The Fire Keeper

A few years ago I wrote about The Storm Runner, a new novel by JC Cervantes. At the time it was a new series that was connected to Rick Riordan's Presents publishing group. It's all about a young boy and his search for understanding more about his connection to the Mayan gods after he accidentally releases one from a dormant volcano. 

This week I finally got around to reading the sequel The Fire Keeper because a student lent me his copy. Good timing too since I'm now quarantining for the next two weeks.

The Fire Keeper finds Zane and his friends and family hiding from the Mayan gods on a beautiful remote island protected by the goddess of the underworld. But Zane knows they are running out of time to save his dad, the god Hurakan. Zane and Brooks must figure out how to get out of their protective prison and save Hurakan before it's too late. Maybe they'll even have time to discover if there are more godborns like Zane out there.

I'll leave my summary there--I don't want to reveal too much. But overall I thought it was a great sequel to The Storm Runner as it continues the exact same characterization and plot twists that made the first book so great.

I didn't get the chance to re-read The Storm Runner before I read this one. I felt like that made the book harder to get into since it had been so long since I read the book. Normally I don't have a problem if there are gaps of time in a series so I don't usually bother re-reading. But for this series, I might recommend it. There's just a whole pantheon of Mayan gods that I wasn't familiar with before reading the series plus Zane and all his friends and family with their specific quirks plus all the new characters. It would have been easier perhaps to re-read the first book as a refresher. Cervantes does include a Glossary at the end of the book which would be helpful if I ever remembered it was there...

This book was on my Most Anticipated Reads of 2019 list...but I just didn't get around to it until 2020. And now just about a month ago, the third book, The Shadow Crosser was released. Hopefully, it won't take me quite as long to read this one. 

This whole series is fantastic to recommend to Rick Riordan fans, greek mythology lovers, and action lovers. You can purchase a copy here!