The 52nd

I'm in love with Dela's writing.
I was drawn by this story from the beginning. It's such an interesting line-up of plot twists and decently written characters, I honestly couldn't put it down.
It has everything. A well-developed heroine, romance, action, mystery, a good portion of suspense. I was left wanting more.
I'm adding this book to my physical-copy wish list. I'm hoping I can buy it as soon as it's out.

Take a look at that cover, guys!
Honestly, at first it was the fantastic cover art that snagged my attention. Then I read the blurb and I was done for. I had to read this book and I was so thrilled when the publisher granted me an ARC.

The characters:
Zara, in whose POV the story was told for the most part, was an alright heroine. She was mature enough, the rambling thoughts were kept to a minimum, and there were no TSTL moments to speak of. She was the ordinary girl almost anyone would be able to identify with, which made her a likable but rather boring female lead. There were times I wanted to strangle her for taking Lucas's shit and forgiving him so easily all the time, but to be honest, for the longest time, I wasn't really invested in their love story, so overall, I didn't care too much.
Lucas, well... For the first half of the book, I disliked him. He was one of those "I want you, but since I can't be with you, I'll just treat you like crap and pity myself afterwards because you don't like me" kind of heroes, and that really irked me. Reading some chapters in his POV did help ease my dislike a bit, and helped me warm up towards him some more, but he kept disappointing as a character throughout most of the book. Surprisingly, I did end up liking him after finishing it, though.
There was such a huge number of secondary characters. Boy, did they confuse me. Quite a few characters didn't have any real purpose, like Zara's friends and friends' friends, other than confuse me even more. Some were introduced once in the beginning and we were supposed to remember them 90% into the story without any reminder what their story was. But, there were also some side characters that were awesome additions (I was particularly fond of Zara's older twin brothers, Casey and Max).
All in all, though, there were just too many names, too many stories connected to them, and I had a hard time remembering all of them.

The plot:
I freaking loved the story, the Mayan and Aztec history and mythology, its originality, the fantastically intriguing world building. I was so into it. I've never read anything like it, and, to be honest, I didn't have any knowledge about old Mesoamerican civilizations that goes beyond what I picked up randomly in the almost 30 years of my life - which really isn't much. Even though I felt a little overwhelmed by all the information given to me in the beginning, mainly the first chapter in Lucas's POV, I felt engrossed from the get-go.
The Mayan mythology with its tight link to astronomy and astrology, the civilization's bloody past, sacrifices and wars... The book made me want to know more about it. Great job!
If I had to rate that part of the book separately, I'd give it 5 stars without thinking twice about it.

The love story:
Well, the romance had a very twilighty feel to it, and I wouldn't exactly consider myself a Twilight fan. I found the characters to be more realistic and a lot less cheesy, but it was pretty obvious where the author got her inspiration from.
Apart from that, there was a lot (and I mean a lot) of push and pull, but I did feel the chemistry, longing and frustration between the two love birds. It took my a while, but in the end I found myself rooting for their love to be enough and for them to overcome their obstacles, and again, Lucas's POV helped a lot with that.

The writing:
Technically, the writing was really good, and I see a lot of potential for the future.
I did have some issues with the pacing, though. There were descriptions that were far too extensive, while some scenes felt rushed when I would have loved to read some more detail. Considering the novel's length of more than 400 pages, it's quite an achievement to make the story feel rushed.

Final thoughts:
Though there were times when I got a little annoyed or confused by the characters, the vast amount of information, or the imperfect pacing, I ended up quite enjoying this book. Especially given the fact that this was Dela's debut, it was a totally decent read that made me want to read the continuation, too.