Brianna MacMahon’s The Great Dempseys is a nuanced tale of ambition, privilege, and identity through the eyes of Audrey Nielsen, a teen thrust right into the middle of Manhattan’s elite. The setting takes readers back to 1980s New York, where Audrey, a scholarship student at...

When I was a kid, all fairy tales happened in a magical kingdom set in a forest, but “The Crystal Ship” by C. J. Carter-Stephenson brings us a modern day fairy tale with a sci-fi twist. King Axor first encounters the Storyteller during his birthday...

The Adventured Star by Pamela T. Chandler is a delightful story about Najma, the travelling star who moves to Abu Dhabi. During her stay there, she wishes to be the star of Abu Dhabi. The book has some excellent illustrations that complement the story. I found...

The King of the Trees by William D. Burt is a fantasy story. Rolin lives with his dad in Beechtown in a big forest. Their job is collecting honey from their many beehives and selling it on Market Day. But on Market Day, Rolin finds...

In The Fifth Option by author Jac Jacobsen, we watch as the Hearthstone becomes the President’s Special Ops Team. President Garrett Taylor had a problem; “with no uncertain terms he had just been informed that the Pakistan Taliban had hijacked two, one-hundred-kiloton nuclear warheads from...

Every so often, there are books that grab you at the beginning and hold you spellbound to the finish. The Legacy Letters by Carew Papritz is such a novel. A man and a woman have a misunderstanding and the man goes his separate way, uninformed...

The Children of Time by Chaiene Santos is a futuristic, science fiction novel with plenty of thrills, mystery, and romance. Nicolas is a young college-going student studying physics, who is very interested in astronomy and the cosmos. He has never been in love until he...

The World As I See It by Hailey Marie Johnson is not only a children’s book but also a book of art. Johnson is the photographer whose pictures are displayed in the book. Some readers may flip through the book fast, but if you actually...

The Boy and His Pets by Tamara Popa is the delightful story of a cute little boy who wants to have a dog as his friend. He lives in an apartment which makes it inconvenient to keep a pet, so first he asks his kindergarten...

The Tears of Olive Trees: An Autobiographic Story Featuring Poems From Mahmoud Darwish is a non-fiction memoir written by AbdulKarim Al Makadma, with illustrations by Rawya M. Wadi. The author was born and grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza. His family was uprooted...

Wow! I just finished reading The Darkest Side of Saturn: Odyssey of a Reluctant Prophet of Doom, the newest work by author Tony Taylor, and I have to say it was completely worth the read! Follow the stories of spacecraft navigator Harris Mitchel and astronomer...

The Ritual of the Four is a young adult paranormal fantasy written by Carla Trueheart. Shaw Huntley is on the run -- literally. He and his mother have so far remained just a few steps ahead of the scarred man and Shaw’s cousin, Alexander; the...

The Lies That Bind is a stunning opening in the DarkHorse Trilogy by Ed Protzel, a gripping tale for fans of Southern fiction, and a story of deceit, slavery, and dangerous complicities. The trickster Durksen Hurst returns to Mississippi after being away for a long...

The Big Game is a collection of poetry written by Bethany James. The poet includes romantic lyrics, poetic recipes, and sports-inspired verses in this collection of mostly free-verse poems. Her dessert recipes are decadent and luscious-sounding, and her cooking instructions are lyrical, romantic, and sensual....

When you think about leadership, what comes to mind? Have you considered that a leader is determined by the results that are attained? A leader can be anyone. “The thinking we use that works in one situation (or worked in the past) may not now,”...

The Vampire Girl in London by Richard Arbib begins with lovers Sylvia Martin and Mark Sheridan on a jet bound for London, leaving San Francisco behind. The narrative is maintained in first person POV as we follow their journey through Mark’s perspective. He is still...

Excitement, pure delight, and an emotional adventure await the reader in this thrilling contemporary romance, The Art of Enchantment by MA Clarke Scott. Clio wants only one thing: to complete her PhD program, hence fulfilling one of her father’s greatest wishes for her. But then...

Michael Pronko, a highly-accomplished author already, offers up a truly stellar performance in this debut mystery-series novel, The Last Train. Set in modern day Tokyo, a literary hologram for the enticingly complex and still largely inaccessible – to foreigners – Japan, about which Pronko is...

The Sleepwalker Legacy by Christopher Hepworth is an intense historical mystery novel. The legend of the horrific Sleepwalker sickness that leaves its victims with an incurable mental illness has been all but lost in time after nearly two hundred years of inactivity - save for...

The Shores of Our Souls by Kathryn Brown Ramsperger follows a romantic affair between a forty-year-old Muslim diplomat in New York City and a young, fresh-out-of-college stunning beauty from the South, a story that explores the dynamics of family, war, and religion. The young beauty,...