John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Author Miriam Cumming casts a charming and thought-provoking spell with Namesakes, the first book in her Wicce Novel series. In this clever repurposing of a classic myth, Medusa is a young girl just coming into her stone-turning powers, who must find her place among other legendary outcasts and misfits in a magical academy. Channeling a bit of Harry Potter, there is a familiarity to the plot, but also harder-hitting themes of tolerance, bullying, and using one’s powers for good. Cumming lays an entertaining and flexible foundation for an original series with a cast of immediately engaging characters.

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Prepare yourself for a rollicking, shocking, and inspiring story of life’s lowest lows and greatest heights in Get Off: The Sordid Youth and Unlikely Survival of a Queer Junkie Wonder Boy by Scott Alderman. This tell-all read is graphic and unabashed, detailing a life of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll from both extremes: the ecstatic and the tragic. Unsentimental but sincere, Alderman is able to get past the romance of his own tall tales to pry out wisdom and meaning, as well as difficult lessons that ring timeless for youth of any generation.

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Author Carrie Thorne kicks off her Demon Hunter Romance series with Six, a steamy romance between two unexpected allies with a delicious paranormal twist. When a beautiful demon hunter literally falls out of the sky into Ryan Hunt’s life, destiny gets decidedly heavy-handed and forces the pair into solving a mystery using their unique skill sets. Avoiding the overused tropes of pulp romance writing, the paranormal edge to this story helps to keep the jokes fresh and the plot line unpredictable. Quinn and Ryan make a scorchingly sexy team and Thorne delivers a strong start to what should be […]

Cloaked in shadowy themes and haunting in its imagery, Fall of the Raven by the poet Thymournia is a meditation on despair, isolation, and the loneliness of the observer. Presented as a collection of evocative photographs and fragmentary writing, the reading experience can be unnerving, as the book is existentially heavy and complex, even with its deceptively simple form. The ominous photography maintains a constant undertone of mystery, while the prose is terse and bold, sometimes directed at the Raven itself – the poetic tool that unifies this work. Laden with sorrow and challenging musings on death and perseverance, Fall […]

Crucial life lessons and empowering personal affirmations for young children overflow on the vibrant pages of What I Tell Myself First by author Michael A. Brown, with illustrations by Zoe Ranucci. Unlike many other motivational books directed at younger readers, this book addresses both the good and the bad, presenting realistic, optimistic, and self-driving ideas that can help to shape developing minds. Beautifully illustrated with a clear vision of childhood challenges, What I Tell Myself First is an honest and original take on positivity and self-help for youngsters.

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Author G. Michael Madison offers an authentically deep plunge into reservation life in the 1960s and 1970s with his powerful novel The Rez: An American Love Story. The first in a trilogy of books, this is a profound examination of an oft-overlooked culture during a historically tumultuous time. Delicately dissecting the issues of racism, family, ambition and the American Way, The Rez is a humanistic peek into another world. With vivid dialogue and a sincere respect for his three-dimensional characters, Madison has laid the foundation for a deeply affecting series that feels contemporary and relevant.

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