The Lords of Night (Shadow Bruja Book 1)

by J. C. Cervantes

Overview

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents J. C. Cervantes's exciting new spin-off from the best-selling STORM RUNNER 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.

Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, soon to be a series on Disney+.

Can't get enough of Mesoamerican mythology? Get the prequel trilogy!
Rick Riordan Presents: The Storm Runner by J. C. Cervantes
Rick Riordan Presents: The Fire Keeper by J. C. Cervantes
Rick Riordan Presents: The Shadow Crosser by J. C. Cervantes

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368066563
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Series:	Shadow Bruja Series , #1
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	444,190
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

J. C. Cervantes (www.jccervantes.com) grew up in San Diego and was fascinated by stories about Maya gods and magic as a child. Those tales inspired her to write a best-selling middle grade fantasy trilogy about children of Maya and Aztec gods for Rick Riordan Presents: The Storm Runner, The Fire Keeper, and The Shadow Crosser, two of which featured Ren as a main character. Jen's short story "The Cave of Doom" in the best-selling The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities anthology also ties into this book. For more work by J. C. Cervantes, look for her YA rom com, Flirting with Fate, and her entry in the YA fiction series The Mirror: Fractured Path. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter: @jencerv, and Instagram: #authorjcervantes.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume sizzles with madcap fun, interweaving icons and figures from Mayan and Aztec mythology with dizzying results. The author excels at making these gods and goddesses cool and familiar. In the second half, many truths kept from Ren fall into fabulous place, spiraling into an exciting cliffhanger. This duology opener is accessible to readers who are new to this world. An engrossing, god-filled delight."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-07-13
In this companion to Cervantes’ Storm Runner trilogy, powerful godborn Renata Santiago must unearth a way to prevent the resurrection of the Lords of Night.

Grappling with her return to relative normality, 14-year-old Ren—daughter of Pacific, the Mayan goddess of time, and heir of the most powerful shadow brujxs on her father’s side—pursues a tip emailed to her alien-sighting blog, Eyes in the Sky. Ren’s search for alien life leads her to an unsettling discovery: a strange symbol etched into a cornfield, where a sinister voice fills her head. It references the mysterious Lords of Night, nine powerful Aztec gods who were linked to fates both good and bad. Worse yet, the cinco, a rogue band of godborns, could be involved. Aided (somewhat) by her bestie Ah-Puch—the Mayan god of death and destruction, now mostly powerless from a recent misadventure—Ren teams up with Edison, a teen demon hybrid, and 11-year-old Aztec hunter Montero. Their mission: to hunt the cinco and stop their ungodly alliance with the Lords of Night even as shadows inexplicably pull Ren closer to an unforeseen fate. This volume sizzles with madcap fun, interweaving icons and figures from Mayan and Aztec mythology with dizzying results. The author excels at making these gods and goddesses cool and familiar. In the second half, many truths kept from Ren fall into fabulous place, spiraling into an exciting cliffhanger. This duology opener is accessible to readers who are new to this world.

An engrossing, god-filled delight. (glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews