Ghosts

Ghosts
Olivia Lorenz
Torquere Press, Inc.
Historical Gay Romance, Novella
Reviewed by Shannon Frost

Wherever ex-solider and Triad member, Hua Mu Yun, goes, death follows, both by his hand and in the phantoms of his past that haunt his mind. Leng Ruo Fei is the most beloved opera singer in Peking, and yet he has been caged by the very thing he loves most. When Mu Yun raids an opium den, he has orders that no witnesses are to be left alive, but as he touches his gun to Ruo Fei’s cheek, like a lost soul seeking redemption, Mu Yun is drawn to the delicate beauty of Ruo Fei. The two men who have walked at the edge of reality, now look to each other through tangled emotions to see if they can find what had once made them human.
From the very first page, the graceful prose of Ghosts sweeps the reader into the tale, and one finds themselves enjoying author Lorenz’s elegant craft as much as her artful storytelling. The characters of Hua Mu Yun and Leng Ruo Fei are deeply created, their passion, their pain, their confusion, all come through the pages with powerful tangibility. Haunting and heartbreaking, Ghosts is one of those stories that is impossible to forget even long after the last page has been read.