Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews

The boundaries of friendship and the challenges of personal mental battles are laid bare in Love & Letters, a novella about falling in love and finding a way to speak your personal truth by L.B. Carol.

When Ryan falls hard to Elizabeth – one of his best friend’s girlfriends – he is torn between an undeniable attraction and an unspoken bond of brotherhood. However, that is only the first struggle in Ryan’s stumbles toward connection, as he must overcome the insecurities of his situation, as well as the unique pain of long-distance romance.

Despite the brevity of the story, […]

With a disagreeable and dishonorable, yet vaguely charming lout at its core, Leo the Liar is an amusing and unpredictable family drama from Bernie Donnelly.

After not seeing his father for decades, Leo decides to make the jump from Dublin to Florida and reconnect with the long-lost Milo. Awkwardness aside, Leo has grown up to be a smooth-talking liar, a charmer with a silver tongue, a conman with motives that are difficult to suss out. Not only that, but an attraction from Leo’s new stepmother threatens to rock the boat of familiar normalcy. Peppered with clever turns of phrase and […]

Author D.L. Norris invites readers to slow down and enjoy the view, and perhaps spin a story or two, in The Long Way Home, an insightful and memorable novel about family, grief, and growing up.

Maggie Davis stands like a proud pillar at the heart of this tale, a recently widowed mother running a bed and breakfast in an out-of-the-way corner of Nebraska. Guests come and go, with their stories and burdens, grateful for a home-cooked meal and conversation, but small-town life for Maggie is far from simple. In addition to her own battle with loss and loneliness, she […]