Customer Reviews

The Sacred Well: A Novel

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I have been to Mexico on two separate occasions and not once have I been to visit the Chichen Itza ruins. Now I am seriously regretting that decision and the destination is going on my PLACES TO VISIT BEFORE I DIE list. This historical novel tells the true story of Alma Reed, a reporter in 1920s San Francisco that after saving the life of young Mexican boy on death row, makes an archealogy expedition to the ruins. She uncovers shocking information and hears incredible Mayan legends as well as begins a heartbreaking romance with Felipe, the governor of Yucatan, a married man. While learning about Alma and the moral dilemmas she faced in Mexico, readers are also introduced to a modern day heroine, Sage. Sage is writing about Alma and facing some similar choices. She has a partner of twelve years that has become a demanding, bed ridden patient rather than a supportive lover. When a man named David sweeps her off her feet, Sage must make some hefty decisions not unlike those of Alma. She must choose between Mark and David. Will she follow a path like Alma chose?

I really enjoyed this. It was a quick, light, easy read with great research put into it. The descriptions were "just right," not too much nor too little. I managed to feel like I was in Mexico wearing a flapper dress and it didn't take Ms. May 5 paragraphs of descriptive details to accomplish that. A good read. I think it could have done completely without the modern day heroine and not lost a beat.

Alma Reed, the real-life subject of the Mayan/Mexican history in this novel, was an "Indiana Jones" of her time. A bright, tough, determined and funny woman who tests her mettle in the midst of the Mexican Wars of the early twentieth century, Alma "discovers" the Yucatan and the Maya. She finds their history and archaeology and lives it with her relationship with, Filipe, the forward thinking Governor of Yucatan. Their story is exciting, romantic and tragic.

May uses the structure of a contemporary travel writer learning about Alma Reed while having a drink in a Merida bar during a trip to the Yucatan. David Winslow, the man who tells the writer, "Sage Sanborn", about Reed becomes a reseach/romantic partner in contrast to Sanborn's long-term relationship with a brilliant attorney, now dying of cancer.

The balance of the two women's narratives, both told in the first person, is perfect. Neither detracts from the other, but adds to the intensity of conflicts as Sanborn experiences Alma's trail and reveals her own passage. Each must discover and accept her goals, to grasp priorities, and to believe in them.

Fortyish travel writer Sage Sanborn is in Mexico's Yucatan on a writing assignment to describe romantic spots in the Peninsula. During a storm, she rushes inside a tavern in Merida. There she meets David Winslow who asks her to join him for a drink. They listen to a local band play a haunting love song that David insists was written by a former states governor.

In 1923 Yucatan Governor Felipe Carillo Puerto and American female journalist Alma Reed met and fell in love. She reported the plundering of Mayan artifacts, which angers some locals. Soon afterward Felipe is assassinated; Alma blames herself for the murder of her beloved as her article led to his death.

Sage returns to San Francisco where her boyfriend Mark lives to write the heartbreaking story of Felipe and Alma. However, she also misses David and considers returning to him and the Yucatan.

SACRED WELL is an intriguing premise of an American female reporter investigating the true life story of Alma Reed. The two subplots eight plus decades apart are fascinating to follow especially the historical based on the tragic love between Alma and Felipe. Although the contemporary lacks the excitement of the 1920s, fans will enjoy this fine tale of a modern American journalist searching for what her counterpart found in 1923 in the Yucatan.

Harriet Klausner

I recently finished reading this novel and LOVED EVERY PART OF IT!!! Antoinette May is a superb storyteller. I became fully engrossed in reading this novel, hardly able to put it down. The characters are saturated and three dimensional and ones you grow to care about and want to learn more about as the novel progresses.

I also loved reading about two very strong, leading ladies as main characters in this book.... I've never been to the Yucatan peninsula before, but now I want to make a visit there and see the ancient ruins talked about in this novel. If you love historical fiction, then I think you'll enjoy this book.

Antoinette May's Sacred Well takes us on an exciting journey to romantic Mexico, today and long ago. Our guide is a sophisticated reporter aptly named Sage, who, like many women today, loves her exciting job, but must choose between giving herself wholeheartedly to her work, or tending to obligations of the heart. Sage has been with her lawyer lover for ten years, and now he has cancer. How much of a commitment does she owe him? Should she give up an opportunity to travel and write? Weary of being a caretaker, (Where is his family?) she takes a break to trace the heroic steps of an early journalist who was perhaps more daring, and whose love for a controversial (and married) Mexican governor seems more passionate and romantic than her own. As in real life, complications arise; a man who is as intelligent and sensitive as Sage courts her, offering her what her ill lover cannot, a future, but if Sage is true to her commitment, might she in the end be stronger for it? Sage's story stands in contrast to the exciting and colorful Alma Reed's, but her quiet strength is heroic too. Today's readers will love them both. Like May's previous novel, Pilate's Wife, this story gives us a lot to think about as she skilfully takes us to exotic places, to a fabled past that really happened.

Antoinette May's "The Sacred Well" is about two women. One is Alma Reed, an aged 27 girl from early 20th century. She is one of the first female writers who is sent on an archeological expedition to find the true meaning behind the ruins of Yucatan. She is bright, determined, polished and intriguing. The second woman is Sage Sanborn, an aged 40s woman and present day novelist who finds herself researching Alma's previous life because it so resembles her own. She discovers ties to Alma's life while on an expedition in Mexico while writing for her travel magazine. She soon is hired to write a biography of Ms Alma Reed's life.

May focuses on Alma's story more closely, as we watch her life explained in depth. She falls in love with the governor of Yucatan, knowing that he is married and with children. He claims he is separated from his wife, but this does little to suppress her guilty desires. The love story between the two is intricate and tragic.

In the background of the novel, we also see Sage's love life unravel. She has been with the same man for over 10 years, but they've yet to marry. He is an accomplished lawyer, but has come down with terminal cancer. She is balancing making her own life have substance while caring for the man that she loves. While on her solo travel trip to Mexico, she meets irresistable David- a scientist from abroad who is enticed by Sage's looks, elegance, and intellegence. Will they end up falling in love even though Sage already has a sick lover at home in the USA? Can any of this end happily?

May is very detailed in her descriptions of Yucatan and its cultures. I can almost see the pictures that she describes, and am led to believe that May has actually been to these places. She is not, however, very detailed in her personal relationships between the characters. Throughout the story, I was under the impression that Sage's husband is a very good, gentle and kind man. Though, nearing the end of the story, May mentions that Sage's husband has been very mean to her- due to the cancer. I did not gather that he was spiteful at all and was surprised that Sage felt burdened by his temper at times.

It was also difficult for me to put one story on hold while I was reading the other. It took me a bit longer than is usual to read this novel, because at times I lost interest in the muddle of the details of Alma and Sage's surroundings. Having never been to these exotic places, I couldn't quite grasp the feelings that I'm sure May wanted me to have.

This novel was very lovely. I still think about it, being two days after I finished it. There were some things that weren't to my exact liking, but overall, it was worth the read.