Morning of a Crescent Moon by N. J. Schrock is a closely observed work of historical fiction set in Virden, Illinois, at the close of the nineteenth century, where everyday life unfolded during mounting labor unrest. The novel opens with striking imagery that establishes place...

Psychotropia: Maestro's Creed by Bill Reinert is a dystopian novel set in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest. The story follows Liam, a grieving widower, as he embarks on a desperate quest to recover his late wife Joan's stolen ashes. What begins as a personal mission quickly...

On a Sundown Sea by Jill G. Hall is a historical novel that blends social conscience, spiritual inquiry, and a sense of place. Set in late nineteenth-century New York, the story follows Katherine Tingley, a woman driven by compassion and guided by inner visions, as...

A World of Slanted Light by Marvin Brauer is a delightfully clever and warm coming-of-age story set in the harsh environment of 1960s coal country in Congress, West Virginia. Marty Barber is a sensitive fifteen-year-old growing up in a town committed to their one industry...

Jeffrey L. Carrier’s Coal Dust on Purple Asters is a short historical trilogy about three families surviving in the rough mountains of Kentucky through wars and the Great Depression. In Rain on Chinquapin Holler, Wiley Hicks, a coal miner, is torn between providing for his...

Miburn by Don VanLandingham Sr. is a well-written book based on historical events about the civil rights movement in America, particularly in Mississippi, in the 1950s. The book is divided into four parts, which begin with a description of the political tension, racial injustice, violence,...

Cosplay & Consequences (The Fandom Narratives) by J.C. Sato is a brilliantly written novella that could even be described as one long, shifting scene. The setting is an urban cosplay convention where performers, entrepreneurs, fans, and perverts assemble in this growing subculture to show off...

Dolly Parton once said, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one,” and that’s just what Annie does in Blooms by Terri Depue. Her already tough day in Seattle takes a turn for the worse, causing her to make a life-altering...

Fresh out of Alberta, Texas, Madison is excited to get away from her small-town life and be on her own at university in New York. She counts herself lucky as she meets Ginger, a fellow freshman from Montana, with whom she instantly connects, becomes fast...

Give Me You by Kay Sloan tells the story of Hilda, an older Jewish woman who increasingly feels invisible. Living in her son Gabriel’s home, she notices the gradual ways her independence is diminished, such as the casual dismissals, the small exercises of control, and...