Zoraida Córdova

This is a fun adventure in the Star Wars universe, set in the Black Spire Outpost on the world of Batuu (which is a real place, the Galaxy's Edge park, that you can visit at Disneyland and soon at Disneyworld and don't get me started on how badly I want to go there!!). The book is a romance between two young adults, Izzy and Jules, who were childhood friends until Izzy's mom's smuggling/spy career took her family away from Batuu. When a courier job ten years later brings Izzy back to Batuu, show more a place she never thought she'd see again, Jules can't believe it's really her. He had always dreamed of getting offplanet to see the galaxy, and maybe someday to find Izzy again, but never was able to make it happen. But their reunion is complicated by the local crimelord's wheelings and dealings, and some typical Star Warsian (yeah, that's an adjective, coz I said so!) mixups and mistaken identities and shenanigans ensue. I enjoyed reading this a lot and I hope Córdova writes more Star Wars books. The action was fun, the characters had a lot of good teen angst, and the romance was sweetly done. show less

I loved Labyrinth Lost, so approached this with optimism. I loved the premise. Merpeople! Secret royalty! Intrigue!

Only... Dear god was Tristan a jerk. And a self-aware jerk at that. And since the book was first person in his head, the reader knows that he knows he's a jerk, but rather than trying to not be a jerk, he just continues in his jerkish ways. Given that the book starts out with the fact that his best friend and his ex-girlfriend hate his guts because he cheated on her... yeah, show more that pretty much sets the stage for everything.

And maybe I was expecting too much from this, but there were so many things that just fell flat for me. The world building was an A+, and I wish we had spent more time with the cool world Cordova created. Instead, we get a lot of inner teenage boy jerky mental angst, and a lot of high school bullshit.

Alas. The rest of the trilogy may be better since it looks like Tristan finally goes off on his quest instead of fapping about with high school. But I'm not sure I'll be reading to find out. show less

Made it halfway through and I just can't take it anymore. The main character's a douchecanoe, which is bad enough, but what might still be a fluffy, inconsequential read is ruined by some of the worst pacing I've encountered in a book.

The author needs her douchecanoe to be at odds with his best friend? Suddenly they are! No build-up, no real explanation, just one morning he announces that his best friend is mad at him. (Later he says that he hasn't spoken to her in a week, but still doesn't show more explain why that, in particular, would leave his BFF mad at him.)

The author needs an excuse not to disclose the ramifications of her douchecanoe's merman transformation? She just doesn't! Her douchecanoe merman espouses a bare minimum of curiosity about what this means, gets a bare minimum of explanation, and then proceeds to have conversations about the further details as the author believes they're relevant. (I think this is meant to build suspense, but instead just left me irritated that the author clearly believed her readers must be as stupid as her hero.)

It's as if Córdova slapped scenes together as she needed them and decided no characterization (motivations, development, likes/dislikes) was required to glue the story together. ...And, hey, with a hook like mermen, enough sparkly sea critters, and some chemistry between the douchecanoe and his BFF (Layla, you deserve so much better than this womanizing dick), who even needs thoughtful characterization, amirite? Ugh. show less

This second instalment of the Brooklyn Brujas series was SO MUCH BETTER than the first! Where the first book felt too fast and missed opportunities, BRUJA BORN was WONDERFUL! I felt so much closer to this character, Lula, then I did to Alex. Where Alex was quick-tempered, Lula was thoughtful. She felt how things would affect not just herself, but her family, which was one of the things that I didn't like about Alex, but all three of the sisters seem to have grown in this book.

Lula, the show more oldest of the Mortiz sisters, has just been broken up with before boarding the bus to the district championship soccer game with her friends and teammates. On the way to the game, there is a terrible accident and everyone is killed except for Lula. In the hospital, she and her sisters stop death from coming for Macks, Lula's (ex) boyfriend and create a much bigger problem than 28 dead teenagers-they end up keeping them all from fully dying and creating an army of "casimuertos" or non-dead people who live off of human hearts and can't pass on. Lula has to figure out how to help these casimiertos move on from this world BEFORE they destroy all of New York, and free Lady de la Muerte-Lady Death-who is trapped between worlds.

The whole "having to find the Spear of Death" piece of the story honestly felt a bit unnecessary, but I see how it made the family and community have to come together to help Lula. The scenes leading up to finding the spear and returning it to La Muerte felt rushed, but great and anticipatory nonetheless.

Overall, the book had a very familiar feel as the movie Practical Magic, but with more culture and history embedded which I appreciated. Strong female lead characters, a great family theme, and plenty of magic gave this book five stars. My favorite thing about this book that the first didn't have was how there are other magical groups at play in New York that are both for regulatory purposes but also that help keep the non-magical people safe as well as some hinting as to where Lula and Alex' father was while he was "gone."

Zoraida Cordova outdid herself with this story; my only complaint is having to wait for the next one! show less