personality at the beginning...I felt like I was just reading about her poor miserable life and seeing her revisit the past over and over and over in her head. Except, she wasn't even revisiting the past concretely. She was hung up on one event and feeling sorry for herself because she didn't have the money and the easy life she did before. There was really nothing about her that made me think, "Oh poor Valentina -- I wonder how things turn up for her." 
 Until about halfway through the book. It was almost night and day for me. There comes a point in the story where Valentina decides to stop waiting and to take action. THIS is where the story begins. 
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