In Eafin Lokdore and the Ancient Secret by R. G. Edwards, a teen sets out from his homeland on a quest to recover an ancient power meant to return light to a struggling world. Guided by the writings of his late father, our young hero,...

Indigo, The Deep by Kellye Abernathy introduces Condi, a determined 15-year-old surfer who buries her heartbreak in the adrenaline of surfing after the sudden departure of her first love. Her small beach town is completely falling apart between strange earthquakes and a shady corporate research...

Phase by James K. West is an impressive novella for young adults. We are transported to the office of a Washington D.C. law firm and meet twenty-five-year-old Alison Riley, a conscientious, high-performing legal secretary who values her job and the living comforts it provides. Alison...

Down to Earth is Book 2 of The Attuned series by Jessica Natalie Reino, but it can be read as a stand-alone as well. On the face of it, Sarah D’Antonio is a typical high school junior. But her home is the fictional New England...

In Midnight Reverie by Hermione Lee, Cyndi Osmond wakes up from a dream of a royal wedding to the nightmare of her real life as a housemaid. In this version of the Cinderella story, there was no magic to get her to the ball, so...

In Rich Meyrick’s The Prisoner of Venice, Ernest, a young Ratses living secretly inside the Tower of London, disappears, following a letter that promises him a mission in Venice. His friend Jaspa travels across Europe with a group of fellow Ses, tiny animal-like people who...

Endymion and the Fae: A Tale of Liamec by J. Steven Lamperti follows a young shepherd named Endymion. He is living a quiet life in the mountain village of Woolford. But that changes one day, when he notices that his simple midday meal is mysteriously...

In Crown of Thorns, Mimi Deipz took me on a journey through the Moonshroud and Ember Courts, both of which are in a heap of magical trouble because of the weakening of their only source of power, the Wellspring. The story follows Princess Elara and...

In Elizabeth Mowery’s The Unwanted Alliance, Adeline Bigsby is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives with her family. She unlocks a rusty gate behind her backyard and enters a hidden realm where time in her world stops. There, she trains with a fighter named Jesse under...

The Treasure of Askelon by Daren Hatfield is the first book in the Dragonrook series. It introduces orphan Arthur Cross, whose journey becomes a swashbuckling odyssey across desert wastes and pirate-infested seas. Marauders led by the brutal and fearsome Thaddeus Schark raid the orphanage, seeking...