In “The Strawberry Patch Pancake House,” Laurie Gilmore serves up another sweet slice of small-town romance that balances comfort and complexity as skillfully as her chef protagonist balances flavors. This fourth installment in the Dream Harbor series continues to showcase Gilmore’s talent for creating a cozy community filled with quirky characters while exploring deeper themes […]
Category: Book Reviews
Lauren Willig’s latest historical mystery, The Girl from Greenwich Street, plunges readers into the frigid winter of 1799 New York City, where the discovery of a young woman’s body in the Manhattan Well sets in motion one of early America’s most sensational murder trials. Based on the true historical case that brought together political rivals […]
Few authors capture horror in the sinew and marrow of history as deftly as Stephen Graham Jones. Known for his visceral, unrelenting narratives (The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw), Jones returns with The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, a chilling historical horror novel that seeps into the mind like a slow-moving plague. This novel […]
Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping marks the fifth entry in The Hunger Games series and the second prequel after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. This latest installment returns us to the brutal and dystopian world of Panem, unveiling the origins of Haymitch Abernathy—one of the series’ most enigmatic and tragic characters. Taking place […]
T.J. Klune’s The Bones Beneath My Skin is a novel that effortlessly intertwines science fiction, family drama, and queer identity into an emotional and immersive reading experience. The story follows Nate Cartwright, a man on the brink of self-destruction, who stumbles upon Alex and Artemis—a man with a dark past and a child with an […]
The Antidote by Karen Russell
Karen Russell, a literary powerhouse known for Swamplandia, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and Orange World, returns with The Antidote—a sweeping historical novel infused with magical realism, folklore, and a biting critique of settler amnesia. The story, set in the Dust Bowl era, blends surrealist storytelling with raw historical truths, spinning a multi-perspective narrative about […]

We Never Took a Bad Picture by Ashley N. Roth Genre: Literary Fiction / Family Life ISBN: 9781953932334 Print Length: 284 pages Publisher: April Gloaming Publishing Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski | Content warnings: death of a teenage child Infidelity, broken promises, and unspeakable tragedy—a fifty-fifth anniversary party is the catalyst of one family’s […]
She Is a Haunting marks Trang Thanh Tran’s debut novel—an ambitious blend of gothic horror, coming-of-age narrative, and post-colonial commentary that creeps under your skin with the persistence of the parasites that inhabit its pages. Set against the misty backdrop of Đà Lạt, Vietnam, this novel follows Jade Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American teenager visiting her estranged […]
In the crowded landscape of contemporary romance, Charlotte Stein’s “My Big Fat Fake Marriage” delivers a delightful twist on the beloved fake relationship trope. This novel serves up the perfect blend of heart-melting sweetness and scorching heat that Stein’s fans have come to expect from her work. Following her success with “When Grumpy Met Sunshine,” […]
Kills Well with Others picks up the threads left dangling in Raybourn’s breakout hit Killers of a Certain Age, reuniting readers with our favorite group of sixty-something assassins who can’t seem to stay retired. In this sequel, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are summoned back from their brief respite to face a new threat—one […]