by E. Denise Billups Rating: ***** When Evangeline “Eva” Beauford was sent away at the age of ten by her mother without explanation from the family's olive plantation in Alabama, Beauford Grove, to live with her cousin in Boston, she felt abandoned and confused. Eighteen years later, Eva is a successful hematologist, studying the vagaries of human blood, and her own is yielding more questions than science can answer. When she receives a mysterious posthumous letter from her s

by George Veck Rating: ***** Veck produces another blistering look at those who have fallen far down through the cracks in society and the broken wretchedness of the system that has failed them. Centred around the Morywelon homeless hostel in North Wales, 91-Day Sanction  follows a group of tragicomic figures as they stumble through days filled with futility, fatality, and desperation. 91-Day Sanction  is a Veck tour de force . Longer than his previous novels * , it rarely le

by P. C. Darkcliff Rating: ***** Living with his parents, Baard and Diara, in the peaceful village of New Thorstorm, eighteen-year-old Derrik Thon is tired of being treated like a child and dreams of becoming a warrior. When he has a chance to prove himself, together with friends Glen and Broose, at the village’s perilous coming-of-age task, known as the “Passage”, he grabs it despite his parents' fears. But the danger posed by the Passage pales into insignificance as the Dar

by Ken Steele Rating: ***** The Promise of Unbroken Straw  unfolds the rags-to-riches story of the Landrum family through the eyes of the younger son, Paul, using dual timelines, one set in the mid-1940s and the other in the mid-1980s. Motherless, living with his father, Jake, grandfather, Eli, and brother, Tim, Paul navigates an awkward adolescence marred by secrets, guilt, and Jake’s cold aloofness while the family scratches a living in the wheat fields of Oklahoma during W

by Jim Bates Rating: ***** Bates’s On Rainy Lake  is a collection of eleven short stories mainly set in and around the Hennepin County and Orchard Lake areas of Minnesota. They are broadly contemporary, although characters unburden themselves and reveal historical reasons for their current motivations or situations through flashbacks, memories, and conversations, both internal and with others. Nine tales are written from first-person perspectives, and all main protagonists ar

by Erik Larson Rating: ***** The World’s Columbian Exposition, hosted by Chicago in 1893 and known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was a monumental feat of architecture, engineering, and design, showcasing not only art, antiquities, and cultural exhibits but also innovative, ground-breaking ideas and technologies of the late-Victorian age. However, the wonders of “The White City,” as the fair was additionally named due to the buildings being painted white, came at a tremendous m

by Wendy Waters Rating: ***** With her entrancing singing voice and heavenly face to match, fifteen-year-old serving girl Miriam Tilby would always be a target for Rathe Courteney, the Master of Radclyffe Hall, as her mother, Eirinn, feared. Six years later, in 1593, accused of bewitching him, poisoning his wife, and pregnant with their child, Miriam is sentenced to be burned at the stake in Smithfield, London. But the night before the pyre is due to be lit, a black-clad stra

by John A. Heldt Rating: ***** Grieving the loss of their grandfather, Rory, who had raised them following their parents’ death eight years earlier, twenty-two-year-old Noah Maclean and younger brother, Jake, are stunned to discover the family secret, a stone shed that enables time travel. The siblings decide to take a trip to 1776, a defining year in American history, before returning to 2024 and destroying the shed, which is beginning to prove a curse rather than a blessing

by Mark N. Drake Rating: ***** In Bogganmor , Jack Glennison is forced to revisit the distressing events that occurred in the University of Mercia library vault fourteen years previously and discovers that the Head Librarian, Arthur Grainger, absconded shortly after the bizarre night with a book from the University’s special collection, a book thought to have been destroyed… Glennison must find Grainger and the Liber Umbrae  ( Book of the Shadow ) for the University and perso

by Jim Bates Rating: ***** The Stargazer  is a collection of thirteen slice-of-life stories, each with a subtle twist. In most tales, Bates’ engaging characters meet random, unorthodox strangers who affect their lives, often leading to profound epiphanies, ramifications, or a personal ideological shift. Several recurring motifs, likenesses, and pop culture references filter delicately through the compilation. There are similarities in a number of the characters’ backgrounds,

by Roberta Kaye Waldbaum Rating: ***** Waldbaum’s debut novel, The Color of Dreams , unfolds the story of Claire Brophy McPhee, an unconventional young woman who, having married well in the late nineteenth century, appears set for a pleasurable life of some privilege.  But, when her keen intellect and intense sensibilities become stifled by domestic life, she sinks into disillusionment, longing for the freedom to explore and feel the full texture of her existence… The Color o

by George Veck Rating: ***** Twenty-eight-year-old Amelia Paxton is trapped in an abusive marriage, used as a physical and psychological punchbag by her husband, Detective Sergeant Drake “Pax” Paxton, one of the most corrupt, degenerate coppers in Chester Police Force, and there are a few to choose from. Pax has ensured that Amelia has become completely isolated, literally and figuratively, a forsaken state compounded by her crippling valium dependency for which Pax is the wi

by João Cerqueira Rating: ***** Set in Slavia, a fictional Eastern Bloc country, whose people are brutally oppressed under a vicious, corrupt communist regime led by the unscrupulous Alfred Ionescu and his venal cabal of enforcers, Perestroika is an extraordinary novel, primarily historical fiction yet thriving on inconvertible fact. Cerqueira unfolds Slavia’s journey from dictatorship to democracy, beginning in 1978 and ending in 1992 through the eyes and experiences of ch

by PJ Thomas Rating: ***** Drifting  is the third book of poems in PJ Thomas’s Water Trilogy * , although it can certainly be read as a standalone volume. Drifting  could be viewed as a little daunting, containing just under one hundred poems, but it’s effortlessly readable and accessible. Thomas’s poetry is poised, relatable, and emotionally resonant; there is no pomposity or cryptic language here.   The poems flow with immediacy, although deceptively well-crafted and consid

by Ellis Shuman Rating: ***** Rakiya  is a beautifully crafted collection of a dozen character-driven short stories that effortlessly immerse the reader into Bulgaria's cultural fabric, history, and traditions by subtly straddling the genres of travel memoir, mystery, and romance. Shuman unfolds his absorbing little narratives in first and third-person perspectives, through the eyes and everyday experiences of seemingly ordinary Bulgarians and those visiting the country. Conn

by Carly Rheilan Rating: ***** After serving fourteen years in prison for the murder of a little girl, Ralph Sneddon is under no illusions that he is a complete outcast, rightly loathed, and regarded as a depraved monster even by his mother, Verity. Some crimes are unforgivable, no matter the passage of time, and Ralph’s is one of them. But seven-year-old Mary Crouch knows none of this when she chances upon him while chasing an injured cat. Ralph knows how his friendship with

by P. C. Darkcliff Rating: ***** As the empire is engulfed in a war against the Darkside and Archmage Gadram is indisposed, only Baard has the power to summon the living and the dead to the Ultimate Battle with the magical battleaxe, Tarroth. Mages and warriors who were adrift in the Sea of Oblivion are re-animated as Tarroth strikes the ground for the second time. However, can their combined Might overcome the Dark Overlord, and do Baard and Co., have any fight left?... Thi

by Daniel Hall Rating: ***** Born in Dagenham, East London in 1958, Edward “Eddy” Turner is expected to follow his father, Lenny, into factory work and football hooliganism. But no matter how hard Eddy tries to gain his father’s approval, it becomes clear he isn’t cut out for the hard-drinking, violent working-class community that Lenny is a stalwart of. Eddy is a thoughtful, compassionate, and clever young man who is also gay.  It Was a Riot  takes Eddy from the mean streets

by Yvonne Osborne Rating: ***** Trying to cope with the recent loss of her mother, Sadie Wixom is immersing herself in the rural Michigan farmstead she shares with her father and Grandfather. When her aunt temporarily houses an Indigenous family from Saskatchewan, Canada, Sadie is intrigued, especially by the son, Stefan.  Both free-spirits, damaged, and impacted by loss, Stefan and Sadie forge a connection. But, as racial bigotry in the local town escalates, and Stefan’s eld

by Chet Nairene Rating: ***** Thirty-six-year-old tech wizard, Lew Clarke is about to ascend to god-like status at the corporate behemoth he has worked for since leaving Harvard. Accolades, and more importantly to Lew, eye-watering levels of financial recompense are raining down on him.   But when a minor, forgotten issue floats shockingly to the surface, Lew’s gold-plated, superficial existence implodes. After licking his wounds, Lew embarks on a new business venture, import