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My Review:Title: Lobizona
Author: Romina Garber
Series: Wolves of No World #1
Published by: Wednesday Books
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Format: eARC
Pages: 400
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Folklore
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Winter, Lenoreo's 2022 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Some people ARE illegal.
Lobizonas do NOT exist.
Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.
Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.
I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
4.5 stars — I’ll explain in too much detail at the end, but the start was super slow for me, and I set this book aside *twice*. But once I got over that initial hump, I just kept getting more and more into it, until I was racing to the finish. So definitely give it until chapter 5 or 6 before you judge (even better if you get to phase 2).
Manu was a pretty solid heroine. I had a hard time initially connecting with everything she was going through being kept away from the world. The literal immigration troubles she and her mother were facing were very visceral. I also appreciated how her illegal status was paralleled in the other world. Sometimes she was a bit angsty, but other times I totally felt her emotions with her. It was a mish mash. I appreciated everything she was going through, learning things about herself she never knew, and being introduced to a whole other world. And I appreciated the time she took when thinking about how she wanted her own story to play out — especially the consideration for illegals who might not be as wow as her.
There were a lot of interesting relationships in this book, along with interesting and vital secondary characters. While we didn’t get to see a lot of her relationship with her mom, I was so glad we got some glimpses in other ways. And while Perla’s role was short, I loved how she was there for Manu.
It was the friendships she formed at El Laberinto that really sold me — because they were by no means perfect, but that made them feel more authentic. I honestly thought we were going to have obvious girl enemy, and boy crush, but things veered off the traditional book course and I couldn’t be happier. I loved that they were all so different, but they all brought something to Manu’s life. I also appreciated that we did get to see some girl friendships, she wasn’t just alone.
I was initially frustrated with her back and forth with Tiago, even though I could feel their chemistry. But that whole story went in interesting directions I wasn’t expecting either, and I liked it.
The world was rich and fairly well developed and described. I will admit I’m still confused on some things, but there’s so much to love it doesn’t even matter to me! I enjoyed the school setting, I can see why some people have compared to Harry Potter. And Lunaris was weird and crazy and wonderful! I am so sucked in and wanting to know what’s going to happen next. There were quite a few things that I didn’t predict at all, which is kind of fun! All in all, I was so pleasantly surprised and relieved with how the book played out, I’m just excited for more!
So here’s my little story about how my reading experience went, just cause I feel like telling it. I started this book near release back in August 2020…and I just couldn’t get into it. I’m the kind of reader that likes to know *everything*, and so I would stumble on the different cultural references, the spanish phrases that weren’t *exactly* translated, that kind of thing. I also like to pretend to sound things out in my head, but I was doing a terrible job of it. So at about chapter 4 I decided to try to get the audio from the library, thinking that someone who could pronounce things properly might help. Course, I had to wait a couple months. And while I loved hearing all the words spoken authentically, the narrator wasn’t quite my jam, and I wasn’t getting sucked in yet again. I was officially bummed.
Fast forward a year and a half, and I found a friend to buddy read it with me. I decided to start at chapter 3, and this time I managed to let my “need to know everything” go, and just keep reading unless I was super confused…because honestly, in general you can at least figure out the gist with context. And it was going better! I still wasn’t wowed, but I kept motoring. I got into chapter 5, and things really started to pick up. There was action, more emotion, I was definitely more intrigued. By the time I got to Phase II (chapter 10), I was so much more excited about the book. And honestly, it just kept getting better and better for me, and I was up until 2:30 last night racing to the finish because I couldn’t help myself. And now I really want to move right on to book 2, though I have to squeeze in 2 other reads first.
There were still a lot of moments where I was confused, but the rest of the story just made up for it (as you can see from my rating).
COYER Community: I buddy read this book with Kristen, and she gave it 5 stars (her review coming soon). We both got totally sucked in, and I think we’re going to try to read book 2 together as well.
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