Highly atmospheric and elegantly written, The Brute: A Novel by Mike Klaassen is a young adult novel that is as mesmerizing as it is deeply affecting, exploring a young man’s journey to what really defines him when a tempest hits a campsite. On a prairie...

Cedar Springs High students Zelda, Sabrina, Andrew, Gabby, and Justin are the ones everyone around them－peers, parents, and teachers－deem as lost causes, which rightly gives this YA mystery thriller its title. Two undercover FBI agents, Ryan Nash and Patricia Nichols, summoned them to a ‘group-therapy...

The Deception by Lauren Hudson is the second book in the Ascension trilogy. Now with their arch enemy Jane defeated and the Asterian race saved, triplets Felix, Jink, and Desdemona try to return to normality. Now, back in The House, they must enter a competition...

The Jack Creek Horror: A Novel by CJ Coombes is a great treat for fans of horror fiction, a narrative with powerful environmental themes and great potential for entertainment. Harold Sweeny owns the County Chronicle and when he invites his friend Cory Ballard for dinner,...

Set against the backdrop of the summer of 1956 on a farm in Michigan, with reminiscences of WWII and the threat of nuclear war, The Cherry Pickers by Gregory C. Randall is a coming of age story that follows the life of Howie, a teenage...

In The Unicorn Tree by Cynthia Collins, 17-year-old Lisa Duncan misses her older brother, Matt, who’s one of the crew of the clipper ship Northern Star, embarking on a voyage across the Atlantic. She and her friends visit a 19th-century estate known as Mirabelle Manor,...

The Great and the Small by A.T. Balsara is an amazing book. On one level, it’s the story of intelligent rats, told from their point of view through vivid descriptions and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations. All of that, however, is on the surface. Beneath the warm...

The Pious Insurrection: The Reaping by Dexter Morgenstern is a fast paced fantasy novel of high adventure that begins at the monks' temple on the island of Regnarov. The story opens with a rainstorm. The fearsome reptile creatures with human heads, the nagas, attack and...

Tested by Connie Cockrell is a sci-fi story with strong hints of a dystopian element. Readers are introduced to two young characters, Alyssa and Kyra, navigating a desolate landscape and abandoned neighborhoods. After experiencing the cold of winter and relying on campfires for a long...

The Abyss of Lumberwitch by Dom Cutrupi opens The Abyss Series and it’s a great story in the young adult fantasy genre but it also has hints of science fiction and adventure. The story begins with how Jonathan Brick, journalist for Seattle’s Daily News first...