The Winds of Sonoma, by Nikki Arana

Angelica Amante has everything a young woman could possibly hope for. She's an up-and-coming lawyer working for a high-profile law office in New York, and she's just been offered the opportunity of a life-time: someone above her passes on, and she's given the chance to accept his caseload and move up in the firm much quicker than is the norm.

All she has to do is buckle down, step up to the plate - and swallow her disgust as she helps companies take advantage of poor, illiterate illegal immigrants who have no rights, no protections, and very little to call hope. Moral objections thought long gone rear their heads, and when Angelica raises her qualms about accepting the cases to her boss, she's suddenly faced with a horrifying and utterly unexpected ultimatum: accept the cases and do her job, or be out of a job - never to work in a New York law firm ever again, black listed for life.

Angelica takes the moral stand and returns home to her parent's ranch, Regalo Grande, without a job, her professional career and resume in tatters, but full of hope: she takes her misfortune as a sign from God to chart a new path, and become a public defender for the same immigrants who want nothing more than to make a living and support their families. However, Angelica is beset with problems as soon as she returns home; her parents are horrified at her decision, considering it to be a wasted opportunity. Her father is in financial deep waters because of medical drug approval that's stalled, her mother is wasting away from an unknown disease, and she's surrounded by rich, comfortable people with very little interest in championing the cause of the poor.

She's awarded her chance to prove herself and test her desire to become a public defender with their new ranch hand, a quiet, hardworking and intriguing young Mexican man named Antonio - who's illegally crossed the U.S. border to find work to support his family back home. However, it's not long before Angelica realizes that something else is brewing between them, and she faces her parents and friends's longstanding prejudices, the underhanded scheming of the chief ranch hand Chick, and her own doubts standing in the way of what she and Antonio might possibly be together.

The Winds of Sonoma, by Nikki Arana, is the best that "chick lit" has to offer: emotional, touching, showing all the power and tenderness that a woman inspired has to offer. However, it also proves a maxim that I've often held to be true: genre means nothing when it's a well written, well told tale, and this is true with Sonoma. The pacing is excellent in this novel; it's upbeat and fast when it needs to be, introspective and brooding without dragging its feet, and you are truly, honestly ticked when Angelica's parent's don't support her. That emotional reaction comes from a writer who knows people, and writes well about them.

This novel is the first in a series, and it stands alone well, while leaving a good leading for the next novel. I heartily recommend this book and its follow-ups; check back in a few months for a review of its sequel, In The Shade of the Jacaranda.

Visit the author's website.