First friends, first loves, childhood secrets, love, passion, loss of innocence, guilt, betrayal. Angels and demons. Choices and agency. Loss and grief. These themes are all woven intricately into the plot of Heaven’s Way by Roger Ladd Memmott. The narrator is Danny, and we see...

Pursuing Hope: A Journey from Sorrow to Triumph by Ric DelleCave is a powerful novel based on a true story. It's a story of one boy's survival through years of abuse, not only from his mother, but at the orphanage and later from his stepfather....

The Ramirez family begins its multi-generational plight of bad luck and hard times in 1918, when the Spanish Flu and Pancho Villa's regime systematically destroy their world. After losing half of their children in a short time and the impending doom of soldiers, it is...

Rain is a three-generation family saga that begins with the Australian Wallin family and their daughters Grace and Helena. Though they were raised in comfort and love made possible by their father’s sawmill dynasty, loss and misfortune soon change the future for the sisters. Grace...

Jarred Into Being by Pat Lawrence tells of a battered and abused child who has lost her parents and is essentially fending for herself in a damaged and threatening world. When things begin to get out of hand, teenager Eva Langue splits for Las Vegas...

Rage grew up in foster homes until the age of thirteen when he was taken in by a retired schoolteacher by the name of Georgia Fay. About four weeks after Georgia Fay dies Rage finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery where a...

Carrie Green's collection of short stories in Roses Are Red were compelling and well-written. She developed each character with creative detail and presented each story in a fluid, cohesive, logical and organized manner. My favorite story in this book was the one titled, "A Long Distance...

Agape Jones is a retired NYPD police officer whose cell-phone ringtone is “Theme from Beverly Hills Cop.” Now living on Maui with his career brought to an early close because of a bullet in his thigh, Jones has become the volunteer head of security at...

Atlanta is a novella that might be missed but absolutely should not be overlooked. Its believable characters' lives all intertwine in a heartbreaking way. The story opens with janitor Bruce, a damaged soul going about his nighttime job. He pays Janine, an undercover Atlantic policewoman,...

Over the duration of a 100 km marathon, Nadia reflects on the life of her Oma (grandma), the hardships her loved one endured and the impact it made on the way she lived. Miles pass under Nadia's feet, her goal is merely to reach the finish...

Catherine West's writing instantly pulled me into this story and made me feel a part of the characters’ lives. A dramatic story in a time when the world was torn, a raging Vietnam War was happening and the lives of those serving AND those on...

"An Affinity for Shadows" by Liz R. Newman centers on the life of Kate Theodore, a talented and focused broadcast journalist who has made it to the top, only to find that office politics as well as national events may force her out of her...

A car crash. A mother left with her three children. Uncles coming to taking care of mommy. Sounds suspenseful, intriguing and captivating, right? It was. Roxe Anne Peacock took an interesting plot line of suspenseful twists, added to it the vividly portrayed characters, and turned...

"The Ghosts of Coronado Bay" is a story of a sixteen year old named Maya who can communicate with ghosts. Maya was born with a special gift that allows her to speak with, feel and allow ghosts to become temporarily solid when Maya is near....

"Big Backpack - Little World" by Donna Morang is a travel memoir that grabs you by the scruff of your neck and gives you a good shake! From start to finish, it’s energetic, fascinating and enjoyable. You’re swept along with the author, who became an...

"Every Soldier Needs A Soul: Poems of a Soldier 3" by David McDonald is a remarkable collection of war poetry. It’s the last in a trilogy by this poet, who began writing poetry as part of the treatment for his combat related post-traumatic stress disorder...

"White Lies Black Blood” is an intense fiction book about race and love. The characters Angelica and Kazeem meet when Angelica’s family goes on a vacation trip to Jamaica. Kazeem is an Afro-Jamaican and Angelica is “a racist albino girl”. Angelica was raised with the...

"A Class Apart" follows the events occurring after a tragic bus crash in which several students are hurt or dead. After waking up in the hospital, two of the students find themselves suddenly gifted with strange powers, enabling them to do powerful things. The...

Amongst My Enemies by William F. Brown begins with a prologue reminding people of the attacks against Israel and how Israel grew in strength within a few years. In chapter one the scene shifts to WWII and a group of POWs forced to labor in...

I’ve had the privilege of reading one of David McDonald’s earlier books, “There are No Unwounded Soldiers,” and because it was so emotionally charged, I wanted to read another one of his collections of poetry. McDonald is a hero in my view. In “I Never...