Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Book Tour & Giveaway: THE LORDS OF NIGHT by J.C. Cervantes

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: GoodreadsAmazon, 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.

 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Bookbub

 

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:

10/1/2022

A Dream Within A Dream

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

10/2/2022

@meetcuteromancebooks

Excerpt/IG Post

10/3/2022

Ya Books Central

Excerpt/IG Post

10/4/2022

The Momma Spot

Review/IG Post

10/5/2022

Wanderingwitchreads

TikTok Review/IG Post

10/6/2022

YA Book Nerd

Review/IG Post

10/7/2022

Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog

Review/IG Post

10/8/2022

booksaremagictoo

Review/IG Post

Week Three:

10/9/2022

@jacleomik33

IG Review

10/10/2022

The Bookwyrm's Den

Review

10/11/2022

Nonbinary Knight Reads

Review/IG Post

10/12/2022

Ohyouread

IG Review

10/13/2022

A Backwards Story

Review/IG Post

10/14/2022

travelersguidetobooks

IG Review

10/15/2022

Jeff_of_allmedia

IG Review

Week Four:

10/16/2022

GryffindorBookishNerd

IG Review

10/17/2022

The Moon Phoenix

Review/IG Post

10/18/2022

Write. Read. Live

Excerpt/IG Post

10/19/2022

The Chatty Bookworm

TikTok Review/IG Post

10/20/2022

Mindyourshelf

Review/IG Post

10/21/2022

Lifestyle of Me

Review

10/22/2022

Kait Plus Books

Excerpt/IG Post

Week Five:

10/23/2022

onemused

IG Spotlight

10/24/2022

bookbriefs

Review/IG Post

10/25/2022

Enthralled Bookworm Blog

Review/IG Post

10/26/2022

Two Points of Interest

Review/IG Post

10/27/2022

@drew_ambitious_reading

Review/IG Post

10/28/2022

PopTheButterfly Reads

Review/IG Post

10/29/2022

Books with Brandie Shanae

YouTube Review/IG Post

Week Six:

10/30/2022

Jenguerdy

IG Spotlight

10/31/2022

The Erudite Labyrinth

Excerpt


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