I wasn't totally sure what I was getting into when I picked up The Romanov Episode by Clive Radford, but I’m glad I did. It’s one of those books where you realize pretty quickly that you're holding something special. It isn't just another mystery; it’s...

“Always have papers in your hand, walk fast, and look worried. Fewer people bother you.” Interestingly and funnily enough, I experienced this at a job I once had, though we used a clipboard, not papers. Even funnier is the whimsical nonsense in Average Civil Employee:...

In J.S. Scheffel’s Kith and Kin: The Last Kitsune Book 3, Tai relocates from the Louisiana bayou to New Orleans under the supervision of Strigoi governor Benjamin Durand after a powerful artifact called the Key of Wealth becomes embedded in her tongue. The move puts...

The Girl Who Counted Numbers by Roslyn Bernstein is a fast-moving story of discovery, growing up, acceptance, and romance. It takes place in 1961 during the time of the Eichmann Trials that were held in Jerusalem. The main character is Susan Reich, who is sent...

“How could I have been so obtuse, so neglectful that my dying son hated me until the end?” For Joe Fredericks, the protagonist of Wayne Feinstein's novel, Turning, it took little effort to be such a sleazeball. Joe is the definition of success in one...

Crow: The Luck of Charm by Surya Prakash Shrivastava is a short story about the connection between a boy and a crow. Yash lives in an urban environment, with chaotic traffic and construction noise just outside his window. Inside, chaos comes from his arguing parents....

Kalyani Adusumilli’s The Invisible Canvas begins in the throes of a medical emergency caused by an overdose, where Jansi, a wife and mother living in Texas, is admitted to a psychiatric facility for evaluation and treatment. What begins as a brief hospitalization becomes an extended...

In The Boy with the Butterfly Mind by Lorelei Brush, readers meet Julie, a math teacher juggling her job, marriage, and the nonstop energy of her four-year-old son, Patrick. She feels deeply proud of him, but also worried. His moods range from exuberant curiosity to...

It's Snowing in Sapporo Again Today is a Christmas romance by I.W. Berns. It's been ten long years since Jun Takahashi lost his mother in an unfortunate car accident. Growing up in the snow-covered city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido in Japan, Jun...

The Color of Our Names by Mahitab Mahmoud follows the lives of four characters trying to navigate identity, faith, and secrecy between Egypt and the United States. Fareed, a 34-year-old man still living with his conservative family in Alexandria, finds fragile moments of freedom at...