Kaela Rivera: Cece Rios and the King of Fears (Harpercollins Publishers 2022)
The adventures of Cece Rios will continue in this September. I was lucky that the author sent me the e-arc and I could read it before it came out.
The plot continues from the moment the first book ends. Cece and Juana finally return to their home. There, however, they find only their mother because their father has left. From then on, Juana goes to work on the lands with their mother, while Cece does the other jobs. However, her friends stayed with her. The criatura months are slowly coming to an end and the dark criaturas are returning to Devil’s Alley so they will not appear for another nine months. Apparently, everything is fine, and they could calm down, but there is something wrong with Juana… She is irritated, unable to sleep and does not reciprocate the love of her family. Cece would still do anything to help her sister and set off to find a forgotten sanctuary to see if she could find a solution there to help Juana. In the meantime, however, Juana takes her fate into her own hands.
I really liked the story; it also shows what was unusual to adventure novels so far: what it feels like to be rescued. Juana is in an especially difficult situation because she has always been the brave and strong sister. It was hard enough for her to be taken away, but the fact that her little sister had to save her was uncomfortable for her. In addition, she is haunted by the memory of time spent in captivity and heated by revenge.
The book covers much more serious topics than the previous one. It points out that we often feel our mistakes are more serious than they are. The characters aren’t perfect, they all have their flaws: Cece wants to carry the weight of the whole world on her own, Juana can’t forgive, and Coyote suffers from the results of his mistakes made in the past. However, the story is positive as it shows that if we help each other, all problems can be solved.
New adventures are waiting for Cece and her friends…
