Carrie: Ana María and the Fox came out back in April but it has taken lo these many months for Shana and I to manage a review. I’m glad this book made it to the top of my TBR, because I found it to be romantic, educational, and entertaining. But I had problems with some plot stuff.
The plot: Ana María and her two sisters, who are the subjects of two upcoming books, are sent to the safety of London during the French occupation of Mexico. Their father, a powerful Mexican politician, has arranged a marriage for Ana María with a man in Mexico, and tasked the sisters with staying out of the public eye while in England.
However, the uncle who is supposed to look after them is a diplomat with a better strategic idea – get the sisters into society so that people will learn more about what is happening in Mexico and will sympathize with the Mexicans over the French. In the course of fulfilling this mission the sisters grow closer together and begin to challenge the limitations and identities placed upon them by their father.
Ana María is charmed by Gideon Fox, a member of Parliament who is working to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. Gideon is equally charmed by Ana María. However, they both have roles to play involving the governing of their countries and the dynamics of their families that make marriage impossible. Cue sexual tension.
Shana: I started Ana María and the Fox when I needed a book to distract me, and it was perfect for that purpose. I love historical romances with sparkling dialogue and characters getting into good trouble—this book has both. I burned through it quickly and I’m ready for a sequel!
Carrie: I liked that this book brought multiple historical threads together (Mexican independence, the American Civil War, the British slave trade). As is often my experience with historical fiction, my favorite part was the Author’s Note, because I am a nerd.
Shana: I loved the historical setting too! Ana María has been training to be a good political wife her entire life, a pawn in the plans of her powerful father. But her engagement to a boring (Carrie: And cheating!) Mexico City politician is interrupted by the war.
I loved seeing Ana María seize her first taste of freedom, speaking her mind without fear of her father’s reaction, and going to scandalous lectures on Darwin’s theory of evolution. She knows this part of her life in London is only temporary, but when she meets the intense Mr. Fox at a ball, sparks fly and it’s hard for her to remember that she’s technically still engaged. Oops.
Before he met Ana María, Gideon Fox was leading a disciplined life where he’s known for rarely smiling. He’s the grandson of a former slave, and devotes all his time to trying to end the slave trade. That means making waves in Parliament and trying to make allies in society. Gideon’s all work and no play, but his sternness is no match for Ana María’s teasing barbs or her loud laughs that cut across London’s hushed parlors. I’m a woman of color whose cackling has received many rebukes over the years, and I loved that Ana María wasn’t cowed by stuffy British society. For Gideon, being associated with a Mexican heiress who’s already made enemies among the snooty ton won’t help his anti-slavery bill. Too bad he can’t help coming to her rescue, again…and again.
I like when characters are torn between love and duty. Ana María and the Fox gave me a double helping of one of my favorite dynamics. Plus, so much slow burning and banter!
Ed. note: Please be advised that the rest of this review is a more in-depth conversation about plot points, with potential and actual spoilers in the discussion.
Click here to jump to the end of the review and skip the spoiler parts.
Carrie: Ana María and her sister have been raised to be quiet statues of decorum. But being away from their parents, especially their father, gives them the freedom to reinvent themselves and also their relationship with each other. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the sisters before and after, and more of them working as a team, because I LOVE tropes about self-actualization and sisterhood.
I also liked that there were actual reasons for Ana María and Gideon not to be together, not just miscommunication or misunderstanding but concrete barriers to overcome, and they weren’t all magically vanquished. Ana María and Gideon are still going to struggle as people of color in a racist, imperialist society. Not everything will be easy for them, but they accept that and are able to face these difficulties as a team.
Shana: I liked the sisterhood bond too! Especially how it shifted once they were outside of the influence of their father. You really see their relationship develop over the book.
Carrie: Shana, what did you think about the whole:
Marriage of convenience/kidnapping thing? I thought it was like the obligatory big fight at the end of every Marvel production – just kinda stuck in there to make a lot of threads resolve with a big kaboom. I did not believe that the Earl would carry out this particular scheme. His style seemed to be more stealthy – blackmail, bribes, that kind of thing. The plot would never have held up and it didn’t go with the rest of the story. So – not my favorite part of the book, for sure.
Shana: There’s definitely a tone shift halfway through the book from drawing room flirting/politics to more of an adventure feel. I love it when characters get married midway into the story, so I was delighted to see a marriage of convenience make its way into the plot. But is it really a convenience when these two are already so obsessed with each other?
I’m not sure what it says about me, but I thought the ridiculousness with the Earl was entirely within the realm of possibility for that dude. He just reeked of entitlement.
I think what made it believable for me was that early in the book he seemed willing to threaten a British noblewoman with the expectation that there’d be little blowback. If he’d do that, it was easy for me to believe that he’d blackmail a Mexican woman, or threaten a Black man. Because who would believe them? Also, that part of the plot involved spies, and everyone knows wacky shit happens in romances where spies are involved.
Carrie: Well, I certainly thought he was evil enough, and entitled enough, and I believed that his standing as a rich and powerful White dude would get him out of anything. In fact, I’m surprised he didn’t ultimately buy his way out of trouble.
Shana: Speaking of, what did you think of Ana María’s younger sister, Isabel? Isabel pops up regularly as sequel bait but I found her pretty incompetent compared to Ana.
The book alludes to Isabel having a secret mission, but we’re never told exactly who she is working for. She is caught snooping at people’s houses at least twice during the book and is outsmarted by a fellow spy who might be a future love interest. Given how often she gets caught, Isabel seems like a totally ineffective spy. How did Ana María get to be such an amazing politician but Isabel didn’t learn to notice when someone’s watching her? I had trouble believing anyone would enlist Isabel as a spy, and her storyline leaves a lot of loose ends.
Carrie: Isabel has only been spying for like five minutes. She needs more practice. Also more finesse. I assume the next book will be an enemies-to-lovers romance, and that’s a trope that I usually dislike although every now and then it’s done SO WELL that I adore it. So we shall see. Maybe her fellow spy will teach her some things, such as the importance of looking around a room to see if anyone is sitting in it before you start opening drawers.
Conclusion
Carrie: How would you grade this? Any observations to add?
Shana: I would probably give Ana María and the Fox an A-. I loved everything about the main couple’s romance—the sexy banter, the delicious slow burn, the competency porn with real obstacles to overcome, and how their pairing made sense as they uncover everything they have in common. This felt like a grown folks romance between two smart people who learn how to have fun together. But the shift in tone midway through the book from drawing room politics to adventure story is a little awkward.
Carrie: I’d give it a B+. I thought it had some structural issues (see: change of tone). Sometimes it moved too slow, other times it moved too fast. But I’m happy to give it an A- as the official grade because Ana María and Gideon have such a great friendship as well as romance and because the historical details were so deftly woven into the story.
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I listened to a podcast episode a while back about the French occupation of Mexico that taught me a lot of history I’d never known before, so the setting for this caught my attention right away. I headed straight over to my library site to place a hold, only to be told I have too many holds (so many of them from SBTB reviews/posts). I was planning to pick up some books today anyway, so I can put it on hold later.
Yess this is on my TBR!
I honestly don’t think I’ve read a romance involving France’s occupation of Mexico since… good lord… can it be? Yes, SWEET SAVAGE LOVE.
@DonnaMarie, you are in good company!