This was an interesting concept and there were some really interesting ideas here! The writing style wasn't really for me (the perspective was a little confusing sometimes), but worth checking out if the concept interests you!

This was such a great fantasy book about the history of the Mexica people, and also the current events in our country and the connections across time and space. The author did a great job incorporating historical events and words from different languages into the book in a clear way. I didn't rate it 5 stars because it was quite a long read and the beginning felt like it dragged a little, but I was also a tad disappointed by the ending. I don't know what I was expecting but I was kind of hoping for something different. Overall, though, a great historical/fantasy/romance YA read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for the ARC of Secret of the Moon Conch.

I acknowledge that this story touched on some very important topics and I thought the authors did a great job addressing them. My problem with the story is that I just struggled to get into it. I felt that Sitlali had little common sense. She gets herself into situations with little regard for those around her and how it impacts their lives. The romance of this book made me gag. Calizto is this brave warrior who spends half the book cooing at this girl. He will be in the middle of a battle and then be asking her about why she needs to go to the Dollar Store for personal supplies. I also felt like the genre of the novel varied widely throughout. At times it was YA and then the situations would get much more mature. The book was in need of stronger editing.

“I'll cleave the very cosmos if you are ever caged. I'll cross the centuries and leagues upon this horse and lay waste to anyone who dares lay a hand on you.”

Ya'll this book is CRAZY (in the best way possible). Secret of the Moon Conch by Guadalupe García McCall and David Bowles follows Sitlali and Calizto as they fall in love, 500 years apart. Sitlali lives in modern-day Mexico and escapes to the U.S. after being targeted by gang members. Meanwhile, Calizto, an Aztec warrior, lives in 1521... that's right...during the fall of Tenochtitlan. What connects the two (besides their impossible love)? A magical moon conch.
Now, I'm not going to give away the absolute craziness that is this book, but I promise you that it is jam-packed with detail and historical accuracy. I recently got to meet Guadalupe and David, and they explained just how much research went into this book, and it was A LOT. And you can tell! I learned so much about the culture of Mexico, and they did a fabulous job of tying it to today's social problems. That being said, I found the pacing of the book to be a bit off, and it was very difficult for me to get into, but once I was captured, I couldn't put it down! Definitely a great read!

First of all I want to thank Netgalley for giving me an e-arc in exchange of my honest review.

When I first read the premise for this book I was really excited because I have never read a book with lovers across time and I was really curious about how the authors were going to pull that off. Now that I'm done reading it I have to say that they did a wonderful job mixing history and modern time issues. I honestly thought that the mention and use of the modern time was going to annoy me but I found myself submerged in Sitali's journey.
I think that the way the authors connected both the past and the present was very clever and I enjoyed every single interaction between Sitali and Calizto as well as every bit we got of the Aztec time. To be honest one of the main reason I requested this one is because of Calizto's background and I really wanted to read about about the Aztecs.

I really enjoyed the romance although I would have liked a bit more of a slow burn but the way both mc were so connected it totally made sense that they grew feelings for each other a bit quick. I was really anxious in the last 20% of the book because I was not sure how the ending could be a satisfying one but the way it played out was perfect.

I really liked that the authors portray very well the struggle that minority communities face everyday and how it has a really strong and powerful message.

In a way it is a sad but beautiful book

A fantasy romance I just couldn’t get into. The last chapter and the epilogue seemed too ambiguous to me. Did Sitlali live? Were they really able to “transport” through time and space to be together? While there were a lot of interesting historical facts and true to life scenarios, the love story of it just seemed too far reaching to keep my interest.

Secret of the Moon Conch is such a unique book and I was instantly drawn to it when I saw the cover. It's a book that teenage me would have LOVED. A fantasy/romance that has characters who look and speak like me. Representation MATTERS! I think about all of the young patrons that use my library and I know that they would be able to see something of themselves reflected in this book.

I felt a wide range of emotions while reading this book. It is filled with love, loss, danger, and human connection. The book alternates between the two main characters. And while they were living in their own times, I also enjoyed the parts where the conch allowed their experiences to intertwine. I was emotionally invested in both Sitali and Calitzo's stories.

The historical aspect of the fall of Tenochtitlan was incredibly interesting and it allowed me to experience this part of history in a new way. We learned about the conquistadors in history class but so much of it was a Eurocentric viewpoint. I loved seeing it from the viewpoint of the Aztecs and learning more about their civilization.

The only reason I gave Secret of the Moon Conch 4 stars instead of 5 is that it felt just a bit longer than it needed to be and the ending left more to be desired. I wonder if there is going to be a sequel...

Dnf at 37.1%.I started this quite a bit ago and each time I pick it upto read I have a difficult time staying within the story. I love the concept of it and love the setting and history written. Always looking for different culture's mythology and history within books.

However, it is a bit clunky to me and I personally think the two MCs accepted this wild and crazy situation very readily without many questions. While Sitlali could see her grandmother's ghost, it really didn't elaborate much on any other paranormal or magical instances, other than their faith within things. The characters also fell into emotions for each other very quickly. It's only been a few days and I just find this to be unrealistic, even with this realm.

I really wanted to love this but it fell short for me and made me not want to finish. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read the arc in exchange for an honest review.

“No matter what the new moon may bring, you will always be a part of me.”
Both Sitlali and Calizto have one mission: survival. However, their circumstances could not be more different. Seventeen-year-old Sitlali must escape the perils of modern-day Zongolica, a Mexican municipality overrun by gang violence and drug lords. Calizto, also seventeen, lives in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan circa 1521 and must defend his home from the vicious attacks of Spanish colonizers. Though the two are centuries apart, they are brought together by a magical conch shell, which allows them to communicate. As Sitlali and Calizto support and guide each other through their respective battles, their connection grows. They fight for their lives and freedom, desperate to find safety in worlds where danger lurks at every turn. As they discover comfort and happiness in each other, they begin to wonder why the conch shell unites them and if they may share a future together.

Secret of the Moon Conch was unique and impeccably well-researched, allowing the authors to immerse readers in unfamiliar worlds. Sitlali’s chapters displayed emotional depth and were easily understandable for a contemporary audience. The prose is beautifully written, featuring vivid imagery. Conversely, I found Calizto’s chapters difficult to keep up with. I appreciated the integration of authentic vocabulary, but I wish definitions were included in the text or made more apparent through context clues. I constantly flipped back and forth between the text and the glossary, which took me out of the story. I was also shocked by the graphic violence featured in his chapters, which felt slightly excessive for young adults. Secret of the Moon Conch shines the brightest when the conch shell allows the two characters to read each other’s minds and see through each other’s eyes. The parallels between Calizto’s and Sitlali’s experiences are thoughtful and well-planned. Though their situations are distinctly different, their plots move at the same pace. However, the protagonists understand the elaborate powers of the conch shell easily, which felt unrealistic and made it difficult to follow along as a reader. Because their situations are so complex, the solutions seem oversimplified. The romance in this novel also felt oversimplified. Despite the hurried nature of the relationship, the intimate scenes are appropriate for seventeen-year-olds, from discussing consent to avoiding overt explicitness.

In a world full of trope-based young adult novels, David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall gave readers a book like none other.

I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.

Two star-crossed lovers, who are both 17, but separated by 500 years. The magic of the moon conch brings them together across the centuries, as he fights the Spanish invaders in the 16th century, and she deals with gangs, human traffickers, and drug lords in the 21st century. The connection between them becomes stronger and stronger, through great adversity to both of them. The love scenes are not overdone for a Young Adult audience, nor are the scenes involving violence - including sexual violence. They are all tastefully done, giving descriptions of what's happening, without making anything too explicit. I love a story that allows me to use my imagination for the scenes.

The conch is even older than the invasion of conquistadors, and cannot be read by either of them. It is said that the glyphs are understandable to those the Goddess chooses. As the story progresses, Sitlali, the 21st century girl, can understand more and more of them.

Aware of the time paradoxes of changing history, they do not change history.

There are some explanations to get through it which seem to merely be plot devices to explain how they keep this conch – a bulky object – through various physical trials – including capture and imprisonment. This is why I only gave it 4 stars, as well as it’s sometimes hard to tell which of our two protagonist is speaking when they are speaking across time.

It has a lovely ending, with a firm resolve to help others through their plights – with help of gods and ancestors - and now able to understand all of the Conch's Secrets.

A masterpiece of YA.

I'm not even sure where to begin. The romance is so beautiful it kind of hurts.

I read this in one day because I just could not stop reading. The writing is beautiful and I couldn't imagine going to bed without knowing how this story would end.

McCall and Bowles somehow gave us a romantasy that address colonization, the preservation of culture, enslavement, ugh. I just can't wrap my mind around two people collaborating so well.

This book is rich in history and a reader more invested on the romance will still be able to learn more of this historical background.. This book did a good job at describing the various injustices that happened historically, as well as injustices that occur due to ICE. Despite the time difference of 500 years, the parallels between the periods were artfully showcased through the communications that the moon conch allowed Sitali and Calitzo to have. I found myself immersed to see how the next perspective would be woven in through the Sitali and Calitzo's interactions. Overall, this was a beautiful read that leaves me wanting to learn more of this history that is in this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for providing the advanced copy in return for an honest review of this book.

I couldn't have fallen for this YA romance anymore than I have. I love the melding of mythology, history, and contemporary issues. I love a romance that is moon-crossed, with characters that are utterly loveable. Sitlali and Calixto absolutely have my heart.

DNF- 33%

This book wasn’t bad my any means I’m just not the right reader for it. I was having a lot of trouble keeping up with what was happening between the different perspectives and the pacing felt too slow for my liking.

I don’t know where to begin with this story. It was absolutely incredible, a page turner, filled with incredible history.. A must read!

I fell in love with the MCs from their first introduction “Sitlali” and “Calizto” and their cross over time love story had me clutching my imaginary pearls.

But don’t get confused, this novel is so much more than just a Fantasy Romance, this is about the Fall of the Aztec empire and how we get a little insight in the form of fiction through the eyes of our warrior Calizto.

To the cruel reality filled with violence, immigration and death of our present time in Mexico through the eyes of our FMC Sitlali..

I was not prepared for the ending and I am honestly still processing that.. so.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for a copy of this incredible novel in exchange of an honest review.

Her father disappeared to the US without contact years ago, her mother died of a broken heart, and now a dangerous gang member wants her as his girl. 17-year-old Sitlali has nothing left in her Veracruz hometown, just the ghost of her abuela watching over her, and she has decided to make the trek north to the border. The night before she leaves she finds a conch with inscrutable rune markings on the beach.

500 years in the past, Calitzo has lost everyone he loves to smallpox. Inside the Mexica city-state of Tenochtitlan, he trains with other teen boys in preparation to fight off the Spanish invader Cortés who holds the city under seige.

Somehow, the conch connects Sitlali and Calitzo across space and time and they each guide each other in their journeys.

I really enjoyed the immersion we got into 1500s Tenochtitlan and the juxtaposition of Mexica peoples' struggles in two different times. The connection across time allowed for the two main characters to form a unique romance based on deep understanding of each other. Though I felt like some of the traumatic things, especially in Sitlali's time, were rushed through without time to process, there is a lot going on in two different centuries, and perhaps makes sense in that Sitlali's only half-living in her own time at this point.

This is a very enjoyable historical adventure with some time-traveling and a love story mixed in, as well as a celebration of the resilience of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, David and Guadalupe for this wonderful novel.

4.5/5 stars.

General Description: Love knows no bounds, especially for Calizto and Sitlali. We follow 2 timelines: Calizto is trying to protect himself as Tenochtitlan starts to fall, while Sitlali is escaping gangs in Mexico to join her father in the US. Both Calizto and Sitlali hold a moon conch near and as the moon gets fuller, their connection gets stronger. Will Calizto and Sitlali be able to get to safety in their respective timelines, or will something worse than heartbreak happen?

All the good:
- The historical aspect is magnificent.
- The present day setting is heartbreakingly accurate and left me anxious while reading, in the best way possible.
- The love story is absolutely beautiful and made my heart smile.
- This was extremely fast paced and I saw no twists or turns coming if I'm honest.

The loss of a half star:
- To me, the ending left me with questions which left me unsettled. If there is a sequel to this book, I'll change my rating to a 5/5 stars.

Overall: If you like historical romances, I feel like this will be right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

So, I dove head first into a fantasy romance novel knowing full well I don’t do “romantasy.” However, I love the blurb and the cover too much not to give it a try.

I was both right and wrong about this book. I both loved AND hated it. Let’s start with the hate because it’s the smallest teeniest amount of dislike that stems one hundred percent from the romance. It was cheesy. It was flowery AND cheesy. Slightly cute but super cheesy.

“I love you, my sweet Sitlali. Through time and space, and everything beyond, I love you.”—SUPER cute but heavy on the cheese. The expression of this kind of love is lost in English. It needs a love language. What I would give to be able to read and understand this in Spanish.

Now, that we're done with that. Let’s head to the good because there’s so much more great writing and storytelling in this book than there is cheesy love story. In fact, the greatness of the other themes and storylines in the novel is what makes me dislike the romance altogether. It feels like it takes away from the other aspects of the main characters’ plights. And, those main characters are two such extremely endearing characters that the love story kind of cheapens their greatness.

Sitlali is a seventeen year old girl living in Zongolica, Mexico. Her father left for America when she was a child, abandoning her and her mother. Her mother dies of a broken heart. She is left in the care of her grandmother. When her grandmother dies shortly before the beginning of the book, Sitlali is basically all alone in the world. To escape being entrapped by a local gang member, Sitlali makes a break for the US border. Mind you, this book takes place in 2019, so there is a lot of heat around illegal border-crossings. The journey that Sitlali takes in order to cross into the US is one of nightmares. In fact, the life she is thrown into after crossing the border is also one of nightmares. She basically runs from one traumatic event to the next. But, she is not alone.

Through a magical connection that involves a sacred moon conch from the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui, Sitlali shares emotions and experiences with Calitzo, a teenage warrior in early 1500s Mexico. For his time, Calitzo is a man. He is the last of his line as the Spanish attack and kill his family and people all around him. Just like Sitlali, he finds himself moving from one traumatic and murderous event to the other. The connection they share and the relationship that grows between them is one born out of loneliness. They each fulfill a hole in each other’s hearts. Their relationship gives off a found family vibe (which is probably another reason why the romance seems off to me). I would have much preferred a loving friend relationship. Everything doesn’t have to be about romance, at least not in the beginning. There are other stronger forms of love.

The underlying message of this book is about colonization, enslavement, and cultures trying to continue to exist in a world that prefers the default culture. This book pulls zero punches when discussing both the massacre of Mexican natives and the detainment of Mexican immigrants at the US border during the Trump regime. Seeing the US border crisis through the eyes of Mexican and Mexican-American perspectives helped me to understand those conditions even more than when I saw it on the news in 2019. The history of the Mexica people was extremely educational. Learning about Cuauhtemoc, Moteuczoma, and their gods and goddesses makes me want to dive into as many references as I can to learn more about the Nahua and other indigenous people of Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed going to Google and Wikipedia every other page to look up former emperors, empresses, words, languages, and events from Mexico’s past. I also appreciated the inclusion of Ofirin, an African slave stolen from his land and brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. Thanks to both the authors for not making Africans and people of African descent disappear when telling important aspects of history.

Romance aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Sitlali and Calitzo’s stories. May they live long fictional lives because they have both struggled enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books/Bloomsbury YA for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review will post to my Instagram account on Wednesday, June 28, 2023.
https://www.instagram.com/spellsbooksandkrystals/

Secret of the Moon Conch is a new young adult fantasy novel by authors David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall. The novel contains large elements of historical fantasy and romance, as the story features two protagonists from two different time periods: the year 1521, in which the story follows an Aztec warrior named Calizto during the fall of the Aztec Empire to Cortez and his Spanish invaders and the year 2019, in which the story follows a girl Sitlali as she attempts to flee to her father who abandoned them to head to the United States to escape the attention of gangs in Mexico. Through a magical conch, the two protagonists connect and are able to communicate...and fall in love, as they each struggle with seemingly similar situations, persecution for who they are at the behest of colonial and imperial powers and people who simply are unwilling to acknowledge others as human beings with their own rights to exist.

You'd think such a book would be a bit heavy handed, and it is, and the book is in some ways predictable (and not just because Calizto's history has already happened), but at the same time the story really works. Both main characters are really easy to relate to and have strong deep characters, resulting in them having some rather unpredictable moments, and the thematic parallels between their times work quite well. The romantic chemistry between the two is really well done, and the book closes itself off not with an unrealistically optimistic ending, but also not with a dark cynical and depressing one as well - there's just the right amount of hopefulness alongside the recognition that today's world features some absolute atrocities alongside the southern border...not just in Mexico, but in the US immigration system's treatment of those trying to cross the border for the sake of better lives. It's a short book, but it's packed and not a quick read, and I would definitely recommend it to YA readers



----------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------
In 2019, a teenage girl named Sitlali decides to leave the town in which she was born, Zongolica, in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. Sitlali's father abandoned her mother years ago to go to the States, leaving her only with her mother - who soon wasted away - and her grandmother, who just recently passed away years later. Now Sitlali has nothing but constant harassment from a boy in a gang who insists that she become his and the only escape she can think of is to follow her grandmother's last plan - to head to the States to meet up with her madrina Tomasita (her mother's best friend) who will shelter her as she seeks her father once more. But the journey to the States is treacherous and the boy who wants her will not let her go so easily.

In 1521, a teenage boy named Calizto is one of the warriors who helps defend his Aztec village from the oncoming Spanish Invaders. Calizto has seen countless losses, including his knighted brother and most of his friends and neighbors, and even lost the rest of his family to disease. The only one he has left is the one he can't reveal to anyone openly: Ofirin, a boy brought to Mexico as an African Slave, who escaped captivity and was nursed back to health by Calizto's family...only to have to then nurse Calizto's family as best as he could while they wasted away due to foreign disease. Calizto is desperate to save his people, but the orders coming in from the Aztec leaders only keep putting them all into more and more dire straits.

Both Calizto and Sitlali's paths are changed forever when each discovers a strange Conch filled with magic symbols echoing from the power of the Moon Goddess, which allows them to communicate and interact with each other across time, especially as the moon gets closer to being full. With its power, can the two possibly change history? Or are they doomed to suffer in their own timelines the fates of all those who search for a better life while seemingly unstoppable forces attempt to crush them under their relentless cruelty?
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Secrets of the Moon Conch does the pretty standard YA thing of altering the perspective from which each chapter is told - each chapter switches ostensibly between Sitlali and Calizto's points of view in first person - but because of how the eponymous Conch works to connect the two characters, that perspective switching isn't quite as unambiguous as you'd typically see here, as the Conch melds the two together by the middle of the book. It's a really effective way of telling this story, that allows the book's themes of how the two characters' struggles in two different times really isn' tas dissimilar as we'd like to imagine.

For Calizto, that struggle is of a common non-noble boy from a village of the remaining Aztec Empire trying desperately to hold off foreign imperial invaders who mean to kill off or enslave his entire people. Calizto is kind and well meaning at heart, even holding secret a foreign boy in Ofirin from his own people for fear that those people will kill Ofirin for coming with the invaders, when Ofirin was only there because he was enslaved first from Africa (readers familiar with the history will guess some truths behind Ofirin's backstory before they are revealed, but they make little difference to this point). He's a little blind to the injustices his own people have committed, as one character points out, but this is hardly the time for him to consider that - as his people are on the brink of extermination and genocide at the hands of the Spanish, despite his best efforts. History is seemingly not on his side.

For Sitlali, that struggle is seemingly a more personal one at first, but it's just as existential as Calizto's. To remain in Zongolica is for Sitlali to condemn herself to abuse at the hands of a boy in a gang who thinks that she should become his property, no matter what she wants and what he does...and she has no family or friends who can shelter her from that fate. Her only hope is to make the trek to America, where her mother's good friend - her Madrina - currently lives, and where her father abandoned them all to goto...in hopes that one of them, preferably her father will take her in. It's a deadly dangerous trek just to get to America, but there's no other choice for Sitlali...and once she gets there, she finds that America is in its own way just as dangerous for undocumented peoples like her, with ICE just around hte corner to treat them just as inhumanely as the Spanish did Calizto's people.

And so when the two of them get connected by the Conch, which allows them to hear each other and to connect in other magical ways. And they recognize kindrid spirits in each other, despite the vast differences in their worlds - Calizto's brutal battles and practices, Sitlali's modern technology for example. This allows for their romance to grow naturally and be very very real, and for the relationship to really work on pages. It also allows for the two of them to support each other as things go horribly wrong for both of them. For this is a book that understands that the inhumane practices of immigraiton authorities in the US - ICE and otherwise - as well as people who would rather betray those around them than potentially be made uncomfortable or slightly less safe is just as horrid and unacceptable as what happened to a people on the verge of extinction from a colonizing invader. And this is a book that understands that there are no easy answers to that - so when Sitlali attempts to arouse sentiment on her side by going viral, the book knows that this is hardly a solution that would actually work...indeed, if you pay attention to our sadly non-magical real world, it hasn't even when similar things have happened here.

And yet, through Sitlali and Calizto's good heartedness and courage, the book still possesses a hopeful optimism that justice can prevail, and that something can be done...and that a better future may be out there. And so while the way for Sitlali and Calizto to have a happy ending might be magical, the book suggests that a hopeful future might not be, and the book really works as a result. A very good YA novel that is well worth anyone's time.