This week, I’ve been thoroughly absorbed by Radu Guiasu’s powerful depiction of friendship and determination in The Faraway Mountains. The book explores the lives of several young people living under a communist dictatorship, splitting between a group of friends on an expedition up a mountain...

In The Belle of Oyster Bay by Angela Moody, the author has written a historically accurate period romance set during the War of Independence from England and King Georg III to become the America we now know. At that time the only inhabited area covered...

Lynne Kennedy's The Tree of Lost Secrets is a fascinating historical novel inspired by actual people, places, and events. In 2018, Helen Ainsley is a bestselling mystery writer who returns to her homestead, Ainsley Hill Farm, in Brattleboro, Vermont, to revitalize her writing. The farm...

Robert W Watson's The Epic of Gilgamesh is about an unlikely friendship forged between a king (Gilgamesh) and a man-beast, who is allowed to live among the human race. Unfortunately, the friendship does not last long because of some dangerous interactions the king and his...

Dmitry was starting to take too eagerly to the party's doctrine. He wanted to be a scientist like his uncle, and nothing would get in his way. Larysa and Vasyl are worried about their children, not just the increased tantrums by Dimitry but also the...

The Hummingbird and the Serpent is a work penned by E.S. Ramirez that combines historical fiction, interpersonal drama, and cultural issues. It is best suited to the mature adult reading audience owing to explicit discussions of slavery, scenes of violence, and other adult content. In...

Linda Joy Myers' The Forger of Marseille is set in WWII, as Europe falls into the terrifying grip of Hitler and Nazi Germany. The story is inspired by the historical figure of Varian Fry, an American journalist who helped countless refugees escape from France. Sarah...

Dickie Erman’s historical fiction novel, The Adventures of Sunny Washington, wastes no words and spares no feelings regarding the attitudes and treatment of black people by whites. So many times, I shook my head in disbelief, beginning with the heartbreak of Sunny’s mother when she...

The Golden Manuscripts by Evy Journey follows a young woman named Clarissa who feels connected to two medieval manuscripts and wants to solve the mystery around their disappearance in this sixth stand-alone book of the Between Two Worlds series. Two point-of-view characters narrate in the...

The Girl From Huizen is a historical fiction drama novel by Paulette Mahurin. Set in Nazi-occupied Netherlands in the 1940s, the story follows Rosamond Jansen (Roz), a young woman living on a farm in the small village of Huizen. Roz and her family feel disillusioned...