Book Reviews
Explore thoughtfully curated book reviews that help you discover your next favorite read.
Nurturing Decent Human Beings: The Case for Moral Education in Our Schools, by Michael Nill | Book Review
There are some books that you would never see yourself reading, but end up picking up for whatever reason and really enjoying them anyway. Michael Nill’s Nurturing Decent Human Beings: The Case for Moral Education in Our Schools is one of those…
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Unacknowledged, by TJ Blaines | Book Review
TJ Blaines’ Unacknowledged is a debut thriller that immediately announces itself with ambition, with a strong female protagonist and delivering no shortage of adrenaline-charged moments. On the surface, it is a high-tech military thriller packed with acronyms, weapons systems, and covert operations.…
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Editor's Pick
The Shadowbound Fates, by R. S Meander | Book Review
The Shadowbound Fates is an ambitious dark fantasy debut from biologist-turned writer R.S. Meander. Perhaps drawing his scientific sensibility and a taste for the mythic, the novel is set in the sprawling world of the Empiriac of Phylaxus. It opens in scripture-like…
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…Because He Was Evil, by Domenico Del Re—Book Review
…Because He Was Evil is the debut novel from Domenico Del Re, the pseudonym for an anonymous European writer with German and Italian roots. It opens with a punch. Young Lucia, an innocent young girl anticipating her birthday celebration, discovers her parents…
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Cracks: Book One in the Saga of the Spheres, by L.A. Prendergast | Book Review
What if a man’s drowning breath was not an ending, but a doorway to another type of existence? This is the electrifying premise of Cracks, Houston-based writer L.A. Prendergast’s ambitious debut novel, a fantasy novel that largely trades sword-and-sorcery spectacle for something…
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Blood Tide, by Daniel Douglas | Book Review
There’s something satisfying about a noir that knows exactly what it is. Daniel P. Douglas’s new novelette, the pen name of identical twins Phil and Paul Garver, Blood Tide doesn’t apologize for its cigarette smoke and rain-slicked streets, doesn’t try to subvert the…
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Editor's Pick
All You Need Is Love, by Meg Macy | Book Review
All You Need Is Love is a new contemporary romance novel set in Ann Arbor from Meg Macy, author of the Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear series. Clearly a genre pivot for the author, at its centre is Jack Riley, a former actor…
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Captain Spaghetti & The Well-behaved Princess: The Mozzarella Heist, by Karyn Wills | Book Review
In her new children’s book, Karyn Wills has crafted a delightfully absurd children’s adventure that reads like a cross between Roald Dahl’s mischievous humor and the zany cartoon logic of Captain Underpants. The Mozzarella Heist is the kind of book that will…
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The Seer’s Curse, by A. K. Nikole | Book Review
The Seer’s Curse is the debut book from A.K. Nikole, a YA fantasy novel that weaves together multiple timelines in a fantasy romance that will have younger readers glued to their books. The novel operates on two primary plot threads: Rune’s contemporary…
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Editor's Pick
Vampire so Virtuous, by Margot Arden | Book Review
Margot Arden’s Vampire so Virtuous operates on a deceptively simple premise: what happens when predators develop moral codes? The question drives this dual narrative thriller which follows Cally, a Boston taekwondo instructor navigating terrible dates and inexplicable nightmares, and Antoine, a centuries-old…
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