While Espinosa’s novels explore different themes, a common thread runs throughout composed of her underlying view of the world, expressed through an intense, spare, and poetic sensibility.

Dark Plums explores the world of Adrianne, a vulnerable young girl in Manhattan during the late  1950’s who becomes a prostitute in order to win and keep the love of her artist-lover.  Longing deals with the marriage of Rosa, a Jewish American girl to Antonio, a Chilean writer. Their story unfolds in Paris, New York, and California during the Sixties.  A combination of cultural and personal forces affect their relationship and contributing to growth as well as destruction. Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew is a historical novel which takes place during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It tells the story of Alfonso under the Spanish Inquisition. Alfonso, who has been raised as a Catholic, feels torn in terms of identity when he learns of his family’s true allegiance. While differing sharply in terms of story, the central theme of identity connects with Espinosa’s earlier work. Espinosa’s most recent novel Dying Unfinished, continues the Longing story, focusing on the characters of Rosa and her mother. It is the second in a projected trilogy.

Her novels have elicited widely differing and sometimes violent reactions. In connection with this, she cites Jean Cocteau, who wrote that a reader interprets a work in terms of his or her own consciousness.