In Eilidh MacTavish's Any Way Out, an unnamed child lives with Pop, a father who destroys her youth with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Mother, who is also a victim, still lashes out at the child and blames her for much of the abuse. As...

Life had been going well for young James Fields until his father died in 1984, when James was thirteen. Bills began to pile up, and since his mother’s meager salary could only cover so much, life became a tough struggle. They moved to Oakland in...

Chris Wind’s This Is What Happens is a rare gem. A fifty-five-year-old woman feels stuck, wasted, and wounded. All she wants is to return to a cabin on a lakeside one final September to go through journals written for thirty-five years and unravel the mystery...

In Mitchell Hadley’s The Book of Revelations, at age eight, Nan Jaffe loses her parents after one frightening night in Indianapolis. She is taken to Illinois by her grandparents, who rename her Robin and sever her past. Years later, she lives in San Francisco as...

In Spanktown Papers by Jane Hulse, Sarah constantly finds herself caught between opposing viewpoints and difficult choices. She is an ambitious young newspaper employee during a time when women are rarely welcomed into public affairs. As the American Revolution unfolds and British forces approach Philadelphia,...

Neanderthal Sunset is a historical fiction novella by Steven Burgauer. Strong Arms is the leader of his increasingly depleting clan. He strives to fulfill his duties as mate to Big Curl, father to Wide Smiles, Fast Foot, and their siblings, as well as hunting and...

How far would you go to help your child? In Gino’s Mom, Gary Markman tells the story of Rachel Carver, a woman devoted to her son, Gino. She's married to Anthony, a teacher and musician with a temper that sometimes causes problems for them. When...

Sometimes the people who seem the most guarded are the ones with the heaviest history, and in For You Always by Hannah Jordan, Cammie knows that better than anyone. She left her hometown in search of a fresh start and happened upon Peace Falls, where...

In Teri M. Brown's novel, Peg, Unhinged, Peg and her husband have split. He left her. She credits the decline of her marriage to many things – his lack of contribution, both emotional and financial – but also to her change of life. Her son...

A is For Amy by Steven Crandell is the delightfully sweet tale of Amy Dellaconta Franklin, an independent mother of three who, at 26, never knew her life would turn into such a train wreck. Drowning in debt thanks to her late husband, Amy tries...