After a decade away from his hometown of Philadelphia, thirty-five-year-old Evan is back to bury his recently murdered grandfather. During the funeral, the family learns from the press that Evan’s uncle, Michael O’Brien, is running for mayor. Apparently, after the death of the incumbent Republican...

In Anne M. Kennedy’s The Baku Inheritance, book one in The City of Winds series, in 1890, Anton Nikolayevich Sabroski arrives in Baku with tanker plans that could open a new route through the Suez Canal. He learns that his father has died, and the...

In Shadows in the Creek by Michael H. Balfour, Dante Villehart moved to the quiet town of Edenvale. Dante was hoping that distance from his past would bring clarity and peace. That hope is shattered when Lila Summers is found brutally murdered at the edge...

In Ron Lundmark’s Hypno Dude, Kirk Taylor studies hypnosis in Kathmandu under an elderly teacher named Herkomus, who believes a hidden organization is preparing to control world governments. After Kirk moves to Washington DC with his diplomat mother, he discovers billionaire Fernando Manuro has secretly...

Gertie Goes to Foster Care, written and illustrated by Izzy Unger-Finn, follows a young girl named Gertie who talks about what it feels like to live in a foster home. She explains that it is a place where children stay with another family when they...

Life with Less of Me by Julianna Burmesch is a memoir that follows the author’s life from a childhood with parents prone to hoarding, emotional abuse, and alcoholism. The book starts in 2019, when fifty-eight-year-old Julianna sorts through her mother’s rooms and describes the suffocating...

In Andra Douglas's Changing Cadence, Christine Davis built the New York Sharks women’s football team after discovering that few opportunities existed for women who wanted to play tackle football at a serious level. Nearly twenty years later, she prepares for the final season under her...

In Aletheia by Michael Karlsen-Williksen, we follow a Norwegian astronomer who grew up on his Uncle Arne's tall tales about a UFO landing in the freezing north. Everyone figured Arne was just eccentric, but decades later, the protagonist is working at a LOFAR telescope in...

In Lotte Skale and the Wyvern Hatchery by Shanna P. Lowe, fourteen-year-old Lotte helps her father operate a hatchery and sanctuary for endangered wyverns, winged, serpentine creatures that are hunted by the tyrant, King Bouldermaul. The regime in Asoleenya is anti-magic, and this means Lotte...

Anne Shaw Heinrich's House of Teeth is set in the small town of Poulson, where the ending of one marriage begins pulling several families into the same orbit. Judy Saunders spends years trapped in a bitter relationship with truck driver John, while he quietly builds...

In Let’s Put On A Show, Stewart F. Lane breaks down exactly what it takes to get a production off the ground, starting with the spark of motivation and moving through the logistics of the industry. He draws on his own journey from a child...

In Stolen Secrets by S.F. Baumgartner, FBI Special Agent Charlie O’Rourke believed adopting Jamie would keep her safe. Charlie was trying to shield her from threats tied to a past he hoped to leave behind. For twelve years, Jamie lived under a carefully constructed identity,...

Kira McCloud sells herself as a brilliant and successful decluttering guru with her “sunshine test” in Jenny Hogan's How to Clean Your Life with Sunshine, but her personal life and spaces are far from organized. On her plate are an unfinished book deal, a threatening...

Do you believe that morning and evening routines affect our lives? The Bookend Effect encourages readers to live in the present. Begin your mornings with intention and reflect on your daily activities in the evenings. According to Troy F. Liposec, orientation is the foundation of...

Anna Belfrage’s Queen of Shadows is set in fourteenth-century Castile, where Alma’s future changes when she is taken into the household of Doña Leonor de Guzmán, the king’s companion whose position draws both favor and hostility. What begins as service becomes responsibility as Alma learns...

The Further Adventures of Erig the Earwig by Andy Evans is a well-written book that takes children on a trip into nature to learn about insects, their unique behaviors, and features. Andy begins by introducing two best friends, Erig, an earwig, and Bob, a copper...

In Robbi Sommers Bryant’s Last Breath, after learning that her boyfriend Edward Olson is the serial murderer known as the Copycat Killer, Seattle nurse Caitlyn Derry attempts to disappear before Edward escapes from police custody and resumes hunting her across the Pacific Northwest. Using false...

The Rogue's Confession by Serge R. Pospelov carries an unusual disclaimer on its opening page: all the people are fictional; all the events are real. That tension is what makes this book so gripping. Written by a former Russian Army officer who later escaped from...

Life is so much more than caring for oneself: it’s really about caring for others. In Brandy Clark’s Vivian’s Perfectly Imperfect Picnic, young Vivian enjoys a day at the park with her Bubba. She rides the swings, enjoys a picnic, and walks around with Bubba....

The Adventures of Jimmy Crikey: Tangled! by Wallace E. Briggs continues Jimmy Crikey’s imaginative journey as he navigates friendship, loyalty, magic, and adventure in the hidden world of Roombelow. At the start, Jimmy struggles with the emotional distance between himself and Annison, who no longer...