The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

I very much enjoyed this--which I should qualify by saying this is my first book by this author, and so if you are a fan of her other work, I am not sure how this compares. I also do not read widely in fantasy in general, so I may not be the best judge of this genre--but I thought it was great. The story is set in late-16th-century Spain, and is centered on a young servant named Luzia, who has the power to create milagritos, or small miracles. She may be a kitchen maid, but she is an educated one, but she hides that for her own safety. She also hides that she has the power to heal, rightly guessing that could lead to her enslavement based on that gift alone. When Luzia’s power is discovered by her mistress, influential people want to use her for their own advancement, and soon she’s entangled in political intrigue, which includes the entry of her into a competition with other miracle-workers. Through it all, Luzia must hide the true nature of her power, which comes from reciting refranes, or old sayings, in Ladino — a Sephardic dialect of Spanish mixed with Hebrew and other languages. Nobody can know that Luzia is a conversa, a Jew whose family was forced to convert to Catholicism. There is a strong undercurrent about class, culture, and religion that runs through the story, as well as a romance. It is a very good story that is well told.