Lucha of the Night Forrest is a story that features forgotten magic, dark forces, dangerous bargains, and a queer romance. Lucha will do anything to save her sister even if she has to encounter mysterious acolytes, scorned gods, a drug that makes you forget, and a dangerous forrest.

Lucha is a pretty fast paced story that follows Lucha and her will to do anything for her sister. 

This is a unique world with a promising synopsis. However, I really struggled with this story because it felt very forgettable and discombobulated. I felt very confused most of the time. 

Lucha of the Night Forrest lacks in character development since it felt like the characters were one dimensional and shallow. 

If the story was more developed with the characters and the plot more fleshed out, then it would have been way more amazing. 

I did enjoy the romance in this story and the family bonds for Lucha to do what she did for her sister. I loved the exploration of friendships and all relationships in general in this book. 

I think it was just overall okay.

Harlow Estrada’s world has turned up side down when she is fired from her dream job, then on the same day she learns how big of a jerk her boyfriend really and truly is. She decides that there is nothing more left in New York City, which leads her to go home to the Hacienda Estrada in Mexico. Harlow’s family has magic that is harnessed through flowers and the magic can allow to heal hearts, erase memories, and interpret dreams. The only problem that comes with this for Harlow is that she has zero ounce of magic. Harlow’s mother and Aunt need someone to look over the enchanted farms and the one to be chosen is by the flowers. When waking up, Harlow to her surprise is the one chosen, but she starts to panic over the fact that she is magicless and has no idea how she can be the one to take over this task successfully.

The Enchanted Hacienda definitely made me think of Encanto as I started reading the book. I guess the best way to say this book is like Encanto, but make it adult. 

The reason why I say this makes me think of The Enchanted Hacienda as an adult Encanto is because in Encanto, Mirabella is the only one in her family that is not blessed with magic and goes on a self discovery quest of making peace with not having magic and knowing who she truly is. This goes the same with Harlow, but it goes further than that. 

Harlow at the beginning always seems scared of taking jumps of faith/risks and one of those things is of her wanting to be a writer. 

Harlow ends up doing a lot of growing in this book and I loved her and Ben and their meet cute that leads to their romance. 

My only gripe about this book is that there was a lull in the story around the middle of it to where I started to feel bored and not wholly invested like I was in the beginning. Towards the end of the book, I started to become interested and invented more. Other than the small portion of losing focus and steam on the story, I ended up really enjoying this book. 

This book explores self discovery, romance, family, and magic.