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A dramatic, dialogue-driven portrait of an imploding marriage, Maria Daversa’s Sweet Baby Mine intimately depicts the impact of mental illness and secrets on a partnership. Daversa has a keen eye for powerful description, and the story is a nuanced commentary on how nostalgia can fuel unhealthy relationships past the breaking point. The starkly honest passages about the characters’ pasts and motives create an intimate portrait of the protagonists, which heightens the uncertain moral tension on these pages, weaving together a pervasive sense of psychological stress that is ultimately hopeful. A tense yet delicate exploration of addiction, regret, and toxic cycles […]

A paranormal tale of good versus evil, The Charterhouse of Evil by Janice Tremayne is a fun but chilling work of supernatural horror with a stellar protagonist at the helm. Spirit hunter Clarisse Garcia is investigating mysterious deaths at a Benedictine Monastery, aided by her husband’s spirit-tracking technology and challenged by powerful demons and the monks’ code of silence. While the plot unfolds somewhat slowly due to retelling elements from previous installments, which distracts from Clarisse connecting the accumulating clues, the mystery itself is engrossing and evocatively told, with the book ultimately working as a standalone novel. Fans of paranormal […]

A page-turner ultimately about second chances, 5th and Vanguard by Lee Adams is an engrossing thriller written in classic noir style. It’s 1999 and writer Julie Page is a recovering addict hoping to retrieve her artistic muse when she finds herself a chance witness to a crime in front of Bob’s Liquor Palace at the corner of 5th and Vanguard. Supremely well-written with characters, exposition, and dialogue authentic to the genre and an earlier era, this tight, compelling novel is somewhat weakened by occasional grammatical errors, but these issues will be easily overlooked by fans of dark, gritty, fast-paced crime […]

Whimsical and endearing, Tony Philips’ The Pig Who Loved Gluffles: And One More Story illuminates the essential lesson of how one’s actions can influence the rest of the world. When a pig discovers the last crazed gluffle in the forest, he’s faced with a moral dilemma: eat the gluffle, or save it, allowing more to grow for everyone’s further enjoyment. Philips’ rhyme scheme is impressive, creating a poetic narrative that’s fun to follow, and his illustrations are colorful and engaging, though the characters don’t always feel integrated with the background. Overall, The Pig Who Loved Gluffles tells a cheerful but […]