When Margaret Sayers Peden's translation of Laura Esquivel's second novel, The Law of Love, was published in 1996, the reviews were mixed. Some critics argue that the novel does not live up to the promise of Esquivel's critically acclaimed first novel, Like Water for Chocolate. Others, however, like Salon's A. Scott Cardwell, conclude that the novel "shows off, once again, Ms. Esquivel's romanticism, playfulness and bold ambition."

Many critics deem the book to be, at the very least, a partial success. A writer in Kirkus Reviews finds the novel "exuberant, hectic, [and] ultimately exhausting" and continues, "Whenever Esquivel is celebrating 'the hidden order of the world,' the salvational possibilities of love, she's engaging and persuasive. But the novel, which comes with a CD featuring arias and Mexican danzones (presumably to foster the right mood in the reader), and which includes several gaudy, comic-book-like sections illustrated...