Editorial Reviews

An endearing, passionate collection of real-life love letters between a WWII naval officer and his sweetheart, My Dearest Darling captures the romance and longing of one affectionate couple separated by the war. Author Franco, who discovered the writings at a Cape Cod antique shop, provides informative annotations that place the missives in a wider historical context for readers. Covering everything from mundane daily activities like watching films to world-changing events like dropping the atomic bomb, the correspondence is simultaneously sweet and sad, conveying an achingly human blend of the personal and the political that sheds new light on life during […]

A sprawling but delicate story of personal evolution, Journey to the Heartland by Xiaolong Huang expertly navigates the fine line between heartbreaking and inspiring. This story is woven together on multiple levels, with themes of sexuality, cultural pressure, academia, and personal exodus, for a poignant meditation on freedom. The tone of the writing is unique and striking, boasting unexpected flourishes of description that make the prose vivid, yet understated. Huang captures the intersection of personal autonomy, conscious liberation, and critical thinking in a timely and undeniably powerful read.

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An edgy YA tale for a new generation, Potion: A Witchy Fairy Tale by Dorlana Vann is a supernatural romp through the perils of self-discovery. Melrose is trying to find her place in the world, and where she actually came from, while her brother desperately tries to keep her safe from sinister powers – and the prettiest girl in school. Exploring classic themes of tragic heroes, petty bullies, and dark secrets from the past, this read covers some familiar ground, but Vann’s story-crafting and angsty prose make this title stand out.

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A Fledgling Bond (A Night Fae Novel) by A.E. Kost is an engaging and creative work of fantasy that will satisfy readers of the growing fae genre. The Night Fae are on the edge of extinction after a war with witches, and Lye, a rare young male, must leave his world and enter the human one, for a clash of cultures that might ignite a larger conflict. This dark fantasy epic has sorcery and beasts woven throughout that fans of magical quest fiction will soak up. However, the prose suffers from redundancy and too much detail, diluting the plot, engaging […]

A healing balm for troubling times, Cemetery Reflections by Jane Hopkins is a thoughtful gathering of wisdom and compassion, offered through a sensitive portrait of final resting places. Spanning graveyards from California and South Carolina to Massachusetts, Canada, and Chicago, this book is a gentle visual meditation on grief, death, and perseverance. Peppered with poetry and quotes from legendary writers and thinkers, as well as poignant personal reflections from Hopkins herself, this collection is thematically heavy, but it is also imbued with the enduring hope that we can all overcome the pain of loss.

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A city boy named Cort uncovers his intimate connection to nature in G.S. Kenney’s Saving Aran: Redemption for a Ravaged Planet (Sons of Aran Book 1), an eloquent science fiction adventure novel with an essential environmental message. Starmen from Earth have colonized the planet Aran for its profitable forest resources – physically and spiritually harming the land in the process. Spurred by the kidnapping of his best friend, Cort undergoes a mystical journey of self-discovery and vows to take back his planet with the help of a crew of animal companions. Filled with lyrical writing and intriguing, magnetic characters, […]

An eye-opening look into secrets that lay hidden for decades, Running from the Witness Protection Program by Mark Spector is a fascinating dive into a life that feels stranger than fiction. Rarely are there first-person accounts from someone who was truly “in the know” with legendary mobsters, and Spector knows how to hook a reader, revealing some of the inner secrets of mob life, along with personal anecdotes from his own youthful endeavors in organized crime. While this short work could absolutely be expanded into a longer memoir, Spector has a succinct and compelling voice that makes this a captivating […]

A lively illustrated story about the first two days of a family vacation to Istanbul, The Chaos Family (The Road Begins Book 1) by Saleh M. Hafeezullah is a delightful comic romp about the positives and negatives of visiting a foreign country. The family deals with airport losses, dead car batteries, and hectic taxi rides, but also takes enjoyable visits to a restaurant, a mall, and the Hagia Sophia mosque. Written by an impressively ambitious 10-year-old writer, the prose is both engaging and informative, and the amusing commentary on the family’s triumphs and mishaps is often laugh-out-loud funny. Some allowance […]