I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the THE LORDS OF NIGHT by J.C. Cervantes Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out
my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Title: THE
LORDS OF NIGHT (A Shadow Bruja Novel Book 1)
Author: J.C. Cervantes
Pub. Date: October 4, 2022
Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Pages: 320
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org
Best-selling author Rick Riordan
presents J. C. Cervantes's exciting new spin-off from the best-selling STORMRUNNER trilogy.
"This duology opener is accessible to readers who are new to this
world. An engrossing, god-filled delight."--Kirkus Reviews
Fourteen-year-old Renata Santiago is the most powerful godborn of them all, a
bruja with a unique combination of DNA. The Mexica blood from her dad's side
gives her the ability to manipulate shadows. Her mom Pacific, a Maya goddess,
gifted her a magical rope that controls time, and Ren recently used it to save
a few gods from getting stuck forever in 1987. She brought them back to the
present, but her BFF Ah Puch, the once fearsome god of death, darkness, and
destruction, is now a teenager with no divine powers.
Ren is also a girl with ordinary hopes and dreams. She wishes, for example,
that her blog about alien sightings would garner more respect. She's always
been absolutely convinced that there's a connection between aliens and the Maya
civilization. Plenty of online haters feel differently, and they call her a
fake, a liar, and a loser.
When Ren receives an email about an alien sighting in Kansas, she thinks it may
support her theory. She also suspects that the cinco--five renegade
godborns--are up to no good. Soon she finds herself embroiled in a quest to
prevent the troublemakers from awakening the nine Aztec Lords of Night. Problem
is, none of Ren's friends are available to help her hunt down the cinco and the
dangerous gods they are resurrecting. Ren has no choice but to team up with two
strangers recruited by Ah Puch: Edison, a teen hybrid demon, and Montero, an
eleven-year-old Aztec hunter. Succeeding in this quest will prove that Ren is
no fake, liar, or loser. But it isn't just another challenge. It could well be
an impossible one that leaves Ren questioning her very existence.
Anyone who enjoys fast-paced myth-based adventures will be swept up in this
one featuring Maya and Mexica gods and their magical offspring.
Peek between the pages...
In the beginning (sort of)
Seven months before
Once upon a night, there was a girl who didn’t know who she really was. She didn’t know how her shadow magic worked, or even where it came from. Only that it was there, deep in her blood and bones, and maybe even deeper than that.
But to understand everything, it’s important to go all the way back to the sort of beginning.
It started like this.
There she was, all cuddled up on her bed with her weighted blanket, reading a book about Maya gods and magic and curses and some overly dramatic kid named Zane Obispo. She didn’t want the story to end, but it was inevitable. The end always comes.
Ren was just about to close the book when the last words on the last page started to glow a greenish gold. She blinked over and over, thinking—hoping—she could pretend the iridescent glow wasn’t really there. No such luck.
Someday when you least expect it, the magic will call to you. Then, like the need for breath, Ren had a sudden urge to say the words out loud. “The magic will call to me . . .” At first, nothing happened. But then, four minutes and fifteen sighs later, a familiar tune being played on viola rushed from the kitchen, down the hall, and under Ren’s closed bedroom door.
Ren’s heart ballooned so big and so fast she thought it was entirely possible it might explode. This wasn’t just any song—it was her dad’s favorite, and he had written it, especially for her. But that was impossible! He had died six years earlier and been buried with his beloved instrument.
Jagged stripes of lightning flashed outside. Anyone paying half attention would have thought an electrical storm was approaching. They weren’t unusual in Galveston, Texas. Something indeed was approaching.
The music grew faster, louder, more urgent. Ren was sure now. The melody was definitely coming from her father’s viola, the one that creaked when he played it.
In that first moment of panic, Ren wondered if she could take the words back, unsay them. Maybe if I repeat them backward . . . she thought just as another blinding white light flashed across the night sky.
Then came the scratching on the pitched roof. Her mind immediately conjured the image of a corpse trying to claw its way out of a wood coffin. Not that she would know firsthand what that looked like, but she had, regrettably, watched too many zombie movies in her thirteen years.
Ren knew the drill. She had practiced for this exact moment. She threw off her blanket, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and tugged on her red cowboy boots.
Just as she opened her bedroom door, her abuelo appeared in the hall. His gray hair was sticking up all over like a storm cloud. “It’s happening.” His low voice carried a strange tone that sent a shudder down Ren’s spine.
There will come a day when your shadow magic is discovered, her abuelo had told her. On that day you will have to leave. To run. To hide.
Ren felt sick. Had she done this? Just by saying those words? But it’s just a book. A book still in her grasp.
Ren was breathing heavily now. “Do you hear Papá’s music, too? It’s my song!”
Abuelo shook his head, his eyes roving the ceiling. “Mira,” he whispered, “we are going to get in the car very quietly just like we’ve practiced. ¿Me escuchas? And we are going to follow the music. Your music.”
There was no time for arguing or explaining, no time to grab her laptop with her alien blog articles or even change out of her spaceship-patterned pajamas before her grandpa nudged her into the garage and into the car.
About J. C. Cervantes:
J.C. is a New York Times best-selling author of books for
children and young adults. Her books have appeared on national lists, including
the American Booksellers Association New Voices, Barnes and Noble’s Best Young
Reader Books, as well as Amazon’s Best Books of the Month. She has earned
multiple awards and recognitions, including the New Mexico Book Award, the Zia
Book Award, and most recently the 2021 New Mexico Land of Enchantment Readers’
Choice Award.
She currently resides in the Land of Enchantment with her
family, three spoiled dogs, and a lifetime collection of books. But she keeps
part of her heart in Southern California, where she was born and raised. When
she isn’t writing she is haunting bookstores and searching for magic in all
corners of the world.
Her work is represented by Holly Root at Root Literary.
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Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive a finished copy of THE LORDS OF NIGHT, US Only.
Ends
November 5th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
Week Two:
Week Three:
Week Four:
Week Five:
Week Six:
