e-Audio, 11:19:17
Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal
Release Date: April 19, 2022
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: April 6-14 & 22-26, 2022
Stand-alone (Maybe)
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Death of a Grandparent
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Romance, Magical Realism, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Family Diversity (missing mother), Strong Family Relationship, YAAva Granados will never forgive herself for being late to her beloved nana’s deathbed. But due to a flash flood that left Ava in a fender bender with a mysterious boy, she missed her grandmother’s mystical blessing–one that has been passed between the women of her family upon death for generations.
Then Nana’s ghost appears with a challenge from beyond the grave. As it turns out, Nana did give Ava a blessing, but it missed its target, landing with the boy from the night of the storm instead. Was it fate? Ava refuses to believe so. With the help of her sisters and Nana’s rather bumbling spiritual guide, she’s determined to reclaim her share of the family magic and set Nana free.
For guarded Ava, befriending some random boy is the last thing she wants to do. She’s gotten along just fine protecting her heart–keeping people at a distance is a great way to ensure no one ever hurts you. But as Ava embarks on her mission to retrieve the lost blessing, she starts to wonder if getting close to thunderstorm boy is worth the risk.
In her YA debut, J.C. Cervantes weaves a tale about family, fate, and finding love where you least expect it.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Sooooo, as y’all know I LOVED the first book in the Storm Runner series. (I never got around to the rest of the series smh) So when I saw that Cervantes was going to write a YA book, I was so excited. But as it turns out, it didn’t go as planned for me. Maybe I need to go back and read the rest of the Storm Runner and forget about this. Ugh
Ava missed being by her grandmother’s deathbed by minutes. And she’ll never forgive herself for it. Not only did she miss her last intimate moments with her grandmother, but she also missed the blessing she was going to give her. If only it wasn’t for that stupid boy whose car she hit and made her feel bad about it. But when her grandmother comes back and tells her that her blessing was given to someone else, actually the guy whose car she hit. So she has to pair with her grandmother and a random saint to help get the blessing back. Can they do it?
Ok let’s start with what I did like about this. I liked the characters the most. All 3 of the sisters were really different but they were fun in their own way. And they all reminded me of my sisters. I have 3 of them, and we are all exactly like them. All different even though we came from the same environment mostly. I did find the age grouping weird tho. Like if she gives them all a book, what is the oldest going to do? Is it going to be an adult book? Or is this really going to be a stand-alone? (That depresses me because I wanted one for Carmen lol)
I also liked the premise of this. But the execution was not great. For the most part it was really repetitive. And because it was so repetitive, I got bored. I got so bored I set it down until I could pick up the audio. That way I could put it on 2x’s the speed and get through it and not have to DNF it. This was so disappointing. I was so excited about this and I remember putting this on so many of my hopeful lists. I pushed things back to get to this. And this is how it turned out. So unfortunate.
I also didn’t like that there weren’t breaks in the difference in voices or look backs. It made for a very confusing time while reading the ARC and listening to the audio. I thought it was just the e-ARC so I wasn’t going to say anything, but it was like that in the audio as well. And I hate that. If you read it, you’ll know what I mean. Because the breaks are like randomly talking about a princess and different stories about fate. That’s why it’s confusing. It’s still relevant to the story, but it’s a completely different topic or voice from what was happening before.
And the romance was terrible. I know they’re teens, but even reading a YA book I usually feel something. I might swoon or a little something. But with this I felt nothing. The only emotion I got from this was when Abuela first passed. I wanted so badly for something to spark something between them, but when it was all said and done, I just didn’t care whether or not they ended up together. (To be honest with you, even now I don’t remember if they got together in the epilogue lol I don’t remember and don’t care enough to go back and see.)
Although I was super excited about this, it just didn’t work for me. I wanted so much more from this. Especially since I know her writing style from her other book. Maybe I’ll just stick to her books that have mythology in them. (Yes, I am still looking forward to her new mythological series, The Lords of Night…. There’s a bruja!)
Overall, I give this
