“Gift yourself a journey that awakens the soul toward inner peace, strength, and radical self-love.”
THE ORCHID: The Secret Code of Modern Goddesses is a transformative, award-winning novel that has become a symbol of connection among women and men alike. It is shared between friends, mothers and daughters, therapists and clients, and gifted by men to the women they love—recognized widely as a source of healing, clarity, and emotional renewal.
Awards
In October 2025, the book received five medals at the International Latino Book Awards:
• Best Author Video Promoting a Book (Gold)
• Nora de Hoyos Comstock Best First Book – Fiction – English (Gold)
• Best Novel – Adventure or Drama – English (Silver)
• Best Cover Design (Silver)
• Best Audiobook (Bronze)
These honors join its earlier distinctions as a Bestseller by The Los Angeles Tribune and a Five-Star title from Reader’s Favorite, affirming its powerful cultural and emotional impact.
The Story
At the heart of the novel is Mary, a woman who, after surviving profound trauma and a devastating heartbreak, creates THE ORCHID: a sanctuary for emotional restoration hidden in the forests of Northern California. Though fictional, her world feels intensely real—a holistic retreat blending ancestral wisdom, spiritual psychology, and contemporary healing practices. For over twenty years, Mary and her team have welcomed thirty women each week, all seeking clarity, renewal, and a return to themselves.
The Characters
The novel follows five of these women during one life-altering week:
• Nicole – A young woman from Texas navigating faith, identity, her hidden sexuality, and the longing for self-acceptance.
• Olivia – A powerful, service-driven leader forced to confront childhood wounds she has buried for decades.
• Jennifer – A newly divorced single mother struggling to trust life—and herself—again.
• Stephanie – A survivor of sexual abuse who discovers that healing begins with vulnerability, truth, and self-love.
• Sofía – An ambitious entrepreneur who once sacrificed everything for success, now facing the pain she has tried to silence and the consequences of choices she can no longer avoid.
Exhausted and emotionally disconnected, each woman arrives believing what she seeks is far outside her reach: connection, belonging, joy, purpose, meaning. Inside this sanctuary, they learn a deeper truth—everything they have been searching for has always lived within them.
Over seven days, they move through the five teachings of THE ORCHID: Awareness, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Acceptance, and Intention, gently unraveling old narratives and reconnecting with their most authentic selves.
With themes of feminine empowerment, emotional resilience, sisterhood, inclusivity, and spiritual awakening, the novel intertwines healing practices such as meditation, breath-work, journaling, prayer, visualization, and self-inquiry.
THE ORCHID is an invitation to feel deeply, reflect honestly, heal courageously, and return to the love that has always lived inside you.
Welcome to the greatest spa in the world—the one already within you.
Rocio Aquino and Angel Orengo, a wife-husband team of twenty-three years, and devoted parents of two teen daughters, merge their rich imaginations and global experiences in "The Orchid." Stemming from Rocio's 30-year quest for self-love and self-forgiveness, and Angel's search for meaning and purpose in his life, the book is a culmination of their shared ambition to lead an authentic and empowered life. Their transformative journey includes living experiences around the world, holistic retreats, indulging in hundreds of enlightening books, numerous interactions with healers, sacred trips and a two-year certification on spiritual psychology. These profound experiences paved the way for revelations about personal freedom and age-old forces such as awareness, gratitude, forgiveness, acceptance and intention. Desiring to share these insights, they first turned to writing. "The Orchid" stands as a universal reflection of their hurdles and victories, and their desire to urge readers, especially women, to embrace their unique paths towards a more powerful existence.
