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The Girl with Ghost Eyes
RECOMMENDED: The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M.H. Boroson is $1.99! This is a scifi/fantasy novel in a historical setting. Carrie gave this an A- in a Lightning Review:
It’s a great paranormal/fantasy in a historical urban setting that focuses on a group of people too often ignored in history and in non-fiction. And Li-lin is a wonderful heroine: smart, determined, and struggling against all kinds of barriers including her own sense of self. I’m very much hoping that Li-lin and her floating eyeball friend will return in a sequel.
It’s the end of the nineteenth century in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and ghost hunters from the Maoshan traditions of Daoism keep malevolent spiritual forces at bay. Li-lin, the daughter of a renowned Daoshi exorcist, is a young widow burdened with yin eyes—the unique ability to see the spirit world. Her spiritual visions and the death of her husband bring shame to Li-lin and her father—and shame is not something this immigrant family can afford.
When a sorcerer cripples her father, terrible plans are set in motion, and only Li-lin can stop them. To aid her are her martial arts and a peachwood sword, her burning paper talismans, and a wisecracking spirit in the form of a human eyeball tucked away in her pocket. Navigating the dangerous alleys and backrooms of a male-dominated Chinatown, Li-lin must confront evil spirits, gangsters, and soulstealers before the sorcerer’s ritual summons an ancient evil that could burn Chinatown to the ground.
With a rich and inventive historical setting, nonstop martial arts action, authentic Chinese magic, and bizarre monsters from Asian folklore, The Girl with Ghost Eyes is also the poignant story of a young immigrant searching to find her place beside the long shadow of a demanding father and the stigma of widowhood. In a Chinatown caught between tradition and modernity, one woman may be the key to holding everything together.
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Ms. Marvel Vol 1
Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1 is $3.99! I love this reinvention of Ms. Marvel and volume one contains issues 1-5, so it’s nearly the cost of a single issue. However, it’s only available at Amazon. Some of the reviewers on Goodreads, though, said it wasn’t really for them as it didn’t live up to the hype they had heard. Volumes 2-4 are also on sale!
Collects Ms. Marvel (2014) #1-5, All-New Marvel Now! Point One (Ms. Marvel story).
Marvel Comics presents the all-new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation! Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City – until she is suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the all-new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! As Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to handle? Kamala has no idea either. But she’s comin’ for you, New York!
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Of Metal and Wishes
Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine is $1.99! This is a YA novel with a pretty cool premise. It’s a Phantom of the Opera retelling with a diverse heroine in a scifi/steampunk-ish factory setting. While readers say the book is beautiful, they also warn of slut-shaming, which they found incredibly frustrating.
There are whispers of a ghost in the slaughterhouse where sixteen-year-old Wen assists her father in his medical clinic—a ghost who grants wishes to those who need them most. When one of the Noor, men hired as cheap factory labor, humiliates Wen, she makes an impulsive wish of her own, and the Ghost grants it. Brutally.
Guilt-ridden, Wen befriends the Noor, including their outspoken leader, a young man named Melik. At the same time, she is lured by the mystery of the Ghost and learns he has been watching her… for a very long time.
As deadly accidents fuel tensions within the factory, Wen must confront her growing feelings for Melik, who is enraged at the sadistic factory bosses and the prejudice faced by his people at the hand of Wen’s, and her need to appease the Ghost, who is determined to protect her against any threat—real or imagined. She must decide whom she can trust, because as her heart is torn, the factory is exploding around her… and she might go down with it.
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Making a Play
Making a Play by Victoria Denault is $2.99! This is a hockey romance set in a small, isolated town. Some readers mentioned that the last quarter of the book seems rather abrupt, while many loved the “former crush” trope of the plot. This is book two in the Hometown Players series and you can snag the first book for $2.99 as well!
He’ll do whatever it takes to win—on and off the ice.
Luc Richard is the hottest player in the NHL—and it has nothing to do with hockey. His racy relationship with his supermodel ex set the tabloids on fire but nearly put his career on ice. To avoid being traded, Luc agrees to take a break from the spotlight—and from women—and spend the off-season at home in Silver Bay, Maine. It’s the perfect plan… until he reconnects with Rose.
Rose Caplan is tired of being shy, sweet, and safe. She’s ready for passion, romance—and Luc. Having loved him longer than she can remember, she’s finally ready to prove she’s not the same innocent little girl he once knew. Off the ice Luc doesn’t do games, but this new Rose makes him feel like playing a little dirty. If he’s really got a shot at her heart then he’s not just playing to win. He’s playing for keeps.
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I do adore the cover for of Metal and Wishes. It gives the model a romantic look like an actress in front of a Gaussian filter.
Kudos to whoever designed it.
I feel like Ms Marvel’s characters are more interesting than the super heroics. When it’s just about her interacting with her friends and family I thought it was great. She’s super relateable, genuine, funny, and likable. But when all of that gets sidelined in favour of space dogs and typical sci-fi super hero stuff, I just kind of lost interest… and that’s a personal taste issue, not necessarily a flaw with the series itself. Love Peter Parker, for instance, and even the dynamics of Spider-Man with his heroes and villains, just could not care less about punching and action and silly convoluted conspiracies and super stuff. I still do recommend Ms Marvel though, because I feel like she’s a great character (surrounded by other great characters), and if you enjoy superhero punchings, you’ll probably stay hooked for longer than I did.
Incidentally, if anyone is looking for a comic series with a heavy emphasis on characters and development, I recommend Preacher. (I always do.) It’s about a small-town Preacher with no faith who gets “possessed” by an entity that gives him the Word of God, allowing him to force people to do what he says, and rather than misuse it, he decides to go on a cross-country journey to actually FIND God and get answers as to why all this awful crap is happening all the time. Because he takes with him Tulip, his ex-girlfriend turned hitwoman, and Cassidy, an Irish vampire who is extremely far removed from any Twilight business, it’s less an action story (though there is plenty of that) and more a character study and buddy comedy with extremely dark humour that examines what it is to be human, to be morally grey, to forgive people who do horrible things, how everyone is weak, and so on. It’s the sort of series where you can just have pages of the characters sitting around a table talking and still be fascinating, and is poignant, weird, horrifying, and smart all at once.
The downside is that I would say that Tulip is kind of relegated to Nanny status… she’s incredibly smart, strong, and wise beyond her years, but she doesn’t really get any of the character development Cassidy and Jesse do. She’s just sort of along for the ride to (sometimes physically) rescue them and eventually get the happy ending she wants. The TV show, which just wrapped up its first season and has since been renewed, seems to be handling her a lot better, and while it is DRASTICALLY different from the comic in a lot of plot specifics, is still very well done and entertaining.
I LOVE the new Ms. Marvel! G. Willow Wilson’s incarnation is spectacular–smart, funny, relatable and with a superb dynamic portrayal of a first generation Muslim-American (in my opinion as a reader). It’s the ONLY comic I have ever enjoyed and my five year old daughter adores it as well.
All 5 volumes of Ms. Marvel are on sale, actually. I bought them all, even though I have all the trades, because I want Marvel to keep Kamala around for a long time. She is such a great character and I love that she is Muslim and written by a Muslim woman.
Does ‘diverse’ mean ‘not White’?
@Hazel, often yes, it does refer to race and ethnicities that are not white. “Diverse” can also refer to religion, sexual orientation, gender identity (transgender, especially), and other minority identities that do not fall under the “white Christian cisgender” category.
Hmmm; so it can refer to almost any human characteristic..- just not the dominant group? Odd word usage, but I assume that’s US- and perhaps post-millennial?