Spiral is a work of fiction in the thriller genre. It is aimed at older readers and was penned by Khaled Talib. The book follows pharmacist Laurence Turner who is seeking a fresh start in South Australia after the death of his fiancée and the...

Spa Girl by Virginia Gray is a women’s fiction novel based on the true story of a young Chinese woman, Mei Zi. Growing up, Mei’s family constantly struggled, even though they worked very hard to survive. As she grows older and with not many educational...

Saints and Martyrs, a debut novel by Aaron Roe, is essentially a coming-of-age story…with an interesting twist. The coming-of-age that the protagonist, Damian Kurt undergoes is enlightenment about the Catholic Church’s religious control which his well-intentioned mother has been exerting over him and his younger...

"Stan the bacteria man had a very bacteria plan, that man." This recurring sentence in Stephen M. A.'s novelette Stan, Stan, the Bacteria Man summarizes better than anything else the plot of the entire book. But what is Stan the Bacteria Man's plan? And will...

Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel by Alice McVeigh grants a fresh look at some of the characters of Jane Austen novels in their earlier years. Recently expelled from Mrs. Ansruther's school, sixteen-year-old Susan Smithson returns to London, only to find herself embroiled in yet another...

Scorn of Secrets by B. Truly is a mesmerizing coming-of-age story with strong themes and elaborately developed characters. When Madison Guillory’s father dies leaving a huge gambling debt behind, her mother doesn’t wait long to start dating again. After just a few months, she introduces...

Sundays at Simone’s by Thomas Bauer is a first-person novel that reads almost like a memoir. Our narrator and protagonist is Michael McDowell, well versed in all things music, especially classical, the Los Angeles environs, film and theater, and food (especially Italian). He is also...

In Shadows in Our Bones by Tamara Merrill, Georgia O’Brien is a thirty-four-year-old professor who is very outspoken when it comes to issues of racial prejudice. When her mother is diagnosed with cancer, she begins a journey that will trace her lineage that she had...

Starvation by Molly Fennig is a YA novel that addresses realistic issues and presents elaborately developed and compelling characters. Sixteen-year-old Wes McCoy has never been the favorite of the family. His brother, Jason, who is the apple of everyone’s eye, dies in a car accident...

Stepping Into the Fire: A Journal about Growing-up in Appalachian Ohio by Steven P. Keller is an incisive book that explores the author’s memoirs and experiences of Ohio. The story features some of the favorite people in the life of the narrator and presents their...