FULL MOON OVER FREEDOM
Book Two IN THE critically-acclaimed Milagro Street SERIES
The Washington Post - Top 10 Romance Novel of 2023
AudioFile Magazine - Best Audiobooks of 2023 and winner of Earphones Award
★ Library Journal Starred Review
★ Booklist Starred Review
Library Journal’s Romance Pick of the Month
I want to talk about Angelina M. Lopez who I feel like I just want to scream about to everybody all the time in their faces because, as you all know, I loved her book After Hours on Milagro Street last year, I thought it was possibly my favorite book of the year, and this year, she’s got Full Moon Over Freedom…. Angelina’s books are flaming hot and she is so good at strong heroines who just are really deeply misunderstood by the people around them…. I love love love this story, I love her core story, and I’m very excited about this one.
— Sarah MacLean, co-host of Fated Mates and New York Times bestselling author of Knockout
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Gillian Armstead-Bancroft—class valedictorian, Pride of the East Side, and once-perfect bruja, wife, and mother—is going to spend her summer getting good at being bad.
The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right.
This time, she’ll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that’s erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer’s end.
Nicky Mendoza is an answer to her prayers. He was the practical solution to the problem of her virginity when they were younger, and now, as a gorgeous artist only in town for a weekend, he’s the ideal man to launch her down the path of ruination.
But Gillian isn’t the only one who’s cursed.
Nicky has been plagued by his furtive, enduring love for her as long as he’s been haunted by his cadejo, the phantom black dog that stalks his psyche. He’ll stick around to be whatever Gillian needs him to be this summer—but he won’t touch her. Touching her, then watching her leave again, will ruin him for good.
Book Two IN THE critically-acclaimed Milagro Street SERIES ABOUT THREE MEXICAN-AMERICAN SISTERS WHO RETURN TO THEIR SMALL MIDWESTERN HOMETOWN TO REVIVE THE FAMILY BAR AND, TO THEIR SURPRISE, SAVE THE TOWN THEY DIDN’T REALIZE THEY LOVED.
praise for Full Moon Over Freedom
Angelina M. Lopez has written an entire pantheon of women who refuse to be pigeonholed by society’s expectations—the type of character who challenges romance readers’ patriarchal notions of worth and likability…. In her latest series, Lopez levels up once again. She writes deep, complex women who have been pulled back home, but with interesting dilemmas and nuanced conflicts rather than the commonplace and cliched Hallmark movie–style homecoming. In Full Moon Over Freedom, Gillian Armstead-Bancroft chooses assimilation and social mobility over Freedom, Kansas. Everything seems perfect, she’s the “pride of the East side,” but it’s all a lie. Gillian is a bruja, desperately trying to fix the curse that’s ruined her life. Lopez effortlessly tackles the realities of life in a small town while unpacking Latine stereotypes and exploring the failures and triumphs of the misunderstood heroine.—Jennifer Prokop, Kirkus Reviews, “13 Romance Authors Making Space in the Genre”
The second in Lopez’s excellent Milagro Street series lands newly divorced Gillian back in her hometown of Freedom, Kan., to face demons both figurative and literal — and the first person she runs into is Nicky, the bad boy artist who taught her pleasure many years before. This incredible second-chance romance seamlessly blends Mexican American history and magical realism along with heat, angst and humor.—Alexis Daria, The Washington Post, Top 10 Romance Novel of 2023
Both spellbinding and sexy, this romance is an adventurous tale of the cursed and the blessed, and the community that raised them. VERDICT: In this second installment of the “Milagro Street” series, Lopez (After Hours on Milagro Street) interweaves history, Hispanic culture, magic, and passion in a modern-day love story.—Library Journal, ★ Starred Review and Romance Pick of the Month
Lopez works her own brand of literary brujeria in the second vibrantly written addition to her Milagro Street series, following After Hours on Milagro Street (2022), by crafting a scorchingly sensual love story. Lopez not only artfully incorporates family and friendship into the plot, she also illuminates the essential role Mexican Americans have played in the Midwest past and present—Booklist, ★ Starred Review
Stacy Gonzalez's fierce narration of Lopez's second-chance romance is a stormy yet satisfying listen…. Gonzalez flexes her narrative power as the story moves from soft, revelatory passages to scenes of their shared past and the visceral punch of trauma and loss. She teases out Gillian's connection to Latin American folk magic in a gentle, compelling fashion. Gonzalez tracks the rising tension with Gillian's Mexican American family and impeccably delivers the dialogue between the couple. Gonzalez's boundless sensitivity to the longings of the heart completely transforms the story through her audio performance.—AudioFile Magazine, Best Audiobooks of 2023 and Winner of Earphones Award
This series is one part small town romance, one part magical realism, one part absolute FIRE...l'm wild about her heroines, who are women who have to reconcile frustration and anger and big feelings before they win their happily ever afters, and this book is a fresh, modern banger.—Sarah MacLean, New York Times bestselling author of Knockout
Angelina M. Lopez’s Full Moon Over Freedom, her sequel to After Hours on Milagro Street, delivers on all expectations…. This is the work of a writer who knows and celebrates her community and her culture. It’s also a love story that embraces the unusual, celebrates the unsung and makes you believe the words of another famous Kansan: There’s no place like home.—Bookpage
With Full Moon Over Freedom, Angelina M. Lopez delivers a masterfully crafted second chance love story that aches as deliciously as it burns. With its deft blend of history, inspired social commentary, phenomenal character development, and scorching chemistry this book reads like Laura Esquivel’s and Susan Elizabeth Philips’s perfectly sexy love child. Gillian and Nicky are a couple for the ages and Freedom, Kansas is the new gold standard for small town romance. An absolute powerhouse of a romance. The kind of book that reminds me why this genre owns my heart.—Adriana Herrera, USA Today bestselling author of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris
Small town childhood friends to lovers, with a dash of second chance and a generous helping of heat? Yes, please! Full Moon Over Freedom is luscious and magical and unapologetically grown-up. Lopez is remaking the romance genre one gorgeously sexy book at a time.—Sierra Simone, USA Today bestselling author of Priest
Full Moon Over Freedom is a layered, complex look at love and identity and the complications of starting over when you're haunted by both the near and distant past. Gillian is a fully realized heroine--fierce, flawed, wounded, and so determined--and readers won't soon forget her and the magic she brings to the page.—Kate Clayborn, author of Georgie, All Along
Lopez has reinvigorated the small town romance series - hell, she’s blown it all up and started again the right way. No one does steamy better than Lopez, but in addition, Full Moon Over Freedom delivers history we have either whitewashed or willingly forgotten, a meditation on the meaning of success, and what happens when second chances become new beginnings. This book is everything you want in a contemporary romance —the sexiest cinnamon roll of a hero, a heroine willing to take a good hard look at herself, and a little bit of magic.—Elizabeth Everett, author of A Perfect Equation
Like Milagro Street, Full Moon Over Freedom is not marketed as a paranormal romance—which is shouldn’t be, because it’s not—but because I had read Milagro Street and knew that in this context, magic was real, I wasn’t thrown for a loop when Gillian spoke matter-of-factly about being a bruja. Yes, magic is real and yes she does it but we’re also firmly rooted in the real world here. Call it magical realism, romance novel edition. It rocks.—The Smut Report
Nicky is a fascinating character. He is Lopez’s first Mexican American male love interest. I loved him…. I love it when romance explores the difference between what we are taught a happily ever looks like and how to find a happily ever after that fits the people we are instead of who we think we are supposed to be. Angelina M. Lopez started off strong and gets better with every book. I love that she fully embraces the small town witch romance with Full Moon Over Freedom.—Cannonball Read
It’s a summer of second-chances in Lopez’s sparkling standalone second Milagro Street romance.—Publishers Weekly