Rating: 
Summary: Classic Allende
Review: Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune is a tale of love and deception, a deception that is often self-imposed. Perhaps its greatest strength are the gastronomic and herbalist details that Allende, with her charteristic style, blends together to make a potent concoction for the reader. Although it masquerades as a tale of adventure it is truly a tale of self-discovery. Those who are fans of Allende will find that this book does not disapoint. Personally I felt that the development of the characters in the begining of the novel was far more complete than the truncated final chapters that lacked depth. Therefore I could not give it the maximum 5 stars. Nonetheless, it is an interesting read and one worth purchasing (on sale, if possible).
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but not riveting
Review: This is my first read by Allende and I was not disappointed. Her writing style is above many other popular literary writers and her story lines well plotted. However, none of the characters here pulled me into them, feeling for them or even caring enough as to what happened to them. I felt as though I was hearing a story from someone who heard it from someone that thought it interesting enough to pass along to those who like to hear a good story.Although the story focuses on Eliza Sommers, an abandoned baby who is taken in by an English family in Chile, we also get a lot of background on other characters such as Miss Rose and Tao Chi'en. And there are many other people that come along the way in Eliza's journey to California that keep this book colorful. This book is filled with prostitutes, outlaws, and the poor. It weaves history into the plot without it becoming a history lesson. I recommend this book, and look forward to reading others by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: After hearing the author speak on a local radio program, I was intrigued enough to pick up this book. What a letdown. After reading 70 pages, I have to stop. As many other reviewers have noted, it is full of one-dimensional characters, cheesy and unbelievable romance cliches, and hokey mystic references. Save your money and your time, don't buy this book
Rating:
Summary: Leaves you wanting more
Review: Why does this book leave you wanting more? Because the ending is so unsatisfyingly and startlingly sudden! After several hundred pages of building a wonderful plot and the characters, it is always a surprise to me when an author chooses to quit writing the book at the pentultimate chapter. Beyond that though (after all, you must be asking yourself why I rated this book four stars?!), Allende has given us an incredibly complex heroine in Eliza Sommers, who is faced with a pretty unique challenge: Here is a woman who was raised to think and act like an upper-middle-class caucasian lady in Chile in the late 1800's, and she is suddenly, due to some unfortunate choices and decisions, a single, ethnic, immigrant girl in Gold Rush California. This book gives the reader some fascinating peaks into several different cultures, including Chilean, Chinese, and, of course, American (whatever that it!). I would recommend this book very highly. Just be prepared for that disappointingly quick ending.
Rating:
Summary: Women in Love
Review: Isabel Allende is a strong and beautiful woman. She would be extremely interesting to many even if she could not write. But she can write. Allende tells a story well. It is no wonder that her books have a wide audience throughout the world. She is not, however, comparable in style or technique to either Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez as some might suggest. DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE takes the form of a historical novel in the romantic tradition/genre. It is a straightforward narrative presented essentially chronologically from 1843 to 1853. The book's heroine is one Eliza Sommers, born of uncertain parentage and raised by English expatriates in Chile. Eliza's "formal" guardian is Rose Sommers - a handsome, proper, animated, and wealthy single woman with a "past." But equally influential in Eliza's upbringing is "Mama" Fresia - a Chilean peasant serving the Rose and her brother as cook and housekeeper. Love is the combustible fuel that propels Eliza's story forward and that serves to generate sub-plots and character development for all of the women in this book. And there are other dominating female presences here. There's Paulina, Lin, and "Joe Bonecrusher," There are men in this work, but they come across in varying degrees as unremarkable, weak, insentive, unethical, or immoral. This book is about admirable woman, plain and simple. And these women make for a good narrative. Strength and desire take Eliza from from Valparaiso, Chile to San Francisco, California; from Victorian privilege to New World adventure; from security to danger; from merchant commerce to Gold Rush. This is highly readable historical fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Enjoyable
Review: This novel draws you into its time and setting and lets you get to know the fascinating characters. Its no-so-predictable plot peaks your interest. Other reviews here outline the story well and I agree it left me wanting to read more. Here's hoping a sequel will someday be out.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible Ending
Review: First time I have read this author - very disappointing ending. The book just stopped. Way too many loose ends and no sense of closure.
Rating:
Summary: Good, Bad and Ugly
Review: Isabel Allende is a good writer - too good for her talent to be underutilized as it is in Daughter of Fortune. Her vivid descriptions and colorful characters are wonderful, but seem wasted in this novel. While she steps up to the challenge of creating an epic novel covering four continents, multiple cultures and several decades, her efforts fall short with some really bad story lines. For example, Rose is too sexually repressed to provide even the basics of sex education to Eliza, yet secretly writes pornography which her sea captain brother sneaks to England for publication. In another "bad" scene, Tao Chi'en is beaten up and violated by having his sacred queue cut off. How does he react? He adopts western ways by sporting a western haircut and suit! But even more laughable is the idea that Eliza, after living an almost completely sheltered life, could travel for several years in the gold fields of California, dress in men's clothing and pass herself off as an adolescent boy, without ever getting caught! In fact, she never even raised much curiosity. Rather she, passing as male, became invisible in this world of lonely, horny and desperate men. Definitely bad! And now for the ugly. Ultimately this book amounts to nothing more than a drugstore romance novel. How embarrassing for a serious writer to produce such a lines as "She ran her hands down her hips to learn their shape, and then sensually, to feel the smoothness of her skin... She parted her legs and found the mysterious cleft of her sex..." Ugly. This was a novel which had promise but was unable to deliver. Two stars for the effort and the beauty of Allende's prose when not being wasted on improbable story lines or embarrassing romance.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a disappointment
Review: Allende's book roves across oceans and years, tracing the path of a love lorn Chilean girl for her disreputable boyfriend. Fate brings them separately to California where, against the back drop of the Gold Rush and the birth of San Francisco, the young girl's quest for her lover continues. Allende wants to have it both ways, to plunge her characters into a fairy tale world but deny them fairy tale destinies. And yet the travails that they are subject to never convince on a literal level either. The book moves at too fast a rate, never slowing to let the reader's mind believe in this distant land and so the book sits uncomfortable between the realm of magical realism and
Dickensian dirt. Characters rarely rise above caricature; the sage Chinese, the worldly sea captain, the impoverished socialist, the whore with the heart of gold. I found this book
disappointing at every level. This is supposed to be the tale of a transforming journey, but the central character of Eliza is never breathed to life and the translation seems so pained and banal at times, that one wonders what Allende herself thought of the work. It's the first book of Allende's that I've read, but if it is representative, you would do much better rereading Marquez.
Rating:
Summary: Good to the End
Review: This book held my interest to the end. I found myself becoming part of the book. I felt I was living the life of Eliza, the main character of the story. This is an older book, therefore,you can read the reviews of many other readers to find out what the story is about. I enjoyed reading the book immensely.
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