While revisiting much-loved characters can leave fans feeling warm and fuzzy, this material would have been better off as a series of bonus stories rather than a full-length continuation of Luc and Oliver’s relationship. It never feels like the couple is in any real danger of splitting up, though, which raises the question of why they needed a sequel at all. Luc and his issues take more of the focus, as he hems and haws over proposing to Oliver-especially after a terrible ex-boyfriend announces his own engagement. From running into old exes to dealing with their sneaky feelings of grief, Luc and Oliver will have their work cut out for them if they're going to make it through with their relationship intact. Now, with several wedding celebrations on their social calendar and an unexpected funeral to contend with, the couple is put into a pressure cooker of stressful situations. There's still an opposites-attract push and pull between them, but they've found a way to balance each other out. Two years after the events of that book, reformed bad boy Luc O’Donnell and Oliver Blackwood, his buttoned-up barrister boyfriend, have settled into something resembling domestic bliss. A London couple navigates the highs and lows of weddings and even a funeral in this sequel to Boyfriend Material (2020).
0 Comments
6/30/2023 0 Comments Sweet Stakes by Alechia DowThat sometimes includes examining pain and trauma. Kalynn Bayron: Black creators have always been eager to tell stories that encompass all the nuances of our existence. We need to allow Black characters the full breadth of their humanity. And while I firmly believe we need these stories, I also think we need joyful stories full of love and adventure and philosophy. So many times when we see media about Black characters, they are stories of pain and trauma. Nicola Yoon: In YA, I've seen quite a few conversations around the need to have stories that center joy. While there's absolutely a place in this age group to explore trauma - and a lot of those stories are powerful and necessary - I think publishing has seen that stories beyond that sell just as well. They deserve stories where Black teens can have low-stakes romantic comedies, sci-fi fantasies, fast-paced thrillers, and everything in between. How do you feel the YA genre has changed or shifted around stories centering Black trauma and joy? How has the last year shaped the genre moving forward?Īlechia Dow: YA publishing has very slowly, especially over the last few years, realized that Black teens deserve more than pain. 6/30/2023 0 Comments 13 doorways wolvesBut I will be watching, waiting to find out. I will admit I do not know if it will be. Frankie must find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America - every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she's able to carve out will be enough. And the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight. Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans, two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive. That's why she is not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. It was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and he be able to provide for them once again. Summary: When Frankie's mother died, her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago. Publisher Information: New York, NY: Blazer + Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2019 Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Kara Thomas 6/30/2023 0 Comments Martian manhunter john ostranderThe Manhunter also had a twin brother named Ma’alefa’ak. Sadly, for superheroes, that's usually when it all goes wrong. With his wife M'yri'ah and daughter K'hym, J’onn had everything a man/Martian could want. Prior to his arrival on Earth, J'onn served as a Manhunter - the Martian equivalent of a detective - on his home world. With hairless green skin, a prominent forehead, and a number of strange powers including telepathy, the Manhunter was a far more alien visitor than the Man of Steel and was no infant when he arrived. J'onn was a native of the planet Mars and, unlike Superman, was much less human in his appearance. In November 1955, in the pages of "Detective Comics" #225, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, made his debut. The end of that era and the beginning of the Silver Age could be said, arguably, to have begun the same way. The Golden Age of superhero comics began, arguably, with the arrival of an alien visitor who lived among us as Superman. In DC Comics' “Final Crisis” #1 (May 2008), J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter died at the hands of Libra and the Secret Society of Super-Villains. |