A Body Made of Shadows by Joseph Miguel is a jarring collection of poems and dark art that really digs into the rot of modern life. The author writes with a nervous, frantic energy, almost like a midnight journal someone pulled out of a burning...

Lawrence E. Maynard’s Inevitable: Democracy's Demise offers an alternative history that opens in 1972 when Nixon’s aide, Nicholas Matthews, adopts an infant girl, Yi Nuo, on a historic trip to China. He is unaware that the child is Mao Zedong's secret daughter and that her...

The Baggers by James Hale is a story about the gangs in Saint Albans, Kanawha County. The streets of Saint Albans are ruled by the Baggers, most of whose members are young adults who commit theft and other petty crimes. An older generation of scavengers...

What does a community’s struggle for justice reveal about the courage in each of us? In David R. Yale’s Getting Back Our Stolen Bootstraps, the citizens of Shingle Creek, known as the Creekers, are organizing to reclaim their rights. Paul Makinen, their leader and community...

Kritanut Wattana’s After Us follows Owen, a programmer living in a near-future where artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life. Recently laid off and separated from Jordana and their child, Rowan, Owen is alone in his apartment when every screen delivers the same order:...

When Lieutenant Caitlin O’Connor answers her phone in the early hours, the news is shocking. As Death in the End Zone by Lynn Slaughter begins, the reader is jolted along with her. Upon her arrival at the crime scene, two Franklin High football stars —...

Adrienne N. Neary’s Silent Crow's Cabin tells the story of Jesse Caldwell, a Rhode Island law student who enjoys many privileges in the care of his manipulative mother, Celia. His mother wants control of the billion-dollar Caldwell Foundation. Jesse’s emotional lifeline is his beloved show-jumping...

Rachel Elwiss Joyce’s Lady of the Castle is set in late 12th-century England, where Nicola de la Haye is Lincoln Castle's hereditary constable while raising a household formed through two marriages. When an earthquake destroys part of Lincoln Cathedral and kills her young son Tommy,...

Constellations of Love by Patricia Leavy follows Tess Lee, who has finally found the peace and happiness she spent most of her life searching for. Settled into married life with Jack, she begins looking forward to celebrating Christmas in a way she never could before....

Sparks by Jae follows Willow Greene, a reserved and socially awkward administrative employee whose unusual tendency to short-circuit computers and other electronics has earned her a reputation around the office. Her constant technical mishaps regularly bring her into contact with Scottie Prescott, a friendly and...