July 2025 Review Issue

Table Of Contents
Prime Picks
Literature
Mystery & Thrillers

Literature

Beetlebum
Christian Basso
Gonzo-Isha Books Ltd.
‎979-8306043067 $7.99 Paperback/$1.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Beetlebum-Christian-Basso/dp/B0DVTD1C7B?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1

Beetlebum is a satirical study in life changes. It presents the impact of an unexpected windfall from an absent father that holds the power to challenge past assumptions and change the future.

Liam O’Shea’s course is seemingly set in stone, until largesse from Francis Henry O’Shea shows up. As a “newly disgruntled caretaker to the memory of his father,” Liam is now charged with reinventing not only his life, but the milieu his father created with his financial prowess.

Christian Basso’s succinct novel creates satisfyingly complex, fun inspections from the start. Poetic descriptions and phrasing inject the story’s observational style with appealing, surprising color that requires slow reading for maximum impact:

One of the endgame risks for men who grow a little too enthralled with the rarified air of “estate-owner” is that the moonshot to the ego tends to amplify the uglier aspects of human nature—running the unchecked potential for both Icarus-like heights and/or the eventual terminus of faded playboy spinsterhood, depending largely on which way your ethical calculus shakes out.

Basso’s descriptions are ethereal, mercurial, and compelling, but will benefit from a slower approach to absorbing their impact and delightful color:

But rest easy in this, the safest of spaces, where the judgments are few, save one or two from a cranky-preachy gargoyle holding Kangaroo Court on his reality-challenged neighbors, elephant-stomping past the windows at 2 a.m. But that mirror shines both ways, and soon a sinister self-reflection takes hold. Poor boy, once again victim to that old time high-hat hubris generally favored by moody only children and lizard people.

As Liam deals with “nightshade folk” and a host of new situations that test his worldview in the weeks that follow his father’s funeral, readers embark on a wild ride through life’s re-inspection. The underlying satirical observation provides delightful commentary on revisionist thinking, shifting attitudes, and the challenge of reassembling a new life with puzzle pieces one didn’t know were missing.

As the first in a projected trilogy, Beetlebum is vivid in its action, flamboyant in its language, and presents the dilemmas of a likeable (albeit flawed) young man coming to terms with family, ego, and wealth.

Libraries seeking a literary novel illustrating the power of accidental transformation and the ironies involved in this effort will delight in how Beetlebum builds its story on the backs of characters that face impossible dreams and revised circumstances.

Literature readers will especially appreciate how deftly Basso wields language and satirical elements to create a novel replete with moments of revelation, transformation, and discovery.

Beetlebum

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Bird, Watching: Stories, Essays, & Poems
Michelle Goering
Nine Petal Press
979-8-9871264-5-5 $14.99
Website:  http://MichelleGoering.wixsite.com/writing
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Watching-Stories-Essays-Poems/dp/B0DLV4YH7J

Bird, Watching: Stories, Essays, & Poems gathers life observations into vignettes organized into three sections—Bird Stories, Poems, and Essays—but even though it would be easy for those with a narrow literary focus to choose but one of these sections to explore, the strength of this collection lies in all three subjects.

Take the introductory piece, ‘European Starling.’ This short encounter sets the stage for the kinds of inspections and literary dovetailing of personal interests that reflect the strength of the collection as a whole:

The bird looked at me. I looked at the bird.

How strange, I thought. That bird is looking right at me. I leaned forward.

The European Starling leaned too, his eye still fixed on mine. He was invading my privacy. The skin on my neck prickled. I’d have to say something. “Hey, do you mind?”

The glossy bird was unblinking. His eye’s ray pierced my public facade.

What do you know about me? I thought. What do you know of my need for approval and my nose-picking habit and my selfish heart?

From this philosophical inspection, readers might not anticipate how the collection then moves into personal realms, from a discourse on breast cancer surgery to a reflection on women’s strengths in ‘Woman Pie’:

I would like to feel I am mythic: a hero, with a breastplate and sword, invincible. Some days, though, I feel I am something else: a pie, on the table, consumable. I am delicious, aromatic, all cinnamon-sweet with tart apples wrapped in a tender and buttery crust. Do you know how hard it is to make a good crust? I use my mother’s recipe, from her mother; I come from a long line of personal pie makers.

The dovetailing of personal and literary perspectives moves through family relationships, aging, distance, and homespun memories of the past with a focus on observation, enlightenment, and revelation:

The trees will be appreciated then, as they have been all along, by meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds, raccoons and squirrels, who don’t know them as a legacy, but appreciate, in their small way, Dad’s dream.

The result is a juxtaposition of personal experience and bigger-picture life inspection that is firmly rooted in nature and senses of place and self. This will delight memoir readers, fans of nature writing, and those who look for literary reflections on life’s progression.

Libraries seeking accessible examples of how philosophy, self-inspection, and literature can entwine will want to highly recommend Bird, Watching not just to leisure readers, but to book clubs and writer’s groups seeking powerful examples of how personal experience can represent bigger-picture thinking about life.

Filled with memorable moments and unexpected associations between seemingly disparate worlds of nature and human experience, Bird, Watching ideally will be read slowly—if only because, at some point, it must end.

Bird, Watching: Stories, Essays, & Poems

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Jonah’s Map of the Whale and Other Poems
Anthony Doyle
Old Scratch Press/Current Words
978-1-957224-54-1 $14.99
www.oldscratchpress.com

Jonah’s Map of the Whale and Other Poems presents a nautical celebration of the sea, creatures that reside within and outside of it, and observations of life underwater and on the surface that revolve around wrecks, boathouses, and labyrinths of heart and soul.

Anthony Doyle charts an intriguing progression of experiences steeped in metaphysical and oceanic insights:

But Molly gleams like metal,/Molly twinkles like a star,/a mermaid made in heaven,/to be worshipped from afar;/a mermaid from the heavens,/an angel from below,/her roe rich as stardust/ in drifts of neon glow.

The dovetailing of human affairs and philosophies creates a fabulous interplay between tyrants, monsters, royalty and foreclosed dreams. One example of this juxtaposition of themes is ‘The Universe Conspires,’ in which:

There are no Marxist jungles, no holy savannas,/No socialist seas./Not even the womb is egalitarian,/ask the shark pup, the runt cub.

Each poem represents a stark delineation between human affairs and philosophies and themes of risk, far-away places, and mythological connections.

Each builds a foundation of insight and intellectual examination that will find an especially strong audience among lovers of mythology and tales of the sea.

Libraries, poets, and readers looking for poetry packed with intriguing associations and insights that blends free verse and rhyme to create unexpected interplays between imagination, thought, and philosophical perspective will find

Jonah’s Map of the Whale and Other Poems a wonderfully inspiring read.

Jonah’s Map of the Whale and Other Poems

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Biography & Autobiography

Capers and Switcheroos
Chip Cater
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-505-0
$28.99 Hardcover/$19.99 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com

Capers and Switcheroos offers stories that take place from the 1950s to the 2000s and represents a memoir presented in the form of literary reflection. This approach will attract a wide audience interested in a broad reach of capers that follow a young man’s evolution into adulthood, where escapades continue in the workplace and in private life.

Color photos introduce each chapter with delightful personal snapshots of Chip Cater’s life. These cement first-person memories of such events as northern New Jersey neighborhood friendships and the controversy which swirls, in 1978, around the Mars company removing red M&Ms from their candy bags over concerns about red dye. Cater’s passionate letter on the subject not only hits the Boston Globe, but prompts the company to send him three cases of M&Ms.

Despite marriage, fatherhood, and professional expansions of his world, Cater’s capers continue to build fun situations even as he pulls pranks on Costco, a place he actually loves.

Embedded in these whimsical, humorous moments is a thorough immersion in and appreciation for life which follows Cater through a wealth of enjoyable times and relationships.

Libraries seeking a memoir that shines with fun, captures a changing sense of times and purposes, and presents journeys both physical and mental will find Capers and Switcheroos original, compelling, and easy to recommend to a wide audience.

The memoir format comes to life under Cater’s hand, making for a thoroughly engrossing collection of life experiences and quirky fun that is not just entertaining, but thought-provoking.

Capers and Switcheroos

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Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life
Barbara Worton
Susan Schadt Press
979-8989403462 $22.50 Paperback/$12.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Chatterbox-Stories-Noisy-Barbara-Worton/dp/B0DKH5MRB2

Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life is a gathering of “mini-memoirs” that reflect the life experiences of a “keen observer” who captures life reflections. From its opening pages, Chatterbox captivates readers with stories and history which immerse them in Barbara Worton’s life and times—past and present.

Take ‘Sunday Sauce.’ This memory of her Italian-American family opens with the appealing observation that:

“A kid could lose an eye. A tooth. Break a nose. Fracture a shin. Lop off a finger. Suffer a concussion at Sunday dinners at my grandparents’ house in Brooklyn.”

This introduction neatly segues into a family affair in which grandchildren are tapped to make fruit and vegetable boxes for grandpa’s business while the family dinner simmers.

Moves within these stores are sometimes jumps rather than smooth transitions—one immediately transitions to 1957 pre-wedding nerves, entering into a world in which her family prepares for an Italian-American, Brooklyn wedding.

Each story represents a time capsule leap through an era and its atmosphere. Each sets the tone of childhood, adolescence and adulthood—and of varying seasons and scenes:

Fords and Chevys and Oldsmobiles and Studebakers pull up and park on our Massapequa Park street. It is Christmas. It is snowing.

Readers who enjoy memoirs that walk back into childhood impressions, bygone years, and family connections, and thoughts on everyday life will relish the “down-home” feel of these vignettes, which survey a vast expanse of memory and place through different events.

Libraries seeking memoirs steeped in New York culture and the feel of both yesteryear and the current moment will want to add Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life to their collections.

Filled with the hustle and bustle of daily life and vivid impressions collected by an observant child, teenager and woman who taps the inner fears and delights of her world, Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life represents a step back in time and forward into the present.

It’s a fine opportunity for all ages to revisit the cultures and families whose experiences would be long lost to time were it not for these succinct in-the-moment reflections: stories that connect us to our own feelings and life experiences we share.

Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life

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If You Say So
Michelle Herman
Galileo Press
978-0913123508 $19.95 Paperback/$9.95 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/If-You-Say-Michelle-Herman/dp/0913123501

If You Say So is a memoir-in-essays of entering the dance world at age 62, losing loved ones, and stepping up to a vastly revised life that embraces the notion of improvisational dancing.

Making a dance film during a pandemic is no light feat. It involves meeting outdoors, masked, to put practiced routines into group effort, taking risks, and accepting that while life has taken a huge detour from any anticipated route, the end result might just be worth embracing:

Over the three-month period of in-person rehearsal and filming, there ends up being just one Sunday when there is perfect weather for dancing outdoors in Columbus, Ohio. “That was a great day, wasn’t it?” we say for weeks afterwards. But even on the not-great days, even in the rain, or under a blazing sun, or when the wind is so strong that parts of people’s costumes fly away—or on the cold November Sunday when it starts to snow as soon as we are in position in the field—we are happy to be there. It’s our only reason to go anywhere.

Throughout her book, Michelle Herman embraces a sense of community both within and outside of the dance world, despite the presence of a pandemic which shuts down everything she loves, isolating her.

Her life story embraces family relationships, impacts, and journeys that evolve new directions and opportunities for her future:

Are you having fun? he asks. The answer is obvious. I am surrounded by people I love. We are dancing to a mix of Beyoncé and the Isley Brothers and Prince and Talking Heads and Celia Cruz and I’d asked my friends to please bring food and needs, so there is plenty of wonderful food, sweet rice cakes and crispy tofu and macaroni and cheese and cookies and pâté and bread (they have mostly neglected to bring needs). I shrug and smile. I know what he really means is: Can you explain why is this fun?

I can’t answer that—that would be a matter of explaining why I am who I am.

Her focus on ballet for those well beyond the years usually associated with effective dancing also offers important insights into the joy of joining with others who adapt their bodies, styles, and abilities in a conjoined effort to create a novel art form:

My life has changed completely over the last year and a half. The party is full of people I’ve met in the ballet classes I take every day. And this is the other reason I am at peace with—that I have found joy in—my life in Columbus after all these years. I have fallen in with a crowd of other late-to-ballet dancers, lifelong dancers, dancers who take only classes other than ballet.

Readers interested in dance who also appreciate the delicate dances between mothers, daughters, family, and friends, will relish the spirited insights that stem from Herman’s life experiences.

Dog lovers will find the accompanying tale of Ella and the grief that arises from a pet’s loss (that unexpectedly ends human connections, as well) to be extraordinarily compelling and heart-wrenching.

Libraries seeking memoirs that are gripping in their embrace of dance, relationships, growth, and coming to terms with loss and change will welcome the dance of life that is If You Say So. It’s a warm journey through later years that is vivid, heartfelt, and unexpectedly thought-provoking, highly recommended for its ability to chart various obstacles and courses through expectation, confrontation, and transformation.

If You Say So

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Life and How to Live It Volume One: Begin the Begin
Chaz Holesworth
Dorrance Publishing Company
979-8889257820
$11.65 Paperback/$2.99 eBook/$3.99 Audiobook
https://www.amazon.com/Life-How-Live-one-Begin/dp/B0DNKQJJFH

The first volume of Chaz Holesworth’s memoir ‘Life and How to Live It,’ Begin the Begin, depicts a childhood in Philadelphia where an addicted father and born-again Christian mother raised their family.

Holesworth was born on a winter’s day in the late 1970s, “the worst of times.” From here, he reviews family influences, early gang struggles, and the overall atmosphere of growing up in Philadelphia’s slums. These experiences influenced his family and his life, setting boundaries and creating obstacles and angst that permeated his world.

Holesworth’s inspections come steeped in personal reflection as well as social insight. From how his mother kept falling into patterns of attraction to addicts, to being a young “Jesus freak” himself and honing the spiritual, psychological, and physical skills that would ultimately contribute to his street savvy and personal survival, Holesworth creates a powerful inspection of influences and motivations for change. He creates a read both engrossing and candid:

“In 1988, I was 10, poor as shit, and going to summer camps where I had to fight other campers like Rich the bully, who pushed me into a pile of horse shit.”

From high hopes, God’s influence, and new possibilities to dashed dreams and survival tactics, Begin the Begin is a memoir replete with powerful memories and accompanying insights. These reflect upon good and bad choices, religion’s influence on the family’s life, and how Holesworth came to identify the “bullshit” in his life and opt for new ways of being.

Many of the insights on Christian propaganda and direction will give pause for thought to religious readers interested in the impact of their direction on poverty and inner-city experience. Book club discussions could revolve around this and other topics of growth, survival, and community influence.

Begin the Begin features many hard-hitting, powerful examples of coming of age under the worst of conditions in America. It also delivers the message that achievement can come to anyone—often, in spite of backgrounds, poverty, and influences that repress.

Astute and frank in its life journey, Begin the Begin is a memoir worthy of contemplation for its insights on weakness, poverty, and religious, social, and political party lines.

Life and How to Live It Volume One: Begin the Begin

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Life Sucks
PS Conway
Fictional Café Press
979-8987442159 $19.95
Website: psconway.com 
Ordering: https://a.co/d/8maVfrv  

Life Sucks: Memories and Introspections from the Great Covid Lockdown is a memoir that captures Covid’s lasting impact on one survivor. It opens in an unexpected place—with mention of a 2007 tour of China and a consideration of “useless pets” that are basically a Western concept. Chapters build further discussions of the idea of keeping pets, especially those deemed ‘useless’ (which some might argue about):

Speaking of Armageddon, can you think of any animal that evokes more deep-seated fear than a snake? Growing up Catholic, next to clowns and priests, snakes filled me with abject spiritual terror. Snakes were Satan, evil sneaky creatures of temptation that were more predator than prey. So why the unholy HELL would anyone keep a snake as a pet? Completely useless.

This is just one of many life observations delivered in a lively, controversial, thought-provoking dialogue readers won’t anticipate from a memoir that contains the word ‘Covid’. Many reflections about life’s ironies and challenges coalesce in this book in a manner that moves through PS Conway’s personal experience and interests to intersect them with life conclusions and engrossing situations.

The intersection of satirical observation and a wry appreciation of life’s ironies is notable not only by the book’s title, but in descriptions that are simply delightful in their juxtaposition of risqué reaction and reasoning.

Subjects range from pets and their dubious distinctions to drugs and humor that seeps from observations both ironic and pointed:

Once a lonely experimental investigation site in 2020, the Johns Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research is a present-day global leader in the studied deployment of psilocybin therapeutics... In addition to providing relief to people suffering from addiction, anxiety, and depression years ago, this wonder drug has also solved the following crises . . . Enabled First Contact. Alien intelligence was too advanced for us to notice. It required a firm belief in the Mandela Effect to actualize into real parallel universes crossing over into our own.

Readers anticipating another staid, familiar story of lockdown’s life-jarring impact will find that there’s nothing quite like Conway’s life reflections and conclusions. Call it a memoir, a Covid dream, a social reflection, or an opinion piece as you wish—the reality lies in the fact that this offbeat reflection on life and how it does or doesn’t suck tickles the mind even as it defies categorization.

Jealousy, naked women, and astute reflections about life’s values and ironies coalesce on the playing field of entertainment and shock value:

Consumerism is a problem. We go deeper in debt buying things we covet, can’t afford and truly don’t need. The negative impact of consumerism outweighs the positives up to and including risking our eternal souls. The more we examine both tangible and intangible consumption, the more the malevolent truth seems self-evident. But, since we now live in a post-truth reality, why let nettling little facts stand in the way of a good time? Think about it. Doesn’t it feel sexy to buy another set of $300 earpods? Those musical micro-penises making sweet love to your earholes as you crank up the massive bass of Zeppelin II? Feel it: You gotta whole lotta love.

Libraries should recommend Life Sucks to Bostonians (masters at creating wry life observations that veer towards the darker side of perception), readers of satire and irony, memoir followers who might think the form dictates conservative pathways of inspection, and anyone interested in startling, candid, even sometimes offensive life observations.

Readers will find Life Sucks novel, unexpected, incomparable to any other work in fiction or nonfiction, and satisfyingly difficult to put down.

Life Sucks

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Midwife of the Soul
Shira Friedman
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-680-4
$20.00 pb, $7.99 ebook, $30.00 hc
www.atmospherepress.com

Midwife of the Soul is a survey of healing, soul-building, and revitalization that teaches readers how to celebrate seemingly negative traits by considering them “soul gifts” to be tapped and acknowledged.

Shira Friedman uses the memoir form to narrate her life journey, from her own tumultuous birth to family relationships, processing strife, raising her own children, and pursing a doctoral degree.

At each step of her life journey Friedman reflects on the presumptions and realizations that helped shift her experience and viewpoint in a different direction, offering readers insights into Jewish identity and the process of evolving in unexpected directions.

Readers who anticipated more of a “how to” guide may be surprised by a memoir which precedes and advances these insights, but Friedman’s background is key to understanding life journeys and also leads neatly into discussions of the process of change:

Emotions are simply patterns of energy in motion. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed, channeled, redirected, transmuted, or transformed. All emotions, regardless of whether they feel good or bad, are simply patterns of energy awaiting transformation. Transformation happens when we replace negative energy with positive energy by focusing on kindness, compassion, appreciation, gratitude, love, joy, and peace.

This blend of nuts-and-bolts advice backed by a memoir’s inspirational, revealing stories of trauma, healing, choice, and perception helps cement the connections between life experience, ideals, and evolving spirituality and philosophical outlook.

The vignettes are linked to follow-up lessons gained from experience to solidify the exact points of realization and the kinds of lessons readers can use to draw such connections in their own lives.

Libraries seeking a book highly recommendable to book clubs interested in accounts of personal transformation and recovery will find Midwife of the Soul especially notable for how it weaves these life experiences into moments that will educate and attract readers into higher-level thinking and group discussion.

Replete with important insights about trauma and positive change, Midwife of the Soul is highly recommended for those who enjoy personal life stories and deeper inspections of life purpose and change.

Midwife of the Soul

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One Wrong Turn at a Time
Jan Heidrich-Rice
NDY Press
9798990977136 $13.99 Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/One-Wrong-Turn-Time-Forty-Five-ebook/dp/B0F2SS16HF

One Wrong Turn at a Time represents a special brand of memoir, blending humor and travel with marital reflections that represent both a detour and a family celebration as life changes around the characters. More so than most stories of marital u-turns, this chronicles the growth and different stages of change that a long-term marriage and family can face.

One Wrong Turn at a Time pairs a sense of adventure and discovery in a manner that sets it apart from most marriage surveys, but incorporates insights about interpersonal connections that belay any pat categorization of the memoir as a travelogue alone.

The very elements which defy pat categorization also lend to its ability to reach an exceptionally wide audience, from those seeking a leisure read filled with insights and intriguing revelations to readers attracted to first-person stories of sampling new routes against all odds:

“Why don’t you take a spouse excursion?” Rice suggested a couple days into our trip.

“I could,” I said. “But I’d rather explore at my own pace.”

He raised his eyebrows, perhaps recalling that time I phoned him from the road to ask where the hell I was. But he said nothing. We both knew the score when it came to my sense of direction. Still, I wanted to venture out on my own.

The ups and downs of life on and off the road, in and out of the house, and with or without children makes for an absorbing, fun, thought-provoking entwining of experiences that romp through Maine, Utah, and points near and far.

Libraries interested in a memoir that represents an engaging read offering simultaneous, vicarious fun and thought-provoking moments will relish the journey undertaken in One Wrong Turn at a Time.

Jan Heidrich-Rice embraces a sense of the exotic, profound, and revealing in her memoir, and so those seeking an armchair travelogue and personal journey that will carry them far from their own routines and choices will relish the lively, light-hearted sojourns. These are a fine promotion of living life in its fullest, embracing adversity and connection, and trying new things.

One Wrong Turn at a Time

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The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey
Anonymous
Health Communications, Inc.
978-07573-2600-4 $17.95 Paperback/$12.95 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Steps-Modern-Heros-Journey-ebook/dp/B0DXFY4ZD8

The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey is a memoir that offers more than the usual story of recovery, but delves into elements of transformation. It considers how, exactly, the process of following an AA twelve step program directly leads to change.

Chapters move from separation from former patterns of addiction to eleven steps of initiation into the principles and process of the program before returning to the final results of recovery. The survey’s packed with allegory, experience, and insights.

Take Jonah and the whale, for one example:

The passage of the first threshold symbolizes the beginning of the disintegration of the self where the hero is plunged into the abyss and begins the process of transfiguration culminating in a spiritual rebirth. The image of the belly of the whale represents the worldwide womb and navel of the world where all life began and can be renewed if we have the courage to return to it. While there is great healing here, there is great danger as well, for it is in the belly of the whale that the hero finds the abyss within himself, and while the things he finds here have the power to liberate and transform him, they have the power to destroy him as well.

This illustrates the basic promise and danger of healing, setting the stage for and moving into accounts of why the 12-step program’s foundations are so essential to lasting healing. This includes the spiritual component of the process:

As the hero moves further into this part of the journey, a key to making the transition into this new way of thinking and acting is to develop a deeper relationship with his Higher Power. As each sober experience triggers an old reaction, the hero can easily feel overwhelmed by all the work he must do to change and stay on the spiritual path. It soon becomes clear that, by himself, he doesn’t have either the strength nor the interest in changing some behaviors, and a growing revelation during this stage is that only by relying on God to remove these defects of character will he finally be able to be free of them.

By depicting those in recovery and following these steps as “heroes,” the writer points out the underlying courage and determination required to set aside more familiar choices and pathways to forge new territory in all aspects of psychological and spiritual healing.

This allows readers to better understand not just the twelve steps (many books already cover them), but how they reflect new possibilities for reinventing one’s psychological and spiritual connections.

Many a book details the recovery process, but by absorbing the image of the 12-stepper as a “hero” and following his step-by-step journey, readers will more readily understand how and why the program connects with so many daily lives and choices.

Libraries interested in adding more 12-step surveys to their collections will especially appreciate the intellectual and psychological approach that sets The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey apart from most others on the subject. This translates to an acquisition which will nicely compliment other AA guides, forging new opportunities for readers with an uncommon approach to understanding recovery.

By employing Jungian mythology, connecting it to the hero ideal, and cross-referencing these lofty topics with the daily challenges of recovery, The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey creates a dialogue of promise, opportunity, and revelation which expands and enhances existing literature on the subject.

Accessible to a wide audience, The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey will especially appeal to book clubs looking at twelve-step memoirs and books which take the next step into better understanding and appreciation of the promise and delivery of the twelve-step program.

The Twelve Steps: A Modern Hero’s Journey

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Once Upon a Continent
Susanna Janssen
Lexicon Alley Press
978-0-998304-8-4-7   $15.95 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://susannajanssen.com/

Once Upon a Continent is about moving away from one’s comfort zone (and life) into an explorative mode that promises many discoveries. Susanna Janssen delivers the hard-hitting promise that her memoir will be as vivid and lively as her life:

Before we boarded the flight to Chile, if I had known in advance that I would fall into a cannibal-size soup pot in Peru, risk losing toes and fingers while traveling by train through the high Andes, and high-jump my way out of a marriage proposal in a Bolivian discotheque, I might have had second thoughts. But I drank yerba mate with the gauchos in Argentina, visited Machu Picchu with only six other tourists, and saw the Galapagos Islands as is never again possible. Yes, it was “the trip of a lifetime,” but that cliche doesn’t begin to describe the wonders, woes, wounds, and wows of my actual experience.

As Janssen’s story marches through other cultures and atmospheres, she takes the time to capture the immersive experience of sojourns through colorful lives, rituals, and countryside.

Her descriptions present not just observations, but background cultural details of the countries she passes through. This lends a full-bodied feel of discovery to her journey that will inform readers even as it thoroughly captivates audiences via a “you are here” touch. This quote, for an example, comes from the Argentine province of Salta:

Despite the muddy route, it was a colorful and inspiring display of gaucho pride in their history and culture, and of devotion to the memory of Güemes. Unlike at the gathering in the park the previous night, here the women, las gauchas, had a co-starring role. The matrons looked to have stepped in from the nineteenth-century prairie in ankle-length, long-sleeved, high-necked pastel cotton dresses, riding sidesaddle abreast of the men, who wore the flared bombacha pants tucked into high boots and the dramatic red poncho of the gauchos of Güemes. The men’s horses all sported the traditional guardamonte, the billowed stiff leather “wings” attached to both sides of the saddle to protect the legs of the rider and the flanks of the horse from the brambly undergrowth of the pampa called maleza.

Many of her choices involve routes far from the usual crowds which may be unavailable in more crowded, regulated modern tourism. One example is when she and “intrepid friend” Joyce tour the Galapagos Islands on a low-budget, more independent agenda than would likely be possible today.

Their journey around South America on a shoestring, far from the usual individual or group tour, results in a more enlightening experience than the typical sojourn. This will especially delight armchair readers who may not be up to this kind of adventure themselves, but who will relish experiencing it through Janssen’s writing.

Libraries seeking travelogues that operate well off the beaten path of South American encounters will delight in Once Upon a Continent’s ability to deliver exciting activity and cultural enlightenment. Readers seeking a delightfully adventurous approach to South America’s cultures will relish the lively spirit and delivery of Janssen’s odyssey.

Packed with eye-opening cultural reflections paired with gripping moments of near-disasters and engrossing discoveries, Once Upon a Continent is more than a travelogue and a memoir.

It’s a venture into wonder. Prepare to be amazed.

Once Upon a Continent

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Mystery & Thrillers

Calypso Blue
Brian Silverman
Down & Out Books
ASIN: ‎B0F2S5TPW8 $5.99
www.downandoutbooks.com

Who wouldn’t want to flee the big city of New York for a tropical paradise when life gets too complicated? Investigator Len Buonfiglio chooses this course in Calypso Blue, only to find that peace is not an easy thing to find even when big city problems and family troubles are left behind.

For one thing, no place is immune to death ... or murder. When famous performer Lord Ram dies under mysterious circumstances, Len is tapped to quell rumors about his demise—only to find that they may be all too true ... and then some.

Len discovers that running a bar in paradise won’t keep him out of trouble, but actually may prove the focal point that attracts trouble to challenge him on a personal level.

His interviews with possible perps unravel dangerous threads of associations and discoveries which lead him ever deeper into questions about not just Lord Ram’s life, but the calypso community as a whole:

I smiled thinking to myself, now there’s a motive for murder. Whacking the man because he got more accolades than her preferred Calypsonian. I knew people here took their calypso allegiances seriously, but that was a little far-fetched even for my Clouseau-like mind.

Readers familiar with mysteries that take place in the tropics but focus on intrigue more than community will especially appreciate the musical and performance interludes injected into Calypso Blue that give the story an added dimension of realistic atmosphere.

Brian Silverman winds his mystery so intricately into this community, cementing it with an outsider’s investigative nose for trouble, that readers will find themselves as involved in the underbelly of island life and affairs as in a mystery that keeps evolving new questions.

As Venezuelan special interests, international intrigue, and truths about Lord Ram begin to emerge, tensions escalate. Readers begin to understand that what they’d initially expected from unfolding events is actually far from the truth.

Libraries seeking an engaging murder mystery set in a tropical paradise will relish how Calypso Blue intersects a savvy New Yorker’s perspective with those of islanders and outsiders who are all harboring dangerous secrets.

Replete with strong characters, fast-paced action, and twists even seasoned mystery readers won’t see coming, this second book in Len Buonfiglio’s series will prove hard to put down, thoroughly steeped in Caribbean affairs and flavors that are alluring and haunting.

Calypso Blue

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A Cesspool of Spies
Linda Watkins
Argon Press 
978-1-944815-23-3 $5.99 eBook/$18.99 Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/Cesspool-Spies-Linda-Watkins-ebook/dp/B0F5XVBTLJ/ 

Espionage takes unexpected turns in A Cesspool of Spies, the latest thriller by Linda Watkins. The story opens with new adult Simon Biggs considering a CIA invite for students to sign with them for three years in exchange for a hefty recruiting bonus and college funding.

Simon already signed with the Navy during World War II, returning home a wounded war hero. He enrolled in college where he’s now a senior, set to graduate ... but he can’t afford his goal of law school. This assignment may be the perfect ticket towards his ultimate dream. It sounds like an easy research job. Or, it could prove a disaster.

Simon doesn’t know much about the newly-formed CIA, but he and his readers learn much as the story unfolds.

Events are portrayed through the first-person experiences of Simon, the reflections of CIA agent Major Admiral Bradley Sullivan, and others who become involved in fielding false intel, subterfuge, liars, and uncomfortable truths.

Forced to accept guidance from his superior which seems to conflict with the information he’s uncovering, Simon is placed in an untenable, uncomfortable position. He thinks independently and comes to some dangerous conclusions about not only his assignment, but the superiors who influence his findings:

According to Manly, I had jumped to conclusions that were unfounded and uncorroborated. He said he would put a note in my file, then I was dismissed. I left the office more than just a little angry. I’d given him solid intel and, as a result, I now had a reprimand in my file. What was the matter with that man?

Linda Watkins uses clear chapter headings to trace the evolution of conversations and shifting perspectives. This helps readers easily understand changing scenarios and evolving issues.

She also attends to portraying leader Brad’s domestic family life with his wife Penny in a manner that intersects nicely with bigger-picture thinking about relationships and political influences. The story embraces moments of connection and revelation both at home and at work as Brad navigates some dangerous situations and comes to surprising conclusions.

Brad oversees his man Carter and considers the unexpected impact of a plot gone awry even as he participates in setting up some fake intel, himself, only to find his scheme blowing up to endanger the innocent. Simon navigates his own dangerous pathway with the CIA as he learns dangerous killing lessons from Brad and finds them all too handy for dealing with other issues.

Watkins builds an intriguing international thriller that moves from foreign to domestic circles in unforeseen ways. Readers who partake of Simon and Brad’s evolutionary process will not only become immersed in foreign affairs, but will begin to understand the moral and ethical impact of training and behaviors which emerge in startling ways back home.

Libraries seeking thrillers that are taunt with action, replete with psychological and social reflection, and filled with unexpected moves between a wide range of characters will find A Cesspool of Spies a remarkably astute inspection of the forces that bring past family and personal dynamics into new arenas.

Replete with psychological and political tension and cat-and-mouse games played on novel arenas of engagement, A Cesspool of Spies is an outstanding read. It’s highly recommended for thriller audiences and book clubs seeking adjunct material to spark vivid discussions about responsibility, moral and ethical tests, and the impact of dangerous decisions and liaisons.

A Cesspool of Spies

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Chasing Moonflowers
Pauline Chow
Ghastly Goings-On Press
978-1-964733-03-6 $9.99
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Moonflowers-Gothic-Historical-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0F1G51FWX

Historical vampire thriller Chasing Moonflowers opens in an unexpected place—not the Western setting of Europe or America, where so many vampire stories begin, but in Hong Kong, where young herbalist Ling Shaw observes a terrible murder committed by a bloodthirsty creature. When her uncle is wrongly arrested for the crime, it falls on her shoulders to exonerate him.

Her effort forces her into association with a friend and a thug from the notorious Kowloon district as they delve into a murder investigation that introduces them not only to vampires and curses, but the social struggles of labor forces in Hong Kong.

Family ties are at the forefront of this story, which explores Chinese roots and connections as a dutiful daughter and her family are drawn ever deeper into dangerous territory:

“Remember, I’ll give you cues. Otherwise, remain silent. Neither of us need to draw attention to ourselves. I am glad you changed into trousers. These men—even your uncle—don't want what’s best for us.” Ahma rarely spoke ill of Dabak. “In this world, men can save a girl or cause her immeasurable suffering. They usually choose the latter.”

Male and female roles, their impact, and what they have to do with vampires and murders winds into a thoroughly engrossing story that gives as much pause for thought about historical precedents and cultural influences as it builds an engrossing, can’t-put-it-down series of conundrums. These buffet Ling as she edges towards the truth, only to uncover even more adversity and terrible choices.

Survival and discovery efforts introduce their own particular dilemmas for a young woman in Hong Kong:

Revealing this would surrender the layer of protection with which Ling had been endowed. Her choices were few however.

Pauline Chow’s observations of this era and its people are as rich as the details about Hong Kong’s social underbelly and personalities. Readers expecting a straightforward vampire thriller do receive elements of attraction and the unexpected, but also will appreciate how detailed and engrossing are the social and political conundrums Ling faces in the course of her pursuit.

Libraries looking for a vampire thriller that comes with added value for its cultural and historical reflections will relish the opportunity to include and highly recommend Chasing Moonflowers in their collections.

Packed with unexpected twists, moments of revelation, and a tension and attraction that translate to a powerful read, Chasing Moonflowers is hard to put down and nearly impossible to predict.

Chasing Moonflowers

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The Cobalt Conspiracy
Richard D. Ross
Steel Door Publishing
978-1739015480     $16.99
https://www.richarddross.com

The Cobalt Conspiracy that takes place in Florida, where a trucker’s sole source of income breaks down. He was already on the edge of despair, with his partner and lover Brooke gone and his income sparse. Now, life and finances have become impossible for Marco Ferrero.

Help lies just around the corner (or so he believes) when a stranger offers to help, but the bid for resolution comes with a big price tag—Marco’s involvement in a conspiracy that leads to not one, but a host of characters seeking his demise.

What does his situation have to do with tenacious aspiring young journalist Reyna Rushmore, who is tasked with probing a new electrical vehicle plant’s overnight success? Plenty.

These two lives dovetail in unexpected ways as Marco struggles with an offer that contains deadly ramifications and a big mess, while Reyna becomes involved in special interests over cobalt, a scarce metal that’s a primary component in electric vehicle batteries.

Ethical questions arise in different ways for both characters as they discover international connections and conundrums that test their mettle and life visions, facing the certainty that truth and possible redemption lay just around the corner ... if only they can survive long enough to tap them.

Richard D. Ross includes many supporting characters that accompany both down rabbit holes of possibility and danger, from Reyna’s co-worker and veteran reporter Brendan Yarwood to Marco’s ex, Brooke Chatzky, who is unexpectedly threatened by his new choices. These associations are revealed through different viewpoints that help shift the story into different perspectives of past, present and future goals:

Once Reyna returned, he would lead her through the organized steps and framework on how to proceed on a covert investigation such as this. Discipline and secrecy had to be adhered to at all times. There could be no casual slip ups if they were to bring their quarry to justice.

Libraries seeking a thriller that delves into moral and ethical issues, discrepancies between company and government special interests, and a mystery which turns into a dangerous cover-up investigation will find The Cobalt Conspiracy holds just the right amount of tension, character build-up, and changing plot to keep readers thoroughly engaged and wondering about outcomes and character motivations.

Filled with surprises and finely-tuned tension, The Cobalt Conspiracy is highly recommended for its ability to turn a mystery into a powerful story of a bid for power and redemption.

The Cobalt Conspiracy

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DEEP FAKE
Vincent DeFilippo
‎ViennaRose Publishing
‎978-1960299680 $19.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1960299689

DEEP FAKE: A Murder, A Coverup, and the Ultimate Digital Manipulation gives thriller audiences an engrossing story in which an exposé about to be revealed to the public is suddenly stifled when its author is found dead of an apparent overdose. That should have been the end of matters, but high-level publishing executive Loren Jamison well knows that Grace’s exposé of the gun industry was about to blow the lid off some dangerous secrets—and so she assumes the reins of investigator as she probes the tragedy.

Loren can’t do this alone, so she taps a professional to join her in the pursuit of the truth—former FBI agent turned P.I. Mick Greco. What he and his team uncover indicates a deep-rooted conspiracy packed with special interests and dangers which soon target them.

Vincent DeFilippo is himself an international financier and businessman whose background lends to creating especially realistic tension and scenarios in DEEP FAKE.

The story excels in nonstop drama from its opening lines, which continue throughout the story’s evolutionary process:

Holy shit! Shit-shit!

The overly expensive caramel macchiato tumbled from Loren’s hand as a hysterical scream caught in her throat. Loren’s racing mind barely registered the sudden splash of hot liquid on her legs. She’d worn jeans to the office, given it was the weekend, and the steaming coffee soaked through without scalding her.

Also powerful are the family relationships and connections which evolve as Mick and Loren pursue the truth, involving others they love and lean on in what turns out to be a very deadly game. Mick must learn to walk a careful line when family ties are tested:

Greco almost chipped in, then stopped himself. He knew it was always a bad idea to interfere in family dynamics, especially when trying to garner information. Greco could imagine both of them turning on him if he said a word out of place, and then the lead might dry up. So, Mick Greco kept his mouth firmly shut.

From tech savvy and market research results to buried files, special interests, and dubious connections, DEEP FAKE uncovers a tangled web of truths, each of which seem to lead in a new direction. The twists and turns which evolve from these revelations just keep coming, making perfect reading for suspense and thriller audiences seeking edge-of-your-seat experiences that are unexpected and satisfyingly shocking.

Libraries seeking top-notch thrillers that sizzle with action, are firmly based on strong, appealing, believable characters, and which immerse even the most savvy thriller reader in the unexpected will want to include DEEP FAKE in their collections.

Replete with so many twists that readers won’t anticipate its surprise conclusion, DEEP FAKE is an outstanding study in action and business connections that is nearly impossible to put down or predict.

DEEP FAKE

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Green Flash at Sunset
Nic Schuck
Panhandle Books
9798992151619
$24.99 Hardcover/$16.95 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Green-Flash-Sunset-Nic-Schuck/dp/B0DVC1LMX9

Green Flash at Sunset is a thriller that takes place in Key West, dovetailing the lives and perspectives of four individuals battling their pasts and present-day limitations, who find themselves unexpectedly joined by violence and threats beyond their experience.

Janet is just blossoming into her artistic talents after fleeing an abusive marriage with Bobby. Charter boat captain Randall is facing financial ruin and the specter of Jared Baker from his past, visiting a nasty scene of murder while he leaves his clients fishing. Eli is a young escape artist who is in the twilight of being able to escape from his own living nightmare, while Stacy is on the cusp of songwriting success, even though this feels ever-elusive.

These four individuals present very different backgrounds and experiences, yet find themselves and their shadowy pasts on a collision course that both intersects their special interests and tests each in new ways.

Nic Schuck does a fine job of setting the stage for their unlikely association as he dovetails haunting initial scenes of discord and danger with a portrait of Key West personalities, backdrop, and events.

Readers attracted to rich novels of Florida culture and influences will welcome the vivid portraits of people and places that permeate this story, while those seeking a thriller firmly rooted in psychological connections, revelations, and dysfunctions will be pleased with the striking combination of disparate characters whose lives and futures unfold in unexpected ways.

From twelve-year-old Eli’s ability to weave magic even into adult situations to Janet’s reflections on her marriage and new status,“Maybe, she thought, she cried because she didn’t miss home or Bobby or her father. She cried from happiness. She wouldn’t miss being married, although technically, they still were. She would worry about that another time,” each character grows from their encounters not just with each other, but greater forces that take over their lives.

At each step of the action-packed story, Schuck stays true to exploring and exposing the flaws and strengths of his characters as they navigate new territory both individually and together.

Libraries seeking Florida-based intrigue and confrontations that provoke characters to reach above and beyond their limitations will find Green Flash at Sunset an especially appealing recommendation for book clubs interested in how different bids for freedom play out in unexpected ways.

Replete with action and astute psychological reflection that coalesces, dovetails, and unfolds in new directions, Green Flash at Sunset is a thought-provoking, moving story that proves hard to put down and easy to highly recommend.

Green Flash at Sunset

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Grid Zero
Andrew Diamond
Stolen Time Press
979-8988872214 $5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Zero-Andrew-Diamond-ebook/dp/B0F6VVQK28

Readers of thrillers centered on power grid failures and hacking will relish how Andrew Diamond crafts the chaos and obstacles to survival to make Grid Zero not just compelling, but riveting reading.

The story opens not pre-blackout, as so many in this genre do, but after the power has been out for a while due to back-to-back hurricanes. While nature has a hand in the initial failures, human treachery has taken up the reins of destruction via malware that has completed the job, preventing power from coming back.

People are angry, as food distribution systems and law and order barely work. And even when the power begins to return, life does not return to the normalcy everyone had enjoyed before the wide-ranging outage.

The heat is killing people, the death count is blossoming, and even nine days without power is leading to new connections—and disconnections.

The challenge of trying to uncover who is attempting to make the outage permanent is multiplied by the numerous restoration and daily challenges that keep emerging to stymie the investigative efforts of a federal agent and a lone hacker who each have special motivations for understanding an especially lethal, elusive form of malware the world has never seen before.

Diamond creates a fine series of intersecting personalities and purposes as the story unfolds. Thriller readers will relish the tension which develops from many places, the vast challenges imposed by weather change and mercurial life purposes and visions, and the juxtaposition of characters that each hold a key to ultimate survival.

Characters struggling with these forces will find many new scenarios force them to adjust not just their survival skills, but their ability to trust strangers:

She saw the fear and doubt in his eyes, the same feelings that had tormented her through the night, the same feelings that had attacked her the moment she awoke. Only he looked worse. She pitied him. In his eyes she still saw everything she liked about him: intelligence, kindness, decency, warmth. Against reason and her better judgment, she wanted to give him a chance.

More so than most stories about grid failure and natural destruction, Grid Zero creates a memorable plot in which no singular reason for failure is at the heart of various characters’ attempts to survive and adjust to their new lives.

Libraries that appreciate realistic novels of survival, psychological change, and suspense will want to consider Grid Zero for any collection where apocalyptic scenarios are of interest.

Book clubs that choose Grid Zero for their discussions will find many circumstances provoke topics and perspectives that divert from the usual focus on manmade or natural disaster alone.

As the story dovetails these two challenges to human affairs, it unfolds a gripping series of choices that are not always obvious and which reveal a time bomb that only a few of the participants have any hope of diffusing.

Vivid and psychologically and socially astute, Grid Zero is a series of realizations that proves hard to put down.

Grid Zero

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Known But Unknown
A. Eveline
Independently Published
978-1633378605 $7.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Known-But-Eveline/dp/1633378608

Known But Unknown takes place in Florida during the Covid shutdown and builds its mystery around a D.C. lawyer who has accepted an invitation from her friend to stay in Florida, trading the cold of Washington for warmth. The environment proves too hot when Leyla stumbles upon a body on a nature trail and comes to learn the young woman will forever be a Jane Doe unless she taps her investigative skills to identify her.

Danger emerges as Leyla is pulled into the situation by local authorities, then falls into peril herself.

Leyla’s first-person account identifies her own motives from the story’s opening lines:

I was going to warmth where I could exercise outside without pandemic crowds on exercise paths and rainy, cold weather.

These become clouded with issues that pull her from her original purpose and also from anything familiar as facts emerge about her victim:

She gave me her information but I was curious about her involvement in the Tribe.

“Raimondo told me that you are very involved in the Seminole community. Another person in Hollywood I talked with after we spoke did not identify the young woman but stated that she was definitely Seminole. She said she went to school and worked with the Seminoles and could tell by her skin and her hair. I just wonder why you were so definite about her not being Seminole.”

Sally hesitated, “As I said, I’d just come from a contentious Tribal meeting. There was lots of shouting and disruptive behavior. I wasn’t focused on anything else, unfortunately. I want to stay involved in the community but things are veering off course. Some of us want to put it right.”

A. Eveline builds interludes of appreciation and interpersonal relationships into the mystery, providing readers with calm moments to nicely offset the story’s tension:

Carol seemed relieved and so was I. About the house and about our friendship. That was a close call... I asked her if she’d like a glass of wine. We took glasses up the stairs to watch the last of the sunset. It was beautiful.

This approach translates to a more realistic series of challenges than most mysteries offer, taking the time to inject notes of personal growth and revelation into the experience of fielding not just whodunit questions, but political and procedural challenges that often lie somewhat outside Leyla’s bailiwick:

It seemed easy to me. You read the rules, you follow the rules, you put in your money, you bid for your spectrum and you either win or lose depending on how much money you put in.

The tropical setting comes alive under Eveline’s hand—but so do a widening cast of characters who each contribute special interests and experiences.

Libraries seeking Florida-based intrigue, well-written stories of personalities that inquire, clash, and bring disparate concerns to the murder investigation, and scenarios that sizzle with not just action, but thoughtful contemplation, will relish how Known But Unknown initially attracts, then plays out.

Filled with surprises and insight, Known But Unknown deftly builds suspense and thriller components to make for a riveting attraction suitable for a wide audience.

Known But Unknown

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The Long Game
Steven Shepherd
Michael Terence Publishing
9781800949713 $13.00 Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1800949715

The Long Game is a crime thriller that opens in North London in 2021, where Detective Inspector Michael Dack is stalking a girl he’s been observing and researching for some time. He’s off duty on one job, but in full engagement over another, seemingly nefarious purpose. And he’s never committed a crime before. Is he willing to risk his new life to embark on a dangerous career?

The second chapter opens in 2024, where he’s ironically been assigned to track a killer.

Himself? Who is Dack, anyway?

This question permeates a thoroughly absorbing, satisfyingly different crime story in which the fine line between perp and investigator is not just broken, but shattered. Readers introduced to Dack’s choice in the first chapter assemble more evidence that demonstrates people are not always what they seem as the story unfolds satisfyingly unpredictable twists and turns.

Steven Shepherd is masterful at creating set-ups for predictable events, then shifting them last minute to keep readers on their toes.

As the task force uncovers more and more evidence that leads to an impossible revelation, readers follow Dack’s footsteps of logic, haunting discoveries, and impossible-to-ignore urges as he leaves clues his associates can’t ignore:

“I walked around to his desk to wake him up and…” Matt paused as if unable to speak the next words.

“Yeah, go on,” Nisha encouraged.

“He had the photos up of the two dead girls on his screen.”

“Are you sure? Just those two girls?”

“Yep, just the two murdered ones. It was weird. It’s like he’d been sat there drinking and staring at them.”

Does Dack want to get caught? Or is he toying with his fellow investigators, milking the murders for something more?

When Nisha Sharma and Matt Gardiner are put on the case to help the aging-out Michael, more psychological underpinnings to his actions are revealed to lead readers ever deeper into a snake’s pit of obsession and illusion.

Shepherd’s attention to exquisite tension-building, strong characterization and cat-and-mouse games that edge ever closer into unexpected connections translates to a crime thriller that is a real page-turner.

Libraries seeking thrillers that go beyond whodunit to probe the psychology of relationships, choices, and why murders happen will relish how The Long Game considers too-close connections between criminal and law enforcement personalities.

Replete with surprises and character challenges, The Long Game is a powerful study in psychological quandaries which proves easy to fall into and hard to put down.

The Long Game

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Montecito
Davis MacDonald
Davis MacDonald Publishing
979-8218573744 $14.00 Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Montecito-Novel-Mystery-Suspense-JUDGE/dp/B0DR37D8BH

Montecito: A Novel of Mystery and Suspense is the 12th book in the Judge series, but that fact shouldn’t dissuade newcomers from taking the plunge into a world that proves accessible and thoroughly engrossing.

Montecito’s social milieus are the backdrop for the Judge and his sleuthing associate Blaine Forbes to probe the underbelly and overlords of Montecito Valley—denizens and seemingly upright citizens alike.

The story opens with a Montecito gardener’s beginning hours of work—only, the equipment and work are not what most would assume. Hidden under the veneer of an ordinary worker are the mechanics of a killer. This soon shakes Montecito’s peaceful countenance with a targeted revenge murder that’s been long in the planning and quite overdue.

P.I. Blaine is in Montecito for work, not pleasure, despite the town’s restful allure. In his capacity as assistant to an elderly but savvy Judge with a nose for the truth and trouble, Blaine acts as the younger, more physically capable sidekick who also harbors a talent for digging out the truth.

In town to address a death threat on Undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy Flanders, Blaine finds far more than a disgruntled writer involved. The dangerous plot draws in almost all of the forces within Montecito.

As overt and covert special interests clash, action-packed scenarios evolve in which Blaine and Judge find even their impressive combined investigative prowess tested.

Davis MacDonald does a fine job of exploring connections and challenges as Blaine and Judge “leave a trail of bodies” in their wake.

Between murder in an ICU to divorce, revenge, a contested will, greed, frustration, and the undercurrents buffeting the Santa Barbara sheriff’s department, Montecito sizzles with the heat of passionate relationships gone awry and the possibilities of the Dark Web to remedy issues.

Libraries will especially want to acquire and recommend Montecito to murder mystery fans who look for complex community relationships and convoluted pathways to discovery that hold no easy resolutions or solutions.

The story spins a fine yarn around the motivations of not one but a wide cast of characters results in a gripping saga packed with unexpected twists and turns, the ever-personable Judge and Blaine at the heart of this community’s growing challenges.

Mystery and thriller audiences and even newcomers to the series are in for a real page-turning treat!

Montecito

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More, More, More
Clint Arthur
Wharton MBA Books
9798309461769 $19.98 Hardcover/$8.99 eBook
www.clinttt.com

More, More, More: A Novel About Love, War & Inflation is a genre-busting thriller that blends elements of a business novel with a thriller in its foray into military territory.

Jack Powers lives up to his last name in more ways than one. Born in the tough milieu of Alphabet City, educated at Wharton Business School, and on track for success, Jack instead finds himself on a secret mission to bring down the Soviet Union using business tools to spark its economic downfall.

It helps that he’s been a Naval Intelligence officer before he became part of the CIA. It especially helps that his business background translates to a deep familiarity with the rich and famous. But his downfall (or salvation, depending on how you look at it) is meeting his equal in Svetlana, a deadly woman who introduces love into an already-challenging situation.

Clint Arthur adopts a gritty style of inspection reminiscent of noir writing, but unfolds dialogues steeped in the culture of good old boy networks:

Mike pulled out one of two six-packs from the big brown paper back and said, “You guys ever have St. Pauli Girl?”

We said, “Unh-unh.”

He goes, “you never forget your first girl...”

“You guys were good at Lindsay. But they were just a bunch of fucking wimps, so don’t get cocky out there. There’s much tougher teams.”

Arthur builds Power’s personality from youth to adulthood with the same gritty tone of inspection that’s tempered by a wry sense of humor emerging not just in dialogues and interactions, but from descriptive reflections:

It was a long way down, 87 floors, and I did not want to get all sweaty chasing some Arab lunch delivery guy down 87 flights of stairs in my suit and tie, so I let him go and I went back to my desk to eat my sandwich.

These are only a few examples of the delightfully vivid personalities, inspections, and encounters that pair the “guiding vision of The Wharton Business School” with the unexpected.

Jack is a young man in much of the story, whose education in covert and overt circles revolves around team-building, character-building, and confronting power in the oddest of places in his life.

Black and white illustrations peppered throughout reflect a graphic novel’s attention to captivating detail, but the action-packed dialogues, coming-of-age encounters, and story of a young James Bond-type action figure who deftly navigates women, the mega-rich, and intrigue illustrate the heart of a thoroughly engrossing inspection.

Libraries seeking books that incorporate business foundations but expand them into international espionage and thriller territory ala James Bond will relish the opportunity to consider an up-and-coming hero in young Jack’s story.

Filled with gripping encounters juxtaposed by daily life challenges, More, More, More is a riveting, action-packed story that’s hard to put down. It’s filled with satisfying twists and turns that pose much food for thought about surprising business concept applications and a young man’s novel employment of various facets of his life to his political and economic education.

More, More, More

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Murder Pays a Call
Nancy J. Cohen
Orange Grove Press
978-1-952886-37-9 $15.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website: https://nancyjcohen.com/murder-pays-a-call/
Ordering: https://books2read.com/MurderPaysACall

Murder Pays a Call introduces a new murder mystery series featuring personal concierge Keri Armstrong, who is up for any job as long as it's legal ... until she finds her client dead in bed, which immerses her in a dangerous investigation that threatens her reputation, her agency, and her ethical compass.

The story opens in Orlando, where Keri has spent two years converting a travel agency office into a point of pride for her new service. Her reputation for solving different kinds of client problems through her concierge service is coming home to roost on her shoulders, though, as she finds herself involved in an unexpected relationship with Chef Jarek, a new client, along with fielding murder accusations.

It’s beyond the call of her job description but also, strangely, lies well within her abilities as Keri hones her problem-solving skills in a different way that propels her in unexpected directions.

As in her other mysteries, Nancy J. Cohen’s attention to cementing not just intrigue but the personalities and places that surround it makes for a thoroughly realistic read:

Jarek finished his steak while she polished off her grilled salmon. When he made a move for the check, she withdrew her credit card. “It’s my treat. You’re a client so this qualifies as a business expense.” She hoped he’d continue to employ their services beyond his grand opening. They took their leave in the parking lot. Keri was glad he hadn’t tried to push their relationship in a romantic direction. As she’d told her friends, it was against her policy to get involved with a client, plus she still couldn’t tell if this man was genuinely interested in her.

The story introduces many auxiliary characters and possible suspects and circumstances which Keri is forced to navigate in a dance of uncertainty and possibility, from Fiona’s mysterious necklace to Veronica’s paranoia, whose fears may be all too real.

From the pressures of charity and money to the motivations of too wide a net of possible perps, Keri has her hands full—and readers will find her considerations and challenges thoroughly engrossing.

Libraries seeking mysteries that hold solid characterization, good problem-solving challenges, and intrigue that sizzles will welcome the full-bodied read that is Murder Pays a Call.

Replete with satisfying twists, unexpected character developments, and a plot to die for, Murder Pays a Call is a cozy mystery that readers will find thoroughly engaging.

Murder Pays a Call

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The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed
Matt Cost
Level Best Books
978-1-68512-945-3 $17.95 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
www.LevelBestBooks.us

It’s hard to neatly categorize The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed, but the novel is reviewed here under ‘Mystery’ because of its thoroughly compelling build-up of intrigue, despite the unexpected injection of moral and ethical quandaries into Max Creed’s unique approach to problem-solving.

Thriller readers, too, will find Max’s nonstop situations and reactions to be engrossing reading as they absorb the specter of a fit forty-year-old who has moved away from his role as Milo Sharp, detective, and the grief and revenge wrought by the death of his love and wife-to-never-be Kinsley five years earlier. He now resides in a strange milieu in which has afforded him shelter and healing, but now is about to be changed by Sevyn Knight, who hires him as part of a team to face tycoon billionaire playboy Rupert Hastings, who has done much wrong and needs to be taken down.

Max is the perfect choice for exacting vengeance, but in order to stop these events, he first must become immersed in them, himself.

A cast of supporting figures helps Max navigate this dangerous new world, but ultimately Max is on his own. It’s then that he discovers that five years of healing may not be nearly enough:

He realized that he was knee deep in the water, staring out at the vastness of the ocean, and wondered how nature could be so in sync and he was so far from that balance.

Matt Cost’s special blend of thriller and mystery in a story of recovery and re-entry into the world translates to thoroughly engrossing reading. This is because he takes the time to juxtapose fast-paced action and investigations into the workings of drug lords and money makers. These dovetail with the psychological and philosophical growth of a flawed but likeable protagonist whose efforts to rebuild his life teeter on the brink of impacting his career.

Another intriguing facet is that Max himself is not immune to crossing ethical and moral lines in pursuit of his special brand of vigilante justice:

Day by day he tore down the world of Winthrop Gould, making him suffer, even if only inflicting just one-tenth of the pain that Max felt every day. And then Max abducted the man. It was all over the news, but as the human attention span is short, people no longer cared what happened to Winthrop Gould by the time Max was done with him. It took months, but Max gained access to the man’s hidden dirty money.

These elements make Max likeable, realistic, engaging, and his choices and impacts thoroughly understandable as he navigates his latest case and confronts adversaries who hold their own unexpected reasons for killing him.

Libraries seeking mysteries that edge into thriller territory, yet maintain deep psychological ties via profiles of protagonists that are challenged to navigate their worlds in novel ways will relish The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed.

Not always merry but always delightfully unexpected, Max’s ability to confront a wide cast of characters is as astute as his ability to confront his own failings and responses.

Readers interested in a mystery that makes them think about broader issues of choice, impact, and recovery will welcome The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed’s ability to encourage unexpected reflections through events that test Max and his readers on many different levels.

The Not So Merry Adventures of Max Creed

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Reprisal Road
Lynn-Steven Johanson
Level Best Books
978-1-685512985-9 $5.99 eBook
https://lsjohanson.com/

Chicago Detective Joe Erickson and his partner, Sam Renaldo, return to the limelight of difficult inquiries in the sixth book in the Joe Erickson series, Reprisal Road. A woman’s murder draws them into the puzzle of their careers as they investigate Amber Engstrom’s death.

Murder via a delivery of long-stemmed roses? It’s the perfect choice to get a woman to open her door to danger.

As Joe and Sam probe deeper, more bodies (and roses) turn up, leading them to other deaths in victim’s homes. Further information leads them to conclude that their Chicago killer may hold additional roots elsewhere.

Sic semper scortilla (‘Thus always to bitches’) is the misogynistic Latin card left with the bodies and roses, holding a possible clue as to the perp’s thought processes … and, perhaps, his identity.

Lynn-Steven Johanson creates a compelling cat-and-mouse murder mystery that sends two detectives on the chase of their careers.

Between a florist with a photographic memory, a series of leads that connect to a high school “Bitch Squad,” and too many motives and suspects, readers who delight in detective stories that are powerfully rendered will find the characterization, suspense, and puzzle make for compelling whodunit reading.

Themes of the long-term impact of bullying and the creation of a psychotic personality in response will give book clubs and psychology reading groups plenty of additional food for thought that operates within and well above an investigative saga. This creates much added value—unexpected in a piece designed to attract detective story readers.

Libraries seeking detective works that are vividly portrayed, involving, and not easily predicted will want to consider Reprisal Road for their collections, either as a stand-alone read or in conjunction with some or all of the prior Detective Joe Erickson and Sam Renaldo mysteries.

Reprisal Road

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Shadow Islands
CWP Jones
Moonshine Cove Publishing LLC
978-1952439926 $20.00 Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/SHADOW-ISLANDS-CWP-Jones/dp/1952439922

Shadow Islands will engage thriller and suspense readers with a powerful story that opens with the specter of an escape from a remote Caribbean island which served as a clandestine base for remote operations. The narrator hopes that the bodies and wreckage he and his compatriots left behind won’t lead investigators to his new refuge in Belize.

He thought the government intelligence or military units from different countries might track him down. He didn’t reckon on a lawyer with a money judgment entering the fray.

Mick Morkan and Ike Sears are often part of big legal proceedings. But when they stumbled upon hidden cash, big deals, and what is, in effect, a treasure hunt for missing loot, special interests beyond their lofty chambers spark a riveting cat-and-mouse game that plays out on international shores.

CWP Jones crafts the vivid story of a Vietnam vet/lawyer who becomes embroiled in an ultimate quest for justice that reflects his own uncertain moral and ethical quandaries about the war and its aftermath.

Thriller fans will find the plot immersive from the start with its oblique mention of bodies, high-level probes, and hiding. These elements would have created interesting reading in and of themselves—but what really makes Shadow Islands sizzle with action and intrigue are the conundrums which arise to test not only problem-solving abilities, but motivations for seeking either the truth or revenge.

Action is fast-paced and wry injections of humor lend unexpected comic relief as searches and discoveries unfold:

Ozzie pointed to the front windows. “Uh oh, we got more company.” The Honduran LCM-8 Mike Boat rounded the point and headed down the inlet.

“I’m guessing they’re not stopping by to see if we want a turn-down service,” I said.

Nonstop action brings readers into the center of brawls and confrontations ripe with descriptive allure:

Although it was part of my own cockamamie plan, I still hated the idea of giving Flint and Harley even the momentary satisfaction of seeing our colors come down and a white flag go up. The rocketing had slackened even before we had switched our flags, so it was clear that Flint had been firing just for effect.

As the story unfolds, many unexpected twists keep readers guessing not only about the ultimate outcome, but the underlying motivations of all kinds of characters.

Libraries choosing Shadow Islands for their thriller collections will find this standalone novel perfect for patrons seeking a very different kind of Vietnam legacy story, while those attracted to vivid descriptions of confrontation, treasure hunts, and special interests will find that the exquisite tension develops in droves.

Filled with a you-are-here immediacy and exciting clashes, Shadow Islands is a powerful read not easily forgotten.

Shadow Islands

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Tangled Darkness
MM Desch
Rowan Prose Publishing, LLC
978-1961967540 $18.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook/$29.99 Hardcover
Website: https://marydesch.com/
Ordering: https://books2read.com/u/bwgvYO

Tangled Darkness probes the underbelly of lies, deception, and dangerous truths which immerse psychiatrist Dr. Leslie Schoen in a murder. When her clinical assistant is found dead, Leslie has a personal stake in becoming involved—she’s a prime suspect in the case.

Leslie and her wife have been trying to get pregnant for a long time, and now it’s finally happened. This means it’s the wrong time to bring work problems home, much less introduce a murder investigation into her world. But this and a medical board inquiry about alleged sample medication theft lead Leslie on a journey she can’t share with her wife, forcing her to move ever deeper into a tangled web of lies that center around opioids and guilt.

MM Desch creates an engaging thriller steeped in not just murder, but psychological inspections and revelations. Issues of boundaries, accusations about overstepping them, and interviews with perps and witnesses who each contribute another piece of damning information about Leslie’s practice seem to point in dangerous directions as detectives in the case uncover more possibilities.

Detective Davis, in particular, pursues a convoluted path of details that stymies even his ability to connect the dots, which still always seem to lead back to Leslie. Did she steal opiates? Was she involved in something much darker than a medical snafu?

Leslie, too, finds her probe challenging:

The addicts’ and alcoholics’ behaviors were familiar to Leslie: lying for lying’s sake, hiding bottles inside an apartment where no one else lived. But what she was looking for wouldn’t be the drugs or the rigging. They’d found those already. This would be something small...

Not only is the death murky in its details, but she experiences flashbacks to her own family influences and dilemmas as she conducts her research:

If it hadn’t been for Leslie, then what would’ve been different? What were they fighting about? Even at age seven, Leslie recognized the state her mother had been in. Now she saw the truth: her mother had confessed something to her father, prompting his shock and outrage.

Desch weaves psychological revelations together that work on different levels, from possible perps and motivations to a psychiatrist’s choices and influences. The technique of including a detective’s outside eye and Leslie’s insider knowledge of psychology results in a delicate balance between a murder investigation and personal revelations which create exquisite tension and drive a memorable, revealing plot.

Libraries seeking a murder mystery that operates as a satisfyingly complex suspense and thriller story will want to acquire Tangled Darkness for its literary strengths, ability to spin a compelling yarn, and its juxtaposition of different investigative pathways that challenge its characters in novel manners.

Replete with thought-provoking insights paired with unexpected twists, Tangled Darkness will prove especially compelling for readers interested in the intersection of murder mystery and psychological conundrums past and present which arise from not just death, but also life influences. 

Tangled Darkness

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Novels

Aegolius Creek
Micah Thorp
Type Eighteen Books
9798992040548 $18.99 paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.typeeighteenbooks.com

Aegolius Creek is a literary novel about family and community ties, wildlife preservation, and business special interests. It builds the story of a confrontation that “begins and ends in fire” as the first-person narrator describes moving through Oregon, working the fire lines to battle wildfires. The team is off to Aegolius Creek, a place named after a bad omen owl, to tackle a small fire that could be man-made.

The firefighter’s intensity coalesces with a vivid suicide scene that engulfs the narrator and his audience in a series of events and observations that immerse the Karlsson family in forces beyond their control and experience with the land.

Micah Thorp crafts a hard-hitting saga rooted in a sense of Oregon community. Readers exposed to these events will find any preconceptions of Oregon’s small towns and residents shaken as elder Don Karlsson’s future, and fights to protect the land, emerge within and outside of family:

Don stares intently. “Marle’s ashes are here. Your mother, for God’s sake. Someday mine will be, too. Ain’t no way anyone is going to move me off my property.”

Stacy leans back and sighs. “Dad, the land will still be here, even if you’re not. And we’ll make sure your ashes are buried next to the creek right next to Mom’s.”

He scowls. “Damn kids. If you wanted you could buy it and move me out. I mean look at ya. Big city lawyer. I’m sure it’d be a half day’s work for you to take the place.”

“We don’t want to buy it, Dad. We want to leave it and only come back to see Mom. And you. There isn’t anything for any of us here.”

Don crosses his arms. “I have given the land before you; come and possess the land.”

Many elements influence these political and social issues. These range from Native American heritage and ghost stories about a cave spirit to the contrasting opinions of various kinds of residents about the land and its inhabitants:

The hushed tones with which the residents of the Aegolius describe Indian Head Cave reveal a certain reverence for its occupant. Regardless of identity, the remains are tied to the valley, their spirit interred within the rocks and the soil and the trees. At Aegolius Elementary, the origins of Indian Head Cave are told as ghost stories. The same children's parents, in contrast, focus on the symbolism of human remains buried in the heart of the valley.

All these forces contribute to a novel that outlines the defiance and confrontation between opposing parties that hold different visions of Oregon’s potential, future, and residents both human and natural.

As battles grow, personal insights affect attitudes and outcomes:

“I planted those trees, I rebuilt this house, I raised both of you. Stacy’s right. I should sell this place and move away. Might be the smart thing to do. I’ll be dead and gone before I get to cut another tree down. And until then, I’m gonna be plagued by tree huggers and lawyers. I ain’t got enough time left for that.”

Packed with encounters that emerge from the force of divergent opinions, Aegolius Creek is a powerful story that will appeal beyond Oregon’s borders.

Librarians interested in literary stories about changing land values and family connections, particularly those with Oregon settings, will find Aegolius Creek inviting.

Readers seeking vivid stories about Oregon’s communities and land management issues will love the contrasts between tree huggers, developers, and family interests that make Aegolius Creek a powerful story.

Aegolius Creek

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Afterward
Bristol Vaudrin
Tortoise Books
9781948954914 $18.99
www.tortoisebooks.com

Afterward presents the story of Lauren Delgado’s struggles with her vastly changed life after her boyfriend Kyle is found unresponsive on their apartment floor. While this is not the first time she’s seen him injured (he showed up at her apartment sporting a swollen face), it is the first time she faces an all-consuming tragedy that threatens everything she’s built in her life.

Bristol Vaudrin creates a thoroughly engrossing story of family ties and broken relationships, choices that range from hotel rooms to life decisions, and mother/daughter encounters that both support and challenge everyone involved.

As Kyle embarks on the long journey to recovery much changed from his trauma, Lauren keeps waiting for something to change for the better. She keeps making hard choices between kindness, confrontation, and responsibility.

Vaudrin creates the vivid story of a young woman forced into responses and avenues of life beyond her control and understanding. This especially shines in how Lauren approaches both daily changes and requirements that shift their relationship, and in her struggles with the long-term potential of these changes:

I rubbed his sore muscles while he relaxed in front of the television. But this was no selfless act; I wanted answers. I wanted to know this was what we had to go through to get back to how things were before, but that we would get there someday. I needed to know that.

Readers familiar with such circumstances from their own health struggles as patients or caregivers will especially relate to all the issues and unexpected turns life takes as Lauren meets her revised responsibilities with a combination of hope and determination.

The specter of old relationships evolving and new ones coming into play keeps the characters and situations mercurial, realistic, and thoroughly engaging.

If there were one novel to pick which depicts how people shift their lives when the unexpected changes everything overnight, it should be Afterward.

Replete with insights, reactions, and topics perfect not just for book club discussions, but caregiver groups, this novel is the perfect choice for libraries seeking contemporary literature that probes the aftermath of tragedy and how it revises relationships of all kinds.

Afterward’s intensity and insights will delight as much as they may challenge sensitive readers to think about the impact and requirements of rebuilding a life from scratch nearly overnight.

Afterward

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American Sky
Carolyn Dasher
Lake Union Publishing
9781662526435 $16.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.apub.com

American Sky follows three generations of women whose lives are changed by different wars. It opens pre-World War I with Adele, who is soon to be separated from her about-to-be-married sister Pauline. Adele contemplates her own freedom as she observes her sister’s departure, and is determined never to marry.

But events change even a twelve-year-old’s initial resolve, and as war looms, she builds up livestock in anticipation of leading a far different life than that of her mother and sister.

Adele discovers that she doesn’t like being a spinster. And Charles doesn’t seem to expect from her the kinds of behaviours that her mother said were proper for a young lady. Marriage to him wouldn’t be as bad as being lonely. And perhaps a family won’t be as challenging as she thinks.

Enter Georgeanne “George” Ector, the result of this union, who has learned a feisty independence from her mother and who dreams of flying American planes for the World War II WASP. Her friend Vivian Shaw shares her ambitions. During the war, new possibilities open up for them.

These are quashed at the war’s end, when they are expected to quietly return to staid family life. But how can they, when they’ve reached so high and had so many adventures outside the home?

Carolyn Dasher crafts a running thread of changing womens’ experiences, mothers’ messages to daughters (both covert and overt), and social and military perspectives about women’s service which shift over time and between wars.

Her reflections on the impact these expectations has on different generations offers particularly revealing moments as each woman makes uncommon decisions about her role and future:

...she didn’t want a boyfriend. Men had opinions about women going to Vietnam. They had opinions about women working, period. Ruth wasn’t about to let anyone stand in her way. Not when she was so close to the finish line.

The interweaving of war and the social change it introduces is particularly engrossing as the story unfolds and different generations absorb new challenges to build strong responses to their times.

Libraries seeking a multigenerational story of women who gain their grit from family and life lessons alike will find American Sky exceptionally vivid. It’s highly recommendable to women who like thought-provoking, immersive stories capturing the female psyche and its influences.

Book clubs will especially appreciate how American Sky unfolds and dovetails these disparate lives and family connections, holding the ability to spark many an avid discussion about values, inherited attitudes, and changing women’s lives.

Filled with “aha” moments of discovery and connection, American Sky is a winner.

American Sky

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Annie in Retrospect
Kristina Voegele
SparkPress
978-1-68463-336-4 $17.99 Paperback/$12.99 eBook
Website: www.kristinavoegele.com
Ordering: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Annie-in-Retrospect/Kristina-Voegele/9781684633364

On the face of it, Annie in Retrospect depicts a somewhat familiar theme—a woman trades places with her younger self and makes new revelations about her memories and life. But the nature of this swap and revised personal perspectives supercharges the writing with nuances and insights that other time-swap novels don’t match, making it a standout.

The tale opens in 1991 on Christmas Day. Annie is seeking her grandmother’s comfort over yet another battle between her parents. This time, her gift choice is the crux of their fight.

Her wise Nonna declares her parents “stubborn” and counsels Annie to remain an eight-year-old child without considering adult problems, but Annie internalizes their battles and can’t help but react to the family turmoil around her. Her Nonna heals her stress headache with a prayer, leading to events that eventually prove unexpected and life-changing.

Sixteen years later, 25-year-old Annie still has not received her grandmother’s healing prayer and the promise of building something different into her future. Dreams, hangovers, and nightmares coalesce in her shifting world, which moves from past experience to present-day angst in a slippery timeslip manner that introduces readers to Annie at different phases of her life.

It’s 2008. Annie Young is experiencing a life crisis while living the high life in San Francisco, heartbroken at having lost her job and her life direction. In 2023, Annie apparently has achieved her dreams, but remains disenchanted with their results.

Is this what she really wanted for her life goal?

The juxtaposition of the changing dreams and ideas of young a middle-aged Annie pinpoint dichotomies and ironies in their perceptions of happiness, achievement, and freedom that emerges from different ideals at different ages. These differences are cemented when 25-year-old Annie gets a preview of the future she’d been romanticizing when she wakes up in 2023 even as 40-year-old Annie wakes up back in 2008 and gets the second chance at living her twenties.

Plenty of timeslip stories pose the dilemmas faced in a multi-day transfer; but the dual focus on a character whose youthful and older experiences take place during a swap in time is uniquely compelling. Kristina Voegele’s approach creates a story of movement, growth, opportunity, and transformation that tests Annie’s notion of her ideals and influences.

Readers who have imbibed in stories of women revisiting their younger selves or switching bodies to relive some point in their past will find a different feel to Annie’s experiences, which embed shifting viewpoints with insights on maturity and the wisdom of friends who comment on her choices:

“I just worry that you’ll go, and you’ll be there all alone, without a job, without your friends, and you’ll be waiting for him all day, every day. It’s one thing to imagine traveling around the world and having this adventure together. But would he even be there with you, Annie? Has he ever actually been there for you?”

The result invites women to reconsider the junctures of their own lives and the various choices that influenced their growth and perspectives.

Libraries will appreciate how Annie reflects differently at these disparate pivot points, while book club discussion groups will find her many insights hold equally vivid talking points.

Replete with realization, dreams deferred or incarnated in unexpected ways, and love antidotes to different situations in her life, Annie’s story is one that will resonate with many a dreamer and with women who enjoy vivid romances that offer many opportunities for reflection on growth processes and life pursuits.

Annie in Retrospect

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Bigger Than Us
Debbie Burns
JC & Burns Publishing, LLC
979-8-9987262-0-0 $15.99 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
Website: authordebbieburns.com
Ordering: Bigger Than Us ebook link 

Life isn’t fair. Maddie is on the verge of divorcing her husband Landon when he dies in a biking accident, leaving her to raise young twins on her own and forcing her to move in with her mother Charlotte. As if this chain of events weren’t already daunting, Maddie then must deal with the unexpected arrival of a young woman who holds ties to her husband that she’d never known about.

Bigger Than Us presents an whirlwind of chaos and change where help and support emerge from unexpected directions and new challenges emerge to test Maddie’s resourcefulness and resilience.

It doesn’t seem to matter what she wants for her life—outside forces and other people always seem to inject their desires into her world, leaving her to handle the consequences.

Landon’s best friend Noel wants to step up and help her, but his knowledge of secrets her husband kept reduces his effectiveness. Still, he gently tries to guide her through the pain of her discoveries and perceived failures:

“Maddie, trust me on this, it wasn’t you. It was never you. You and the twins brought out the best in him. It just wasn’t enough. Whatever Landon was up to, it was his failing, not yours.”

As Maddie struggles with her own inclinations about the young girl’s impact on her family, the fruits of her mother’s wisdom, and the well-meaning advice of Noel, she strives to build her own revised moral compass against all odds.

Debbie Burns creates a powerful saga where bigger-picture thinking conflicts with equally challenging efforts to gain stability and new footing in a vastly revised world. Maddie’s future and the foundations she’s built it on have been turned upside down.

Burns is especially skilled at capturing the flaws not just in Maddie’s perceptions, but in those around her. Under Burns’s hand, there is no ‘good or evil’ – just people trying their best to navigate impossible situations to find better outcomes for their lives.

Libraries interested in women’s fiction that sizzles with themes of family unity and division, communities coming together and reforming in unexpected ways, and a small family buffeted by forces well beyond its control and ken will find Bigger Than Us not only perfect beach reading, but recommendable to women’s reading groups and book clubs interested in vivid stories of growth.

Packed with issues and insights that test not only the protagonist and her family but the forces impacting daily living, readers who come to the story with an interest in love and growth will relish how both develop in a powerful survey that follows a young woman’s entry into a vastly revised life.

Bigger Than Us

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Caught You
Berika Black
Independently Published
979-8-28386-575-1
$19.99 Hardcover/$11.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9XH6BT7

Caught You offers a powerful plot steeped in philosophical and moral reflection from its opening prologue:

Humans have the ability to create horrors that not even the devil himself would dare to imagine… or perhaps he doesn’t need to. The landscape was covered in tanks, trenches, shrapnel flying everywhere—tearing through bodies, thirsty for souls. It’s ironic how two countries can create such devastation, and yet, if a man commits a crime, if he fails in something, he is judged as the vilest scum.

Readers enter a war zone (literally) in which Vanesa, Bob, Maik and others confront pointless violence, rituals, and challenges to stay human against all odds. This segues into a flashback scene in which Maik confronts poverty, prejudice, and immigrant issues buffeting his small family. This episode lends insights into why Maik, who had assured his family that he wouldn’t leave them to enter into war, finds himself on a battlefield.

Early on in the story, it becomes apparent that today’s milieu is mirrored in this fictional survey of lives under siege from many different sources:

What if it was all a lie? What if the media didn’t report, but sold fear, patriotism, headlines? What if a man in a tailored suit, speaking in a deep voice from a television studio, could shape the opinions of an entire nation? And he does.

Berika Black masterfully juxtaposes power plays, battles, lives of the rich and poor, and issues of justice as the story unfolds a disparate cast of characters who each experience different nuances in their life encounters and objectives.

Chapters reveal wellsprings of reaction and decision-making which motivate the characters to intersect their belief systems with social, military, and psychological encounters. The flashbacks continue as Malik contrasts his present-day situation with immigrant experience. This approach allows readers to gain a more immediate understanding of Malik’s life and its many shifts.

Other characters enter this introductory picture, from combatants Gionel and Alex to life-or-death confrontations between scavengers.

It will be up to you whether you become a monster or remain human.

Throughout this story, various characters confront this reality and make choices based on their perceptions, influences, and ideals.

More so than many a novel, Black seamlessly entwines social, military, political, and personal issues in a manner that leads to thought-provoking moral and ethical quandaries.

These blend unexpected life experiences with romance, self-inspection, and social examination to give the novel a boost of conjoined insights that will prove especially invigorating for book club discussion groups interested in stories packed with subjects for debate and consideration.

Libraries seeking evocative stories that entwine bigger-picture thinking with the lives of individuals whose narratives are changing will relish how Caught You portrays large and small victories, struggles to survive and adapt, and marks of inferiority and superiority that place people at odds—even those purportedly on the same side.

As Sherin and Malik’s story expands, so does their audience. Caught You is a eye-opening, involving story that deserves a place in any literary library and strong recommendation to book clubs and patrons seeking an extraordinary story of growth and confrontation.

Caught You

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Conflicts
G. Burns Hamilton
AOS Publishing
978-1-990496-72-1 Paperback $17.49, Kindle $6.99
Website: www.aospublishing.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=G+Burns+Hamilton&crid=7QYCFO7AK67E&sprefix=g+burns+hamilton%2Caps%2C143&ref=nb_sb_noss

Conflicts is a powerful military action novel that incorporates elements of psychological and moral inspection into its political battles.

It centers on the imprisonment of African expat James Mackenzie. He’s in a dictator’s prison from which there is no escape. A band of loyal army colleagues determine to achieve the impossible by freeing him at all costs.

From the story’s opening lines, G. Burns Hamilton creates powerful scenarios and attractive questions about characters and outcomes to drive the action-packed plot:

Fuck, what is wrong with me? I can barely move. Was I in an accident? Why is my face wet? I was lying flat face-down on the ground, on cement or stone.

In the scenarios that evolve, conflict arises not just from being on the wrong side of the desk in a dictator’s ruthless power plays, but from unexpected places—friendships tested by moral and ethical issues when underlying truths emerge that are hard to handle.

Hamilton builds believable characters, political scenarios, and military responses that drive clashes and keep their resolution mercurial and surprising. This gives Conflicts an unusual blend of thought-provoking insights and non-stop action to keep thinking readers on their toes and thoroughly engaged in outcomes.

Of equal strength is how family and friendships wind into plots to free prisoners and address bigger social and political issues. The intricacies of building efforts that may result in deadly consequences for all benefits from dialogue and details that create realistic questions and planning:

“Matt and I are here not only in the role of helping James, but now as fathers of two of the team that will be at risk if this unravels. Tell us about your ideas for extraction if the plan fails.”

As plans for a coup evolve from the rescue attempt, readers will especially appreciate how the military team steps up to assume roles and make decisions far beyond combat experience.

Libraries seeking thrillers set in Africa which are packed with military and moral engagements will relish how Conflicts evolves, and how easy it will be to recommend this multifaceted story to a wide audience of patrons who begin their association with the book with a basic interest in non-stop action and adventure.

Filled with insights, shifting relationships both personal and political, and moving targets of oppression and change, Conflicts’s lessons in loyalty and strength will please thriller, suspense, military, and African political arena readers and book clubs alike.

Conflicts

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The Deal
Lisa Passi
Independently Published
979-8-9929509-5-3 $14.99
www.lisapassi.com

The Deal blends suspense, romance, intrigue, and business cat-and-mouse games in a novel packed with edge-of-your-seat tension and well-developed characters.

The story opens in 1988, where Jaclyn Tate is daydreaming at work, sparked by a romantic landscape painting in her office. A package delivery interrupts her reverie, ultimately prompting her move from New York to Dallas for a new job and life.

Real estate dealmaker Steve Cason is part of that world, competing for the coveted prizes Jaclyn bids for and relishing his role as a desirable, successful bachelor. How could she find him anything but worthy competition?

Passion and power plays dance together as the two formidable contenders for an especially big prize butt heads and consider what they will do to win.

Lisa Passi covers more than romance or business in her story. Political special interests introduce more characters and influences to complicate and deepen both relationships and moral and ethical conundrums.

As Steven, Caroline, Al, JP, and others build connections, friendships, and competition, the story swirls around decisions to engage, overcome, betray, or cement loyalty. Underlying all these emotional currents is the attraction and possibility sparked by business concerns that continue to buffet personal lives.

Passi creates a powerful, take-charge character in Jaclyn, probing how business interests send a potential romance in the wrong direction. She also excels in showing how well-meaning friends try to reinterpret feelings and perceptions, sometimes getting in the middle of the fray.

The main characters show thoughtful consideration not only of their personal motivations, but their professional influences:

“We were obviously working against each other without knowing it and only one of us could end up with the deal. It was unfortunately a no-win situation.”

Libraries looking to add memorable business stories to their fiction holdings will find The Deal works on many levels: as a suspense story, a real estate business probe, a romance, and as a tale of growth on the parts of two already-powerful characters.

Filled with surprises and the back-and-forth tides of business and love, The Deal is thoroughly involving, highly recommendable, and delivers more than a few surprises as Jaclyn and Steven navigate unfamiliar business and personal territory.

The Deal

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Duet for One
Martha Anne Toll
Regal House Publishing
‎978-1646036004 $18.95 Paperback/$9.95 eBook
https://regalhousepublishing.com

Duet for One follows the revelations of thirty-seven-year-old Adam, who reflects on love, loss, and the fluidity and puzzlement of life connections as he and his father Victor stand at his mother Adele’s grave and consider how his father, once part of a two-piano duet, is now alone.

Hard-hitting imagery is present from the novel’s opening lines:

For the small knot of mourners, time paused and music slept.

For Victor, Adele’s death was a black hole that sucked in music.

For Adam, a numbness.

Music has always swirled through their lives. Now it seems to be lost to each of them, albeit in different ways.

Martha Anne Toll surveys how two very different men learn hard lessons on how to turn a duet into a solo:

When had Adam’s father played a concert without his mother? Or done anything without her? Adam ached the way a rainy day recalls a broken bone. 

At each step of Adam’s journey, Toll considers and contrasts the efforts of an “intellectual pianist” and a son who moves from a series of failed relationships without fully understanding why he never seems to obtain the connection his father and mother had, either musically or personally.

Of special interest and note is how Adam’s ex, English professor divorcee Dara, is also learning new lessons not just in her profession, but in her personal life. The three characters form a trio of perfect emotional and musical storms as their dances unfold, sometimes dovetailing and other times moving them apart.

As Adele and Victor’s relationship becomes more detailed as reflections of the past move all characters forward in their lives, readers gain a powerful sense of just why Victor and Adam are so lost at this juncture of their lives without Adele.

Adam’s confrontation of many of the puzzles about Dara and why she left will provide much revelation and food for thought to book clubs and discussion groups, as well the contrast in Adele and Victor’s life together.

Toll’s ability to juxtapose pivotal moments in all three lives and perceptions creates a powerful series of family, interpersonal, and personal revelations that are hard-hitting, reflective, and steeped in the backdrop of musical and personal ambition.

Libraries seeking music- and psychology-driven relationship fiction that holds many possibilities for growth and revelation will want to welcome Duet for One to a wide audience, from musicians and readers interested in love and family development to book discussion groups looking for vivid stories of individual versus couple pursuits.

Replete with close examinations, musical notes of discovery and ambition, and personal revelation, Duet for One is a story of growth that is thoroughly immersive and often eye-opening:

“Your parents were an amazing partnership,” a short man with a gray mustache said to Adam. “I can’t believe it’s over.” Adam smiled and nodded. So many things were over: Adam’s family as he had known it; his hope that he would meet his mother on his terms rather than hers; the Pearl and Pearl duo-piano team, whom Adam had not fully accepted as over until he’d spoken into the microphone this afternoon at Independence Theatre.”

Duet for One

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Mad as Birds
M.C. Schmidt
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-361-4 $18.95
Website: https://www.mcschmidtwrites.com/
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Mad-as-Birds-M-C-Schmidt-ebook/dp/B0F5QKZJXJ

Mad as Birds opens in 1947 with an art exhibit—hardly the typical place to land a gothic horror novel, but the perfect setting for events that move from artist Florence’s palate to a portrait of blood and horror which emerges from her union with a goddess.

The horrible portraits she’s created depicting murder scenes involves her prey in knowledge of their possible last moments as the goddess seeks to use divine rage to hunt down each unsuspecting (but newly educated) victim.

Overcoming her, the group survives. But it would be too disruptive to the artist circle to allow an investigation of Florence’s connection to Sebastian’s murder, and so they overpower her and conclude that she’s not worth prosecuting. Time and events eventually land her in a sanitarium, now that benefactor Sebastian isn’t there to support her.

Or, so they think.

Fast forward to the first chapter, presented in the first person from the viewpoint of model student seventeen-year-old Milo, whose involvement in a popular fellow student’s bullying and death causes him to be expelled from school.

His brother Jack moves him to a new home that once was an artist retreat in hopes the big change will help Milo recover from the death of their parents and his own poor choices, but this only opens the door to new horrors which emerge from unexpected sources.

From the start, M.C. Schmidt crafts a riveting story of danger and discovery. As the otherworldly setting of the initial murder of “nobody” Sebastian Greely turns into a supernatural encounter with a spectral woman who influences Milo’s art and decisions, readers will relish not only how past and present become connected, but how a boy grieving his parents is lured into a world of insanity, spirits and devil’s mirrors, and a killing spree.

The mystery, tension, and unexpected developments are nicely detailed, designed to keep readers thinking and on edge as Milo confronts forces he’d never imagined.

Another note to the story’s strength lies in characters who navigate not only supernatural influences and forces, but matters of their own hearts, which dovetail neatly with the purposes of evil forces.

Libraries seeking a supernatural murder mystery that pits a teenager against the impossible will want to add Mad as Birds to their collections, highly recommending it to readers of gothic horror.

With its spectacular entwining of art and madness and its supernatural components that involve awakening minds and emerging evil, Mad as Birds presents a compelling scenario of healing and danger that is satisfyingly novel and hard to put down.

Mad as Birds

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Pinned
Rebecca Chianese
Mt. Nittany Press
978-1632333995 $18.99
https://www.rebeccachianeseauthor.com/

Pinned is a novel filled with portraits of powerful family dynamics as it traverses issues of corruption and the wellsprings of victimization. It surveys the conundrums faced by Emmett Ainsworth and other characters, who find their personal values and objectives clashing with forces outside of their control.

At this point, it should be cautioned that readers susceptible to trauma triggers from their reading will find Pinned’s focus on how predators are born and evolve frighteningly realistic. This is both the mark of a well-done plot and the bane of writing which pulls readers perhaps too deeply (for some) into the real world of threats, predators, and survival tactics.

Those not vulnerable to such thoughts and actions will find these elements a huge draw not just because they emerge within well-crafted, believable characters and situations; but because they provoke much food for thought as the story forges unexpected new ground.

Rebecca Chianese is adept at juxtaposing the perceptions, concerns, and motivations of a disparate group of characters. From Coach Walker’s drive for fame as a winning coach to ‘grooming’ tactics designed to lure in victims, Chianese creates important opportunities not just for individual reflection, but for adult and teen discussion groups.

Each character brings to the table a different viewpoint. They offer readers expanded opportunities for considering such diverse issues as achieving masculinity through sports participation or understanding the subtle and overt ways grooming is employed by predators to explain, validate, and lure unsuspecting young accomplices into their dangerous game:

Coach told Emmett that the best way to evaluate Emmett’s masculinity was not only through sports, but also through sexual prowess. Coach explained throughout their many sessions that sexual prowess wasn’t defined simply by how many girls you got or how hot they were, but whether or not you were pleasing them. Coach explained how easily men were sexually satisfied, but that girls were more difficult to satisfy. That their bodies were mysterious and that there were very specific techniques that even girls didn’t know were necessary. If Emmett wanted to be a real man he would need to learn those techniques. And the best way to do that was the same way you became a better athlete, by taping and evaluating your skills in action.

Libraries can recommend Pinned to their patrons for its astute consideration of a variety of issues about control, sexual predation, and identifying threats. It’s especially relevant to book clubs interested in teen sexuality, predator grooming approaches, and what can be done when transgressions are identified and finally made public, but aren't prosecuted.

Pinned

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Racing Towards Destiny
Lena Gibson
Black Rose Writing
978-1-68513-641-3 $21.95
www.blackrosewriting.com

Imagine all your nightmares hitting in one day. That’s what neurodivergent Anna experiences as she attempts to navigate a too-noisy office without her noise-canceling headphones, resulting in disaster. It’s not like this work situation hasn’t moved in this direction before:

Her boss’s presentation was, word for word, what Anna had agonized over for weeks and pitched to Sandra just days ago. Those were her slides on the screen. After belittling it, Sandra had stolen her work and was now presenting it as her own to their biggest client. It wasn’t the first time someone Anna trusted had betrayed her.

She’s sure her boyfriend will support her move to quit her job:

Adam would be so happy. Her brow furrowed. Wouldn’t he? Her boyfriend was always after her to take a different job. This would be the perfect chance. He’d always said she’d never be able to handle a high-pressure competitive marketing job, and she’d just proven him right.

When she stumbles upon a terrible scenario upon returning home early and unexpectedly, she loses her boyfriend, too. There’s only one thing to do. Run. Anna boards a plane for Europe, determined to escape her woes and never return.

It’s there that she encounters motorcycle rider Isaac, who has grown up in his brother’s shadow and is also searching for new opportunities. He dreams of love and family. She dreams of peace and a better life. The central question amidst their encounter is:

How had she ended up with a life she didn’t want?

Pursuing answers leads her into a very different milieu in which Isaac and Anna, perhaps predictably, fall in love. Less predictable (which makes this book shine) are the insights into neurodivergent people and relationship challenges which prompt characters to revise their perspectives on differences, similarities, and attitudes.

Lena Gibson does more than explore a romance. She reviews the ways in which women are oppressed and accept that oppression into their lives and roles, she considers ways out that result in new opportunities and behaviors, and she most of all poses the challenges of acceptance and growth and how couples not just fall in love, but maintain their innermost personalities, desires, and achievements during the process.

Libraries seeking stories where neurodivergent people interact with society and others in novel ways will welcome how Racing Towards Destiny opens the door for important revelations and discussions about love and family interactions and influences:

“You are one of the first things or people that my boy has chosen for himself. I’m glad he’s looking out for himself first for a change. I do not know why he never put himself first, but I see him trying. You must be the right incentive.”

Readers seeking superior stories of personality-building, strength, and the process of growing beyond one’s self-imposed limitations and perceptions will find Racing Towards Destiny not just enlightening, but the perfect title to introduce to book clubs interested in vivid discussions about all these ideals.

Racing Towards Destiny

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Silken Dragons
Daniel McKenzie
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-653-8 $21.99 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com

Silken Dragons is the third adventure in the Seafourthe Saga, which began in Wolf of the Aegean and continued in Wolves and Empires. It expands the saga of the love-smitten Wolf, who joins Lady Seafourthe on a sailing adventure to confront outlaws, battle for control over the high seas, and face mercenaries and visionaries who emerge from unexpected places.

While newcomers can settle into the characters and background of this latest Wolf story, it’s highly recommended that prior familiarity with the series be a foundation not just for an easier understanding of its scenarios and characters, but a fuller appreciation of how Daniel McKenzie expands this latest new adventure.

The story opens from a different perspective, creating a bang of attraction and action through language that immediately explores a new mission:

I, Theron, met with the Captain privately in the windy darkness. “Theron of Troy, I need your expertise in case of imminent disaster, with no chance to survive this voyage.”

Gazing into my eyes for a long moment, the Wolf laid doom of oath upon me. “Theron, if we are falling asunder, I want to leave with my beloved, Lynden Seafourthe. I desire to be reborn with her embraced kissing forever. Will you do this for us, my brother of Ilium?”

From fate and deadly dealings to high adventure and shifts in political and personal connections, McKenzie’s story embraces vivid language, description, and insights in a manner that keeps the constantly-evolving events on a captivating personal level:

Free of the constant threat, the men and women of the Vengeance took a deep breath and felt the saving wind of limitless moving, with each second taking them further away from a perilous position and fleeing with the rising sun of Wa.

Readers who immerse themselves in this plot will find it easy to think, breathe, experience, and enjoy the Wolf’s world and its constantly-shifting nuances.

Another strength to the plot lies in how McKenzie unfolds challenges between Dutch warships, Wokou captains, and the New Holy Trinity that tests personal and broader goals and perceptions. The stark contrasts between these special interests and their missions and cultures are especially pleasing, adding depth and extra dimensions of discovery not usually seen in seafaring fiction.

Libraries whose collections include the prior books will want to consider Silken Dragons an essential addition, while newcomers seeking nautical adventure, romance, and clashes between very different cultures will find it (and the entire series) enlightening, fast-paced, and hard to put down.

Filled with new revelations about the world and individual roles within it, McKenzie’s compelling, atmospheric descriptions power a series of revelations and battles that reflect an exceptionally vivid sense of place and purpose:

Slipping through and out into the night, the Captain saw a billion stars with threads of silver light like a cobweb connecting everything, and to him.

Silken Dragons

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Sixty Seconds
Steven Mayfield
Regal House Publishing
9781646035977 $18.95 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
Website: https://regalhousepublishing.com
Ordering: https://www.ipgbook.com/ 

Readers of World War II fiction will find that Sixty Seconds offers a closer inspection than most novels about the war, narrowing its focus to nine individuals and their experiences of the final minute of the war in Europe.

Steven Mayfield cultivates both sides and various angles through the lens of unusual characters that are not what readers might anticipate. The war is viewed from the perspective of a madwoman involved in an assassination attempt, an American teen whose brother is in Germany, and a Polish couple who are separated on the cusp of their first child’s birth, for example.

These very different experiences and viewpoints illustrate the wide-ranging impact of the war on all kinds of people around the world, bringing home many of the impacts it had on not just political and social ideals, but personal lives.

Another unusual device that sets Sixty Seconds apart from other stories lies in its organization. The stories do not comprise individual chapters, but are juxtaposed throughout, with character name headings clarifying who is experiencing these seconds. This allows for a more immediate contrast that flows from person to person as the war reaches its crescendo.

For example:

Gosia: “‘…gallantly streaming,’” the girl on the radio sang as Gosia and her aunt flashed tiny smiles at each other. It was a rare moment of amusement in a day otherwise not at all amusing. Gosia had awakened early in the morning to a giant wet spot on the bedsheets, the contractions starting soon thereafter. She’d tried to reach Antoni—to tell her husband that he would be a father by day’s end—but the transatlantic cable had been flooded with calls and she was repeatedly rebuffed by the long-distance operators, eventually giving up when the contractions became too intense.

contrasts with:

Zimmer: “‘…we watched were…’” the singer’s voice flowed into the night from the Feucht Airfield loudspeakers. Zimmer spoke no English. He didn’t understand the words. But he recognized the melody. It had played twenty-four times at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, not sung a cappella like the distant female performer but an instrumental recording with horns and drums. The singer’s words, delivered in English, reminded the young Wehrmacht soldier that Germany and America might still be at war, and he stepped back into the cover of the forest. Is it midnight? Is it over?

This allows for the reinforcing realization that the war played out on very different battlefields, entwining individual experience and concerns with an overlay of political and social angst to direct, buffet, and change disparate lives in many different ways.

More so than fiction that focuses on military engagements, Mayfield’s juxtaposition of psychological shifts and personal lives under the mantle of war makes important points about how people survived. These are key to a better understanding of not only World War II, but how individuals approach survival from very different vantage points.

As these conjoined lives experience sixty seconds that build towards a final crescendo in more than one way, readers will find plenty of food for thought about this process, making the perfect fodder for avid book club discussions.

The result is an uncommon, captivating collection of stories about World War II that librarians should not hesitate to include in any literary or general-interest collection.

Replete with the blood, sweat, and the tears of the common man on the cusp of multiple life changes after a long period of struggle, Sixty Seconds is a standout in World War II fiction literature.

Sixty Seconds

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Upstream
Jennifer M. Lane
Pen and Key Publishing
978-1-7366691-3-6 $16.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website:  https://jennifermlanewrites.com/upstream-poison-river-series-book-2/
Ordering:  https://www.amazon.com/Upstream-Poison-River-Jennifer-Lane/dp/B0F7T3HCXM

Upstream concludes the story begin in the first book, Downriver, with a vivid account of love, justice, community safety, and disaster. Set in 1901 in Pennsylvania’s coal country and on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, Upstream cultivates a literary and social inspection rich in descriptive detail from its opening lines:

The ten o’clock train rumbles on the track and hisses as I pass, an impatient visitor letting off steam. It shudders, eager to leave, like it’s late for something and denied what it came for. That makes two of us. It’s been a year since that train brought me here, and I still haven’t proven Pritchard and his coal town have been poisoning the water, killing people, and covering it up.

Jennifer M. Lane steeps her saga in the lives, fears, and controlling influences of a small coal town shaken by one woman’s determination to hold accountable those responsible for her parents’ deaths.

The multifaceted story excels in two appealing, absorbing lines of inquiry: love and mystery. Readers attracted to tales steeped in both will relish how Charlotte’s pursuits entwine her interests in unusual ways, resulting in special challenges and revelations that force her to decide what is truly important in her life.

Another rich note to this novel lies in its vivid first-person experiences, which reveal the doubts and concerns of a protagonist whose pursuits are often at odds with her desires:

I may never know why people divulge their secrets to me. Usually, it’s a good thing. But right at that moment, I’d wished no one ever spoke to me at all.

Lane’s yarn embraces the two different regions with insights and choices that test Charlotte’s abilities and inclinations, creating a story that is hard to put down and easy to love.

Librarians choosing Upstream for its promise of serving as a fitting sequel to Downriver will find the two a powerful blend of personal, political, and social revelations that are just as strong together as apart.

Book clubs that assign the duo will find their ability to spark vivid discussions about community, social responsibility, and personal choice makes both books winners. Upstream is essential for receiving the concluding results of Charlotte’s perseverance against all odds.

Upstream

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The Weight of Snow and Regret
Elizabeth Gauffreau
Paul Stream Press
9798990791329 $15.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
Website: www.paulstreampress.com
Ordering: https://books2read.com/u/mgBPB6

The Weight of Snow and Regret tells of twelve residents at the Sheldon Poor Farm in Vermont who face eviction and relocation.

It’s 1968, and these destitute residents are slated for institutionalization elsewhere, their stories certain to be lost. Sheldon Poor Farm manager Hazel and her husband have run the farm for twenty years. While her husband has bowed to the inevitable, Hazel refuses to believe these residents and her connection to them will soon vanish forever.

It takes stranger Claire, who comes to the Farm because of a temporary emergency, to spark in Hazel the ability to confront the real changes and influences underlying her decisions to help others for all these years.

References to “the weight of snow and regret” emerge from the beginning as the snowy Vermont setting permeates lives that are teetering on the brink of change and overwhelm.

History moves back into the late 1920s and 1940s as Hazel’s life unfolds in contrast to the 1960s milieu she now navigages. This back-and-forth ebb and flow of time creates interesting contrasts between influence, purpose, and place as Hazel’s life becomes more understandable.

The constant movement of snow and wind and the sense that things aren’t quite right permeate growth processes and memories which bring Hazel newfound revelations and insights. The history is delivered with more than a light dose of poetic license that embraces music, social justice issues, and psychological evolution alike.

These elements drive a meaningful, compelling story of disparate lives, poverty, and efforts to help which offers intriguing topics of discussion for book clubs and reading groups.

Libraries can consider The Weight of Snow and Regret an important study in changing times, poorhouse history, and a woman who chooses to run away from family obligations.

Replete with touches of regret, new understanding, and social consciousness, The Weight of Snow and Regret is a powerful rendering of psychic and social force that is hard to put down and not easily forgotten. It’s highly recommended reading for those who seek novels steeped in old regrets and new possibilities.

The Weight of Snow and Regret

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Reviewer's Choice


17 RUNS: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential
Garnet Morris & Olivia Chadwick
Legacy Launch Pad Publishing
978-1-964377-40-7 $19.99
https://17runs.com/

In 17 RUNS: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential, personal trainer Olivia Chadwick met Garnet Morris and was tasked with training him for a grueling 100-mile Canadian relay race.

Their year-long shared effort towards this goal bridged the age gap between them and resulted in conversations key to this book, which expands the process from memoir and personal connection to broader inspections of meeting life goals and forming uncommon relationships along the way.

Readers who think this story will embrace physical exercise may not be prepared for the mental challenges that accompany the effort. Descriptions move from identifying and removing obstacles to success to dreaming bigger, identifying goals and fostering routines that promote better physical and mental health, and considering personal idiosyncrasies as “superpowers.”

This approach melds two very different perspectives and experiences, offering approaches to success that blend metaphysical and practical viewpoints uncommon in self-help, new age, or exercise books.

The dialogues, realizations, and transformations each of these individuals experience is translated to interactions and insights readers can easily learn from by example:

Without realizing it, Garnet was talking about a technique known in sports psychology as visualization. The practice involves imagining a future outcome in specific detail using all five senses—sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. The brain doesn’t know the difference between taking an action and imagining it, and it’s a powerful tool for creating pathways to success. It’s something I use with elite athletes.

“Dreams trigger goals,” Garnet continued. “They give us a picture of a different future and supply us with the energy to move toward it.”

The realizations embedded in practice, ideal, and result thus translate easily to exercises and considerations all readers can apply to their own lives, whether they too are in training, or are tackling bigger-picture challenges during their psychological or physical evolutionary process.

Of special importance and interest is the juxtaposition of two very different people and how their strengths and ideals are affected by mutual goals and friendship:

“Go outside your comfort zone. The goals you made weren’t big enough. You cannot achieve the next level of success without experiencing discomfort. That’s where growth happens.” This was a new way of thinking about things. I always imagined that getting to a new level with my business would feel good along the way; maybe there would be some bumps, but overall the journey would be gratifying.

The result doesn’t oversimplify the process of enacting real change, as too many self-help guides seem to do, but leads by example.

Libraries seeking a memoir that will appeal to business readers, athletes, psychological self-inspectors, and a wide audience will want to not only add 17 RUNS: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential to their collections, but highly recommend it to readers who will appreciate its in-depth examinations of how goal-setting and achievement can be approached on many different levels.

Why consider 17 RUNS an extraordinary tool for pursuing goals that stands out from the crowd? Because, through insights embedded in a cooperative effort between two very different people, readers are encouraged to:

... allow our minds to drift to that place of possibility, where there are no limitations and anything could happen.

17 RUNS: The Unbeaten Path to Unlock Life's True Potential

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Advantage Players
Michael Kaplan
Huntington Press Publishing
978-1-944877-82-8 $24.95
https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/shop/products/the-advantage-players/

Advantage Players: Inside the Winning World of Casino Virtuosos, Master Strategists, and Mathematical Wizards is essential reading for gamers interested in beating odds through a reasoned understanding of blackjack and advantage players.

The first rule Michael Kaplan poses for successfully winning is: don’t skip around! Don’t skip around the book looking for juicy anecdotes about winners, and don’t skip the strategies that are presented via lively discussions of interpersonal interactions, advantage player scenarios, and challenging outcomes.

This includes the prologue, which opens with an unexpected bang for those who may have anticipated a review of rules alone:

“Kaplan! You fucked me over!” shouts Keith Burks, a Stanford-educated veteran casino gambler who’s earned millions at blackjack and the like. “Dinner is on you next time!” Jutting his head forward, he displays this sense of pique as I enter the kitchen of Max Rubin’s sprawling home in Las Vegas.

Here is where advantage playing is defined. It also is where casino strategy, culture, and politics are introduced, setting the stage for a book that delivers on its lively promise of insights combined with action and vignettes about insider experiences.

From the start, Kaplan creates a lively interplay between reader and casino worlds, employing a memoir-style litany of experiences on and off the felt that hold insights into personalities, illusions, realities, and dramatic risk-taking:

Vegas Matt gambles just like his viewers, except he does it for more money, betting a minimum of $50 and usually a max of $10,000. When Morrow is in the red, he’ll take flyers by wagering thousands at baccarat and blackjack. “Get even or get even worse” is a favorite saying of his during those do-or-die moments.

Even those with only a casual interest in gambling, Vegas, or casino advantage players will find themselves mesmerized by the intriguing juxtaposition of stories, photos, and eye-opening insights.

More so than other books on the subject, Kaplan takes readers right into the heady world of advantage playing. Readers who want tips on strategy receive so much more that the book becomes entertainment as much as an enlightening education.

Libraries that choose Advantage Players will want to recommend it to patrons who enjoy vivid memoirs about casino personalities, plays, and gambling strategy.

Packed with jaw-dropping encounters and mind-expanding insights, Advantage Players is hard to put down—even for those who reside well outside the world of advantage playing itself. This places the book in the unique position of holding exceptionally wide appeal.

Advantage Players

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And So I Took Their Eye
Ben C. Davies
Bridge House Publishing
978-1-914199-96-7 $10.50
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/and-so-i-took-their-eye-ben-c-davies/1147507304?ean=9781914199967

And So I Took Their Eye is a collection of interlinked stories about violence, sexual assault, and social system failures. As such, it may prove exceptionally graphic and triggering to sensitive readers. This warning aside, however, their very roots in reality lay the groundwork for exceptional reading (and horror) that will thrill readers seeking not just vivid reading, but opportunities for book club discussions and reflections on justice, crime, revenge, and border crossings of a different ilk.

Open with ‘A Gringo Died Today,’ which presents a “you are here” atmosphere that reinforces the events and the feel that some readers may find themselves surprisingly too close to the action:

Rising from your sheets though, you notice how your sweat tastes different this morning. Salty not sweet. Your shirt slapped down sodden, a change from the usual crumpled mess. Beside you Claudia is still asleep, so that’s normal. She’ll have been up all night with the little one whilst you again snored through. Looks the same as ever, her thin traces of beauty smudged by years of tortillas and frijoles. “Reina de belleza” they said, though now you’d do well to see it. Turning out just like her mamá, though she wouldn’t be the first. A shame, though she’d say the same about you. Worse even. Drink like your papá too...

Broken promises, complex family makeups and interactions, and cultural commentary come from an intimate perspective that keeps readers immersed in the outcome of a vastly changed world:

...one day it was your village, the village you’d always known with the same families and faces for generations, probably too close in relation at times. Then snap, everything changed. Suddenly white faces were everywhere, busloads of people charging in, Semana Santa a never-ending party covering the beach in trash. Some locals say they like the change, but it’s only because they’re the ones making the money. For everyone else it’s a nightmare you all saw coming.

In a snap, the microcosm of village life transforms into the sordid results of a Western culture’s takeover. And the surprises and revelations just keep unfolding.

Consider And So I Took Their Eye as an origami of short stories. Each fold reveals further depth, truths, revelations, and even a sense of slowly-building horror that moves from past events and choices to present-day conundrums.

It’s no light feat to interweave personalities and places like this. Letters, dialogues, accounts of change and murder, and a worldwide romp that moves from Latin America to England and America sends readers on unexpected journeys rife with satisfying connections, twists, and discoveries.

At first the diversity of these personalities and the differences between strangers seem to indicate few connections between the shifting scenarios and characters. Keep reading, because the unexpected emerges as the stories build their foundations of powerful reflective experience and soon prove impossible to put down.

Libraries seeking literary short story collections about murder, cultural and social change, and survival tactics will welcome these interconnected lives. The action simmers in And So I Took Their Eye, but it’s the reflective process that grows each character and dovetails their interests and experiences which make the stories shine.

Another powerful device is how these lives are assessed, presented, and unfold. From a clinician’s observation of a therapist’s client to bigger pictures such as refugee issues, And So I Took Their Eye is a treasure trove of insights that deserves slow, careful inspection.

This is why And So I Took Their Eye is especially recommended for group discussions. Its many topics of death, redemption, growth, and repression deserve deep intersection between readers as the book outlines the lives of seemingly disparate characters and their special interests.

Compelling, shifting in its viewpoints and delivery, and thoroughly mind-boggling, And So I Took Their Eye defies pat categorization and rests its appeal upon the unexpected.

Prepare to be amazed.

And So I Took Their Eye

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Affordable Paris Hotels
Caroline O’Connell
Travel Smart Press
979-8-9926164-0-8 $9.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.TravelSmartPress.com
Ordering: https://www.amazon.com/Affordable-Paris-Hotels-Travel-Mini-Guide/dp/B0FB5MQH4C

Affordable Paris Hotels does the legwork for destination-bound Paris visitors, featuring fellow traveler and Paris expert Caroline O’Connell’s basic advice on how to locate affordable accommodations in a city notorious for its expense (“All this wonderful culture comes with a price—crowds competing for the same accommodations. My top two recommendations are to stay in the center of the city adjacent the Seine River, where these sites are a short walk away, and to book your trip “off season” when the prices are lower and the crowds have thinned.”), then following up with specific recommendation travelers can use to streamline the vetting process.

Those used to budget guides to big cities which recommend fleabag hotels for the sake of saving a dime will be happy to realize that these listings aren’t just affordable, but are attractive representations of quintessential Paris.

They are three-star hotels that are reasonably priced and lovely in and of themselves, offering a flavor of the city that supports any tourist’s desire for centrally-located accommodations that reflect Parisian culture.

Maps, color photos, and discussions of the attractions located near these hotels provide tourists with plenty of options, while each hotel receives in-depth reviews of its pros and cons to help readers decide what hotel would be most appropriate for their needs.

One example is the Hôtel Europe Saint-Severin:

The big plus for this hotel is the great location next to the river. It is also near the pedestrian area, and an Italian restaurant is on the ground floor. Prices are a bit higher than the other listings. The rooms run on the small side and have simple, warm décor. Some rooms have balconies with views. They do have the option of “bed and half board” reservations that include dinner in the Italian restaurant.

Each hotel listing includes an address, phone, and website for easy follow-up, and each is depicted on maps that make it a snap to understand its location.

Affordable Paris Hotels needs to be a basic feature of libraries holding solid, lasting references on France, and ideally chosen as a take-along tote for anyone visiting that country.

Filled with colorful descriptions, insights, and facts, Affordable Paris Hotels stands out from the wealth of hotel guides in landing somewhere between budget- and student-oriented travel guides and those that would discard budget concerns entirely.

Its added value in choosing hotels that are themselves part of the travel attraction makes for an outstanding reference.

Affordable Paris Hotels

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Brave New You
Mary Poffenroth, PhD
Workman Publishing
978-1523518616 $28.00 Hardcover/$14.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-You-Strategies-Courageously/dp/1523518618

Brave New You: Strategies, Tools, and Neurohacks to Live More Courageously Every Day is a discussion about fear—not just the phobias surrounding common things or bigger-picture fears about the future, but the everyday worries surrounding common life challenges that leads people to draw back, choose less than ideal pathways for resolution, and not cope well with life.

Dr. Mary Poffenroth presents ‘neurohacks’ based on the latest science and research. These are designed to not just identify and confront such fears, but change them. The result promises better pathways of discovery, recovery, and choice than readers might initially think.

Take the author’s insights about the appearance and properties of fear. Poffenroth begins with her own experience, then moves into scientific circles for supportive insights:

I finally learned to embrace my fear—by knowing and accepting that fearlessness doesn’t exist— that I came to see fear as an empowering force and not a debilitating one.

When you examine “the myth of fearlessness” through the lens of neurobiology, it completely breaks down because sustained fearlessness is close to biologically impossible ... In the absence of a medical condition, the closest we can get to true fearlessness is when we’re eating, a benign process that signals to our brains that we’re safe enough to momentarily consume fuel.

Her emphasis that courage can be a learned trait, supported by specific life approaches over a period of time, creates hope and opportunity in those committed to examining their own wellsprings of fear, courage, and change.

Chapters draw upon various studies to link biological, psychological, and social influences upon fear and its reactions, creating foundations of understanding by promoting strategies for effective change and building courage.

Why neurohacks? Because:

Neurohacks help me feel confident that I can handle my distressing sensations in the moment, and that I will have a set of tools to use, add to, and build a future full of freedom, connection, and adventure.

Libraries interested in specific approaches to revising and revitalizing concepts of fear’s sources and how to effectively change them will welcome the opportunity to highly recommend Brave New You to a wide audience. This can range from self-help readers looking for science-based strategies for enacting positive change to women’s groups, book clubs, and psychological circles interested in the mechanics of nerve stimulation, reaction, and intentional change.

Filled with enlightening opportunities for reconsidering everyday patterns and assumptions, Brave New You is ultimately an uplifting scientific blueprint for transformation that will reach into a broad audience with promising opportunities for reflection and change.

Brave New You

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Delaware at Christmas
Dave Tabler
Independently Published
979-8-9870006-9-4 $9.99 eBook
www.davetabler.com

Delaware at Christmas: The First State in a Merry State offers a festive holiday history of Delaware’s Christmas traditions and their evolution. It will find its home in any library interested in a Delaware focus or in choosing a holiday title with the added value of historic inspection.

Nothing about the season is ignored, from lawn decorations and food and drink particular to Delaware to the experiences of Black Delawareans, in contrast to immigrants who added their culture’s Christmas celebrations to the state’s holiday traditions.

Rituals, celebrations, and industries around Christmas all receive close inspection in a book that pairs lovely black and white and engaging color illustrations throughout with insights and lively topics readers might not expect from either a history or a holiday title.

One example is the rise and fall of Christmas savings clubs which the banks encouraged for over a century, beginning in Delaware in 1912.

Another surprise (to non- Delawareans) is the “Christmas in July” promotional drive that holds its roots in worldwide tradition, but which emerges in Delaware in different ways:

You’ll be bombarded by “Christmas in July” sales in the stores lining the sandy avenues at Delaware beaches in late July. The First State’s coastal towns, known for their lively summer tourism, have spun the sales activities into full-blown festivals complete with concerts, foods, and performances.

While some may believe that reading this book without an intrinsic love for all things Delaware might be dull or misguided, the surprise for many will lie in how compellingly colorful Delaware’s holiday history is for anyone who enjoys reading about regional traditions and celebrations.

This is why libraries will want to add Delaware at Christmas to any collection strong in American history, holiday traditions, or plain good reads. The collection’s colorful stories and equally impressive illustrations should attract a wide audience. It’s highly recommendable even for those who may have no initial interest in Delaware, offering engrossing and lively discussions that delight.

Delaware at Christmas

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Dreaming of Your Future
Theresa Cheung
Llewellyn
9780738779368 $22.99
www.llewellyn.com

Dreaming of Your Future: Unlock the Precognitive Secrets of Your Mind blends science and spirituality in a survey designed to help readers decode dream messages that portend the future.

While dreaming’s connection to precognition is not new, what is new in this book is its approach to reinforcing and strengthening the dreaming process through exercises designed to sharpen precognition. It employs a decoding directory that helps readers better understand these images and their meaning.

Also important are the overall discussions of sleep, dreaming, and mental acuity.

Theresa Cheung offers many definitions that help readers better define the building blocks of their dreams and spiritual and psychological insights.

Take dreams about volcanoes, for instance. Here, Cheung notes that:

“These dreams generally predict an imminent release of pent-up emotions that have been hindering your progress. Hot passions could be aroused and released. This can create a cathartic shift in your energy and therefore what you attract into your life, but the dream carries with it a warning that this shift may prove to be volatile. If the volcano is extinct, this is a sign that a difficult situation is about to be resolved.”

Can dreams predict what is coming? Those who believe dreams can serve as windows not just to the soul, but the future, will welcome this book’s many techniques for decoding dreams to better understand how intuition interacts with sleep and symbolism.

Libraries seeking a book about dream interpretation that goes beyond symbols alone, considering their applicability to interpreting possible future scenarios, will want to add this book to their new age, psychology, or self-help collections.

Packed with more than just a spiritual or psychological approach alone, Dreaming of Your Future is another key to unlocking underlying powers of psyche and growth.

Dreaming of Your Future

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The Elephant in the Family Room
Réne Sonneveld
Guiding Light Publishing
978-9915-43-093-5     $36.00 HC / $19.95 PB / $9.99 eBook
Website: https://www.renesonneveld.com/
Ordering link: https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Family-Room-Complexities-Businesses-ebook/dp/B0F4Y55X3N

The Elephant in the Family Room: Managing the Complexities of Legacy Businesses addresses problems common to global business families and executives—managing a legacy business above and beyond typical bottom line concerns.

A huge emotional component consisting of family history, interactions, and personalities reflects the elephant in this business boardroom and is the subject of Réne Sonneveld’s book, which tackles issues few other business books address.

Legacy owners, inheritors, and managers will thus find many specifics tailored to not just the usual business pursuits, but managing the family personalities and dynamics which can creep into business operations to create complexity and angst.

Take the subjects of fear triggers, childhood dynamics, and wrestling with entitlement. Each receives a case history example that pinpoints exactly how these psychological influences can impact not just business relationships, but business decision-making:

In the bright office of the Hariri family’s Dubai headquarters, Khalil Hariri and his son Elias faced off. The city skyline stretched out behind them, a silent witness to their exchange as Elias’s voice carried a tone of urgency, warning that the business risked falling behind if they didn’t act now. Khalil remained firm. “The company didn’t grow on gambles,” he said. Stability had always been their strength, and he wasn’t about to abandon it for untested ideas. When Elias leaned in, suggesting that his father didn’t listen to any of his ideas, Khalil cut him off and insisted he was protecting what the family stood for.

The in-depth discussion of legacy and ambition that follows outlines generational differences, visions, and background family relationship influences that coalesce to create problems that, if not addressed, can fracture internal business structures and relationships.

Sonneveld does more than outline potential conflicts. Solutions are provided by example, supporting many contentions about how legacy businesses can find new paths of agreement and growth from close-knit ties.

Chapters provide examples of these processes, revisions, and choices to support insights about all kinds of interactions, from perceived unfairness and the challenge of adapting across generations to crafting “...a transition strategy that honors the emotional journey.”

Many of these concerns do not appear in other books, whether they survey business or inheritance issues, making The Elephant in the Family Room an exemplary production worthy of inclusion and consideration in many types of libraries and a guide to be disseminated among family members involved in legacy business operations.

Replete with psychological insights, business savvy, and unusual examinations of how relationships drive or divide businesses, The Elephant in the Family Room is very highly recommended not just for library inclusion, but for executives and business club members who will find its many insights and suggestions invaluable.

The Elephant in the Family Room

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Go Within to Change Your Life
Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD
Chiron Publications
9781685035327 $24.95
www.chironpublications.com

Go Within to Change Your Life: A Hidden Wisdom Workbook for Personal Transformation is a guide directed to readers who seek not just spiritual and self-help growth, but transformation.

It is a workbook—which means that it’s a top pick for those interested in not just reading about transformation, but doing the work involved in reflecting, making changes, and tracking progress.

Another facet of this book lies in many fill-in-the-blank points which may not be appropriate for the rigors of library lending, but are perfect for users who want to write down and chart the process and progress of these changes.

As for the exercises themselves, they range from poems and writings to paintings. They invite readers to question engrained beliefs and value systems, discuss how new habits may be fostered, and provide important links between spiritual development and nature.

The exercises not only offer opportunities for reflection, but represent invitations to engage with transformative options in different ways.

Self-help readers interested in a blend of spiritual and psychological work that encourages them to gain insights and integrate them into life in a revised way will relish the many ways Dr. Greer helps readers form, customize, and outline pathways to self-improvement and change.

More so than similar-sounding books that promise such results, Go Within to Change Your Life delivers the routines, rituals, and reflections accessible to anyone who would closely inspect their lives for actionable, transformative opportunities.

Go Within to Change Your Life

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Guts and Grace
LeeAnn Mallorie
Conscious Capitalism Press
978-1-950466-08-5 $24.48 Hardcover/$9.99 eBook
www.consciouscapitalism.org/press

Guts and Grace: A Woman's Guide to Full-Bodied Leadership draws important connections between company desires to elevate women to leadership roles and the reality that most women still have not risen to the top tiers of business management without owning their own businesses.

Why are advancement ideals failing? LeeAnn Mallorie places the onus on women to review thirteen social myths that limit one’s options, then overcome them through reasoned and logical moves to address their impact and limitations.

While Guts and Grace may sound like an idealistic venture, its promotion of authentic balance points out that there is no set-in-stone way of adopting time management strategies, as many books promote. Women need to tailor their responses not to admonitions or dated habits, but to the realities of knowing their personal cycles and needs in order to make the best decisions.

This is only one example of topics that juxtapose personal revelations and approaches to success with bigger-picture thinking. Many of them explore Mallorie’s own wellsprings of realization:

...the one thing I most needed to change was my addiction to toxic intimate relationship dynamics and victimy commiseration. I was conscious that my tendency to get lost in negative emotions was derailing both my personal life and my work.

Key to this work is the section covering “fully embodied leadership.” Discussions of empowerment, activation, inspiration, and wholeness outline approaches to self-growth and mirroring it in business environments and concerns. This approach is important for empowered professional business leaders to know.

The crux of this discussion lies in enactment. From locating “breadcrumbs” of purpose that will guide readers to better choices, understanding, and success to embracing reflective questions about motivations, influences, and past actions, Guts and Grace shows women how to build better relationships and life approaches.

The result is a “must” for business women, women’s reading groups, and self-help circles, who will find much fodder for discussion and much to embrace from Mallorie’s insights.

Libraries adding Guts and Grace to their collections will want to be sure it receives attention not just from businesswomen, but from any woman interested in expanding her choices, powers, and past precedents into more successful routines not just in the workplace, but throughout life.

Packed with practical insights, exercises, applications, and candid advice, this book holds the key to success for those who would work to enact fruitful change in their lives:

... the practices for this chapter are simple . . . but not easy. In fact, they may turn out to be incredibly hard. But the potential payoff is also great. If you’ve identified personal or professional growth areas that include things like confidence, powerful communication, executive presence, resilience, energy management, work–life balance, or a greater sense of purpose, your path starts here.

Guts and Grace

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If You’d Only Listen
Rosie Sorenson
Daffodil Productions
979-8218442460 $15.99 Paperback/$3.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/If-Youd-Only-Listen-Gaslighting/dp/B0DFTRS1B7

When the author and her husband set out on the daunting journey for his life-saving liver transplant, she had no idea they were stepping into a medical labyrinth where the stakes were nothing short of life and death. Several years before, Steve had been diagnosed with “non-alcoholic, cryptogenic, end-stage liver disease.” Shockingly, she had to intervene several times during Steve’s hospitalization to save his life!

Awarded the 2024 Zibby Book Award for Best Story of Overcoming, and the 2025 American Legacy Books Award in Health, her memoir is more than a personal account—it’s a rallying cry for patient advocacy and a wake-up call about the dangers of preventable medical errors.

Sorenson injects facts about the nature of these medical errors into an account which moves from personal experience to some truly eye-opening statistics.

According to research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard, 371,000 patients die every year in the U.S. due to preventable medical mistakes, with another 424,000 left with ongoing disabilities. Sorenson and her husband, like so many families, were unaware of these staggering statistics when they left California for another state, desperate for a transplant after facing an impossibly long waiting list at home.           

As Sorenson chronicles the long journey between diagnosis and hope to eventual successful outcome, readers gain insights into the challenges of not just her husband and transplant recipients in general, but the U.S. medical system as a whole.

The memoir’s impact extends beyond storytelling. The addendum provides a deep dive into the realities of medical error, the influence of private equity in healthcare, and the pervasive issue of racial bias. It also offers practical recommendations for families on how to be an effective advocate and how to keep a loved one safe in the hospital.

The revelations are hard-hitting. While they may prove especially challenging to those who intrinsically believe in modern medicine, this information solidifies the need for not just change, but proactive attitudes among patients, caregivers, spouses, and medical support teams           

Sorenson involves readers in every step of their lives, making her memoir intimate, appealing, and hard to put down.

These features are why libraries should not only make If You'd Only Listen part of their collections, but should highly recommend its experiences and messages to a wide audience, from book club reading groups interested in hard-hitting medical memoirs to groups from medical professional and patient reading circles who look for experiences and insights worthy of discussion.

If You’d Only Listen is not just a memoir—it’s a survival guide for anyone who may one day find themselves fighting for a loved one’s life. It reminds us that with courage, resilience, and unwavering love, even in the darkest hours, ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference.

If You’d Only Listen

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Memories of Tomorrow
Josh Herner
Independently Published
979-8884935556
$19.99 Hardcover/$9.99 Paperback/$2.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Memories-Tomorrow-Josh-Herner/dp/B0D31NFK4X

Memories of Tomorrow opens with protagonist Tom Berski facing yet another hurdle in his life: an old, broken-down vehicle. Much like himself, the car has seen better days:

His life had taken a turn from bad to worse, and he was still sliding downhill, as if the only resistance came from his battered-down ass. He was fighting an ongoing battle with his inner devil every day, and the devil usually won. “It sucks to be me,” he murmured.

He’s approaching the bottom of an endless pit of failure when a novel job emerges to both tantalize Tom and promise him a path forward and upwards from his downward spiral. The only problem is—the job involves walking away from many things he knows, and from a life that holds familiar patterns, routines, and predictable routes.

Josh Herner injects many surprises and elements into his novel. These range from psychological and social inspections to science fiction, mystery and intrigue, and high drama.

These multifaceted elements place Memories of Tomorrow in the perhaps-uncomfortable, maybe-enviable position of both being a shelving challenge for libraries that like pat categorization and a story which can be highly recommended to a much wider audience than novels, thrillers, or sci-fi usually reach.

Herner creates a lively inspection of one man’s reality and adds twists to which inject adventure and unexpected insights throughout. This is why Memories of Tomorrow ideally needs to be read slowly, to fully appreciate these nuances of realization as they emerge from many places—even aboard a sailboat where Tom is an assistant new to these uncharted waters:

“So, we had that ‘autopilot’ all along?”

“Of course. How else would I have managed this boat all by myself?”

“Then why did I steer this boat all the way here?”

“Because you were enjoying it too much, and I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

“Okay, fair enough, but I would still prefer to know that I had a choice.”

Memories of Tomorrow is a wide-ranging novel especially highly recommended for readers interested in stories that challenge literary boundaries in a satisfying way, and for libraries looking for vivid reading recommendable to book clubs seeking something different that will encourage wide-ranging discussions.

Filled with mystery, thought-provoking encounters, and life-changing efforts, Memories of Tomorrow is a gripping story of control, shell companies and intrigue, and one man’s descent into a very different kind of problem.

Memories of Tomorrow

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Modern Wisdom
Gene S. Jones
Dreamquest Publishing
9780998324074 $19.95
www.dreamquestpublishing.com

Modern Wisdom: Wit, Wisdom and Thought-Provoking Ideas for 21st Century Living gathers wisdom quotes for an inspirational collection designed to help modern readers navigate modern living. While there are plenty of quote books on the market that appear to do the same thing, the difference in Gene S. Jones’s book lies in its specific links to issues from love and technology to faith, parenting, the arts, and education.

This synthesis of advice and topic allows readers to quickly link admonitions to examples from modern life for maximum impact.

Also, unlike many a wisdom collection, insights and advice have been “inspired by conversations and situations I’ve found myself in, and relationships I’ve either witnessed first-hand or participated in.” The personal wellsprings make for a far more intimate, hard-hitting series of reflections than just gathering quotes from wise reflectors.

The pairing results in observations that are succinct and important. One example:

If you cannot be happy unless you succeed, then you probably still won’t be happy after you succeed.

The admonition assumes greater impact when paired with:

Rapid success is also a time for caution.

Modern Wisdom is highly recommended for a wide audience, from readers of inspirational writing to those seeking to give the gift of wisdom and enlightenment to college or high school grads or other young people on the cusp of big life changes.

Libraries and readers will find that a slow review of these insights lends to not just time for reflection, but reader group discussions about the potential for making better life choices.

Modern Wisdom

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Neurojuggler
Ian Domowitz
Casa Muerte Books
ASIN: ‎B0F6YPH81R $2.99 eBook
www.IanDomowitz.com

Neurojuggler is the second book in the two-volume “serial novella” that explores AI’s future incarnation in a different way. Readers of the first book in ‘The Mechanic’s Diary’ series, Wake the Whirlwind, will relish how the two tales dovetail in theme and complexity.

Hanzi Boss’s escape from a prison brings him into contact with Alois, whose countenance and concerns mirror his. He’s bought a cheap garage in search of solitude, but when he visits it anticipating that peace, it’s to find a grisly scenario that draws him into trouble.

In his persona as The Mechanic, Boss offers help to the obvious perp of the pain around him. And so begins a close encounter with death, its aftermath, and decisions which seem to point to his refuge being a place of danger instead of comfort.

Pre-teen Hanzi may be a child, still, but his thoughts, actions, and logic are those of an adult. His latest escapade is a diary entry in the story of his life. It offers readers a blend of futuristic discovery, philosophical reflection, and moral and ethical challenges as he and fellow “kids” survive their world in unusual ways:

Alois grinned behind her and did a silent dance, the black slits of his pupils widening into ovals. Hanzi found it sophomoric. Kids. We’re just kids to everyone. He looked again at Alois, who had shifted into breakdance. Maybe they have the right idea.

From neural manipulation to virtual worlds, Ian Domowitz crafts an intriguing intersection between familiar modern life and futuristic adaptations. Hanzi’s ever-present search for peace is continually thwarted by new challenges:

Hanzi didn’t mind confinement, if he were left alone. He needed time to sort through the mess Alois had made of his life and salvage the sanity lost in the Void’s black pool. He was unlikely to get it.

His juggling of existence, transformation, and life itself makes for a thoroughly engrossing story that will attract sci-fi readers and philosophical life reflectors alike.

Librarians that chose Wake the Whirlwind for their collections will want to be sure this next stage in Hanzi’s evolution, Neurojuggler, appears alongside it.

Replete with familiar street scenarios and kids, but tweaked to add futuristic overtones about humanity’s evolutionary process and intersection with technology, Neurojuggler is vivid, thought-provoking, and filled with young characters whose lives and quandaries will appeal to all ages.

Neurojuggler

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The OTC Handbook
Aaron Hermann, Pharm.D
Palmetto Publishing
979-8885903325
$9.99 paperback/$15.99 hardcover/$7.99 eBook
www.amazon.com

The OTC Handbook answers common questions about over the counter drugs. It comes from a pharmacist whose expertise creates authority and insight for readers interested in basic considerations of all kinds of OTC medications, from cough syrups and remedies for stomach problems to topical applications and pain relievers.

Questions about these medicines answer the basic query of “what’s the best?” while providing insights and cautions a typical drugstore visitor may not think to ask.

Chapters arranged by ailment make it easy to look up classes of drugs for particular applications. One example is ‘Cough, Cold and Allergies,’ which provides at-a-glance contrasts of the properties and benefits of prevailing medicine, outlining both cautions and recommendations for alternatives:

Benadryl may cause drowsiness and isn’t recommended for use every single day as it wears off. Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, and Xyzal can be used daily and are normally nondrowsy.

These insights extend to all kinds of medicines, reinforcing that what works great for one person may not work as well for another:

What works great for one person doesn’t necessarily work as well for another. Products that contain the active ingredient menthol may provide cooling effects and are common in products such as Biofreeze and IcyHot. Products that contain the active ingredient lidocaine, which is present in many different OTC topical formulations, will provide a numbing effect.

Consumers often stymied by big drugstores with their potentially confusing arrays of OTC products will welcome Aaron Hermann’s easy reference. It takes the guesswork out of deciding what type of product to buy for a particular problem, it organizes these products into easily-referenced chapters by health issue, and its considerations of pros and cons is straightforward and easy for non-technical readers to understand. Consumers might also enjoy cost-savings, as the handbook may guide them directly to the product they need, saving them from unnecessary purchases.

Libraries will want to add The OTC Handbook to their collections for its broad interest to patrons interested in medicine, while those seeking a book suitable for home reference libraries will find it important both as quick reference and as a study.

The OTC Handbook

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Wake the Whirlwind
Ian Domowitz
Casa Muerte Books
979-8316620272 $7.99 Paperback/$2.99 eBook
www.IanDomowitz.com

Wake the Whirlwind is the first book in the teen sci-fi set of novellas that explore the intersection of AI and humanity’s evolution. It opens with the specter of a young boy incarcerated in a prison wing at Închisoarea Doftana which is reserved for experimental treatments. The boy’s Transylvanian jail seems unescapable, yet somehow Hanzi Boss flees from his isolating cell in a way a broken twelve-year-old should not be able to do.

His freedom comes with unexpected developments as he steps into the role of The Mechanic, is physically altered by Romani gypsy woman Nuri, and becomes a warrior and defender of the Trib.

In the course of his strange journey, Hanzi builds new connections and faces terrible choices:

The Troll could not simply kill him. He needed Hanzi’s conscious acceptance to first enter the Void and ride the whirlwind in hope of accessing Heaven. He would even build his own funeral pyre. Nuri had been correct. The choice was clear. Hanzi’s life for hers.

From gods that historically demand sacrifices to The Mechanic’s surprising incarnation and relationship to AI, Ian Domowitz’s novella is itself a whirlwind of action, confrontation, realizations, and magical realism. All work together to capture a special, surreal atmosphere that all ages will appreciate.

Even though the protagonist is a pre-teen, the very adult circles he moves within and his relative position of power translates to a gripping story that embraces coming of age with a special touch of fantasy and wonder.

Librarians seeking a story that juxtaposes violence and moral issues with AI examinations that evolve unpredictable, satisfyingly tense avenues of growth will welcome Wake the Whirlwind’s uncommon ability to wind a complex scenario into a young boy’s evolutionary process.

Filled with the unexpected and with satisfying shifts of events readers won’t see coming, Wake the Whirlwind is recommended not just for teens, but for many an adult interested in compelling stories of AI, spirituality, growth, and magical realism. It traverses a world eerily like our own—albeit with powerful differences.

Wake the Whirlwind

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Walking in Greatness Together
Dan Kaplan
‎In Greatness Together Publishing
979-8992063707 $8.00 Paperback/$.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Greatness-Together-Pathways-Connection/dp/B0F22FY22Y

Walking in Greatness Together: Pathways of Connection stems from Dan Kaplan’s five decades of life examination and discovery. It synthesizes his findings into a succinct set of transformative opportunities readers can tap into to awaken their own inner wisdom.

Specifically, it addresses the idea that humans are somehow separate from nature, encouraging the notion that, in fact, nature is an intrinsic part of human affairs, both biological and psychological. This approach to wisdom cements its roots in nature in various ways, from acknowledging nature’s importance and place to building new values and pathways to wisdom based upon this newfound connection.

Many of Kaplan’s admonitions prove enlightening, presenting growth opportunities in a new way:

We must honor diversity to know truth and power. Let’s find solutions by embracing the practical, the unknown, mysterious. There you will discover solutions through integrity, wisdom, and common sense.

As he builds a revised platform for not just understanding, but finding new life connections, Kaplan creates not just a philosophical ideal, but exercises designed to support revised approaches to life. One example lies in a set of guidelines for practicing authentic communication. Another involves practices that can lead to unveiling one’s authentic self and divine purpose.

It helps to view Walking in Greatness Together’s approaches as multifaceted directions for spiritual, psychological, and ideological transformation. These integrate seamlessly into a program designed to guide readers through the murky waters of confusion and potentially misguided life ideals and approaches into better circumstances of discovery via honing new perspectives about old, familiar pathways of choice and being.

At every step Kaplan outlines pitfalls, realizations, and solutions that keep readers engaged in the process and fully cognizant of their goals and illusions.

Libraries seeking collection additions that blend spirituality into self-help routines supporting transformation and positive re-imagining of worldviews and life’s meaning will find Walking in Greatness Together the perfect recommendation. It will prove especially powerful for patrons seeking to better understand and build connections between themselves, each other, and life as a whole.

Filled with specific exercises and insights that blend Kaplan’s experiences with those of others, Walking in Greatness Together is a terrific study in creating new vision and opportunity. It deserves top recommendation for anyone actively seeking to support the process of positive change.

Walking in Greatness Together

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Young Adult/Children


Animals Are Great
Latifa Kimberly Reeves, Mark Larson & Lisa Hart
Tika Tika Time
979-8349311116 $19.99 Hardcover/$15.99 Paperback
www.tikatikatime.com

Animals are great – but the picture book readers and read-aloud adults who choose this book likely already know that. This celebration of nature is reinforced by a QR code inside the book which can be scanned to find a YouTube video which contains a sing along, with the book and song working together.

This approach provides a rare multimedia opportunity to adults who would engage the very young in a visual and musical journey celebrating all kinds of animals, from howling wolves and flying birds to crowing roosters and long snakes.

Animals domestic and wild lend their own first-person assessments of life to the story, which includes plenty of sound effects for read-aloud enjoyment and vivid artwork by Ana Enache, which brings these creatures to life.

The rollicking rhyme which explores nature offers the feel of uplifting, celebratory fun designed to entice readers into the animal world: “Some are furry, some are big, and some are kind of small./Animals, oh animals,/I like them all.”

There are many introductory books about animals and nature for the very young, but Animals Are Great goes beyond the usual text or pictorial review to add colorful elements of sound effects and musical invitations to the learning process.

Elementary-level libraries and read-aloud adults will find this a great way of introducing picture book readers to the wonder and variety of domestic and wild life.

Animals Are Great

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Dare to Dream
Amanda LaPera
Adamo Press
978-1-965660-01-0 $18.99
www.adamopress.com

Amanda LaPera’s first book in her ‘Desert of Dreams’ series, Dare to Dream, will attract young adults seeking coming-of-age introductions to romance that emerge from unexpected settings.

In this case, Kiara’s new home in the desolate Mojave Desert, where she and her mother have landed after her parents’ divorce, leads to limited possibilities for her friendships and future.

So when she meets the attractive Cole, Kiara must wonder if part of her attraction comes from feeling traumatized, lonely, and isolated. Additionally, Kiara seems to be her younger brother’s new parent as her mother adjusts to being single and Kiara is placed in the position of worrying about Tommy’s future as much as her own.

Kiara has had her dreams and ideals dashed both psychologically and financially by matters well out of her control:

Why wish her way out of the desert? Sure, if Kiara escaped, she wouldn’t be burned by the heat, but would it matter? The joy of perfect families and happy endings portrayed in Disney movies and sitcoms and books was fake. The concept of everlasting happiness—noble but impractical. Nothing would change. Misery was inevitable. Acceptance was peace.

Amanda LaPera’s coming-of-age story does what most similar-sounding books do not—it portrays vastly changed socioeconomic conditions that buffet her young protagonist from many different directions. LaPera takes the time to capture this atmosphere in a manner that young readers will understand:

Each year they expanded the number of grades and students until that fall of 1992 when they opened their doors to ninth graders. That meant that Kiara and Cole would be the first graduating class who would have had the opportunity to attend all four years at the high school where they started as freshmen. It also meant there were more students in one place than she had ever seen before. Kiara took a deep breath. How could they fit so many people in one school? Bombarded by their chatter and movement, she still felt invisible.

The presence of these economic influences adds an extra dimension of realization and growth to Kiara’s story that expands her world from one of relative privilege to an experience that she at first hates, then comes to recognize as a valuable life lesson.

Also notable and powerful is Kiara’s acknowledgement that, just maybe, she isn’t totally in charge of outcomes in this revised worldview:

“Why does the world hate us?” Kiara asked. “It isn’t fair.” She dared to dream of a life beyond the desert and life had handed her disappointment.

Who will love her? Whom will she love? There are many options, but at many points in her journey, none of them seem good.

Libraries seeking a more reality-centered coming-of-age YA story that will appeal on many levels but remains firmly entrenched in concerns that expand beyond the protagonist’s goals and interactions will find Dare to Dream attractive. It will reach not just for YA leisure readers, but book clubs and reading groups looking for exceptional examples of a young adult absorbing life’s economic realities and changes.

Filled with moments of daring, realization, transformation, and revised opportunities, Dare to Dream is a treasure trove of thought-provoking insights wound into one young adult’s certainty that, despite what life circumstances hands her, she will not only survive, but grow.

Dare to Dream

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Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter
Mark Even
Cresting Wave Publishing, LLC
978-1956048988 Kindle $4.99/Paperback $7.99
www.dragonstonestories.com

The fourth book of the Dragonstone series for young adults, Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter: A Dragonstone Story, Book IV, adds to a fast-paced fantasy series with a definitive, resounding bang as Mandy Mandez and her extended family confront the truth about their abilities and impact.

The series has built up to this book of revelation, so while The Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter may be considered as a standalone fantasy, it’s best absorbed by prior fans of Mandy and her world, where the crescendo of these events will be more fully appreciated.

A prologue covers village orphan boy Matty’s involvement with talking lizard Paction. They save each other and Matty (now Phef) moves into adulthood slightly changed from this unexpected encounter. The two find themselves (and each other) much changed as they meet again in adulthood, where Phef is transformed and his life’s destiny is cemented.

Fast forward to the first chapter, set in a future where thirteen-year-old Mandy is on a space mission. She’s both an astronaut and a magician in this scenario, which shifts from the Moon mission back to Earth, where she moves from an extraordinary assignment to the life of an ordinary girl looking forward to her grandmother’s stew.

Newcomers receive a succinct recap of Mandy’s past adventures in this chapter, setting the stage for her latest experience.

As in the other books in the series, Mark Even deftly juxtaposes Mandy’s abilities with expanding scenarios. Here, they involve a magical lizard and the juxtaposition of extraordinary and ordinary life:

Mandy willed a lightweight force field to materialize around them with a soft snap, its surface mimicking the surrounding terrain. Invisible. Safe. For now. Dinner was practical—water conjured from thin air, apricot-flavored energy bars that tasted like compressed determination. The GPS revealed their progress: a meager tenth of the continent covered. The sigh that escaped Mandy carried the weight of mounting frustration.

Bigger-picture thinking injected into the plot gives young readers thought-provoking moments to balance action and reaction with reflective opportunities:

In that moment, suspended between survival and destruction, Mandy felt a presence. Not Green Hand. Not her family. Something watchful. Something that had been waiting, observing, calculating the precise moment of intervention. A shadow began to eclipse the harsh Sahara sunlight. Something else was coming. Something massive…

Evens creates just the right mix of powerful personalities, forces, abilities, and growth opportunities for a thoroughly immersive YA fantasy that keeps young readers on their toes with unexpected revelations and developments.

As Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter builds its special brand of intrigue and higher-level thinking, a wide age range will appreciate the forces at play which keep Mandy on her toes and adapting to not just new situations, but her own evolving abilities and many truths she hasn’t faced before.

Libraries already in possession of the prior Mandy stories will want to consider Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter an essential collection addition, neatly summing up and expanding her riveting wizardly adventures and discoveries.

YA reader that have followed Mandy’s growth and learning curve will be delighted by her ultimate spiritual and empowerment lessons in Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter.

Destiny of the Lizardstone Scepter

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Harry the High Versus Larry the Low
Alan Champlin
Atmosphere Press
‎979-8891325753
$25.99 Hardcover/$16.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.atmospherepress.com

Harry the High Versus Larry the Low captures “possibly the most beautiful day ever” in a picture book story of how superhero Harry the High not only makes not only this beautiful day, but must confront a sudden storm that introduces darkness, hail, and destruction.

But, who could introduce such angst into perfection? Why, Larry the Low, of course!

Alan Champlin pairs large-size, colorful costumed superheroes on both sides with a rollicking lyrical rhyme that read-aloud adults will find especially well-done and appealing.

As Harry and Larry clash over their different powers and influences on the world, readers will not only appreciate the superhero focus, but the subliminal messages adults can reinforce about bullying, angst, and different life approaches.

Dialogue is also realistic and reinforces the differences and problems between Harry and Larry:

While observing the mess Larry has brought, Harry’s anger begins with a frown as he shouts:

“Larry, you really suck! There is not ONE good thing about you! Nobody likes you—you should just disappear FOREVER!”

Emotional responses to aggression and adversity are especially nicely juxtaposed with these diverse perspectives, as in the passage above which is met with:

Larry is confused and very hurt by Harry’s words. Larry doesn’t mean to hurt or even ruin anyone’s day. But it seems that is exactly what he often does.

Good and bad weather, action heroes, and insights on psychological makeup blend for a moving story that will help the very young understand destructive behaviors, their sources, and some important points between “good” and “bad” people in the world.

Libraries seeking stories that are not only meaningful but will prove very attractive to young fans of caped crusaders will find Harry the High Versus Larry the Low a standout story that is awesomely attractive on many different levels.

Harry the High Versus Larry the Low

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Last Bench
Ram Halady
Vanguard Press
978-1837944071 $12.99 Paperback/$4.99 eBook
www.pegasuspublishers.com

Teenager Vikram (Vikki) loves Bollywood, food, and helping others. This combination of interests would seem just the ticket for having and being a good friend, but in Last Bench, friendship becomes complicated and filled with many more challenges than Vikki anticipates when he is tapped to help in an unusual way.

Set in 1970s Bangalore, Last Bench is a coming-of-age story filled with social, cultural, and psychological insights. Teens will relish the tale because of its many differences from typical Western portraits of youth.

For one thing, Ram Halady introduces the specter of a formerly asthmatic boy who moves from being sickly and left out to becoming the epitome of power and attraction. This newfound strength comes from different areas as Vikki tackles the question of his missing father and unknown heritage, chooses a police inspector to interview for his career profile (because he’s missing the usual family members to tap), and plays cricket with peers who are supported by their families.

Other classmates’ lives unfold, from comedian Jaggi to clumsy Subbu. Each holds a place on the first or last bench, and each brings their own influences, ideals, and angst onto the playing field.

Indian culture provides an immersive experience not just in young adults’ lives and choices, but in their environment:

“If Lord Ganesha is the problem solver, He must be too busy with other matters, more pressing and existential than my simple desires.”

Libraries have plenty of choices when it comes to teen coming-of-age novels, but Last Bench stands out from the crowd with its vivid portrait of Indian culture and young adults who face daunting limitations and possibilities in their lives and family ties.

Filled with insights, inspiration, excitement, and the simple joy of coming together over shared goals, Last Bench is a notable read that ideally should be on the reading lists of those interested in Indian culture and inherited or learned alternatives for youth:

“I wondered if being a policeman ran in my blood, just as BM wished math to run in his son Uday’s.”

Last Bench

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Little Bear and the Big Hole
Jennifer Seal
Starfish Bay Publishing
9781760362324 $18.95
www.starfishbaypublishing.com

Little Bear and the Big Hole tells of a little bear who misses his father. He perceives his immense absence as a big, unfillable hole in his life which nobody else seems to see, and this makes him feel even more alone and isolated from the world.

How can a good forest friend help? Squirrel’s visit reveals many coping methods which Little Bear finds invaluable in his journey through grief and loss—and which read-aloud adults will find equally important for opening dialogues with the very young about parental loss and emotional responses.

Mirjam Siim’s gently compelling illustrations display the growing closeness of bear and squirrel as they approach this vast hole of connection and disconnection. These provide interest and capture the emotions of all involved as various tools are employed to navigate the grief process.

From employing words and pictures to address grief to noticing what routines lighten the emotional load, Jennifer Seal crafts a thoroughly engaging story of loss and love akin to The Velveteen Rabbit, Drew and the Death of the Mag, and other picture book stories about loss, survival, and grieving.

Little Bear and the Big Hole’s invaluable considerations of friendship, helping others, and handling immense loss should be part of any dialogue with the very young, opening the door to greater understanding about not just death, but how friends can help.

Little Bear and the Big Hole

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Misfit’s Magic: Twisting in Time
Fred Gracely
Bisket Press, LLC
979-8-9913355-2-2 $11.99 Paperback/$3.99 eBook
www.fredgracely.com

Misfit’s Magic: Twisting in Time concludes the wizardly teen trilogy about misfit magical orphan Goff, who is in a complex relationship with the forces in his world.

People avoid him because anyone who comes to know him becomes tangled in the same forces that have him locked in a Verlokken force field of angst and danger. Having friends is difficult and dangerous, yet he and a small collection of companions become involved in tracking down a murderer in a mystery that challenges each of their lives differently.

Once again, Fred Gracely cultivates a powerful saga that opens with Goff’s reflection that “Magic had nearly killed him and everyone he loved. Twice.”

He reviews adventures of the past in a neat recap of prior books and also considers the unusual allure as well as repulsion of these action-packed encounters:

Fun stuff. Stuff he desperately wanted to forget.

He also deftly presents the Time Lock’s impact on memory that prevents Bones and Maxim from fully remembering what happened:

“What does it do?”

Maxim sighed. “Nothing if you put it back where you found it and forget it exists. Mrs. Wicket told us that Goff’s story will never be completely finished and that no one knows what it all means. I can only guess that another part of the mystery is locked away inside that thing.”

As dreams and nightmares connect two very different worlds once again, the characters and their special interests and perceptions experience a riveting ride through time and place that young adults and preteens will relish ... especially those who have enjoyed Goff’s prior adventures.

Gracely does an excellent job of weaving elements of past encounters and unresolved issues into this final adventure. While newcomers can access and enjoy it, the most appreciative young audience will be those already familiar with the trials caused by magic and friendship clashes.

Libraries that add Misfit’s Magic: Twisting in Time to their collections will want to have its predecessors on hand. They will find this story packed with unexpected confrontations and magical beings, action paired with vivid description, and believable, understandable dilemmas that stem not just from magical conundrums, but interpersonal problems:

“He’s my brother, and I love him, but I also hate him. He makes me do mean things that I don’t want to do. He wishes I wasn’t a girl, and he hates it whenever I remind him that I’m not his brother. He wants me to burp and eat like a pig and then laugh about it with grease on my cheeks. I’m sick of it. That’s not who I am, or at least, who I’ve come to feel like I am. I want to be just a girl sometimes, the strong, tough, smart girl I am, but a girl.”

Fast-paced, exciting, and filled with unexpected twists and revelations, Misfit’s Magic: Twisting in Time concludes a winning fantasy trilogy in a way that leaves the door ajar for more.

Misfit’s Magic: Twisting in Time

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PANACEA: The Age of AG
Richard Bailey
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-677-4
$18.99 pb, $3.99 ebook, $27.99 hc
www.atmospherepress.com

PANACEA: The Age of AG is set in the 31st century, where human life is perfect. Humanity lives in tropical paradises under protective domes. What could go wrong? Plenty, if you’re sixteen-year-old Dolthea, whose living paradise is threatened by an AI’s decision to shut it down.

This proposal doesn’t mean her transfer elsewhere. It means her death and the demise of all who live in this dome, despite the long-held mantra and belief taught them by their AI overseers, that: Life inside Potomac Dome is as good and as safe a place on Earth as we’ll ever find.

Obviously, it’s time to leave paradise. With that risky venture comes the requirement for survival skills outside the domes. None of the teens have this experience. Fast-packed action captures their confrontations in this odd new world:

They screamed, jumped, and darted backward, half tripping over themselves. They’d never seen a live animal before, let alone one this large. The animal roared louder than anything they’d ever heard. Its eyes followed them as they darted into the woods.

Dolthea and her friends (perhaps predictably) discover a new way of life outside of their safe and time-tested refuge. Unpredictable elements to their discoveries include help from unexpected places and new ways of looking at their world. This encourages them to redefine the nature of paradise and easy living.

From high-tech battlefields to fielding robots, strangers, and new friendships that come with surprises, PANACEA: The Age of AG encourages young adult readers to absorb scenarios that test the history, presumptions, and survival of a group of determined teens.

Richard Bailey pairs action with insight in a manner YA readers will enjoy. The ethical dilemmas of the AI-controlled environment and the future viability of the human race, the presence of unexplained, unacknowledged alternatives, and the whimsy of making ‘Asimov’ or ‘Asimovo’ the name of various robots (which will especially resonate with sci-fi fans) makes for an engaging story that both entertains and introduces thought-provoking moments of discovery.

Libraries seeking sci-fi for teens which incorporates suspense, adventure, and psychological and social growth will appreciate how PANACEA: The Age of AG achieves its goal of providing a superior story that is both thoroughly engrossing and filled with topics perfect for book club assignment.

Rife with discovery and confrontation, PANACEA: The Age of AG is a vision of the future that comes with unabashed intrigue and insights teens will welcome.

PANACEA: The Age of AG

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The Pesky Problem
Christina Garcia
Atmosphere Press
979-8-89132-527-2
$24.99 hardcover, $14.99 paperback, $8.99 e-book
www.atmospherepress.com

The Pesky Problem involves a dilemma faced by a “festive family” of gourds and pumpkins when flocks of pesky crows bother them day and night.

The crows do love their pumpkin and gourd snacks, but annoying their defenseless dinners is just as much fun as eating. What can hapless pumpkins do to dissuade them?

As a crow suggests eating something else instead of harassing dinner, the pumpkins are plotting rebellion against the disrespect of their neighbors.

Plots are hatched on both sides of the pumpkin patch, and young readers and read-aloud adults will especially enjoy not only the whimsical tale of “genius thinking” and problem-solving, but notably vivid, colorful illustrations by Lenka Knoetze and Amy De Vries.

All ages will appreciate the attraction of this pumpkin-versus-crow story, which imparts important messages about cooperation, adversity, community, and alternative thinking. These will be perfect for not just entertainment, but enlightenment.

The Pesky Problem

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The Phoenix and the Ant: Ancestral Cries
SMVL Trudeau
‎Ant and Phoenix Publishing
ASIN: B0F3QXFZT8 $3.54 eBook
www.smvltrudeau.ca

Young adults who appreciated the blend of magic, quest, and heroism in SMVL Trudeau’s prior book about the world of Ptansia will love the power and allure of this sequel, The Phoenix and the Ant: Ancestral Cries.

Fantasy and mystery combine in a situation where murder leads Ti, Slayer, Fero, and ant companion Haro to investigate, guided by the much more experienced Val SilverHan. What they discover underlying forces of magic, politics, and special interests threatens not just their lives, but the world as a whole.

It’s rare to see fantasy intersect so engrossingly with a murder investigation, much less for teen audiences. Trudeau spins a vivid yarn as the kids follow mercurial clues into dangerous territory that many an adult would find daunting.

Another strength of this story lies in how Trudeau outlines the psyches and individual concerns of each character. As the story begins, Wizard Ti dreams of stopping Admiral Lors from rearming and starting new conflicts, accompanied by Haro. How can ants defy something huge? Through sheer numbers.

But, numbers don’t always translate to power or success, they discover as the saga unfolds. Ti’s education on controlling her magic and working with animals takes a huge leap as her involvements in bigger-picture situations build not just her abilities and ideals, but her education.

Since meeting Aghat, her life had reached unexpected places.

Many of these situations can kill. Others reveal new insights about the Source, the nature of human/beast interactions, and the impact of magic and ancient ties that both constrict and are threatened by new adversity.

At each stage of the investigation, Trudeau unfolds new opportunities for understanding (and, ultimately, transformation) as characters confront their biggest nightmares and greatest dreams.

Issues of trust, safety, and connections among the major players in conflict come to life as drama creates astute social and psychological connections between characters.

Libraries seeking a young adult leisure choice that blends fantasy, intrigue, and relationship-building situations will want to recommend The Phoenix and the Ant: Ancestral Cries—especially to those attracted to tales of magic and discovery.

Filled with action, realizations, and new relationship considerations, The Phoenix and the Ant: Ancestral Cries is a vivid journey that will attract a wide audience, especially young readers who have enjoyed the prior The Phoenix and the Ant story.

The Phoenix and the Ant: Ancestral Cries

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Tales of Spooner Pond
Terry Lynn Rasner
Trilogy Christian Publishers
979-8-89597-062-1 $20.99 Paperback/$9.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Spooner-Pond-Supernatural-Unforgettable/dp/B0DZ4FCCP7

Tales of Spooner Pond: Supernatural Tales of Unforgettable Characters and Peculiar Gifts is a fantasy set in the world of Spooner Pond, inhabited by Pippy Hyland and her friends. Her worldly home is in North Star Ridge, but Spooner Pond offers her respite, rejuvenation, and the ability to hone her abilities and perceptions in new ways.

The story opens with Pippy’s father giving her an ultimatum:

“Dreams and fantasies are fine, Pippy, but a line must be drawn when your dreams and fantasies become my nightmare.”

While the subject is the havoc she’s bring to her bedroom, in fact Pippy’s cross-world ventures are doing far more than promoting messiness. The fantasy creatures and friends of her other life are beginning to spill into her everyday family, though there is the promise that someday she will be able to move to Spooner Pond, even bringing with her three loved ones and possibly her “very stout and bushy oak tree of a father.”

As Pippy’s adventures progress, she learns much from her respites at Spooner’s Pond. These are life and spiritual lessons she will carry back into her regular world, with its lack of magic, adventure, and the impossible.

Though her parents believe she’s gone too far with her Spooner Pond fantasy, Pippy is certain the adventure is only beginning. And, she’s right.

Events unfold that embrace themes of fear, transformation, growth, and discovery on many levels. The spiritual component of the story shines, with many experiences holding underlying life lessons about adversity, courage, and shifting perceptions:

“At first, we were shocked and scared of the voracious wind. It had enough power and force to root out and destroy all the plants and trees in the forest, but the wind had a mind of its own and only rooted out the imperfections of the forest while not harming a single life or destroying anything beautiful. It was like we blinked a very long blink, and all the wild and ugly things about the Lush Forest’s wild plant growth were replaced with beautifully groomed and naturally scenic forest and fauna. Then, the wind quieted, and we saw the result; the butterflies burst into song and have been singing ever since.”

Young readers attracted to Tales of Spooner Pond will find the subtitle’s reference to “supernatural” forces actually embraces themes that can be discussed with adults and in group reading:

There is no mistaking it; the Ghosts of Courage Cave can transform themselves and the tunnel they inhabit into whatever stage and arena they choose. It depends on what they must do to gain control and dominate you.

All the trappings of a vivid fantasy (otherworldly creatures, warriors, massive dragons and confrontations) keep readers engaged in the story’s adventure while insights about intention and outcome are injected into the fast-paced action for bigger-picture thinking:

It sickened me to think of using the coward’s way out. I did it once and swore I’d never do it again. But then I thought I’d be selfish not to use it to save Joe Kitty, and that bothered me even as we were being smothered by what I assumed to be young demon Howlers.

The result is a parable for modern times, a fantasy replete with many extraordinary adventures, and a story all ages will appreciate for its lessons on overcoming fears, interacting with others, and learning important survival tactics that reflect in both worlds.

Libraries choosing Tales of Spooner Pond will find it attractive for a variety of collection-building purposes, whether it be for its spiritual, moral, and ethical flavors or its focus on a young girl’s evolving strengths.

Replete with action and reflection, Tales of Spooner Pond is an uplifting winner.

Tales of Spooner Pond

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Voices
Angela Bier 
Black Rose Writing
978-1685136161 $22.95
Website:  https://www.angelabier.com/
Ordering:  https://www.blackrosewriting.com/youngadult/p/voices?rq=voices

Voices is a young adult novel steeped in supernatural influences. It probes the psychological tension of a teen who enters a new small-town school before her junior year, only to find that her seemingly easy assimilation into its culture is impacted by voices only she can hear.

Elena Tannin’s voices raise all kinds of dangerous family questions and secrets she really doesn’t want to hear, but it’s becoming impossible to ignore them. They also require action from her—a response that could impact her fragile new home and environment.

The first thing to note is that Elena is no fragile flower, but an intelligent, proactive young woman who carries successes from her past into this new life:

Elena was confident she would excel academically at Belvedere. She had dominated at her old school, which was highly competitive. She hoped that it wouldn’t take too long to win over these new teachers. She considered her intellect and charm her armor.

The realistic world she navigates, which includes invitations to dances, male attention, and new directions, contrasts nicely with the supernatural overlay of possibilities she’s always resisted knowing about.

Elena’s perspective shifts to that of classmate Kat in the second chapter. Kat also struggles with her life in the areas of relationship-building, self-worth, empowerment, and love.

Add the perspective of Elena’s mother for three viewpoints that are clearly defined by chapter headings. These provide satisfying contrasts of the same world as seen and experienced from very different angles.

This perspective sets Voices apart from many other YA novels, allowing for a depth of discovery and comparison of events that supports a light injection of magical realism while building its thoroughly engrossing story based not just on Elena’s life and dilemmas, but those around her.

Libraries seeking YA stories that appeal with the promise of supernatural possibility, yet deliver much more depth than anticipated via a thoroughly engaging young woman searching for different kinds of answers in her life, will find Voices a powerful acquisition. It deserves recommendation to teen book clubs and reading groups for its blend of magic and psychological inspection.

Replete with dilemmas and realizations surrounding young adults who are at once vulnerable and strong, Voices is alluring and hard to put down.

Voices

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Willy and Hector Beyond the Junkyard
Mary J.E. Nitti
DartFrog Kids
978-1-965253-27-4
www.dartfrogbooks.com

Picture book readers will find Willy and Hector Beyond the Junkyard an appealing story, sporting engaging illustrations by Joe Bauman to draw young readers into the snowy world of an auto junkyard in winter.

The cars that inhabit this place observe working vehicles that speed past the junkyard. Willy, a rusted pickup, watches the world roar by as his friend Hector, a tired old mini-van, snoozes.

Willy is excited by the possible uses he can still see for himself in the working vehicle world, but Hector just wants to nap, despite the noise that passes them, combined with Willy’s observations of new possibilities.

It seems only fitting that a junkyard customer would choose Willy ... but what happens when a vehicle is actually sent back to the outside world? And, what about the threatening Scrap Heap scenario? How can Willy navigate the world without his friend Hector by his side?

Mary J.E. Nitti’s engaging story will appeal to any kid who has loved the movie ‘Cars’ and the thought that vehicles can hold personalities and be animated.

Many underlying messages about hope, dreams, adaptation, and new experiences will delight read-aloud adults seeking examples of all these themes.

Elementary-level libraries catering to car-crazy kids who look for stories that embed reflections on life experiences, values, and new opportunities will relish the approach of Willy and Hector Beyond the Junkyard, an adventure in living that ultimately and unexpectedly fulfills Willy’s biggest dreams.

Willy and Hector Beyond the Junkyard

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