{"id":6942,"date":"2026-08-02T18:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6942"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:03:29","slug":"monthly-features-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6942","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Features \u2013 July\u00a02026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eidolon: From the Case Files of the OHR by C.L. Stiles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>When a man vanishes from a Kansas City diner \u2014 pulled through reality by forces no one can explain \u2014 Nathan Quipp knows it\u2019s only the beginning.<\/p>\n

As director of the\u00a0Office of Hidden Realms<\/span>, Nathan has spent his career keeping the supernatural world invisible to those who can\u2019t handle the truth. But something is moving even deeper beneath the surface. Ley lines are surging. Cross-realm incursions are rising. And a near-divine source whispers the need to find the missing man \u2014 the Eidolon.<\/p>\n

Now Nathan\u2019s team is scattered across two continents and twelve centuries, racing to piece together a mystery that reaches from the streets of Kansas City to ancient Stonehenge and back again. The Veiled world is fracturing. The Unveiled are running out of time.<\/p>\n

And something much older than the OHR is finally paying attention.<\/p>\n

Eidolon: From the Case Files of the OHR<\/span>\u00a0is the first installment of the OHR Case Files.<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>Eidolon<\/em>\u00a0is an urban fantasy\/paranormal mystery novel centered around the Office of Hidden Realms, a secret organization dealing with supernatural threats hidden beneath everyday life. The story mixes magical investigations, folklore, ghosts, fae, monsters, prophecies, and hidden conspiracies with a surprisingly emotional undercurrent about grief and identity. The tone balances humor, mystery, horror, and found-family energy while gradually building toward a much larger supernatural conflict. Readers who enjoy The Dresden Files, Supernatural, Men in Black-style organizations, SCP-style lore, paranormal procedurals, or ensemble urban fantasy casts will probably have a great time with this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

See the full review here:\u00a0Eidolon: From the Case Files of the OHR<\/a>
Purchase here<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Meaning of Androsia by Eric Bush<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>It was a time of steam locomotives and horses, of city-states and principalities ruled by monarchs \u2013 but it did not take place in the past. It was a time of civil war between Protestants and Catholics over direct access to the Messiah \u2013 but the Messiah wasn\u2019t Jesus. It was a place where Orthodox spires dotted the landscape, and people addressed each other with matronymics instead of patronymics \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t a Slavic country, or even in Europe or Asia. It was a culture that venerated the great writers and composers from prior centuries \u2013 but their names were not Bach, or Shakespeare, or Beethoven. And when mid-winter rolled around, everyone celebrated the traditional holiday by decorating fir trees \u2013 but it was not Christmas. In short, it was a time very much like past centuries of our own \u2013 except that it was different. Something had happened to change the course of history.<\/p>\n

Thus begins the story of Ilya Erynovich and Katerinya Emlynovna, a lifelong search for the meaning of something from the past. Ilya doesn\u2019t know where he came from, or how old he is. He seems to know things he couldn\u2019t possibly have learned. He has skills he couldn\u2019t possibly have acquired. He is sought out, and sometimes captured, by political and religious leaders, and constantly followed by anonymous stalkers.<\/p>\n

At first, he doesn\u2019t even know that he is Ilya. He wakes up one evening in a train station, unable to remember anything about himself, including his own name. As he searches for someone \u2013 anyone \u2013 who might know who he is, he encounters Katerinya, a young writer, who takes an interest in his predicament and offers to help. She takes him in, and although strangers, they soon develop a mutual affection that blossoms into love.<\/p>\n

This turns out to be good memory therapy for Ilya, and he recovers his knowledge of the last 20 years or so \u2013 but then it becomes stuck. He can\u2019t remember anything prior to that. And it soon becomes clear to them that Ilya\u2019s past self has left messages for his present self \u2013 there is something about the past that his present self needs to know \u2013 but the clues are cryptic and hard to decipher.<\/p>\n

Over the course of a 24 year love affair, buffeted by political and religious intrigue, two epidemics, and a civil war, Ilya and Katerinya finally figure out who he really is\u2026or was. But it\u2019s not what either had expected.<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>T<\/em>he Meaning of Androsia<\/em>\u00a0is an ambitious speculative mystery that combines post-apocalyptic science fiction, romance, political intrigue, religion, genetics, philosophy, and alternate future history. It follows an amnesiac professor trying to discover who he is and why people are pursuing him, only for that personal mystery to gradually uncover a much larger story about a civilization that lost most of its connection to its own past.<\/p>\n

I think this would especially appeal to readers who enjoy big-idea speculative fiction, stories about lost civilizations and reconstructed history, scientific mysteries, philosophical discussions about religion and knowledge, and slow-burning mysteries where seemingly minor clues eventually connect to a much larger explanation. Readers who enjoy a strong central romance alongside their science fiction may also really like Ilya and Katerinya. It will probably be a harder sell for readers who prefer very fast pacing or minimal exposition, because this is a long novel that frequently pauses the central plot for extended conversations about science, religion, history, literature, politics, and human behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

See the full review here: The Meaning of Androsia<\/em><\/a>
Purchase here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eidolon: From the Case Files of the OHR by C.L. Stiles I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Synopsis: When a man vanishes from a Kansas City diner \u2014 pulled through reality by forces no one can explain \u2014 Nathan Quipp knows it\u2019s only the beginning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}