If you are just getting into YA you might enjoy this book, otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it. It was painfully predictable, Lula was entitled and I didn’t enjoy reading this book. I ended up DNFing the book.

So this second book was definitely better than it's predecessor but still has similar problems. This one follows the oldest daughter, who has a boyfriend that breaks up with her in the first few pages for a stupid reason as far as I can tell. But she decides that she still loves him and when a horrible bus accident occurs, then she is fighting for his life. Soooo... following family tradition, she makes a terrible, idiotic decision and almost causes the end of the world. Positives include this MC is a lot less annoying than Alex, the book takes place in the real world and focuses on family relationships, which is more interesting than certain side characters who make a reappearance. The world is becoming more interesting. Negatives: these girls keep making the same ridiculous mistakes. You'd think after seeing your sister do something dumb, you'd stop from making the same one. I have a feeling that the third book will be the youngest doing something even worse and then the world almost ending. I am not going to stick around for that installment.

Lula, the middle sisters of the Brooklyn Brujas series, is a healer. When a bus crash kills her classmates, including her boyfriend Maks, she knows she has to do something. With the help of her sisters (and against the wishes of the bruja council), she performs a dangerous ritual to heal him, which of course goes horribly wrong (because why would she learn from her sister's mistakes from the first book, even though she was a victim of them?) and turns not only Maks, but everyone that died in the crash into casimuertos, something very close to zombies. The casimuertos have moments of clarity, but when their hunger kicks in, they become beasts who only want to kill and feed on humans. Now, I can kind of understand Lula, she just wants her boyfriend to live, and doesn't bother to think about the consequences. But she seemed a little slow on dealing with the damage she had done, especially considering the body count her actions caused. I may have perceived the time passing incorrectly, though, because the book starts to drag around the middle. When it does pick up, we get a wrap up that stops the casimuerto invasion, but left me unsatisfied. Lula spent so much time trying to decide what to do that the ending got rushed, and I feel like she should've got some sort of punishment, considering the far reaching effects of her actions.

❝ My aunt Maria Azul told me beauty was power. My mother told me beauty was a gift. If they're right then what am I now? All I know is I left fragments of myself in Los Lagos and I don't know how to get them back. ❞

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own!

I was so excited when I first saw this book, even before I saw the blurb. Labyrinth Lost was one of my favorite reads of the year so far and when I saw Bruja Born I knew that this was a book I had to get my hands on. Bruja Born shifts the focus from Alex (the protagonist in Labyrinth Lost) to her older sister Lula. This was a plus for me because while I could definitely use some more Alex, I was really curious about the rest of her family members. Alex's adventure in the first book didn't really leave room to get to know her family super well so I loved that we got to read a different point of view in Bruja Born.

Although, I will say that I was a little worried about Lula's character at first. Her first chapters brought up the idea of beauty more than a few times. She was kind of vain and selfish in that she guilted Alex into using her powers to hide her facial scars. I didn't enjoy that side of Lula, the one that was manipulative and kind of petulant towards Alex. I could understand her having some issues after the ordeal she went through in Labyrinth Lost but it was frustrating to see her not being the loving, protective, and sassy Lula from the first book.

Not to say that her character stays that way; Lula's character grows quite a bit from beginning to end. She becomes more comfortable taking charge and speaking her mind. She is more forgiving and willing to look forward. More importantly, she learns to love herself as she is and is able to let go of the past.

And since we can't talk about Lula without talking about Maks... I was really looking forward to getting to know Maks better in this book. Their relationship was established in the first book but we didn't get to really know them as a couple. And in this book... well, it doesn't really happen either sadly. Lula brings up memories from before she went to Los Lagos which helps us get a better idea of how Maks was in the relationship, but we don't really get to see them in the relationship.

Since it says it in the synopsis, it's not really a spoiler--I was sad that we only got to spend a short time with Maks since he dies. Even though he comes back later, he's changed and he isn't himself anymore so for me it was like getting to know a different character. And the new Maks was... well, I'll let you read and find out for yourself. Let's just leave it at him being the opposite of what I thought he'd be.

❝ Healing is the purest magic there is and it's part of my life force. When I look at Maks, I see the parts of me that used to be whole, and maybe it's desperate, maybe it's wrong, but I can't let him go. ❞

And because the synopsis already talks about this a bit as well: I loved that this book extended the magical world to include not only witches but their version of zombies (casimuertos). I thought casimuertos were a really interesting concept, not only with how they worked (consuming hearts) but how they were created and tied to the world (I'd say more but I'd hate to give away too much).

Another element I appreciated the author expanding on was the Knights of Lavant and the Thorne Hill Alliance. We heard mention of the hunters/Knights of Lavant in the first book a few times, and I think the Thorne Hill Alliance might have been brought up once or twice, but we didn't get to know anything else about them! The hunters/knights seemed like these bad guys you tell stories about to young brujas to keep them in line, but in this book they became real. I liked that we didn't just get to know them as some shadows, but that we were actually introduced to individuals in this book. They also introduced more supernatural beings through them in passing which I'm hoping we'll get to see more of in the future.

One of the biggest negatives of this book for me, however, was that the plot didn't seem as clear as in the first book and the pacing also seemed a little slow. In Labyrinth Lost, we knew that Alex was trying to get her family back and was going to the tree. Her journey was pretty straightforward and I could measure her progress with their traveling. But in Bruja Born? It wasn't clear right away what Lula was meant to do about Maks and the other casimuertos. And even when we were told what she was looking for it didn't feel like she was putting any effort into finding it until the very end of the book. And without her taking measured steps to obtain the object she was looking for it felt like the book was at a standstill plot-wise most of the time.

But! I loved the ending for the Bruja Born. It was shocking and left me with so many questions about the next book. It also answered a big question that had been gnawing at me since Labyrinth Lost: what happened to Alex's father? Yes, you get to find out finally! It seems like every book features one of the Mortiz sisters having a big epic lapse in judgment and making a terrible decision that affects everyone around them so I'm secretly waiting to see if the next book will be Rose's turn to mess up haha. I'm really looking forward to continuing this series and I think overall this was a pretty good follow up to the series!

Bruja Born was released on June 5th, go check it out!

4.2-star

This Brooklyn Brujas Series is getting better and better!

If you are a Cassandra Claire fan your should definitely give it a try! It was such a joy to red!

Expect...

- Awesome #OwnVoices Latin rep
- Fun easy flowing writing
- Smart, sassy and witty YA female MCs
- Magic in New York! ! the mix of the fantasy and real world in NY was SO GOOD! Great urban fantasy grunge settings.
- Latin culture.. Brujeria [witchcraft in Spanish]! and FOOD so much food! The Latin american mythology/beliefs are are so well represented! ! The book of Deos is AH-MAZING! And YES! A map of Lagos exists now [I had wished for that in my review of book 1]
- An awesome fantasy world with all kind supernaturals [vampires, werewolves, mermaids!] with so much potential! I can see so many sequels and spin-offs branching out from here!
- A unique take on zombies :) "Casi Muertos!" YES!
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK!

I saw where it was going, but still good and did have some twists. Lula is still dealing with issues from what happened in book one with Alex and the return of their father. One the way to the last soccer game of the season with her boyfriend Maks, the bus is in a horrible accident that forces Lula to make terrible decisions with her magic. Looking forward to Rose's story next!

I did not finish this book. The main character is not as compelling as her sister was in Labyrinth Lost, and I can't bring myself to case about her or her feelings.

I found the first book from a "if you like this read this" recommendation, and I'm so glad I purchased it. I greatly enjoyed Labyrinth Lost; so of course I have to see what happens in the second book.
The story is from the first person view of Lula, the eldest sister. Had the story been done from Alex's perspective it would have been her story once again. This was Lula's story, and only she could tell it best with her thoughts and emotions behind the words. This book was a bit more darker than the first book, but just as engrossing in the story as we Lula across Brooklyn and discover that's there's more to being a Bruja than cantos and rituals. And that there's more than just Bruja's living in the world too.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Labyrinth Lost when I read it last year, even though I thought it was a touch too predictable for my tastes. But this year’s follow-up Bruja Born is such a delight! It follows another one of the sisters, Lula Mortiz, six months after everything that happens in Labyrinth Lost and as she’s dealing with her trauma (physical and emotional). When she’s in a major accident that nearly kills her and the boy she loves, she decides to save him - only to open up an entirely new set of horrors when the balance between life and death is broken. It’s up to Lula and her family to figure out how to set things right before the world as they know it ends. Now, while I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is an all-time new favorite, I’m glad I read Bruja Born. It was really fun, and I could definitely see it lending itself well to a visual medium with all the action and detail Cordova wove into it. I also loved getting to know even more about the world of brujas and brujos, particularly the lore that was touched upon in this story. And I really enjoyed seeing the sisters together (along with a few other familiar faces) as they tried to right their wrongs! It was an entertaining read for sure, and it definitely left me eager to discover what happens next for this family. If you want a quick-paced fantasy to read (I actually see this being a fun beach read), definitely pick up a copy for yourself!

This was a really enjoyable second book in the Brooklyn Brujas series. I really enjoyed seeing all of the characters again and I found this to be an improvement on Córdova's writing style. I liked how this book dealt with a wide variety of deep topics, including family, love, and responsibility.

As with Labyrinth Lost, Zoraida Córdova shares with her readers a beautifully re-imaged, magical Brooklyn. In Bruja Born, we follow Alex's older sister, Lula Mortiz. Lula, unlike Alex (the protagonist in Labyrinth Lost), has a specific sort of magical/witch ability, and that is her ability to heal. Lula's mother is a healer as well, and Lula has always identified as a healer bruja (witch) and as someone whose external beauty draws the eyes of those around her. After the events of Labyrinth Lost, Lula goes through many changes in her day-to-day life and relationships. As if these alterations weren't enough, Lula and her fellow classmates are in a deadly bus accident on the way to a game. Lula and her sisters (Rosie and Alex) perform a canto to heal her love (Maks) and there are many unexpected consequences. I really enjoyed this second book in the Brooklyn Bruja series. Córdova is able to create a magical setting while maintaining interactions between the Mortiz family that feel real. I'm not familiar with bruja/brujo culture outside of this series, but I enjoy the Brooklyn Bruja series very much and hope to read more Fantasy/Magical YA that incorporates latinx culture. I eagerly await book 3!

For more see my video review: https://youtu.be/5odLwFGVD9E.

I loved Labyrinth Lost and was excited to get a copy of this! This did not disappoint! It was different from the first book but still so good. I really appreciate sequels that take the best parts of a book and are able to continue them but in their own unique way. This story while it builds on the previous novel, does a nice job of being a stand alone book. The characters are compelling and you get completely sucked into the world that Cordova has created for her characters. I felt like this was darker and more traumatic than the first novel which wasn't a turn off for me (in fact I really appreciated it!) but may be overwhelming to other readers. This was a solid 4 star read for me and I'm excited for the next installment!

This was an excellent continuation of Zoraida Córdova's Bruja series. The characters were still recovering from the previous book when the heroine of this story, Lula, does something unforgivable and yet human to save her boyfriend. With the help of both old and new characters, Lula and her sisters fight to fix the disastrous result of her choice and the havoc it is wrecking on New York. It is a complex and intriguing book and I found myself like and relating to Lulu more than I expected after the first book. I'm waiting anxiously for the final book in the series!

I really enjoyed the first book in the Brooklyn Brujas series, Labyrinth Lost. Yet, Bruja Born is so much different than Labyrinth Lost, but in a really good way! This book takes us on a journey through the magical realm of Los Lagos. Alex accidentally cast a spell that sent her entire family to ‘hell’, so she and a brujo named Nova enter that world to save her family.

Lula is the oldest sister of the Mortiz daughters, the one who was beautiful and perfect, behaving like a perfect mirror image of their mother. In this book, Lula is still dealing (or not dealing) with the facial scars she received from Alex's story in Labyrinth Lost, the family is adjusting to the return of their amnesiac father after 7 years away, and Lula is still holding on to her anger over what Alex did to their family in Los Lagos.

I found Lula to be slightly less engaging than Alex, though I think that's my personal preference for social outsiders rather than insiders. Unlike in Labyrinth Lost, we see a whole lot more of the world of the brujas, get to know the family and watch their relationships play out. Lula is much closer to Alex than to Rose, which makes sense given the age gap, but was fun to see the way Cordova shifts perspective.

I loved seeing Nova again, but boy I am more and more glad that Cordova didn't write him as Alex's love interest. He's got some things to sort out before he'd be good as someone's boyfriend.

My least favorite part was the introduction of the usual urban fantasy triumvirate: witches, werewolves, and vampires. I would have preferred if the brujas had remained a slightly more unique urban fantasy. That said, I absolutely love the Mortiz family and the beautifully portrayed bruja-style of witchcraft. And I am SO here for Rose's book!

Full disclosure: I bought Labyrinth Lost because of its cover, and because it fulfilled one of the categories in one of last year's reading challenges. I read it like one reads an assignment for school: because I had to and not because I wanted to. I do not know if that clouded my judgement, but after reading this book, I am thinking I better reread the first book and revaluate my opinion.

This is just to say, I loved Bruja Born. My initial disappointment that this book was not going to be about Alex quickly dissipated the more I got to know Lula. Whereas Labyrinth has a slow build, this book has action almost from the beginning. I do not want to give too much away, but give it a shot even if you were not a fan of the first book.

I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The sequel to Labyrinth Lost picks up a few months after the first one ended. Alex's family returned from Los Lagos after her selfish attempt to stop her magic from manifesting and now they're trying to pick up the pieces with very little success. Their father, who had been missing for years, has returned and Lula, the oldest sister, deals with the fact that she is forever scarred from being attacked in the otherworld.

We get Lula's viewpoint in this book as she struggles with life after returning from Los Lagos; it's affecting her relationships with her family, her friends, and her boyfriend--which is almost worse to a teenage girl than being sucked into a different world through a strange portal. Her world continues to turn upside down as a bus crash occurs, killing most of her peers. But, Lula is a Bruja. And her sister is an encantrix, the most powerful type of bruja there is. This can be fixed, Lula is sure of it.

Of course, things absolutely do not go as planned. Lula's boyfriend comes back from the edges of death and, well, he's not himself. And neither are the others who were accidentally brought back. Oh, and somehow all of those that were brought back have a hankering for eating flesh and all of this is Lula's fault because she was just as selfish as Alex was in the first book.

I really liked Labyrinth Lost though I felt like it dragged in places. Bruja Born has very little of that. From the first few chapters, shit goes down and it just gets crazier from there. The crash happens, bodies go missing, different bodies are found littered all over Brooklyn and, while this is happening, Lula is also trying to hide her undead boyfriend from her parents and keep him from zombing out--or, well, becoming a casimuertos.

Córdova does such a fabulous job of expanding the world of the brujas, bringing in her own mythos with the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter.

If you read the first book and felt wishy-washy about it, pick up the sequel and you'll be begging for the third.

In BRUJA BORN, Lula is dealing with the ramifications of the first book. She's scarred, mentally and physically, and can't discuss anything that happened with Maks, her sinmago boyfriend, despite how much she wants to share her world with him.

Her love of Maks drives the majority of the story. BRUJA BORN features wonderful interactions between Lula and her sisters. They obviously care about each other and will do whatever it takes to protect each other, but Lula places Maks on a pedestal above her family and herself. She's convinced her high school love is a true and forever relationship worth sacrificing for.

Overall, BRUJA BORN is a well-written, action-packed, and diverse YA fantasy with flawed pacing—characters spend a large amount of the book not knowing what to do, or deciding what to do, leaving little room for the climax and resolution. As a result, the ending is rushed. Readers that loved the first book in the series will no doubt love the second if they can accept Lula’s devotion to Maks.

This book felt so different from the first one... At first I thought it was going to be neat that book 2 was told from a different Mortiz girl's perspective. But, it just seemed more juvenile and more overly-dramatic than the first book. It's a little like Practical Magic (bring dead boyfriend back to life) meets Hocus Pocus (kids running around with zombie ("casimuerto") fighting evil while parents are away) meets The Walking Dead (zombies overrunning the city, lots of gore while fighting zombies). It just lacked the fantasy aspects and imagination of the first book. The first book was a solid five stars (I compared it to Practical Magic in a good way) - here's a quote from my review of Labyrinth Lost: "This book gets five stars for the absolute originality of it. It's a fantastic novel about magic - without wizards, or vampires, or werewolves... Completely original." And... book 2... enter "vamps" "weres" fairies and mermaids. I was so disappointed. Can we please just keep an original fantasy concept that doesn't include all the usual cliches? Not only are they rampant, we're using all the slang terms for them. We were off to such a good start. Unfortunately unless I see some reviews that we're closer to Book 1, I won't be reading Book 3.

**** Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review ****

****Trigger Warnings: Violence, Death, Gore, & Self Harm (for magical purposes)****

I enjoyed the first book “Labyrinth Lost” (review here) which was told from Alex Mortiz’s POV and full of Latinx magic and mythology, it’s a fantastic book overall. I was a bit skeptical when I found out the sequel would be told from Alex’s sister Lula’s POV instead of hers but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed her perspective. I can honestly say I loved “Bruja Born” even more than “Labyrinth Lost”!


First off I’d like to say that I think the synopsis for the book is a bit on the spoilery side, I went into this without reading it and I thought it was much better that way. So I won’t be discussing the happenings of the plot in too much detail due to said spoilers. Just know that Lula finds herself in a very heart-breaking situation and thus unleashing some magical chaos. There were some moments where my heart broke for her and things got pretty emotional as well as suspenseful.

There’s still plenty of magic and mythology present in “Bruja Born” which I loved, I think we see even more world building in this one with the Thorn Hill Alliance and Knights of Lavant being brought into the fold. We see several other supernatural beings too, which I don’t know why but I wasn’t expecting that with this book (I was more so focused on the brujas) but it was welcome nonetheless. I’m glad we got to see more brujeria (magic) in this book, it was really interesting to see how different each person’s magic was and to see it in action. However, I do wish we had more info on the Deos though, I’m dying to know more about them and the little paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter are such a tease!

As for the writing and pacing, both wonderful! I actually went through this book pretty quickly and it flowed so well, there were definitely no dull moments. There were also a few twists that I didn’t see coming as well, it kept my attention 100%.

I really enjoyed the overall themes present in the book as well, once again (as with Labyrinth Lost) we see strong familial bonds and positive family relationships being portrayed. It’s so refreshing to see families shown in YA that are whole and fully support each other, I especially loved how the sisters (Alex, Lula, and Rose) acted helping each other out while still bickering occasionally, as sisters do! Another sort of theme I thought was shown well was the overall acceptance of yourself as a person that we see in Lula throughout the story. Lula, for example, has scars on her face she finds hideous and uses glamour to hide them but she grows so much as a character throughout the story that she learns to accept herself for who she is physical appearance and all.

And that ending? Can I have the next book now please? You can’t leave me hanging like that! Prepare yourselves for a pretty brutal cliffhanger!


I loved the characters just as much as I did in “Labyrinth Lost” if not even more! As I already mentioned I loved that the Mortiz family is shown in such a positive light and how they all support each other no matter what. I was definitely excited to learn more about each family member as well since they’re absent for most of the first book.

Lula was a fantastic narrator and I thought she was an incredibly realistic and relatable character. She grows so much throughout the story too and I can say she’s easily a very well developed and complex character, flaws and all. I also understood the choices she made, even if they weren’t the best, and liked how she owned up to everything she did.

I really enjoyed the introduction of a few new characters such as McKay, Frederik, and Rhett. Definitely want to see more of them! I mean the side characters have so much personality and we hardly see them!


This is hard to place, there is romance in “Bruja Born” and yet it’s not in the way you’d expect. There is a focus on the relationship between Lula and her boyfriend Maks, which I always thought they were a sweet couple but that’s all I’ll say on that subject. There is a love interest that comes alone much later in the book, and I adore him even more…..

I would say the story focuses a lot more on the love between Lula and her family though, which I basically live for. I love the Mortiz family so freaking much!


What I Loved:

Fast pacing & writing that flowed well
Engaging plot with some great twists
Strong family relationships
Great world building and mythology
It’s diverse YA fantasy!
All of the characters were lovable and well developed overall

What I Didn’t Love:

That mean cliffhanger ending!
I would love to see the world building and mythology fleshed out even more


I recommend checking out “Bruja Born” if you were a fan of “Labyrinth Lost”, this sequel will not disappoint you! If you’re looking for a magical, diverse YA fantasy to add to your TBR then this is the series for you!