Bruja Born

Bruja Born by Zoraida Cordova, 2018 Sourcebooks Fire

     After the drama with her sister's powers, Bruja Lula Mortiz is not feeling he powers. In fact, Lula isn't feeling like herself at all. She holds back from her normal life, and even her magic-less boyfriend Maks notices.
     On the way to their last soccer game of the season, Maksim ends their relationship. Lula is devastated and wishes her magic could heal their relationship and bring back his love - not something bruja magic can or should do. The two busses of teen soccer players and cheerleaders are involved in a horrific accident which very few of Lula's classmates survive.
     Lula uses her powers to save Maks despite Death's protests. She convinces her sisters to help. The Mortiz daughters manage to bind Maks to Lula and to heal his wounds, but the spell is unsuccessful and turns Maks into a casimuerto - quasi-dead. Lula and her sisters, Alex and Rose, delve into Bruja lore but the casimuerto isn't well known. The mythology describes a creature like a zombie and when Maks begins to rampage across the city that's what it looks like: the zombie apocalypse.
     Now Lula, Alex, Rose and the rest of their coven are held responsible for the imbalance caused by the girls' spell. Lula must reset the balance because La Muerta is bound from completing her work and the casimuerto infection is spreading across New York City.
     How does one free Death to complete her work? Lula must figure it out or the witch-hunters will solve the problem in a much more permanent way. After the dramatic ordeal involving Alex's magic Lula is afraid to deal with the physical and emotional results of her sister's actions but learns she's the same bruja as before, just with an all-powerful sister at her side.
     This second story of the Brooklyn Brujas follows the eldest Mortiz sister as the girls learn to manage their magic and their lives in the aftermath of tragedy. Lula learns that just because they have the power doesn't mean they should and the consequences nearly destroy her entire world. Bruja Born is aimed at older teen and young adult readers who enjoy their magic with a touch of gruesome reality.

Daughter of the Siren Queen

Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller, 2018 Feiwel and Friends

   Alosa escaped the capture of a rogue pirate, Vordan, with Riden's help. After pretending to be Riden's captive aboard his ship, being locked in a cage at the mercy of her father's enemies is a humbling experience for the part-siren princess. As she continues to search for the magical island of the sirens Alosa's enemies prey on her father's teaching techniques to plant a seed of doubt.
     To keep her father from killing the man she is coming to love, Alosa brings Riden along as a member of her crew. Following her doubts brings the pirate princess to a secret her father has kept her entire life. Alosa frees her mother from a decade and a half of imprisonment. She expects her mother to stay and be a mother, but the Siren Queen has responsibilities of her own, and her daughter is nearly grown.
     Alosa is broken by first her father's betrayal and lies, then her mother's abandonment. She knows the Kalligan will come after his wayward daughter and escaped wife and, to save her crew, Alosa and her ship must put as much room between them as they can.
     To keep the Ava-lee and her crew alive and safe Alosa knows the king must be replaced. If she is to usurp her father Alosa needs gold. All the gold she could ever want is on the island her mother rules and her father seeks. The escaping pirates set course for the sirens' island.
     Alosa's crew encounters obstacles ranging from glass-calm seas without a scrap of wind and raging storms to cannibals and dehydration. It's a race against time and the Pirate King to find a solution to the corruption which has taken over the seas.
     Readers will enjoy the spunk of the half-siren pirate princess as she comes into her own. Pirates of the Caribbean meets the original Little Mermaid with a heroine who won't quit. Alosa appeals to readers of all ages, though her story has elements better suited to older teen and young adults.

The Forest Queen

The Forest Queen by Betsy Cornwell, 2018 Clarion Books

     The daughter of the House of Loughsley has always tried to do the right thing. Her older brother John is the heir: he takes advantage of his father's aging mind and his sister's upbringing to manipulate, steal, and use the people under his care. Silvie of Loughsley and her best friend Bird, Robert Falconer, escape John's bullying and increasing torture for the forest.
     John uses his sister as a pawn and when he tries to sell her off in a humiliating replay of her court debut Silvie and Bird make their temporary forest camp a permanent home. Along the way, they meet Little Jane: a girl who has been expelled from her home after being found pregnant. Jane cannot imagine a future of shame at this child forced upon her and she tries to kill herself - only to be stopped by Silvie and Bird.
     The trio becomes the basis of a revolution fighting against John of Loughsley and his bullies as they suck the life from Sylvie's home and people. Sylvie knows if she returns to John's care and submits to his demands his abuse the people dependent on the lords of Loughsley will not change. She questions herself, but with Bird's encouragement takes a stand against her brother's established authority. As John and his cohort try to stop her, Sylvie and her growing band in the forest protect the common people.
     Cornwell's Robin Hood retelling swaps the key characters' gender to tell the story of Loughsley in a new way. Jane is not the only character who faces suicide and even Sylvie faces the fear of socially inappropriate and unwanted advances. The Forest Queen incorporates the harsh realities of medieval life and power dynamics in a quick read for mature readers.