Nine Lives by Dave Dumanis is an intriguing concept collection of short stories. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the character Paul Varjak is a writer who hasn’t successfully written anything for years. His last published work was a collection of vignettes entitled Nine Lives. Dumanis’s book...

When Melinda Dawson found out she was pregnant, her parents promptly packed her up and shipped her off to a home for unwed mothers. Forced to give up the child she nearly died to deliver and without any sign from her boyfriend Greg Hart, Melinda...

In Cutting Right to the Chase, Chase Williams is an import/export executive at Ernesto Ceccarelli’s Cashmere in Turnesia, a beautiful medieval city in Italy. Yet, as a former officer of Scotland Yard, he’s always at the right time and the right place to stop crime....

Express Cafe and Other Ramblings by Heather Crouse is a collection of stories dealing with human emotions and the path life takes. All the stories are different from one another but the theme is the same. Some of them are inspiring and some are ones...

The Not Wholes by Giovanna Pezzulo is about an Italian teenager who has been castrated. The story deals with how a certain strata of the society accept him and how the rest do not. The backdrop of the story is a music conservatory in Italy. For...

Pu'ukani's Song by Hannah Steenbock is (literally) about Pu'ukani's song. Pu'ukani is a whale who is a magic weaver and a singer. The book is a heart rending tale of a whale who takes us with him on his journey of life. The challenges he...

Chips and a Log by Toldi Lili is very interesting with a novel idea of bringing together short stories and poems in one book. Some of the short stories are funny, some less funny. But on the whole, the book is a wonderful read. The...

Short and Simple: A Collection of Short Stories by R.L. Jones is a collection of stories with various themes such as love, angst and even vampire. The title says it all. Yet, there are some stories that I don’t find simple to understand. “Awakening: The...

Ciao by Bethany Lopez is about Melissa and the challenges she faces in her sophomore year at Dearborn High. It's the beginning of a new academic year for Melissa after an enjoyable summer of relaxing and hanging out with friends. She is aware of the...

Author Nancy LaRonda Johnson brings readers a dark tale of good versus evil in her book Anticipation of the Penitent. Alezea was merely a child when her parents took her out of school and introduced her to their financial enterprise. She was forced to make...