#Review - Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova #YA #Fantasy

Series: Brooklyn Brujas # 3
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy

The heart-stopping final installment in the highly original award-winning Brooklyn Brujas series!

Rose has always been a fixer, but lately she's been feeling lost. She has powers she doesn't understand, and her family is still trying to figure out how to function in the wake of her amnesiac father's return home. Then, on the night of her Death Day party, Rose discovers her father's memory loss has been a lie.

As she rushes to his side, the two are ambushed and pulled through a portal to the land of Adas. Rose is tasked with saving this magical land, and forced to work with a group of other powerful teens to do so. Soon, Rose begins to discover the scope of her powers, the troubling truth about her father's past, and the sacrifices he made to save her sisters. But if Rose wants to return home so that she can repair her broken family, she must figure out how to heal Adas first.

Wayward Witch, by author Zoraida Córdova, is the apparent final installment in the authors Brooklyn Brujas trilogy. 6 months have passed since Bruja Born where the Mortiz family home burned to the ground. This story is all about the youngest member of the family, Rose Elizabeta Mortiz Vargas. Rose is turning 16, but she's struggling with her new abilities. Rose’s main conflict is trying to reconcile the similarities between her magic and the evil witch who almost destroyed her family from Labyrinth Lost. She used to be a seer who spoke to ghosts and the world beyond the veil of the living. 

Now, she's called a magical hacker and she's having issues with her father's claims that he has no memories of the time he went missing. During her Deathday party she asks La Mama, Mother of all Deos to show her the truth. The response is that she should shine her light on secrets past. Unravel shadows and let the truth out at last. She soon finds that everyone is whispering secrets to her. What's more, she soon finds out that her father's memory loss is a lie. But, before Rose can get the answers she needs, she and her dad are swept into a portal leading to Adas where Carmen admits he remembers everything.  

In Adas, the fairy realm, Rose is forced to work with a group of Guardians who were collected by the King to try to save Adas from an evil that is overtaking the land. She agrees if only to save her father whom the king is keeping as his prisoner due to something that happened years ago. But, things are never as simple as they seem. While she's there, she'll discover more about her family and herself as well as the people of Adas including siblings Iris and Arco, the twin fairy prince and princess of Adas, as well as a toss in character thanks to the authors fans demanding this person be added to the story. 

Lin is not a bad person. Not at all. In fact, Lin may be the one person that Rose can fully trust without worrying about having someone stab her in the back while she tries to save Adas as well as getting her father home. One of the pitfalls of this story was the ending. I think it dragged on way too long. Yes, the family has to deal with her father's past now that he's unloaded it thanks to Rose. Yes, the family has to deal with another sibling learning about the human world after growing up in Adas. Honestly though, Rose really doesn't get a HEA like Lula who found love with a hunter, and Alex who finally accepted her powers and found love in the most unexpected places. I almost wished that Rose returned to Adas and became the Knight she truly became to the new Queen of Adas.

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