“When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.” – Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
Beneath by Ariel Sullivan
fiction / fantasy / romance / science fiction.
Twenty-three-year-old Sasha Cadell knows time is running out in the underground city, filled with survivors of the nuclear fallout six years ago. She works in the Expansion Sector, trying to escape the memories of those she lost. Her bleak existence is upended when Tristian Hayes, a stunningly handsome, frustratingly determined commander of the Force, recruits her to join him and his elite team of soldiers as they embark on a secret mission to the surface.
Sasha is thrust into brutal training with stakes far beyond mere survival. The fate of the remaining humankind depends on their success—or failure. As she confronts her own demons, Sasha finds both allies and foes in the training program, as well as a sizzling attraction between her and Tristian that threatens the walls she’s built around her heart.
But under the surface, secrets and deception run as rampant as illnesses. And not everyone will survive the rise of a power more terrifying than anything they’ve ever known.
Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict
fiction / historical fiction / mystery / suspense.
In the 1920s, archeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle made headlines around the world with the discovery of the treasure-filled tomb of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun. But behind it all stood Lady Evelyn Herbert―daughter of Lord Carnarvon―whose daring spirit and relentless curiosity made the momentous find possible.
Nearly 3,000 years earlier, another woman defied the expectations of her time: Hatshepsut, Egypt’s lost pharaoh. Her reign was bold, visionary―and nearly erased from history.
When Evelyn becomes obsessed with finding Hatshepsut’s secret tomb, she risks everything to uncover the truth about her reign and keep valued artifacts in Egypt, their rightful home. But as danger closes in and political tensions rise, she must make an impossible choice: protect her father’s legacy―or forge her own.
Propelled by high adventure and deadly intrigue, Daughter of Egypt is the story of two ambitious women who lived centuries apart. Both were forced to hide who they were during their lifetimes, yet ultimately changed history forever.
“A triumphant tale… you will be transported to the warm sands and pyramids of Egypt… Fascinating… Great escapist fiction.” – Allison Pataki, Today
“[Benedict] writes wonderful and well-researched historical fiction with real people as her subjects… Blending the best of her research and storytelling skills, Benedict delivers another page-turning adventure in Daughter of Egypt.” – Peggy Kurkowski, Historical Novel Society
“…Benedict evokes the excitement of archaeology in colonial Egypt with an abundance of lush details. There’s plenty to enjoy in this story of two women defying expectations.” – Publishers Weekly
Dig by J.H. Markert
fiction / horror / mystery / suspense.
Eight years ago, a boy took up an axe and slaughtered a dozen people. That odd, troubled boy, Jericho Dodd, has been dead and buried in his father’s yard for years, but ever since that massacre, Crow Island has been a dark and unsettling place.
When Jericho’s father begins digging up the past he buried, a compulsion to dig sweeps over the island and soon everyone else is obsessively churning up dirt, desperate to uncover buried secrets. The compulsion leads to violence and as neighbors turn against each other, the island’s famous tupelo honey, harvested from trees deep in a swamp, changes too.
As dread and paranoia seep up from the ground, it becomes clear that the island itself needs something from its residents–before it digs itself apart for good.
Be careful what you unearth from the dirt before this surreal horror novel can worm its way into you too.
“The dark history of the island and its eerie folklore settle in quickly, giving this horror tale a weight that makes every page turn feel even more unsettling. Dig set its hooks in early and never let up… It’s the kind of horror story that sticks with you, no pun intended, long after you close the book.” – Justin Soderberg, Capes & Tights
“Every layer uncovers another lie and another echo from centuries past… I’m not gonna lie — this one got under my skin. I had nightmares. I switched to daytime reading like a coward and still couldn’t look away. Markert, a Kentucky author with a fearless storytelling style, built a world soaked in atmosphere and dread. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your dreams, or what would happen if your worst one came true, Dig belongs on your list immediately.” – Teresa Brock, The Best Thriller Books
“…highly creative and original… blessed with a particularly powerful sense of the uncanny… a wildly creative novel and a fine addition to the back catalogue of an author who is ripe for discovery by a wider audience. Now where did I leave my shovel?” – Tony Jones, Horror DNA
The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez ★
fiction / romance / comedy.
In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything…
For Larissa, it came when choosing who to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great friends, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.
But she didn’t choose Chris to drive her home all those months ago—she went with his best friend, and he became her boyfriend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else.
How can something that feels so right be absolutely impossible?
“A compulsively readable slow-burn romance full of grown-up worries and plenty of pining.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“The palpable yearning and slow-burning sexual tension keep the pages flying. This is a winner.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“In turns heart-wrenching and humorous, tear-jerking and laughter-inducing, Jimenez’s latest is unputdownable until the inevitable, but seemingly impossible, HEA. Highly recommended…” – Heather Miller Cover, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“The slow-burn romance that develops between the two protagonists, who put aside their own chance at happiness to avoid hurting others, is handled with perfect panache, and Jimenez doesn’t take any shortcuts when it comes to the realistic challenges her characters face on the road to a happily-ever-after. Writing with a zingy sense of humor and commendable empathy about grief, addiction, and economic insecurity, Jimenez once again demonstrates a rare flair for love and laughter in this radiantly rewarding romance.” – John Charles, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Python’s Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich; illustrated by Aza Erdrich Abe ★
fiction / short stories.
It was as though I was chosen—marked out by the python’s kiss for wisdom or maybe sorrow. Or perhaps, I think now, a sense of the ridiculous in extremes of experience. Also, I hoped for a long life.
Written over the past two decades, Louise Erdrich’s magnificent story collection features a range of characters—a tribal newsletter editor whose son tells her a story that nothing in her experience can encompass, immigrant farmers whose tenuous hold on the earth, and sanity, is challenged, and ordinary people, bird lovers, artists, grade-school teachers, and romantics. A girl decides to spend her life with a stone. A man is confronted with a folk-singing thief. A woman enters a corporately owned afterlife to seek revenge on her father.
Accompanied by specially commissioned artwork by Aza Erdrich Abe—an intimate and revelatory creative collaboration between mother and daughter—these stories offer an opportunity to celebrate the wisdom and brilliant, wide-ranging imagination of one of America’s most important writers.
“…spectacular… With its range of voices and styles, this puts Erdrich’s powers on full display.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…enrapturing… incandescent… these profound and resplendent stories are shaped by wit, artistry, and wisdom as Erdrich traces the weave of life that intricately meshes humans with each other, animals, earth, sky, and spirit.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Beautifully illustrated by her daughter, this collection of short stories by the incomparable Louise Erdrich centers on themes of life and death, the real and the surreal, the mundane and the extraordinary. Erdrich brings her signature elegance and gritty honesty to each.” – Ms. Magazine
“Here readers will find [Erdrich’s] characteristic mix of sympathetic eccentrics, her knack for crafting compelling plots only polished and sharpened by the shorter form. And expect the occasional speculative leap, too — see: ‘Domain,’ with its wry glimpse of the digital afterlife that wouldn’t have felt out of place in an episode of Black Mirror.” – Colin Dwyer, NPR
Reparenting the Inner Child: The New Science of Our Oldest Wounds and How to Heal Them by Dr. Nicole LePera
nonfiction / psychology / self-help.
As adults, we often fall into patterns that feel irrational or out of character―shutting down, lashing out, people-pleasing, or self-sabotaging. Beneath those reactions lies our inner child, a younger part of us still trying to get its needs met the only way it knows how.
We all carry the imprint of our earliest years. Childhood is brief, yet its impact is lifelong. Some parts of us were met with love while other parts were met with silence, criticism, or disapproval. To survive, we learned to adapt―learning to over perform, to hide, or stay small. Most of us made it through with a mix of love and lack. And many of us still protect the parts of ourselves that once felt unsafe.
While we can’t change what happened, we can change how it lives within us and impacts our lives today. Reparenting the Inner Child offers a clear, compassionate path to self-integration, combining practical exercises, somatic tools, and guided reflections to help us create the safety, love, and boundaries we’ve always needed. Through her holistic framework that models individual development, Dr. LePera explains how we can cultivate the emotional maturity and regulation to respond calmly instead of reacting, to embrace desire instead of shame, and to question the stories we’ve long believed about who we have to be.
Enlightening, empowering, and clarifying, Reparenting the Inner Child is a book that will stand the test of time as a comprehensive guide for personal development and healing, and a resource that will forever change the way we understand ourselves.
“For anyone who wants to understand and change their emotional patterns, this thoughtful self-help book offers a clear and compassionate place to begin… a supportive, engaging read for anyone ready to build healthier relationships with themselves and others.” – Apple Books Review
Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar ★
fiction / short stories / fantasy / science fiction.
Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.
With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.
Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories includes “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” “The Green Book,” “Madeleine,” “The Lonely Sea in the Sky,” “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun,” “The Truth About Owls,” “A Hollow Play,” “Anabasis,” “To Follow the Waves,” “John Hollowback and the Witch,” “Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers,” “Pockets,” and more.
“…showcas[es] El-Mohtar’s characteristic lyricism and striking imagery. There’s not a false note here.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] gorgeous collection… El-Mohtar brings genuine storytelling talent paired with lush poetic language to deliver the kind of narratives her devotees have grown to love.” – Leah von Essen, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“An essential collection of work from one of today’s most poignant speculative writers. El-Mohtar creates immersive worlds with beautiful language.” – Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Seasons of Glass & Iron, in many ways, explores all the angles and parts within something that someone calls ‘girl.’ Imbued with magic and love for women, characters across worlds and time mutually inspire one another in their quests for home. Togetherness and the sum of parts become something more beautiful.” – Megan Otto, Chicago Review of Books
Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh
fiction / suspense / mystery.
One offers a helping hand. The other is your worst nightmare…
Social media influencer, Elly Parker, had the perfect life, that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend.
But as hurt, betrayed, unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. Even strangers.
When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him.
Just as he planned.
This small act of kindness sets off a change of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine.
To survive, Elly will need to convince the world what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.
“…fast-paced, full of tension and threat, literally a page turner.” – Tina Neylon, Irish Examiner
“There’s nary a dull moment in bestseller Cavanagh’s electrifying latest legal thriller… With relentless surprises and surprisingly sharp commentary on social media narcissism, this is sure to win Cavanagh new fans.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Intense, emotionally excruciating and ultimately satisfying, Two Kinds of Stranger is a masterful thriller that’s completely mental in the best of ways… This is another magnificently crafted story in the enthralling Eddie Flynn series, which has become one of my favorites in the legal/crime fiction genre for consistently delivering high intensity, gripping, twisting and satisfying tales with tremendous characters.” – Steven Netter, The Best Thriller Books
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher ★
fiction / horror / fantasy / historical fiction.
“I saw the devil in these woods.”
Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator―but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, or hope.
So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use.
Once there though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light, like what happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”
With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road. His ground-breaking discoveries come with a cost―one that Halder is paying with human flesh.
If Sonia can’t find a way to stop the monstrosity, she may be next under the knife.
“…hiding such sinister deeds, they can’t possibly be imagined before reading the final pages of the book.” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
“Atmospheric and perfectly paced, this gothic novel ratchets up the tension until it hits a delightfully horrifying crescendo that is very much not for the squeamish.” – Stephanie Klose, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Hugo and Nebula award winner Kingfisher adds a heaping helping of David Cronenberg’s style to her signature blend of humor and horror in this striking Southern gothic… Kingfisher teases out this mystery into perhaps her most viscerally terrifying tale to date. Readers will come away with new nightmares.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…none of her previous works prepared me for the chilling horror and absolute gut-churning insect-driven body horror delivered up in Wolf Worm… A delightfully cringe-inducing bit of historical horror, Wolf Worm is a startlingly effective novel with a memorable protagonist and an atmospheric gothic mystery structure.” – Josh Hanson, FanFiAddict
Wretch; or, The Unbecoming of Porcelain Khaw by Eric LaRocca ★
fiction / horror.
After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved… for a price.
Hallucinatory, fiendish, and destructively beautiful, Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.
“…devastating… LaRocca’s most interesting, philosophical, and conversation worthy novel to date.” – FanFiAddict
“Readers are immersed in Simeon’s messy but sympathetic point of view, the uneasy atmosphere enhanced with ephemera like chat transcripts, emails, and captivating stories on message boards as every detail introduced is laid bare in an unforgettable final scene. Best read in as few sittings as possible, this is an utterly original story that will leave readers transformed.” – Becky Spratford, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Patient, restrained, and woven throughout with notes of bleak beauty that whisper like dark silk, this is a new kind of Eric LaRocca novel, and it works quite well… a dark jewel of elegant, atmospheric prose and deliciously restrained terror. This is a culmination of LaRocca’s work so far, and deserves to be savored.” – Matthew Jackson, Bloody Disgusting
“The reflections of obsessions and the stunning metamorphosis of Simeon make for a deeply compelling and thought-provoking read, while showing with intense observation that how people remember those they’ve lost can rewrite the past. The book wonderfully manages to at once edify and sully readers and embraces the transgressive delights of writers such as Clive Barker, Kathe Koja, and William Joseph Martin.” – Jeremiah Paddock, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
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