Make It Rain - Sasha Marshall Book: Make It Rain (Guitar Face #5)
Author: Sasha Marshall
Publication Date: 6/27/2016
Reviewed by: Tammy Payne- Book Nook Nuts
My Rating: 5 Stars


REVIEW

The one person who Henley thought would never betray her has now what is she to do?
On top of that, her new found brother is battling demons and she knows all to well what he will go through but can she be there for him? Does anyone not see how bad everything has become?

Wow, I do not know if I wanted to cry or scream while reading this one. There are some crazy antics among them all but very little life is left in their souls. Everyone is trying to fix things but can they? Can Henley and Kip get back what was lost?

I suggest you start with book one or you will be totally lost. There are grammar issues but they do not take from the story. The characters are strong and the story flows well. I really hope there are more books in this series.

I was gifted this book for my honest review.
[a:Sasha Marshall|8343056|Sasha Marshall|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1432942256p2/8343056.jpg]

Every.  Time.

This is one of the things Marvel - not Disney, not the movie - but Marvel is doing right these days.   They're bringing more diversity to their comics, and bringing out their strong women: they have a Muslim-American  teen superhero in Mrs. Marvel, they have what many consider a racially ambiguous character in the new Dr. Strange (I remember him as being very white before he was rebooted, so my sister and I had a long chat about this), they have this comic, an all-women X-Men (which is more awesome because it's not X-Women, it's just called X-Men like any other X-Men title), and they have a new all-women Avengers called A-Force which is a mini-series for Battleworld/Secret Wars.   Thor, Goddess of Thunder was introduced to the world.   (And by the way, Marvel said the all-women X-Men was due to demand, so if you want to see this kind of thing, or more racial diversity, they are listening to what you would spend your money on!)

 

In other words, they seem to be doing what they can right now.   In the past, they've had at least some women-representation on all their teams (although I'd argue that the women get stronger, and aren't characterized by the gender stereotypes of the 60s anymore because that's just embarrassing to read nowadays.)   They had the Black Panther (and one of his villains was a black dude called Man-Ape, or Ape-Man so clearly there was some racism present.)   They've never been all white males, but that didn't mean they didn't have room to improve.   When Storm divorced the Black Panther, she ended up with Logan.   (Interracial romance, plus 1.)   Jessica Drew, a white super heroine, is married to have, and having, Luke Cage, a black superhero.   (Interracial babies, plus 1.)  Northstar got married to his hubby in a comic, but was introduced long before and was gay from the start.   (Which makes more sense to me than retconning Iceman as gay.)   They've been, it seems to me, trying from the start even if they didn't get everything right, or even if they could have been more diverse.   And it seems to me that they keep trying.  

 

Storm fits nicely into this 'keep trying' agenda.   Storm is not only a woman thrust into the spotlight, she's a black woman, a powerhouse as far as her powers go, she's got a rich background to mine for more stories, and she's also a powerhouse as far as personality goes.   She's the headmistress at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, she's learned to keep her shit together, and she's a mixture of incredibly tough and incredibly compassionate.   Leaving out the woman, or the race, she's simply a good choice because her character is complex and rich and she's very likable as a character.   

 

It's no exception here.  I find it very hard not to like Storm, and or the way she puts aside grudges, or the way she struggles with moral ambiguity when trying to help Logan's adopted daughter.   (In the last two issues, which seem to die into Wolverine's death arc; this is aftermath, spillover, and it's poignant because it deals with two of the women closest to him and how they deal with each other after he's gone.   The way they argue about what he would have wanted seems very real.   Each believe they know him better than the other woman does, and it's not done in, or with, animosity.)

 

I'm not sure what exactly went down between Storm and Forge, even with the in-volume explanation, but i know enough to know that they're on shaky grounds with each other.   Forge was a good choice for the earlier story in Kenya, because it proves that Storm is willing to overlook the past misdeeds and hurt if he's willing to help her homeland.  Her village in Kenya suffers from draughts and both she and Forge work together to try and save the people living there.  

 

When Storm helps find children who are lost, she also learns a lesson that shows this series has a good grasp of continuity.   She puts that lesson to use later on, or at least part of, proving that she learns from her own mistakes. 

 

Still, there was something missing, some spark, where I didn't completely connect to this comic.   I'll continue reading, as I truly had hoped this would be a five-star book and I'm hoping it's just finding it's legs.   I think what I really miss is some of that lightheartedness, although there was also a lot of short stories.  I think I'm into the longer story arcs in comics right now.