Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas, #2)

by Zoraida Córdova

[Empress of Sass]

First, the usual disclaimer. I received a free eARC of this novel from the publisher via Netgaller.com in exchange for my honest review. This review will contain spoilers because in this house we do not fear a spoiler, nay we seek them out willingly with a brave heart and a curious mind!

Rating: 3.75/4

Let's start with the cover. 100%, the cover of this book is what initially lured me in. So much so that I failed to realize that it was a sequel, and had to get my hands on book one so that I could read it! I love everything about this cover. The clean geometric lines, the blue and gold colour scheme and the moth at the centre of it all really speaks to me. Oh, and the phases of the moon, because I love me some phases of the moon worked into art.

I enjoyed this story much more than the first book. With Labyrinth Lost, I felt like I was always wanting more from the story- something was just off and lacking. I enjoyed it, but I didn't -love- it. This book improved in leaps and bound, in my opinion.

Confession. I hated Lula in Labyrinth Lost. In Bruja Born, I hated her less, but I also felt like her character got the "protagonist scrub", that some of her difficult behaviour and sharper edges were filed down for palatability when the spotlight was turned on to her. I wanted to see her really bond with Alex, express her forgiveness and understanding, but instead it felt like she forced Alex to help her by manipulating Alex' guilt, and still felt like her endangering the world was justified, and that Alex's was not. There was a bit of a turn around on those thoughts, but they really didn't have a satisfying scene together hashing it out.

The plot of this one felt more immediate and faster paced, and I was a big fan that the Deos were more present in this one, that their stories and myths were delved into. I love me a magic system that is divine in origin, and this didn't disappoint.

Alex was still in a weird place for me. The romance between her in Rishi felt odd in book one, and this book didn't do it any favours by shunting Rishi off to Fort Lauderdale (I think? She had almost zero screen time and was only ever mentioned in barest passing). The number one complaint I have with these books is that while the idea and characters are great in concept, the execution can be a little weak and thin, especially the relationships between all the characters, romantic, friendship and familial. Everything stays on the surface, and the book surfaces for it. We barely see Rishi and Alex as friends at the begining, so when they develop a romance it seems sort of dropped out of the blue, considering the book up until that point explored Alex's romantic curiosity and complicated alliance with Nova almost exclusively.

Bruja Born continues that trend, by popping Rishi on a plane out of Brooklyn and dropping Nova back into Alex's orbit. They barely interact, just mostly circle each other, clearly both feeling some complicated things about each other, but never really having a good moment to figure anything out between them. Then Nova starts spending time with the youngest sister Rosie, and book three warning bells are going off in my head.

The plot in Book 2 revolves around Lula being unable to let go of her love for Maks, her longtime boyfriend, both relationship wise, and then letting him pass on in death. She wrangles first her sisters and Nova into things, and then half the magical community of Brooklyn when they accidentally kick off a Casimuerto apocalypse. Oops. Teenagers in love, am I right? Always starting world ending events instead of doing their homework and helping out around the house.

Lula and Maks' relationship ends before we can see any of it, as he breaks up with her immediately. This makes the emotional side of the rest of the book fall flat when it needs to be a pillar for the plot to stand on. How can we understand Lula's drastic decisions to save and hold on to this love no matter the cost, when all we are shown is this jerk breaking up with her for struggling and not being as bubbly and outgoing as she used to be while acknowledging he knows she is going through some heavy stuff? I'm glad he stays definitively dead in the end, good riddance to his garbage personality.

The magic seems better flushed out in this one, and I'm very, very hyped to explore Rose's in the next book. Her newly discovered power really speaks to me, and hands down, she is my favourite Mortiz sister. It's not even a contest. Please don't let her character drasticaly change in the next book!

All in all, they are fun books, with magic, and teen drama, and a world that is expanding out and becoming more interesting. Love the addition of Thorne Hill Alliance characters and the Knights of Lavant being in this book. I hope to see more of them in later books. It's an enjoyable quick read, but it's missing that something special to truly make it one of my favourites that I will come to again and again. If witches, supernatural creatures and magical realism are your thing, give this series a try.