Kaela Rivera

Kaela Rivera is an American author of middle-grade fantasy who grew up in Tennessee reading folktales passed down from her Mexican-American and British parents, and now lives in the mountains of Utah. Her debut novel, Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, follows a girl who strikes an illegal bargain with a criatura in order to save her sister, and won the 2021 Cybils Award in the Elementary and Middle Grade category. She continued the story in Cece Rios and the King of Fears and Cece Rios and the Queen of Brujas, with a further book, The Hungry Forest, forthcoming. Rivera has also written for the LEGO DREAMZzz franchise, and describes her work as aiming to write adventures that heal.