Sophia always felt aloof, including with her family; distant and troubled, her parents and relatives rarely made her feel cared for, both economically and emotionally. The deep traumas that scarred Sophia’s life, however, didn’t stop her – […]
Written with searing honesty and a compelling contemporary voice, The Girl in the Blue Blazer by Alretha Thomas is an engrossing novel that touches on urgent social and ethical issues, engulfed in an emotionally charged plot. When Pamela finally receives the offer for her long-coveted internship with Clifford Investments, she is beside herself, but she doesn’t want to become Andrews Clifford’s protégé for sheer ambition…Pamela seeks revenge, with unpredictable results. Balancing narratives between the past and the present, Thomas spools a story that is both unique and universal, told with clear and sincere prose that brings emotional authenticity to a […]
Impressively researched and beautifully written, The Darlings of the Downs: Five Generations, One Destiny by Casey Walsh follows the journey of two Irish sisters who leave the brutal poverty of Cork in 1879 to start a journey to Australia. Covering 100 years of family history, Walsh immerses readers in the sisters’ story as they carve out a life for themselves in the new world, showing the long-term effects of chances taken and missed, unrequited love, and sudden tragedy. The novel’s core story focuses on the toughmindedness and importance of a strong female line, resulting in an empowering read that is […]
Shirley’s Compilation of Short Stories by Shirley McLain is an engaging book of short fiction in which the inner lives of characters intertwine with the bigger picture of history, resulting in a thrilling roller coaster of emotion.
McLain offers the reader a wide range of stories, touching on genres that vary from noir to romantic fiction. The thread running through them is in their evocative atmosphere – the perpetual feeling of something hidden below the surface: a detail overlooked for too long, a well-kept secret, or an emotion that cannot be ignored.
From the tragic secrets behind the wealth of […]
A varied but thematically concise work of contemporary poetry, Office Poems by Nathan Nicolau mixes together dreamlike verse with an undercurrent of sardonic social awareness. Nicolau’s emotive but playful verse and prose poetry guide the reader through original, ironic, and deeply felt contemplations about the fabric of everyday life – from mundane tasks to the nature of celebrity. At times, the poetry veers into prose reformatted into verse, but the mixture of humor and intellectual inquiry gives the collection a comfortably breezy flair, demonstrating the poet’s total control over his vision. Written with straightforward but layered language, Nicolau’s collection of […]
Celey by Susan Diane Black Blackmon is the second book in the Heritage Series, a collection of historical novels based on real-life characters and events. Standing between fact and fiction, Celey is a heartwarming novel about hardship, family, and the hopes and dreams of a town in 19th-century Arkansas, for an engrossing and evocative work of historical fiction.
Waldron is a place on a difficult journey from wilderness to civilization, and Celey, a young woman of sixteen, experiences what it means to live in an unsafe environment, where women cannot go around town unaccompanied and bullies seem to go […]
Voices in the Sanitorium by Amy Lynn Walsh is a gripping spiritual thriller exploring the psychological effect that an abandoned sanatorium, said to be haunted, has on a family who recently made the move to Pennsylvania from New York. Since the night she camped near the wrecked building, Aislyn is not her usual self – does she just miss her old life in the city, or is there something more sinister going on in their new home? Weaving together the present with the past, the supernatural with the historic, and horror scares with a well-crafted detective narrative, Walsh creates a […]
Saturday by Cindy DeFuria is a gripping YA novel following a teenager’s journey through bullying. Showing the darker side of ambition, DeFuria plunges the reader into a competitive New York school for young talents where friendships are hard to come by, and some might even turn dangerous.
It’s on a Saturday that Jessica’s mom breaks the news that they’re moving to New York in a few weeks. Despite her sadness about leaving California behind, Jessica is excited: what better place to shine as an actress and singer? Famous for producing several stars, her new school is full of driven, highly […]