Vicky Oliver’s Firebrands takes place in 1908 Manhattan, where suffragist Helena James begins investigating Derrick Dupré, the wealthy fiancé of her younger sister Summer, after overhearing him discuss bomb construction shortly following an explosion in Union Square Park. Helena discovers that Derrick operates a labor...

Nursing Her Fractured Family by Louis Tong is an enthralling novel. Penny's father has just died, and from now on, she has to take care of her mother and younger sister. Penny, at twenty-four, thinks more about her sister, how to protect her from their mother, who...

The Sooner I Go by Heather Cumiskey is the story of Brynn Gallardo, a recent high school graduate who is still devastated by the simultaneous deaths of her boyfriend Cody and her musician parents in separate car accidents on the same night seven months ago....

In the anthology Undercity by Monte Schulz, we primarily move alongside Marco Grenelle, through a city consumed by fire after a coordinated attack forces the residents into flight. He travels with Geismar Brecht while searching for Mirés Grillet, a performer whose path leads into a...

Carry on Smartly by Wayne Westphal Barrow is a collection of six original short stories, where the characters experience moments that require immediate decisions, which define what follows. In The Kind-Hearted Stranger, a teenage real estate agent receives unexpected news and turns to Mr. Kippens,...

Thomas R. Boniello’s A Symphony of Spies is an espionage thriller that bridges international intelligence and the rarefied world of classical music. Drew Reid is an intelligent subatomic physicist working on a classified project; he also suffers from limerence, a condition that makes him overshare...

The Performance Review by Adrian M. Mompoint is an unsettling short story that might just resonate with office workers. Francis has resigned himself to the fact that his migraines mean he will never be a theater actor again. After a series of failed temping jobs,...

To the ancient Romans, Vestal virgins represented the very personification of feminine purity. But when one of their number is accused of sex with a man, scandal erupts. In a city dealing with the aftermath of a crushing defeat against Hannibal's army, this shocking revelation...

A Light Within by Ann Nolder Heinz begins in 1850s California, with Cora Fielding, a young woman determined to study medicine. Her father is a doctor, and her twin brother, Carl, is set to follow in his footsteps despite not wanting to. Although Cora is...

In Allen Rebot's At Death’s Door, Kayla wakes up alone in a snow-covered forest after a car crash with no memory of how she arrived there. With no phone and little protection from the cold, she moves through the silent woods until she reaches a...