Selina Andrade has the swing to go pro—if her world doesn’t fall apart first.
In the stormy heart of Monterrey, Mexico, Selina’s dreams reach beyond the shadow of her brother’s baseball legacy. She wants a future in softball, one she might actually control. When she’s recruited by Coach Lupe to play on a U.S. team, it feels like everything she’s ever wanted is finally within reach.
But ambition isn’t enough when you’re caught between cultures, secrets, and pressure from every side—family, tradition, even love. Coach Lupe is fighting her own ghosts, determined not to let another girl slip through the cracks.
As past traumas and present tensions rise, Selina and Lupe must confront what it means to lead, to sacrifice, and to believe in something bigger than themselves.
Two generations. One game. Can they play through the storm before it tears everything apart?
Dr. Perez Ferguson is a cross-cultural educator and consultant. Her fiction brings to life the voices of California inhabitants living 200 years ago. She has twice won the Best YA Fiction Award from the San Francisco Writers Conference, 2021 and 2022.
Regarding Broken Promises:
"The tightly wound plot flows effortlessly from one moment to the next.... readers will find themselves inspired by the future Sparrow creates for herself and those around her." — Kirkus Reviews
Her non-fiction promotes the voices of under-represented communities in the twenty-first century. This earned her the 2014 Lacayo Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute. She is an Advisor and Former Chair for the InterAmerican Foundation and a former Visiting Lecturer for the Council for Independent Colleges. She enjoys living and writing on the Pacific coast.
Welcome to the world of Lupe & Selina, two softball pros who are on the road. As an author, the opportunity to move my story and my characters to a new location (in this case Mexico) also means introducing my readers to different scenery. In this excerpt, Lupe awakes on her first day in Mexico to the sound of birds outside her hotel window, the view of a small garden and a man racking leaves. That is not an unusual site, but it is different than the college campus and dusty baseball diamond the characters left behind in the previous chapters. A new view leads to new action and a change in the story. I hope you follow it with me by reading this book, Lupe & Selina Play Through the Storm and also book one in this trilogy, Lupe Throws Like a Girl. All my books are available here at Bubblish.com and at all major outlets in paperback and eBook formats. I also invite you to join me each week and learn about other Latinx authors and their stories at anitaperezferguson.substack.com Diverse Voices-Bravo!
Book Excerpt
Lupe and Selina Play Through the Storm
The first full day in Mexico began early. Lupe woke up after dreaming about playing ball. She opened her eyes to see the unfamiliar surroundings at the Hotel Royal. Paintings of exotic birds decorated its pale pink walls. Were those real birds chattering outside? She got up to gaze out her window at the patio and gardens. A man stooped over, gathering leaves with a bamboo rake. There was no one else outside. He turned his face and gave her a polite nod as she stood at the curtain. Then he left with the rake in his hand.
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