Solana "Soleada" Garcia de Mendoza is a vivacious but unassuming young woman of Mayan ancestry.

She is dimunutive in stature, has a disarming nickname, and an unusually calm demeanor. Most of the time.

She is also among the best operatives in TJ Blackwell's network of assassins. And in the story that precedes this one, she thought she was settled.

But things don't always work out the way you think they will. Nothing is permanent, and as it turns out, sometimes some things—and some people—are not what they seem.

In Trying Times, Soleada continues to learn her trade, and she continues to sort through her feelings at the same time.

Unfortunately, part of her trade is learning—and learning to handle—the despair and the results of having to figure out everything on her own.