The Friday 56: The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes

The Friday 56 is a weekly blog meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. Join us every Friday and share an excerpt from a book you’ve been reading.

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
*Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post here in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It’s that simple.

**Be sure to leave a link to your Friday 56 post in the comments!**

      “I pushed the flashlight out of my eyes. ‘Hang on! I don’t care how powerful this soothsayer person was, she was dead wrong. I’d never be stupid enough to let some ugly, hairy, war-hungry monster free!'”

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes, one of my current reads and the first book the Latinx Book Club is reading together. There is still time to join us if you’re interested! Cover is linked to Goodreads.

From the Goodreads Synopsis:

      “Zane has always enjoyed exploring the dormant volcano near his home in New Mexico, even though hiking it is challenging. He’d much rather hang out there with his dog, Rosie, than go to middle school, where kids call him Sir Limps a Lot, McGimpster, or Uno — for his one good leg. What Zane doesn’t know is that the volcano is a gateway to another world and he is at the center of a powerful prophecy.
      A new girl at school, Brooks, informs him that he’s destined to release an evil god from the ancient Maya relic he is imprisoned in — unless she can find and remove it first. Together they return to the volcano, where all kinds of crazy happens. Brooks turns into a hawk, a demon attacks them in a cave, and Rosie gives her all while trying to protect Zane. When Zane decides to save his dog no matter the cost, he is thrust into an adventure full of surprising discoveries, dangerous secrets, and an all-out war between the gods, one of whom happens to be his father. To survive, Zane will have to become the Storm Runner. But how can he run when he can’t even walk well without a cane?
      Feisty heroes, tricky gods, murderous demons, and spirited giants are just some of the pleasures that await in this fresh and funny take on Maya mythology, as rich and delicious as a mug of authentic hot chocolate.”

Latinx Book Club: Announcement + April’s Book Club Pick

Hello, friends! I’m pleased to officially introduce you to the Latinx Book Club, an online Twitter-based book club, where each month we choose a book by a Latinx author to read together. First, I’d like to introduce you to the fellow members of the Latinx Book Club team: Cande @ Latinx Magic, Carolina @ Santana Reads, Dani @ Metamorphoreader, Jocelyn @ Yogi with a Book, and Sofia @ Bookish Wanderess. I’m so excited to work with these bloggers on this project and already feel like we work well together. Also, special shout out to Isabel Ibañez, who designed our banner and logo.

The Latinx Book Club is dedicated to reading and boosting Latinx voices. If you haven’t followed us on Twitter yet you can do so here: @Latinxbookclub. We’ve already gotten such a welcoming response from everyone and are so grateful. We hope that you join us this year in reading more Latinx authors. After a Twitter poll asking readers what book they’d like our first book club pick to be, we are happy to announce April’s book club pick is…

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes! I’ve had this MG novel on my TBR since I first heard about it and I’m so glad we get to read this one together. Book info listed below, including a content warning. We will be starting our readalong April 1st. Feel free to read at your own pace. We will be using the hashtag #Latinxbookclub all month long and have plans for some discussion questions along the way. We hope you can join us for our first book club pick readalong and the many more to come. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here or on our Twitter account.

Title: The Storm Runner
Author: J.C. Cervantes
Series: The Storm Runner, #1
Pages: 448
Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents
Release Date: September 18th 2018
**Content Warning: ableism (internal ableism and ableist language directed at the MC)**

      “Zane has always enjoyed exploring the dormant volcano near his home in New Mexico, even though hiking it is challenging. He’d much rather hang out there with his dog, Rosie, than go to middle school, where kids call him Sir Limps a Lot, McGimpster, or Uno — for his one good leg. What Zane doesn’t know is that the volcano is a gateway to another world and he is at the center of a powerful prophecy.
    A new girl at school, Brooks, informs him that he’s destined to release an evil god from the ancient Maya relic he is imprisoned in — unless she can find and remove it first. Together they return to the volcano, where all kinds of crazy happens. Brooks turns into a hawk, a demon attacks them in a cave, and Rosie gives her all while trying to protect Zane. When Zane decides to save his dog no matter the cost, he is thrust into an adventure full of surprising discoveries, dangerous secrets, and an all-out war between the gods, one of whom happens to be his father. To survive, Zane will have to become the Storm Runner. But how can he run when he can’t even walk well without a cane?
      Feisty heroes, tricky gods, murderous demons, and spirited giants are just some of the pleasures that await in this fresh and funny take on Maya mythology, as rich and delicious as a mug of authentic hot chocolate.”