The Belly of the Anaconda by C. Arthur Ellis, Jr. blends history and fiction, offering a vivid portrait of New Orleans during the Civil War. The story focuses on Rachel Durand, a widow whose life has been shattered by war. As Union troops take control...

Window of Lies by Lilly Collins is an intriguing novella that blends women’s fiction, psychological thriller, and crime mystery. Sarah Hill wakes up from a dream of running with a baby on her back. It has been a year since she moved out of her...

Getting to grips with AI can be daunting. The pace of change has accelerated, and many business owners are unprepared. Be Recognized by Melanie Johnson and Jenn Foster points out that AI is the most powerful leverage tool that we have seen in this lifetime....

The term “ghost in the machine” was first coined by Gilbert Ryle in 1949, and simplistically put, suggests that consciousness or the mind can exist alongside, but independently, within a physical entity. The Ghost in the Machine Reconsidered by Joshua Robertson revisits this and related...

Look! There Are No Dinos Inside of This Book by Jimmy Vee is a playful and imaginative adventure hinting that some extinct animals might still roam the earth, just out of sight. It begins with Dangerous Dave, a self-proclaimed dinosaur wrangler, who’s insistent that no...

R. L. Hare's Boardroom Assassin: Executive Vengeance is the sequel to Boardroom Assassin, a thriller centered on CEO Rick Frown's pursuit of the perfect murder and detective Elena Kolonik's hunt for the killer. This time, the battle takes place in the courts: the court of...

Joan Brooks Baker’s In the Swampyland is a collection of personal stories tracing her moments of discovery across childhood and adulthood. In The Burrito, eleven-year-old Joan defies her father’s warning and ventures to buy food from a nearby bodega, where a frightening encounter with local...

“Only much later do you realize that all the maturity forced upon you has robbed you of something precious.” In Martyn Burke's novel, The Gossip Columnist, many characters experience loss, with innocence being just one of the things taken from them. As the Weimar years...

Fractured by Jason Melby follows Stewart “Stu” Harvey, a grieving father and struggling author, who is recruited by publisher Royce Vogel to write a biography of Simon Hollis, a country singer recently exonerated after twenty years in prison for a triple homicide. Stu visits Hollis’s...

Heavy Sky by Alex O. Harb begins with Toryn Skyheart of the Windclaw Tribe setting out to restore a failing islet, through skies and icy terrain, to recover a vital heartstone. On a separate course, Lina Ryven survives the destruction of her aircraft, forming a...

Passages of Peculiarity 2: A Collection of Dark Tales by Mark K. McClain is an anthology of individual short stories that lean into the unusual and unsettling, each reading independently. The Candle in the Crypt sees a woman return to Alderwick Manor after her father’s...

In Ponytail by Caitlin K. Murphy, Amanda Greene is the newest and only female detective in the Oakville Police Department. An assault incident in a local park prompts Amanda to investigate. The nature of the attack appears to be personal, as the victim’s ponytail was...

R. Morello’s Upside Down is a one-of-a-kind, beautifully layered work that merges grief, trauma, and redemption in a surreal mirror world setting. The story follows Caleb, a man shattered by the loss of his sister, who finds himself literally living beneath the world he once...

Falling Out by Lucinda Brant begins when twelve-year-old Deborah Cavendish is forced into a mysterious midnight marriage to a drunken young heir, the Marquis of Alston. Years later, Deborah has grown into a strong, independent woman living in Bath with her orphaned nephew, defying society’s...

Harriet Keaton, a longtime resident of The Indie Retirement Village, is called to her family home in uptown Charlotte in the middle of the night. Her brother, Joey, out on parole after serving almost twenty years for a crime he didn’t commit, is in trouble...

The $1,300 Alphabet by Benjamin Weilert is a well-written book that introduces children to twenty-six big vocabulary words, commonly referred to as the $50 words. Benjamin begins this book with a note to parents and a brief historical fact about the 18th President of the...

In Mother’s Ruin: A Mother’s Addiction and Her Daughter’s Survival, Belle Mills talks about her upbringing with her mother, Moya, whose alcoholism, inconsistent rules, and shifting moods shaped Mills’s life. She shares episodes of punishment, anxiety, and detachment, alongside moments of affection and routine. Mills...

The Little Men by Ami Tikekar follows Amitarth/Ami, an introverted IT professional in Pune, as he moves through the routines, relationships, and hierarchies within a mid-sized tech company. Through his friendship with Prabhu and his growing connection with colleague Mitali, Ami becomes increasingly involved in...

Margaret Izard’s Highlander’s Holly and Ivy follows Alex MacDougall, a proud but guilt-ridden Scottish lord bound by an ancient oath to protect the magical Stones of Iona from dark Fae forces. Haunted by a love he couldn’t save, Alex buries his heart beneath duty—until he...

Prayers on the Shower Door by Phyllis McNaughton follows Therese, a woman determined to recover her lost childhood memories. On the surface, she has built a beautiful life for herself. She has a secure marriage to Paul, a great job as a social worker, and...