The Witch of Wall Street
by M.J. Etkind
In a subgenre known for its small towns, THE WITCH OF WALL STREET (Self-published, ebook, $5.99) shoots above the crowd like a skyscraper. Miriam Blum, an investment banker, and Nelson Copperfield, a nonprofit C.E.O., are witches and opposing bidders in a major Manhattan real estate deal. They’re also high school rivals, since Nelson often had to rescue Miriam from the snarls caused by her chaos magic. She’s learned to control her power, she’s fought her way up in the financial world and she’s not about to let some smug do-gooder get one over on her now.
But he’s grown hotter since high school, so she might take him home with her, just once. This ill-advised hookup turns disastrous when Miriam’s chaos magic scatters their enchanted possessions across the city, forcing them on a quest through the supernatural nooks and crannies of New York. It’s refreshing to see magic as just one more subcultural layer woven through the texture of the city (and I would perish at the magical dim sum place with no regrets).
Also refreshing: Miriam is a bit villainous and knows it, which I always appreciate in a heroine. Etkind’s book is not so much about choosing pure good versus pure evil, but rather about how to create opportunities for doing good in a world full of shades of gray.
Along Came Amor
by Alexis Daria
The need to upend the status quo is also a theme in ALONG CAME AMOR (Avon, 512 pp., paperback, $18.99), the third and final volume in Daria’s gloriously angst-saturated Primas of Power series. You’ll be fine starting with this volume, but the trilogy as a whole is well worth the time; these three books have more concentrated pining than an Austen movie marathon on a rainy afternoon.
Ava Rodriguez is fresh off a painful divorce a lot of her family members blame her for. So when a chance encounter leads to one night with a sexy hotel C.E.O. — and then another, and another — she doesn’t see the need to tell any of her friends or relatives about it. All she wants is one thing in her life she can enjoy without anyone peevishly asking how long until she screws this up, too.
Roman Vázquez worked his way up from a distillery floor to the owner of a luxury hotel chain. But now his baby sister is heading off to college, his mother has decided she wants an apartment of her own and Roman misses feeling needed. Meeting Ava gives him someone to focus all that emotional energy on — and although he’s trying to take it slow, every night they share leaves him wanting more.
It’s all a delicious secret — until they’re introduced as best man and maid of honor in Ava’s cousin’s wedding to Roman’s childhood best friend. Now every flicker of flirtation risks calling down the mockery of Ava’s critical, gossipy, exasperating relatives. Surrounded by sharp-tongued aunts, gimlet-eyed siblings and deliriously happy couples, Ava and Roman are just about ready to crack beneath the pressure. Ava is one of the best lonely heroines I’ve read in months, and the book’s bachelorette party scene is pure unhinged wish fulfillment.
Renegade Girls
by Nora Neus; illustrated by Julie Robine
Finally, there’s nothing that starts summer off right like reading comics outdoors in the sun. And for that, we have RENEGADE GIRLS (Little, Brown Ink, 304 pp., paperback, $18.99), the story of a stunt-girl reporter and the photographer she falls for in Gilded Age New York.
Nell’s mother hopes she’ll make a grand society marriage, but Nell would rather be a self-sufficient reporter — and she’d like to write serious pieces, not just the society fluff her editor assigns her. The only person who seems to understand is Alice, a photographer whose excellent social pedigree hides a home that’s much more queer-accepting than Nell’s.
When Nell learns from a servant friend about dangerous conditions in a nearby garment factory, she goes undercover as a laborer — and is soon reporting on dangerous working conditions around the city, with Alice’s photographs providing visual proof. But the factory owners are on the hunt for the anonymous reporter, and some of them are closer to Nell than she realizes.
We love to see a feminist historical romance aware of the ways that wealthy white ladies can oppress other women — factory workers, immigrants, women of color and queer women. Direct but not too heavy, bright with color and gentle in tone, Neus’s graphic novel is an absolute dream of an afternoon read.
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