John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Author David Crane has crafted a historical gem of swashbuckling heroes and sinister plots during some of the most tumultuous points in France’s history in Swordpoint. Eugene Francois Vidocq is revived from the annals of history as a charming and ambitious adventurer who must escape the sins of his past to forge a brighter future, preferably not at the point of a sword. The energy level occasionally slips in extended narration, but Crane is diligent in his descriptions, painting pastoral scenes and grisly corners of Napoleonic France with equal skill. Holding impressively to an elegant 18th century tone in […]

Author Monika Kloeckner deep-dives into personal growth, professional confidence, spiritual enlightenment, and goal-oriented thinking in The Rebellious Singleton, outlining in part how women are often held to unfair standards and expectations in the modern world, but their mental flexibility and emotional resilience are also invaluable resources. Kloeckner’s enlightening tome has some elements of a traditional self-help book, but is also a spiritual guide and a self-worth-boosting read for anyone, regardless of gender, who is trying to forge their path as an unattached person in a world that prizes marriage. While some of the ideas recur repetitively, this is a […]