My Brother Themba by Michele van Rensburg is a novel with strong historical underpinnings, exploring racial tension in South Africa. It follows two key characters, Themba, the child of an inter-racial relationship, and Alex, a white boy. Against the backdrop of the apartheid system, these...

Mariposa Oracle: Queen City Licensed Massage Therapist by Trisha Barry is a humorously told story that follows a massage therapist and the situations she gets herself into. I was immediately pulled in with the terrific descriptions, especially when she arrives at her client’s door, pulls...

A story of selflessness and devotion is always touching, but it is even more extraordinary when the protagonists are two brothers. Manas is the eldest and hopes that Manan, the younger brother, will have a wonderful life. Born and raised in a family that cannot...

The Train Jumper is a work of fiction in the historical genre. It is aimed at the general adult reading audience and was penned by author Gwen B. Banta. The book follows Kat and Leni, two young women on the run through 1950s America who...

Anne Moose opens House of Fragile Dreams with a brief chapter in which the protagonist, Rachel, is sitting in a police interrogation room, desperate to talk to someone to ‘explain her actions’. We get well into the story before we learn why she was there,...

The Fabric of Us by Kimberly Wenzler is a delightful work of women’s fiction that reassures us beautiful, lasting romance is possible, even against the odds. Olivia Bennet has just turned fifty. She and her husband, Chris, married young. With their oldest child now adult...

The Gray Son by Jeffrey Mark takes place in 1757 when times were uncertain and dangers were posed by man and beast. Jacob Grayson moved his family to the Carolinas to avoid the French and Indian War. Starting over without his wife offers many challenges...

Written by Ronald Travis Lund and co-authored by Lorna and Larry Collins, Dominic Drive is a nostalgic look at life. Dominic Drive is a sweet, postwar community in Southern California; it is a pleasant place to grow up and live. The children play outside until...

I picked Love: A Story by Bill Smoot because in the description it is likened to the works of Milan Kundera. If anyone has ever read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, then they will adore this story. Michael, a prep school teacher, met his wife,...

The Aloha Spirit by Linda A. Ulleseit begins in 1922, with a heartbreaking opening line stating that seven-year-old Dolores is deemed useless by her father. He never said it to her directly, but this is what has been running through his mind. This is because...