I’m a monster because I forgot I picked up this ARC aaaaages ago. Thankfully book 2 doesn’t come out for a bit and if I read this sooner I would be raging in anticipation.
The gist is a modern day bruja – Latina? Hispanic? I forget which is the right word but i definitely know bruja is witch – is about to come into her powers but doesn’t want to, for TBD reasons, and royally fucks over her family in the process of trying to rid herself of her powers, then has to save said family.
Why this is a “not another YA urban fantasy” snooze
Now, i got two issues, and it’s something I’ve seen in a lot of YA. We read so many descriptions of other people, but rarely the protag, and we fall into that trap here.
There’s a lot of talk about her hair – really, a lot of talk about everyone’s hair – but I felt there wasny enough description of the protag. Honestly I struggled to remember her name, it was said so little. Two, i love the lady love interest but it’s also her best, and only, friend. I get why this specific female protag has only one really good friend but it’s frustrating because now I’m worried the love interest is just going to break the protag’s heart at the end of book 2. At least she’s not in love with a brooding stranger she knows nothing about?
So speaking of, for a Book 1 of projected 3, things wrap up in a fairly tidy way, but goddamn the epilogue gives you a nice taste of whats to come because. There are some SERIOUS daddy issues to resolve, and I’m very curious to see how it pans out.
What I would pair it with – Cab Sauv; a solid book deserves a solid red
