The Last Heretic by Steve Goldsmith follows Archelaus, a clever and skeptical scribe navigating the dangerous dynamics of early Christianity during the Council of Nicaea. Set in 325 AD, the story moves between political salons, bishops’ chambers, and dimly lit writing rooms, bringing the early...

Two Hearts Within One Soul: Bound By The Invisible Red Thread by Maurius Muze opens in post-WWII Hampshire, England, where the main character, Layla, has settled into a life that is as predictable as the ticking of a clock. In her early fifties, her days...

The Fixer: The Shape of Her by Ozzie Logozzo is one of those books that hits you with its intensity right from the very first page. It isn't just a story you read; it’s one you feel. I was completely floored by the prose here....

“The truth? It don't fit clean. Life don't work like no sermon or a newspaper headline. It's messy. It bleeds.” Life does these things and more, and messy can be an understatement as The Bible Of Blackwater County, a novel by Jenny Cafaro, clearly illustrates....

“Professionals don’t have feelings, don’t have thoughts. They don’t have an autonomous life outside their function.” Perhaps some don't, but the professional in Fabio Amabili's novel, There's A Young Man Dressed In Blue, is a human being first and foremost. The protagonist is Avvocato Floriani,...

In Lonnie Busch’s The Anything Room, after his son Kenny leaves home, widower Martin Moffett moves into a small bungalow. There, he discovers a concealed doorway in a spare room that leads into a living moment from the past where his late wife Noreen still...

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...

“The company engineered desire and sold it as experience.” But in Tobacco City, a novella by author Ricardo Novaes, the company did much more than that: it disguised a hellish dystopia as success. Meet Matheus Reis, a power-hungry corporate cog ravenous for advancement no matter...

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...

The Shadow of Death: A Tragedy of Yellow Fever by McKenna Rowell is set in 1793 Philadelphia, where Deborah Allard becomes entangled in a dispute that threatens David Byrne’s family after Mr. Foster accuses his father of a ruinous debt. Just when Deborah uncovers a...