Paula The Busy Bee: Shani and Friends by Shani T. Night is an excellent way to teach children about the importance of honeybees. The main character is Paula, a young worker bee. The author outlines Paula's jobs as she grows up; her first job is...

What would you be able to do if you were an octopus? With eight legs, would you be able to do more things at once and get all those nasty chores out of the way faster? Shani T. Night’s picture book story, If I Were...

The Soul Whispers Poetry by Vikki Koplick is a wide-ranging and lovely work of inspirational poetry. It's impressive how many human emotions, thoughts, and feelings she captures in her poems--she has her finger on the pulse of the human experience and what it means to...

The Heart of a Lion and the Body of a Cat by Shani T. Night is an illustrated children's book that tells a great story. The protagonist is a young lion who would do many things but cannot because he is sick. However, he is...

After I finished reading Murder Among the Tombstones, the first of the Clara and Iris Mystery Series, I found myself briefly thinking more about the incredible skill of the author, Kim Carter, than the story itself. How cleverly she hooked me in that exciting opening...

Lizzy was a simple waitress who lived from one paycheck to the next. Her life changed when the suave cardiac surgeon, Dr. Grant Chatsworth, came into the restaurant as a customer. The two fell in love, got married, and lived the fairytale. Unfortunately, things started...

After having her daughter, Tracy thought her second pregnancy would be easier, but God had other plans for her and her family. The first sign that things would be different was the abnormal results of her first-trimester screening. Luckily, they were ruled out as possible...

A Normal Boy: Living in an Asylum by Jan Keating is a gripping story that follows the painful journey of a young boy forced to live in an asylum because the man his mother marries doesn't want him. The setting is in Weyburn, Saskatchewan during...

A Prairie Girl: Living in Baghdad is a work of non-fiction in the biography, cultural writing, and family drama subgenres. It is suited to the general adult reading audience. Penned by author Jan Keating, this true account reveals the remarkable life of Sarah Powell, a...

Lucinda’s trip through the rustic countryside in Brandy Rex's novel 30 Miles an Hour took an unexpected turn when she was involved in an accident. No one was around for miles, so Lucinda contacted the local law enforcement. While waiting for the authorities, Lucinda was...

Birdie and her father moved to Fenske Lake in Minnesota to start a new chapter in their lives in Ember of the Woods by Christene Kamberis. Upon arriving at their cabin, they realized it wasn't what they had expected, and Birdie was devastated. She missed...

Tiffany Higgins created a wonderful story about a childhood happiness in seeing Santa Claus. This story takes me back to the time when I was a child, so filled with happiness in the excitement of Christmas coming. The biggest fear was knowing that there were...

Here is another great story from Karleen Bradford. It is as good as the other two I have read from her, although I found this one a bit slower paced than the others. It took me a bit longer to get immersed in the pages....

"Fate’s Design" by Lola James is an intricately woven paranormal romance that is hard to put down. Twins Megan and Morgan travel to Italy after Morgan wins a prize that brings them to fashion school in Bologna. The girls are very different personality wise, but...

Five women, each with their own tribulation, walk through life with their dreams that mean everything to them. The Visitor comes to make changes, to provide each a gem that, if things go well, will be the pivotal point that they yearn for. The plot...

“Fine lines define/this road map etched upon my face/a highway of information/ stored in each and every turn.” Thus begins the title poem of Alicia Winski’s "Running on Fumes." The lines to which the poet refers are hard-won truths, shared with a gritty passion and...

Morgan is absolutely certain that what happened to her friends is a terrible and highly tragic accident. After all, who would purposely target three young adults who were doing nothing more than looking for animals in a nature preserve? So when she decides to travel...

Abby and Alexa had a rough childhood but they managed to survive it and learn to rely on each other, with Alexa the level-headed one and Abby the free spirit. But years later, single mom Alexa is preparing to enjoy an uneventful summer break when...

Mia Balducci dreams of having a big, loving family like her own big Italian brood in small town Massachusetts. As a teenager, Mia leaves Massachusetts for sunny Los Angeles and although for years it never feels like home, she eventually adjusts and makes her life...

To say Hailey’s had a tough life would be a gross understatement of her life after the death of her parents. As often happens when siblings are placed in foster care, Hailey was separated from her brother Jeremy and spent years rebuilding her life, now...