This compact devotional debut offers Christian readers an appealing balance of biblical study and self-exploration as Sexton analyzes the “misinformation, myths, and flat-out lies surrounding who God is.” Each chapter examines common misconceptions related to Christian beliefs—ranging from understanding the personality of God to more weighty topics such as suicide and abuse—and Sexton offers contemplative activities to help readers “fight [their] battles and thoughts with God’s truth.” Sexton’s focus on self-compassion while teasing out the underlying factors driving certain behaviors is particularly helpful, as is her willingness to broach some challenging topics that many devotionals avoid.

Despite the guide’s brevity, readers will find it overflowing with useful information and exercises. Sexton urges transparency, using her own experience of sexual abuse as inspiration for readers to explore the traumas impacting their ability to lead a meaningful life, and she is careful to allow readers the space to individualize biblical concepts for their own needs. Those struggling with depression—including suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviors—will find Sexton’s welcoming attitude refreshing, and her acknowledgement that “life is hard, it is messy, and it hurts, but it is worth living” is comforting. She’s frank about the lies we often tell ourselves, such as “things will never be better” or “judging others is harmless,” and above all, she emphasizes the need for personal grace and empathy—alongside a solid sense of God’s love as unconditional and restorative.

Sexton’s journal prompts and guided learning questions—all accompanied by corresponding biblical verses and themes—will spark deep thought for readers, and there’s ample space to jot down notes and reflections. Backmatter is both practical and informative: Sexton lists potential alternatives to self-harm, several national resources (the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, among others), and recommendations for further study on setting healthy boundaries. This is a well-rounded, practical devotion that takes on critical issues in an inviting way.

Takeaway: This Christian devotional offers meaningful inspiration for real-life problems.

Great for fans of: Tanya Rad and Raquelle Stevens’s The Sunshine Mind, Priscilla Shirer’s Awaken.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Orr (The Executive Suite) crafts a cozy mystery that offers a fresh spin on the lengths we’ll go to for true love. A neighborhood dog digging up a human jawbone in idyllic Jensen Beach, Florida, gives the neighbors something to talk about—and sets off a disturbing series of events for Charlotte, whose Aunt Adeline just happens to own the bone-filled yard responsible for all the fuss. When Adeline goes missing, local law enforcement rings up Charlotte to fill her in on the investigation, and she’s shocked to discover there’s a whole host of human remains buried in her aunt’s yard.

The mystery’s standard fare here, but that doesn’t take away from the fun of unraveling Adeline’s past, particularly when Charlotte stumbles onto a cryptic poem and video log of her aunt’s seeming confession. While she’s deciphering her aunt’s clues, Charlotte gets caught up with local cop Derek—but just as things start to heat up between the two, Charlotte gets an ominous warning that there’s more to Derek than meets the eye. That suggestion sets up the novel for an unconventional twist in the end (some readers may be discomfited by revelations that keep it all in the family), but Orr keeps readers spinning with some considerable things-are-not-as-they-seem unveilings throughout.

The She Shed’s draw is undoubtedly Orr’s quirky characters. Adeline’s closest friends—“old-school Grateful Dead hippie” Randall, gal pal Millie, and the enigmatic, angry Betty—add plenty of fuel to the small-town fire, as does the questionable mayor, who’s formed his own vigilante squad to “protect women” but seems desperate to cover up the town’s slaveholding secrets at the same time. Readers will appreciate Orr’s tidy wrap-up of the murders, and most of the characters earn the happy ending they deserve; the town, however, turns out to be “full of skeletons—literally.” Backmatter includes entertaining recipes from one of the story’s main players.

Takeaway: A small-town mystery full of quirky characters and plenty of plot twists.

Great for fans of: Tracy Rees’s Hidden Secrets at the Little Village Church, Sheila Connolly’s Many a Twist.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The She Shed

Kaufer’s epic debut is a fantasy, the kickoff to a series, but readers might forget that in the first 150 or so pages as, Ana, a contemporary woman with a deep fear of intimacy after experiencing abuse, gets caught up in a slow-burn romance with Rafe, the out-of-nowhere protector who saves her from a mugger and then refuses to leave her side as she’s rushed to the hospital with a bullet wound. He’s still there for her when she’s discharged, tending to her, helping her handle the police detectives who insist her story doesn’t quite add up. He’s dashing but gentle, helping her heal, in every sense.

Readers will recognize plenty of warning signs about Rafe’s potential deeper motives, of course, as does Ana’s reporter roommate and only friend, Kara. Kara doesn’t trust Rafe but when called away on an assignment must ask him to watch over Ana, who has a history of self-harm. Kaufer drops hints about what might really be going on, but she immerses readers in uncertainty as Rafe and Ana explore a chaste but romantic intimacy. Perhaps to preserve the mystery, Kaufer writes from a brisk but distant third-person perspective, offering little interiority, so readers rarely are privy to what these characters are thinking.

That makes for fast reading, sometimes too fast, as confrontations with the cops, that mugger, and others pass too quickly to build tension. Eventually, Kaufer reveals the answers. It would be churlish to spell them out here, but readers should remember that, yes, this is a fantasy, with magic, questions of royal lineage, high stakes palace intrigue, a jeerable villain, and a dash of tragedy as the Maristellar Kingdom faces tumult and the story builds to a resonant cliffhanger. The choice to delay the introduction of these elements throws the book’s genre balance toward romance, but readers who love the blend will find much here that intrigues and engages.

Takeaway: A woman’s surprise romance with the man who saves her blooms into epic fantasy.

Great for fans of: Elsie Winters’s Leviathan’s Song, Sarah Zettel’s A Sorcerer’s Treason.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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Graham’s debut novella offers the haunting tale of a young woman reentering society and grappling with reality after experiencing wrenching trauma and loss as a girl. In Lancashire, England, Elise Rose's life is upended at the age of seven when she witnesses her mother's murder at the hands of a gentleman caller. Then, at the age of twenty, Elise is released into the custody of her grandfather, Emmett, at the end of a two year stay in a psychiatric unit after an episode of psychosis. When she stumbles upon a quaint house on Darcy Lane one day, with a bold red door and a pond out back, Elise becomes fixated with what the house symbolizes and the future she envisions.

Darcy Lane’s emotionally charged story pulses with themes of loss, redemption, and growth. While taking on weighty themes, Graham draws intriguing parallels between Elise's life and her mother's, from their strong resemblance to their decisions to trust the wrong people, creating suspense as the story progresses. The characters are both complex and relatable, their motivations, as in life, sometimes enigmatic. The prose, though, is pared down and brick-blunt: ”Stood at his bedroom window was Emmett. The two of them held stare for a moment.” Those sturdy sentences, though, can be at tense odds with the view of the world through Elise's eyes, as readers will at times wonder whether what she perceives is what’s truly happening. Graham also allows himself to change perspective within a chapter or even paragraph, which demands readers stay alert to keep up.

Those who do will find themselves rooting for the protagonist to break a generational cycle of mistakes and overcome the tragic setbacks of her childhood. The plot moves at a steady pace toward a conclusion that, in hindsight, feels inevitable and will please fans of humane, realistic fiction in which characters face traumatic pasts.

Takeaway: A moving novella of a young woman facing the lingering effects of childhood trauma.

Great for fans of: Amber McBride’s Me: Moth, Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces.

Production grades
Cover: C
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Darcy Lane

Read, seasoned author of Turning Points at Trial and other persuasion guides for attorneys, offers welcome expertise to anyone eager to improve their speaking skills, even the many who harbor fear at the very thought of giving a presentation. “Being true to yourself is the starting and ending point of this book,” he declares early on in this polished and practical guide, and he breaks that easier-said-than-done goal down into actionable, achievable steps that will give even the most anxious speakers a path to being their best at the podium or on the Zoom call. Public speaking is less a talent than a skill, Read argues, one that anyone can learn and hone with enough willingness, practice, and honest effort.

Demonstrating the kind of confident organizational clarity he urges readers to master, Read arranges the material into three sections— how to persuade, how to deliver your presentation, and how the masters persuade. He packs each with encouraging advice covering a host of topics (how to present without notes; what persuasive speakers need to understand about the brain; visual guides related to PowerPoint best practices) plus abundant sources, quotations, links to talks to study, and fresh, fascinating case studies from attorneys in the courtroom that illustrate the implementation of his methodology.

As the subtitle suggests, Read blends his own hard-won, up-to-date insights with tried-and-true techniques, from the Rule of Three to the “memory palace,” and he explores tools used by great orators throughout. His clear, engaging prose style and emphasis on the pragmatic makes this guide accessible to readers new to the art but also a resource for seasoned speakers, who will likely find illumination in advice on video meetings or his reconsideration of the importance of listening. Chapter summarizing road maps and checklists and a thorough index and table of contents increase the book’s utility.

Takeaway: A courtroom persuasion expert’s illuminating guide to persuasive public speaking.

Great for fans of: Carmine Gallo’s Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, Mike Acker’s Speak With No Fear.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Winning at Public Speaking

Zellgert (The Adventures of Randy trilogy) draws on personal experience with loneliness and depression to craft an emblematic and relatable science fiction journey. The story centers on Stewart, a man who lived in a world without color. Everything was white, with only the black outlines showing edges and corners that were anything other than white. That was until a little girl, running from a policewoman, slipped an orb into Stewart’s pocket. It wasn’t until he was home and pulled the orb out of his pocket that he found it lit up the world in color. Thus begins Stewart’s mission of keeping color in his life and fighting off the frightening forces eager to see everything vibrant drained away.

Stewart floats through outer space in a space suit, facing scary and dangerous figures who want him to fail and give up on himself. Zellgert introduces evils like “Iniquitous” and “Dr. Despondency,” who assail Stewart with the kind of thoughts that come with depression, like “nobody likes you” and “you don’t deserve to live.” Yet these negative figures are regularly scared away by those like The Four Artists, who show Stewart light and color and where to go to escape the darkness. Equally important, Stewart meets friends in space who make him feel less alone, and need his help fighting too.

Although abstract in presentation, Zellgert never pushes the symbolic nature of the story to the point where it’s confusing to follow. Readers who can relate to the challenges Stewart faces will find wisdom and encouragement in this treatment of the hurdles created by depression, anxiety, and loneliness, especially as Zellgert shows how those hurdles can be overcome—and, crucially, that sometimes Stewart has to try more than once. When he falls off the path of light, he gets the help he needs to find his way back. Both science fiction and full of heart, this will be a relatable journey many will find inspiring.

Takeaway: A relatable, even inspiring science fiction depiction of depression and loneliness.

Great for fans of: Emma Newman’s Planetfall, Victor LaValle’s The Devil in Silver.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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In Sanders’ disquieting plunge into the murderous mind, young women have been disappearing in an idyllic New Hampshire town, and nobody knows when the serial killer called the Huntsman and his Rohypnol-laced apples will strike again. ICU nurse Max Mason thought he’d seen the worst of humanity in Afghanistan, but he wasn’t prepared for the Huntsman to kidnap his pregnant wife, Annie, or for the prime suspect, Lincoln Douglas Raider, to fall into his lap as a coma patient. Annie’s location remains a mystery, but Max, striking up a relationship, tells Linc that he has a secret of his own: he, too, is a killer, and they could be amazing partners, except for Linc’s wife, Jolene, newborn daughter, Rosy, and Max’s detective sister, Darby.

As with the Huntsman in Snow White, themes of jealousy and love drive the plot: the Huntsman, stalking unsuspecting women; Max, willing to do whatever it takes to find his missing wife; Jolene, frantic for her ideal family life; Darby, hunting the Huntsman; and Linc, living on a farm that Sanders makes richly creepy, seeming to confess to crimes of his own. Sanders teases out the mysteries with an emphasis on suspense rather than serial-killer gore. Max’s narration is compelling, and the compassion he feels for his accidental friends proves affecting, but readers will likely have a sense of what shoe’s going to drop quite a while before it finally does. The final act, though, is gripping, and the novel is powered by fleet, sharp-edged scenes, memorable dialogue, and pared-down prose tinged with dark poetry.

The complexity of Max and Linc’s relationship elevates the mystery into something like a duel or even a suspenseful courtship, as Sanders challenges and rewards readers’ expectations—and empathy. The element of found family is unsettling, as is the detachment with which Linc prepares a rabbit stew—“Skinned, Fluffy has disappeared. It’s just meat”—and discusses coyotes’ zeal for blood. Such scenes pulse with nervy power.

Takeaway: The tense story of a desperate infiltration into the farm, life, and mind of a potential serial killer.

Great for fans of: Alaina Urquhart’s The Butcher and the Wren, Devashish Sardana’s The Girl in the Glass Case.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Jones (Forever Yours) delivers a clever and electrifying adventure on an alternate Earth alive with shapeshifters and volatile politics. A civil war has trapped bear shifter Dr. Teresa Pérez-Soto and her clinic filled with human, bear, and elephant shifter orphans. Fayola, an ultra dangerous impundulu—a large bird shifting telepath who drinks blood—is on a mission from her government, The United Wake of Benekal, to extract the doctor from the war zone but not the children. Successfully completing this last mission will free Fayola from her mandatory military service and allow her to return to her beloved father. Always stalwart, this time she shows empathy when human child Jwahir calls her “Dela Eden,” her savior, and Fayola risks everything to transport the children to safety.

Adhering to her mantra, “The better a soldier I become, the easier the missions will be, and the quicker I’ll be able to return home,” Fayola is an imposing figure in her human form and nearly indestructible in her bird form, with huge wings, a beak that can penetrate elephant hide, and the ability to generate golden lightning. At the start Jones focuses on developing the strong female characters and the intricate world building, though the plot accelerates when The Wake’s leaders, intrigued by Fayola’s empathy and negotiating skills, choose not to court martial her. Instead, she’s assigned to the new Criminal Exploitation Unit to save children in trouble. These include Jwahir, who sends word that her adoptive bear shifter father is abusing her.

Jones masterfully constructs an original world of extraordinary shapeshifters, a militaristic society, a rich political environment, and a mission to combat human trafficking. With a nod to the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jones sets a diverse cast in an immersive, compelling world in a story that evokes loyalty and the desire to do good. Readers will find this a winner.

Takeaway: Science fiction fans will embrace the strong female lead and unique shapeshifters in this adventure with a heart.

Great for fans of: Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child, Robert McCammon’s The Wolf’s Hour.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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The fiction debut from Cawthon (author of Origins & Faith) lives up to its title with its beautiful juxtaposition of loss, empathy, and courage, all set in a neighborhood neatly sewn together by Cawthon’s warm storytelling. Present day Savannah is home to a low-income family teetering on the brink of ruin with matriarch Jolene terminally ill and son Billy Ray adapting to manhood as a teenager whose father has deserted them. Immediate concerns for his younger brother and dodging family conflicts weigh down Billy Ray from the start. Cawthon invites readers to walk alongside Billy Ray on his many trials, observing tough decision-making, reveling in the young man’s strength, and witnessing his maturation and the development of his moral character.

Bullying surfaces in many interactions between characters, a theme that does not discriminate on age, relation, or circumstance. Confrontations at school with peers occur frequently, while at home he faces all-too-common altercations instigated by his uncle. But vital moments of tender honesty between Billy Ray and his steadfast supporter Aunt Becky give depth to their family’s complex relationships. With direct prose and clear love for his characters, Cawthon blends sometimes painful realism with an abiding belief in resilience and the selflessness of the best of humanity.

Cawthon throws many obstacles at his protagonist, some devastating and violent. But through it all the theme of “how to keep faith in the face of fear” powers the story. The author’s also attentive to problems that can seem minor by comparison, such as Billy Ray’s embarrassment for being “some sort of freak” for having an old flip phone—later, it’s with the greatest elation that he receives a laptop as a Christmas gift. Such sweet moments bring solace. Readers who relish stories of good people finding their path, with prayer and lots of heart, will want to walk this street.

Takeaway: The ultimately heartening story of an impoverished Savannah coming of age.

Great for fans of: Rose Betit’s Sparrows, V. L. Brunskill’s Waving Backwards.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Voorhees puts a poetic form typically associated with comic doggerel to dedicated spiritual purpose in this urgent, charming collection of limericks, arranged to suggest the stages of a life and a path toward enlightenment. Opening with stanzas about living in a sleep-like state—in which people are “Avoiding the ache/ Of being awake”—The Garden Path then journeys on, chapter by chapter, charting a seeker-to-be’s development, from first recognizing a need for something more nourishing from this life (“The bird in the ribcage must fly/ But fearful of making a try”) to tentative first steps (“Shun greedy confusion!/ Drop that illusion!”) and beyond. At long last, in the ninth chapter, the seeker stands confidently before “the image of eternity” knowing that “A sensitive mind/ will find if inclined/ A ship to sail this endless sea.”

There’s an inspired tension between the limerick form, so rigid and predictable, and the searching, consciousness-expanding material. Voorhees acknowledges this with an imprecation, in introductory material, to “learn the difference between container and content.” Since the time of Edward Lear, limericks have encouraged readers to enter a spirit of anticipatory play, their minds reaching ahead to what the final rhyme might be. By contrast Voorhees tends to place less emphasis on the last word—the container—and more on the ideas—content—throughout, inviting readers to search for deeper meaning rather than a punchline.

Tasteful sketches accompany verses about what “bozos” we can be and the effort it takes to “attain the goal/ Becoming human, free and whole.” To fit the rhyme and meter Voorhees isn’t afraid to bend language and grammar, though it seems churlish to complain when the limericks encourage a state of contemplative reverie—and when it’s the content that counts. A concluding essay, “Seeking Truth in Dangerous Times,” is illuminating, especially when Voorhees, a mathematician, contemplates the mathematics of infinity, through the lens of Omar Khayyam.

Takeaway: Inspiring limericks that follow and encourage a spiritual awakening.

Great for fans of: The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse, Omar Khayyam.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Garden Path

This collection of uplifting poetic “reflections” from Wilburn takes its title literally. The first poems here center on the act of contemplating one’s self in a mirror, each building to a celebration of deeper qualities than might be apparent on the surface: character and class rather than passing beauty, which Wilburn casts as “vain,” and the assurance, as a Christian, of having a “purpose and plan/ One that is not chosen by man.” The declarative narrative poems that follow describe, in loose and personal lines that alternate between couplets and free verse, relatable scenarios, like making the transition to being a stay-at-home wife and mother after decades of teaching (“I wash, I iron, and I put things away./ The pleasure of it all is doing things my way.”) or facing “The Math Problems of Everyday Life.” That entry’s powered by the fun conceit of applying mathematical logic to the kind of problems Wilbur addresses throughout the book: “Take away pain and sorrow and multiply your faith.”

That faith is the strong throughline of the pieces collected here, expressed with both exultant pleasure (“Living the Christian Songs of Life” playfully builds a declaration of belief from song titles) and a sense of hard-won advice: “Call on Jesus so you don’t go wrong,” she writes in “Communications,” a poem that opens as a consideration of how humanity sends messages to each other but then twists to emphasize that greater concern.

Readers of faith looking for warm, inviting poems connected to everyday life (one entry cautions not to “get upset” when lost and confused in a crowded city) and an emphasis on abiding Christian convictions will find Wilburn’s light verse appealing and often touching. The meter and rhyme schemes tend toward the fluid, but this is conversational self-expression, best read out loud, capturing the spirit of what moves and concerns a pure heart.

Takeaway: Touching light verse contemplating a Christian woman’s faith, days, and self.

Great for fans of: Morgan Harper Nichols, Julie C. Gilbert’s Made to Praise.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B

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This page-turning historical thriller from Lubitz (Breaking Free) offers crime, court drama, and restitution in satisfying measure. One night in 1948, Billy Dalton saves Lacey Evers and her baby from a fiery car on a North Carolina roadside. The mother-daughter pair disappears, and Billy passes out. Once he’s conscious, the authorities inform him he imagined the scene. It’s clearly a cover-up, but he’s no match for the sadistic Sheriff Huck Harkins and his lecherous judge brother who lord over Kane County like mobsters. More than a decade later, Lacey finds Billy and recounts the scandalous incidents of that night. They unite against the Harkins in court, risking their lives and the safety of their loved ones.

With pulse-thumping action and strong characterization, Lubitz dramatizes racism and corruption in the South leading up to and during the Civil Rights era. Billy’s and Lacey’s points of view alternate every few chapters, revealing dysfunctional family histories before their life paths join. Although Lacey’s tale is sensational, Billy shines as an unhappily married alcoholic consumed by repressed anger who gropes for happiness. Disfigured by the burning car, Billy can’t help but engage in self-sabotage when faced with others’ kindness, until the crucible of the Korean War reframes his existence so that he finally welcomes a fulfilling life. His quiet awakening and Lacey’s decision to fight for justice are satisfying in themselves, as is the accompanying suspense. How will they avenge themselves against the unyielding political machine?

Billy and Lacey’s shift from victims to survivors and then agents of restitution entertains yet highlights American atrocities like lynching. The story is a study in how exposing crime dismantles a community until oppressed are empowered. Told in straightforward language and boasting a cast of well-drawn side characters, this crime-court drama will please fans of American historical fiction and law-and-order aficionados.

Takeaway: A page-turning thriller about crime, corruption, and justice in the midcentury South.

Great for fans of: John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, Susan Carol McCarthy’s Lay the Trumpet in Our Hands

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Night of the Burning Car

A sumptuous epic of dark romance set in the wild American West and centered on a young woman, a notorious outlaw, and a courtly man of wealth, Maraziotis’s sprawling debut is the kind of book whose ideal reader will happily spend a season in it. Running more than 750 pages, with much to be resolved in future books, Haunt both challenges and rewards in its uncompromising ambition, its lyric prose and surging emotions, its slowly teased secrets, wrenching violence, and—to borrow Maraziotis’s phrase—"lustful tenderness.” It’s at times familiar, with a simmering love triangle and scenes of frontier rescues, yet it’s too original to settle into any genre, as Maraziotis spices the tale with adventure, romance, tragedy, and even horror.

Mac, the strapping man who saves protagonist Charlotte from a bear attack, is considered a “degenerate, a cold-blooded killer.” After time in his “shadowy aura,” Charlotte—herself falsely accused of manslaughter—will face imprisonment, assault, and other dire predicaments. Maraziotis doesn’t shy away from the grisly or taboo: to free herself from captivity, Charlotte seduces a machete-wielding guard while their naked bodies are “covered in the murderous blood and evil stains of human debris.”

That’s perhaps the least sexy clinch in a novel that generates legitimate heat, especially after a second male lead, ranch owner William Griffiths, pleads Charlotte’s innocence. Will’s got secrets of his own but is gentleman enough, in a scene of sparkling turned-on comedy, to refuse a whiskey-drunk Charlotte’s affections despite what he calls “the tormenting stiffness that nearly bursts my virile member asunder.” Maraziotis digs into the men’s pasts in flashbacks, ensuring each is as developed and compelling as Charlotte. Fast-paced scenes and inventive perils keep the pages turning despite the novel’s length. Campfires, shootouts, and equine companionship are given fresh excitement, and the epic scope, darkness, and refusal to stick to familiar beats will please readers who relish immersive, provocative romance-tinged storytelling.

Takeaway: This epic, lyric adventure blends dark romance, horror, and a Wild West love triangle.

Great for fans of: Diana Gabaldon, Téa Obreht’s Inland.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Haunt

Holden’s high-tech, near-future geopolitical thriller starts a series and, as it hits the highs that have long set Holden’s books apart, stands as an inviting jumping-on point for new readers. Here’s all the inventive full-throttle action, multifaceted perspectives of suspenseful global conflicts, and convincingly detailed weapons technology—always described on-the-fly, dazzling without slowing down the story. Aggressor’s a treat for readers who, like Holden’s charismatic pilot Karen “Bunny” O’Hare, want to get into the air already but also want to believe in the hardware. Set in 2036, Aggressor takes off quick. Aggressor Inc., a private military contractor (motto “We Bring It”), has been providing fighter jets and training to Taiwan, but now an Aggressor team is trapped there behind a Chinese blockade.

True to its name, though, the company is pushing matters: having secured an extension on its contract, Aggressor plans to sneak more planes to the island—chief among them a next-gen stealth fighter, the Black Widow. That setup means daring infiltration as tensions mount in Washington, Beijing, and the U.N., and Holden blends the excitement of the mission—and the inevitable complications—with passages from the perspective of all interested parties, including the Chinese. Holden, as always, avoids stereotypes, and his Bunny proves an arresting hero. She “burns” to fly fast and proves capable of quick, decisive action on air, land, and sea.

The pace is quick, but Holden studs the tale with resonant grace notes that make its future conflict feel real. As the British get embroiled, and China threatens war, readers get fascinating asides about hypersonic weapons systems, the divergent development of AI in the East and West, what a campaign to air-drop supplies into Taiwan would look like, and a Pentagon official’s consternation at the impact of global conflict on his 401(k). But it’s crisp, thrilling action and an appealing new cast that makes this one soar.

Takeaway: This superior near-future tech-thriller finds fighter pilots infiltrating a blockaded Taiwan.

Great for fans of: Paco Chierici’s Lions of the Skies, J.D. Narramore’s The Nameless Height.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Aggressor

This inviting but provocative exploration of consciousness, reality, and how the former shapes the latter finds Eisenberg (Inner Spaces: Parapsychological Explorations of the Mind) again drawing on ancient wisdom, contemporary science, and cross-cultural spiritual teachings, this time to make the case that “the only thing we can possibly know to be true is that we are experiencing awareness of being aware as our present reality.” Eisenberg plunges deeply into evidence that our existence and the world we perceive have their source in “an underlying universal field of consciousness of a universal consciousness” and also into the practical questions this raises: how should we live, both as individuals and as members of a society whose “predatory-exploitative mindset …has endangered the entire web of life and is leading us to the point of human extinction”?

Eisenberg, of course, has spent half a century pursuing questions of higher consciousness and what it means for us all, and Dream It to Do It lays out a compelling argument in quick, conversational chapters that will communicate clearly to both seasoned seekers and novices alike. For Eisenberg, reality not being what we think it is represents the potential for breakthroughs: if consciousness—that is, the imagination—is responsible for our “consensual” shared existence, then it must also be “the source of everything that we’ve developed,” including scientific discoveries. Imagination, he argues, can quite literally shape reality.

Eisenberg ‘s guidance on how readers can feel a connection to this universal consciousness and perhaps shape some reality themselves, meanwhile, is comfortingly familiar: meditation (“the ultimate brain hack”), manifesting (rooted in “the Shamanistic practice of “dreaming the world into being”), and more. That familiarity, and the commonalities he draws between global religions, is for Eisenberg more evidence, proof that we can transcend “the egoic self–level of individual consciousness.”

Takeaway: Seekers will find this exploration of reality and collective consciousness illuminating and hopeful.

Great for fans of: Stanislav Grof’s The Way of the Psychonaut, Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Debut novelist McAnam offers a unique romance, flashing between a woman’s battle with dementia, her father’s battle with the same illness, and her successful career running a five-star hotel and her discovering romance while in her sixties. Charlotte O’Malley relishes her satisfying career at the Tiffany Hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota, and though she occasionally wishes she had found her soul-mate, she enjoys her friendship with best friend and assistant Christopher. As her father’s dementia worsens, Charlotte faces the reality of her father not recognizing her. When she meets Lutheran pastor Brandon Peterson while staying at a resort on Lake Superior, Charlotte is surprised by her almost instant attraction to him, feeling as though she has found the perfect man. There’s a catch, though—he’s married, leaving Charlotte feeling guilt and pain.

McAnam’s senior romance capably highlights the allure and physical attraction between Charlotte and Brandon and the ensuing complications, focusing on her timeless beauty and the empowerment she feels as a result of her life experiences. During the on-again, off-again relationship, Charlotte meets Stefan, a trail guide at the lake resort, as they enjoy hikes together and cement their relationship. As Charlotte encounters further tragedies, Brandon returns, and through it all McAnam touchingly depicts her sensuality and femininity, a refreshing departure from the typical portrayal of over-sixty women as merely senior citizens.

McAnam also highlights Charlotte’s struggle with the sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father. This material is thoughtful and humane as Charlotte reconciles her concern for her father with the reality that, due to the disease, he is no longer the same person who abused her, even as she still bears the physical and emotional scars. McAnam’s richly drawn novel, complete with enigmatic characters who face real-life struggles, is sure to resonate with romance fans of all ages.

Takeaway: Flashbacks reveal how a woman with dementia’s rewarding career and romances in her sixties.

Great for fans of: Pamela M. Kelley’s The Nantucket Inn, Julia Clemens’s Sunset on Whistling Island.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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