For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price.

The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her.

She’d rather play a monster than a maid.īut in Luli’s world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill-but she doesn’t care. The result is a complete and unabridged audio book that is very highly recommended addition to community library collections.“No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.Ĭritique: All the more impressive when considering that 'The Empress of Salt and Fortune is author Nghi Vo's debut as a novelist, this deftly scripted, original, and thoroughly entertaining blend of elegant fantasy, high royalty, and political intrigue is superbly brought to life by the talented narrative skills of Cindy Kay. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.Īt once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, 'The Queen of Salt and Fortune' follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Synopsis: A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. APA style: The Empress of Salt and Fortune.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune.' Retrieved from MLA style: 'The Empress of Salt and Fortune.' The Free Library.

Nghi vo the empress of salt and fortune