Worthy by Judy Salz is a slim, inspirational novel that explores the deeper meaning of friendship, following the lives of three unusual characters bound together by an inscrutable bond. It’s the story of two doctors and a chaplain whose lives are irresistibly linked after a...

This book is one of the best things I have read in a while in coming-of-age literature. It isn’t just great, it is sweet like honey, absorbing, and it is a tale with very real and unusual characters. In The Unusual Suspects by Dominic Carrillo,...

A character-driven work of literary fiction, What Remains Unsaid by Audrey Kalman is a story about relationships… a revelation of what makes us who we are and how who we are impacts on the significant others in our lives. It opens with a dark and...

Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II by Douglas W Jacobson opens with the invasion of Germany into Poland and follows the stories of Anna and Jan Kopernik as they fight to survive the atrocities of war. When Jan escapes what is left...

I love books with great openings, because the opening is always a promise. But what happens after that determines the storytelling skills of the author. Lyrical and engaging, Fort Sarpy, the second book in the Riverboat series by Dave Lloyd has a gripping opening with...

Up until now my favorite books on the subject of early American life were those of James Fenimore Cooper. The Leather Stocking Series is classic, and few books can compete with its detailed description of both Native American and European life in early America,...

Twenty-one-year-old James Jerome Johnson, or J.J., was a drop out, forced to take a job to support his mother and siblings, but conditions at his work place were getting to him. He joined the army, slipping the recruiter ten dollars to be directed to the...

The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter by Mimi Matthews is a Victorian romance set in 1861. Tristan Sinclair is a viscount, a world-weary man who has sunk to the lowest depths. Valentine March is a vicar’s daughter and when she gets a job as a...

To Be Had by Sava Buncic is a great read with compelling characters. A lawyer who doesn't earn more than a waiter, Boris feels trapped in Greentown. But how can he give his family the life they deserve when there are no prospects of advancing...

This is the first novel I have read by Katie O’Rourke, and I’ll be sure Blood & Water is not the last. At first I started to worry about how well I could connect with the story, since we do get to follow five different...