Books › The Sands of Time
The Sands of Time
First published 1988 · 427 pages
A sweeping, high-stakes romantic thriller that throws sheltered women into a dangerous world of political rebellion and forbidden passion.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like settling in for a blockbuster 1980s miniseries, complete with sweeping landscapes, breathless escapes, and larger-than-life melodrama. The narrative moves at a propulsive, relentless clip, dragging you alongside its protagonists as they are thrust from cloistered silence into a chaotic, sun-baked world of political violence and forbidden romance. It is a deeply sensational and cinematic experience, leaning heavily into high-stakes tension and passionate emotional awakenings. The prose is straightforward and unpretentious, designed entirely to keep the pages turning and the plot twisting. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave old-school, globe-trotting romantic thrillers where survival, crisis of faith, and dramatic reinvention collide on an epic scale.
- Mood
- cinematic
- tense
- passionate
- dangerous
- Tone
- melodramatic
- suspenseful
- sensational
- earnest
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- loss of innocence · survival and resilience · forbidden desire · crisis of faith · political upheaval
- The writing
- Cinematic and highly accessible, prioritizing relentless plot momentum and dramatic reveals over literary flourish.
- The arc
- Plunges from sheltered innocence into sudden terror, building toward worldly awakening, passionate romance, and hard-won survival.
- Who it's for
- Fans of sweeping, globe-trotting romantic thrillers who crave high stakes, melodrama, and dramatic character transformations.
Content notes
- political violence
- sexual assault
- religious trauma
- murder
About the book
Spain. A land of eternal passion and unceasing bloodshed. From the vengeance of a pitiless tyrant, four women flee the sacred, once-safe walls of a convent: LUCIA, the proud survivor harboring a murderous secret from the savage clan wars of Sicily...GRACIELLA, the beauty still unpurged of guilt from one reckless, youthful sin...MEGAN, the orphan seeking perilous refuge in the arms of a defiant Basque rebel...and TERESA, the believer haunted by a faith that mocks her with silence. Leaving innocence but not hope behind, they venture into an alien, dazzling world, where each will encounter an unexpected destiny -- and the truth about herself.
When four nuns are forced to flee their Spanish convent in 1976 to face a hostile world, they find themselves pawns in a violent struggle between the outlawed Basque underground movement and the Spanish army under the command of Colonel Ramon Acoca, who is bent on destroying them all.
The author's other books include "If Tomorrow Comes", "Master of the Game", "Rage of Angels", "Bloodline" and "Windmill of the Gods".
Description from Open Library.
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