In This Kindness Prepares Another, Keith Thorn isn't interested in giving us a polished, ego-driven victory lap. Instead, the book feels like a quiet, almost startlingly honest dismantling of the person he used to be. Thorn deconstructs the defensive walls he spent decades building, looking...

After the death of her grandfather, Grace Woodruff returned to Woodruff Mountain, home to many generations of the Woodruff family and its herb business empire, for two main reasons. To settle and manage her grandfather’s sprawling estate, and also seek peace of mind since her...

Lorrie Parise's 25902: Homemade with Love is a long look back at a house that meant everything to a family. Lorrie starts at the point where she has to leave, and from there she rewinds into how her parents, Alice and Fidel, made it happen...

When a catastrophic flood threatens a community of animals, they have to adjust their prejudices to survive in the compelling novel, Redeeming Rhubarb by Bob Richley. Rhubarb has hated rats since one killed his brother. When a rat, Barnabas, and his family move into their...

In Mary Romasanta’s La Llorona: The Awakening, Ruth arrives at her partner John’s family home for Thanksgiving, stepping into a household where his mother, Mi-Ra, presses her about having a child. When a last-minute errand sends John and his brother JJ to a nearby store,...

Pet Safety with Lola & Sophie by Christine Devane features two friendly dogs, Sophie and Lola, who guide young readers through important pet safety tips. The story starts with the dogs introducing themselves and explaining that they are there to help children and families learn...

Careers By the People by Mike Wysocki is a compilation of over 100 first-person interviews, placing readers inside the working lives of those in a wide array of positions. These include the likes of a Vice President of Information Technology, who recalls learning computing through...

Entertaining and well-researched, A. Piper Burgi’s The Exploress and the Pillars of Eternity is a fine example of historical fiction. Set in the early nineteenth century, at a time when Egypt was just beginning to allow Europeans access to their country and its archaeological treasures,...

In R.D. Moreno’s ZADA 5: The Window Splinters, Connor Balcazar, a newly named duke, works to secure an interplanetary empire led by Empress Christina while Lorenzo rebuilds his power after escaping captivity. He prepares an assault on the capital world of Markus 2 using portal...

Cruise Fling is the story of Andrea, who has been a single parent since losing her husband three years ago. She needs a vacation and books one, but when her family backs out, she decides to go anyway. She’s been stuck in grieving for so...

There is a sense of loneliness when reading Ana’s words as Confessions of a Female Dominant opens. Every page and every word reveals it in a multitude of ways. She is a woman desperate for something, which she cannot name, not while in Russia and...

A psychic awakening can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the outcome. Telepathic messages may overpower us, as Richard Fort discovered to his cost. He describes his traumatic journey in Foreign Whispers: A Telepathic Awakening. It seems that a voice pops into your...

You Can't Change The Past by Keith Thorn is about something we all do, even if we don’t always notice it: thinking again and again about the past. The author explains how we replay moments in our heads of things we said, choices we made,...

The Halls of the Shadow King by W. Tod Newman follows Amal, who takes command of a far-reaching network after the death of his mentor Bazir. With his sister Neffie maintaining operations, Amal investigates reports from Britannia describing open gatherings where fear once ruled and...

Voyagers: Homeland to Heartland is based on D. L. Norris’s own family history, and rings with authenticity. Opening in nineteenth-century Norway, like so many of their compatriots living in poverty, Kittil and Marte Dyrebu decide to emigrate to America. They have an extended bureaucratic battle...

James Snyder’s The Brothers Shaughnessy is set in 1880s New Orleans. Detective brothers Dawson and Michael Shaughnessy are pulled into a series of crimes that begin when Melissa Singleton disappears after Sunday Mass, and her severed hand is delivered to her husband’s law office. As...

Keith Thorn’s The Distance We Didn’t See is an incredibly raw, quiet book that looks at how family rifts actually happen—not usually through one big explosion, but through years of small misunderstandings and unaddressed pride. Thorn is brave enough to look back at his own...

Have you ever imagined if something other than rain or snow could fall from the sky? In Rich Follett’s The Day It Rained Popcorn, not only does something different fall, but it also draws out the bravery of some of the townspeople. This book is...

In Lana Stasek's Voices Within, Bella: Beyond the Bark, Bella, a purebred beagle, begins life when she's born inside a breeding barn. Sadly, this is what most will recognize as a puppy mill, where puppies are treated as property and survival depends on staying useful...

Melissa “Mel” Noblett, a journalist and environmental activist, is in Milan gathering information from a whistleblower about a new bee virus, but is disappointed by the lack of progress. To salvage the trip, her editor sends her to Bologna to interview Dr. Daniel Woodruff, a...