Editorial Reviews

A biblically-based look at the religious significance of current events, The Mystery of Iniquity: Last Days Convergence by D.F. Hodge gives the reader insights into why the times we live in are potentially a signal of the return of Christ and the new Kingdom of God. Interestingly, Hodge calls out systemic racism, police brutality, and the subjugation of women as endemic of these turbulent times, which may not always be the case for books with this focus. Hodge’s book also covers the purpose of God, the purpose of evil, and the significance of the signs that surround us. A decidedly […]

Cascadia, the domed Edenic last city left on a ravaged Earth, is the setting for Jonathan Sobe’s mind-bending work of science fiction, Mannequin. The quest for immortality relies on life extension technology produced by the Continuum Corporation, whose CEO Cesare Osvaldo hires troubled private investigator Jessa Bennet to find the missing person who threatens to destroy it all. Moving in and out of projected realities and back and forth across time, Mannequin tackles big questions of truth, reality, good and evil, God and science through a series of dramatic twists in Jessa’s battle to save humanity, for a uniquely […]

A stellar cozy mystery, replete with infidelity, a Halloween setting, an empathetic protagonist, and two well-drawn detectives, Bonnie Traymore’s Killer Motives is a superb first installment of the Hudson Valley Mystery series. There’s a tragic death in Hudson Valley, which brings married couple Victoria and Nick’s life to a standstill, as the victim is Nick’s lover. Could they be the next victims, or is Nick darker than Victoria ever imagined? With spot-on realistic criminal procedures, and the historically detailed setting of the Sleepy Hollow area giving the story a brooding feel, Killer Motives offers a thrilling escape, even with the […]

A colorful and creative A-Z guide to flowers, Alphabet of Flowers by Gloria D. Gonsalves is a children’s book that can be appreciated by anyone unfamiliar with our floral friends. The brief statements following each alphabetical bloom contain simple and interesting facts, though some entries are more intriguing than others. Particularly impressive are the crayoned flowers and descriptions beginning with more rare letters, such as X and Q. Though the concept of the book is simple, the images are easy to duplicate for aspiring artists, and getting to know the names and spellings of flowers is an important skill for […]

A steamy South American thriller, At All Costs by Geoffrey Robinson is a fast-paced read with conspiracies and betrayal aplenty. Kelly and Danny are hunting for different things – the scoop on a dangerous story and intel for his shadowy superiors, respectively – but their missions inevitably tangle in a chaotic mess of smuggling, murder, and international manipulation. While the writing is sometimes rushed and could afford to slow down, the plot moves quickly, the tension is visceral and realistic, and the complexity of the story’s villains helps this novel stand out from other international thrillers.

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Kimberly Sullivan’s compelling literary work, In The Shadow of The Apennines, is an emotional journey following an American woman as she escapes to the mountains of Italy, fleeing the memory of a failed marriage, only to find that a getaway can be just as isolating. When she finds the journal of a local woman from a century ago, her world starts to transform, as she finds she is connected to the woman in ways she couldn’t have imagined. While readers may have to suspend disbelief for our heroine’s abrupt mastery of the Italian language, Sullivan’s novel is romantic in the […]

A high-stakes extraction thriller with a compelling, freshly haunted hero at the helm, No Sanctuary by Camden Mays is the third gripping installment of the Cole Cameron Thriller series. After returning to the scene of his most recent trauma, it isn’t long before Cole is meeting with Mossad agents, infiltrating hostile territory, dealing out death, and pushing his own limits, both physically and psychologically. Reading like a behind-the-scenes scoop on espionage fieldwork, this is a captivating burst of fiction, penned with the tension of a noir drama, and the fast-paced payoffs of modern revenge thrillers.

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An epic western replete with historical detail, A Distant Ridge: A Novel of the Northern Plains in the 1870s by James McDonough takes the reader back to the post-Civil War United States when the country was expanding and exploding at once. Following Jake Rogers and the 7th Cavalry, McDonough shows how the American Indian was forced into submission while the United States prospered from the resources and land it acquired, offering an accurate depiction of just how the US was able to grow into the country it would become. With a long list of well-crafted characters, including sensitive portraits of […]