The Sacred Well

by Antoinette May

Book Overview

A young reporter in 1923, Alma Reed accompanies archaeologists to the ruins of Chichen Itza, where a fortune in Mayan artifacts has been stolen from a sacrificial well. It's believed a curse was unleashed by the theft--yet the career-making story it offers the ambitious journalist seems a godsend. It also leads her to a passionate love affair with revolutionary governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto. But when fate darkens their lives and damns them as doomed political pawns, Alma can't help but wonder if the curse is not, in fact, very real. In another century, another writer is fascinated by Alma's tragic story. Drawn restlessly to Yucatán--and away from the stifling needs of her desperately ill partner--Sage Sanborn is tempted by her growing feelings for David, a scientist who encourages her to delve deeper into Alma's history. And in this ancient place of mystery and spirits, Sage must make an impossible decision that will forever change the course of her life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061695556
• ISBN13: 9780061695551
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Hard Choices

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.

A 1920s Lady Reporter, Mayan Ruins, And Forbidden Love

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.

A rollercoaster of Mayan/Mexican history

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.

intriguing premise

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