A BookFest Award Winner
Women's Historical Fiction
Literary-Adventure & Journey
An adventurous and inspiring story of a courageous woman who struggles against social injustice: as a saboteur during the Costa Rican revolution, and later, as wife to an abusive husband. To protect her children, she immigrates to the US.
Never To Forget
is based on a true story of a woman's adventurous struggle to fulfill the promise of love, even from the margins of mid-20th century Costa Rican society and as an immigrant in the US.
Spurned at age five by her mother's admonition that girls can't be soldiers, Bertelina sets out in an adventurous struggle for personal fulfillment to eventually become embroiled in the 1948 Costa Rican revolutionary quest for social justice, and ultimately with women's struggle for self-determination. With the inner strength of a soldier, she grapples to balance the traditional feminine role with her eventual urgency to protect her children after a divorce from an abusive husband. In overcoming social and religious roadblocks, she immigrates to the United States.
After finally fulfilling her aspirations, everything about herself is threatened to be decimated by the devastation of Alzheimer's dementia.
Reader Reviews:
"What an adventure! This woman has guts! I was very gripped by her determination to be a part of the change in her world. She is at once brave, bull-headed, and extremely feminine"... by Kristie L.
"To see someone you love and... go through something that turns them into a shell of a human is really heartbreaking. You wrote these moments really skillfully"...by Monika M.
"... at first seems like a simple tale about a young Costa Rican girl... But as you work through the chapters, enraptured by the authentic and believable dialogue..., you begin to understand how personal, wonderful and adventurous this story really is."... by Dustin B.
"... this breath-taking, sweeping novel, written with intelligence and love, with real, three-dimensional characters and a gripping, believable storyline."... by Kevin G.