Stiles debuts with the enchanting tale of a family’s tragedy and miraculous new beginning. At the outset, 40-year-old Chicago TV reporter Michael Russo loses his job. He and his fiancé, Anna O’Leary, consider buying a dilapidated two-bedroom farmhouse in the country, and have sex in the barn while visiting the property. Back in Chicago, Michael, an atheist, clashes with his future in-laws, staunch Irish Catholics Colin and Grace, causing Anna to walk out on him. Seeking a new start, Michael buys the house himself, where he receives wisdom and renovation tips from a local handyman and priest who suggests to Michael that the barn has magical powers. When Anna visits, she and Michael begin to reconcile, and she tells him that she’s pregnant. Before their wedding date, Anna dies in childbirth after going into labor three months early. Their baby, Brie, unexpectedly survives, a miracle in the eyes of Colin and Grace, which Michael attributes to the fact that she was conceived in the barn. As a little girl, Brie is slow to speak, but she develops an uncanny ability to communicate with animals, and Stiles suggests she’s able to perform miracles, such as bringing a dead lamb back to life. Stiles’s hopeful novel is rich in detail and symbolism. Readers will relish this satisfying story. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/31/2025 | Details & Permalink

Gransden (Anemogram) brings together 14 surreal and eerie stories mining scares from technology, domestic life, and the natural world. In the wonderfully bizarre opener, “Turducken: Confirm Humanity,” a turducken comes to life, waddles from its roasting pan, and discovers the wonders and horrors of the internet. The lines between video games and reality blur in “Fuck It Cat and the Mod Hex from Hell,” while the protagonist of “ReWipe” is driven to an act of violence by the realization that he can no longer “like” anything on social media. Other stories offer more intimate horrors: an abusive mother drugs her teenage son in “Seeping Willow,” leading to strange hallucinations; and in “Pageant,” teen beauty queens turn violent against their controlling mothers. “The Disco Rice Club,” one of the standouts, delves into body horror after a heist attempted by a trio of garbage men goes horribly wrong (the “disco rice” of the title refers to maggots). The high-concept title story serves as a finale, following the exploits of Happy Bunny, a character who exists in a liminal grey room between calls to perform his part in the real world. Several of these tales take abrupt violent turns that successfully shock but feel somewhat unmotivated. Still, the inventive concepts and haunting, dreamlike imagery will appeal to horror fans. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/17/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rae introduces an inventive if somewhat underexplored magic system in the brisk kickoff to her Sapphic Lady Knights series. In this world, magic is thought of as a corrupting plague and those with access to it routinely transform into inhuman monsters called malignants. As a result, all witches are being rounded up and executed. To escape such a fate, death witch Della and her sister, Anette, strike a deal with Princess Cordelia of Hevalon. Cordelia is eager to avoid an arranged marriage to Prince Valin of Glea and, given their striking resemblance, asks Della to go in her stead and use her magic to appear to die before the ceremony. The logic of this plan doesn’t hold much water, but it serves to set a captivating plot in motion as Della undertakes the deception and winds up falling not for her supposed betrothed but for the bodyguard he assigns her, Sir Galleon, one of Glea’s famed lady knights. Rae makes her heroines’ yearning for each other palpable as they fight their feelings amid plentiful court intrigue. Unfortunately, plot twists are set up with little payoff, Valin’s late turn to all-out villainy feels somewhat unearned, and the worldbuilding, while fascinating, raises more questions than answers. Still, the simmering romantic tension and striking leading ladies offer plenty to enjoy. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/10/2025 | Details & Permalink

YA author Pack (the Chronicles of Illumination series) pivots to adult fiction with this propulsive conspiracy thriller. Tray Lennox, an FBI agent investigating art crimes, gets a frantic call from his identical twin brother, nuclear inspector Carey, who swears he’s being followed. Before Tray can act, Carey is shot and killed by the unidentified pursuer. Tray suspects the bullet was meant for him, because he’s been searching for the Hero’s Knot—an ancient artifact comprising “space debris made up of nanoparticles of extraterrestrial biological origin”—for the Bureau, and he knows he’s not the only one after it. Hoping to deceive Carey’s killer into thinking they shot the right brother, Tray switches his wallet with Carey’s at the scene. He then sets out to avenge his brother’s death on top of his original mission, the stakes of which are raised when Tray learns that the Hero’s Knot can be modified to detonate nuclear weapons—and that Carey was tracking down people who’d sabotaged some of the nuclear reactors he’d inspected. Pack hits the ground running, grabbing readers from the opening pages and refusing to let go until the satisfying denouement. Dan Brown fans will be pleased. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/10/2025 | Details & Permalink

Darjani’s Broken Union series debut is an assured space opera with a fascinating, time-bending premise. It opens in the 24th century, with discontented flight officer Ren Yilmaz of the Earth Spaceship Hawking, being dressed down by a commanding officer, who happens to be her ex-husband. Ren considers herself the “classic star that flamed out too early, who gave up on her career, who used words and scowls as armor,” but she remains determined to be “somebody, one day.” When the ESS Hawking unexpectedly jumps 62 years into the future, she gets to see just who she turns out to be, coming face to face with her future self: the confident, happily married, and mysteriously immortal Earth Union Fleet Capt. Karenna Yilmaz. Ren and Karenna clash, but find common cause in fighting Badal, a terrorist group contesting Earth’s control of human colonies. While the military plot is fun, Darjani’s true strength lies in characterization, making both Yilmazes sympathetic but flawed in different ways and mining impressive psychological depth out of their differences and similarities. It’s a promising start. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this offbeat debut survey, paranormal historian Blanch details 13 deaths in cemeteries across his home state of Arizona, many of which he purports have become hot spots for supernatural activity. The most engrossing chapters concern grief-stricken Phoenix real estate agent Julian Holmes’s 1954 suicide at his wife, Margaret’s, grave; Holmes shot himself after laying flowers beside her headstone. Blanch also describes victims of freak accidents on cemetery grounds and graveyard employees who died of natural causes on the job, including security guard Barry Brutchey, who was found dead in his truck less than an hour after completing a patrol of the Glendale Memorial Park Cemetery. As Blanch runs through his list of cases in brief, photo-heavy chapters, he occasionally details efforts by amateur ghost hunters to communicate with the deceased at the sites of their death, but the book’s ghost hunting through line is thin. Still, Blanch’s concise recollections of human tragedies are affecting. For true crime obsessives, this is worth a look. Photos. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this uneven debut from YA author Nunnery (The Next Best Thing), a girl goes on a crusade to save the family business. Twelve-year-old Eleanor Black has been raised by her father since she was six and her mother vanished after a day of work at the family’s small-town Georgia bookstore. Eleanor’s lonely life gets a boost with the arrival of Maggie, who’s visiting her reclusive aunt, Ruby, while her parents are settling their divorce. The girls become friends and Eleanor confesses to Maggie that she learned from “foreboding letters” found in her father’s desk that they’re about to lose the bookstore. The girls start scheming ways to save it, and as Eleanor spends time at Ruby’s mansion, the two form a kinship based on the fact that Ruby also lost her mother when she was young. When Eleanor discovers an old manuscript in a desk’s hidden compartment at the bookstore, she hopes it’s valuable enough to save the shop. Researching the book and its author, however, leads her down an unexpected path with supernatural implications. The fantasy elements are a jarring shift from the thoughtful character-driven story. Still, this tenderhearted tale has its moments. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

Parsons kicks off her Stranded in Leavenworth series with this wilderness-set charmer. Lucy O’Malley is happily planning a romantic outdoorsy vacation in the quaint town of Leavenworth with her workaholic, somewhat emotionally distant boyfriend, Brodan—until he dumps her on her 30th birthday. Meanwhile, widowed wilderness tour company owner, Jonathan Miller, whose wife, Cynthia, died four years earlier in a white-water rafting accident on an expedition he was leading, has vowed never to allow anyone else into his heart. Then Lucy comes bounding into his life and announces that the trip she booked for two will actually be a one-on-one tour. Reluctantly consenting to lead Lucy on her solo hiking trip, Jonathan is soon won over by her grit, especially as the multiday climb turns out to be harder than she’d expected. Through landslides, torrential rainstorms, and renegade tents, Lucy and Jonathan grow closer—but will their pasts prevent them from getting together? Lucy’s sweetness and sass convincingly slips beneath Jonathan’s high walls, and their grumpy/sunshine dynamic is a treat. Supporting characters, especially Lucy’s drag-queen bestie, Dirty O’Feelya, provide enchanting pockets of levity. This well-crafted romance will have readers hooked. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

Monti’s first novel (after the memoir I Remember Brooklyn) is an amusing crime caper in the vein of Elmore Leonard. Rocky Delmonico, a New Jersey golf hustler, gets into trouble with mobster Gino Lofaccio during the funeral of Gino’s father. As the casket is being lowered into the ground, Gino’s mother leaps on top of it, and Rocky can’t stifle his laughter. Afterwards, an infuriated Gino tells Rocky that, to make up for his faux pas, he’ll become the golf pro at Fair Play, a course run by slimy businessman Pincus Bogalinsky. Gino hopes to buy the property Fair Play sits on and turn it into a “condo goldmine.” He instructs Rocky to earn Pincus’s trust and gather any information that might help him make the purchase. Rocky reluctantly accepts the assignment, but soon discovers that Gino is not the only person looking to take Pincus down. As Rocky stumbles into ever more dangerous dealings, he struggles to keep a target off his own back. The premise’s familiarity ends up being more of an asset than a demerit as Monti manages to puts his own droll twist on the travails of small-time Jersey mobsters. For readers who like their crime with a side of comedy, this gets the job done. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 09/26/2025 | Details & Permalink

Randall debuts with an uplifting road novel about a terminally ill woman attempting to make amends. Eleanor, 61, has been betrayed and ignored for years by her husband, Walt, a Republican U.S. senator who’s now having an affair with an intern. After Eleanor is diagnosed with ALS, she leaves Walt and their home in Dayton, Ohio, in her pickup truck, hoping to reconcile with their only child, Jillian, a lesbian, and her younger sister, Isabel. Both women live in Colorado, and as Eleanor drives toward them across Kansas, she reflects on the causes of their estrangement. She was young when she married Walt, and left Isabel to deal with their mother’s dementia. When Walt spoke out publicly against gay rights, she neglected to support Jillian. Interspersed throughout are monologues from the perspective of such objects as the mixtape playing in her truck (“Don’t get me wrong, I hate making Eleanor cry, but I think it just might be my job to crack the old girl open every once in a while”). It’s a clever device that adds a welcome levity to the somber material, even as Eleanor vows later in the narrative to “get back to the business of dying after I’ve found a life.” This strikes just the right chord. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 09/19/2025 | Details & Permalink