“Sometimes we must do things we otherwise would not.” So says Josef Haupt, the father in Wells’s pained and polished debut, as he makes a choice that pierces the conscience—and, to his mind, saves his family. This incisive historical coming-of-age novel dares to examine the unthinkable: the life of a Catholic family in German-controlled East Prussia whose father, despite hating Hitler and “the silly spectacle of Nazism,” feels compelled to accept a position of power in the local Reich. For Josef, becoming the local Ortsbauernführer is a reluctant compromise to protect the farm and family he loves, to maybe get a new road to his property, and to keep himself out of a Nazi prison.

Compromises beget more compromises, of course. Wells understands that readers will anticipate the horrors to come, and Good Town stirs an anxious empathy as the war, the Reich, and the Haupts’ lives all get inevitably worse. Josef tries to shield his family from world-shaking events, and teach them what it takes to survive, his wife Dorothea finds her illusions about human decency shattered, especially as the Jews in their town endure cruel persecution and then pogroms. The Haupt children, meanwhile, ask hard questions and try to live normal lives, but the Reich keeps lowering the draft age. Throughout, the Haupts strive to navigate each new danger and preserve some semblance of normalcy, only slowly understanding that there’s always worse to come—and that even compromise won't exempt from tragedy.

The material is challenging and upsetting, as Wells examines the hardest of questions: why did good people in good towns seem to do nothing to stop the Nazis? The answers—fear, hope, incredulity, a refusal to give up on hard-won safety and security—are moving and understandable yet, in Wells’s assured telling, also intentionally never quite satisfying. As daughter Margarete matures, the world comes crashing down. Wells movingly depicts Margarete’s will to live and the lessons she’s learned, lessons that resonate with urgent power.

Takeaway: Moving, accomplished novel of a German family’s compromises in WWII.

Comparable Titles: Irmgard Keun’s After Midnight, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.

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

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Kelly (author of the Sam Quinn series) kicks off this paranormal romance series with a spirited defense of the villain from The Little Mermaid and then the introduction of a wicche artist named Arwyn and a construction working werewolf named Declan. Together they take on familial expectations, a dangerous sorcerer, and the nebulous evil slowly poisoning the local community in the first book of the Sea Wicche Chronicles. Arwyn just wants to finish the renovations to her new art gallery/studio space, but when a police officer shows up to beg her to use her clairvoyance to help locate a missing boy, she’s drawn into a dangerous mystery. Declan, meanwhile, is a transient werewolf who only wants to pick up a construction job or two and move on before he gets embroiled in local pack politics.

Kelly’s story is fast-paced and polished, boasting underwater wonder (including Cecil, Arwyn’s octopus bestie) unexpected magic, and emotional jolts, all powered by a savvy sense of genre expectations and when to spring a surprise. The leads are brought together by the work that needs to be done to rebuild the dock behind the gallery space, and readers may wonder at Declan’s motivations as he inserts himself into Arwyn’s life and her personal business—is he just that entranced by her? Though they snap and snipe engagingly at each other, Declan sets everything else aside to follow and support Arwyn as she is forced by necessity to take her place as a leader of her family’s coven.

Touchingly, Declan becomes a pillar of support for Arwyn when her aunt is magically attacked and left comatose, and the two develop a relationship complicated and made possible by a clever twist: Declan’s unconscious ability to suppress Arwyn’s magic and prevent her from being constantly caught up in unwanted visions. This story hits all the right beats for a paranormal romance, and the complicating factors make the prospect of future books enticing.

Takeaway: This enticing series starter takes a werewolf under the sea.

Comparable Titles: Anna Banks, Jennifer Donnelly’s Waterfire Saga.

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

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Hewitt’s third thriller starring Essie Openwaters, a half-Native American research scientist now turned agent of the U.S. Department of Energy, again finds Essie drawing on her expertise in chemical engineering and earth sciences (she holds two Stanford PhDs) in the race to thwart a terrorist threat. This time the trouble is stolen plutonium, enough “to incinerate several cities,” possibly funded by Essie’s billionaire adversary, Ty Rettig, a fugitive from justice who spends his time torturing women who look like Essie. Once she and an alphabet soup’s worth of federal agencies turn up evidence that the errant plutonium will be used in a terrorist attack just three months away, Essie must find a way to save the day despite her rookie status, her inexperience handling complex bureaucratic politics, and—most pressingly—the fact that powerful forces, possibly within the government, are attempting to frame her.

An expert in chemical and nuclear engineering himself, Hewitt excels at depicting the shoe-leather work of discovering a problem at a nuclear processing facility, tracking how material could be stolen and shipped, and gaming out the uses to which it could be put. Scenes of Essie piecing things together and discovering exploitable weak points in the systems that run our world are exciting, illuminating, and persuasive—this material rings true. More fanciful elements, such as assassination attempts or the string-pulling of an organization of the elitest of elites called the Stewards, are more standard thriller stuff, and Essie’s personal life, including her potential romance with a man from the first book in the series, is less convincing, lacking telling detail.

Essie’s a memorable protagonist, though, both a touch naïve about government work but also savvy enough to recognize that she’s being set up—and to take immediate steps to deal with it. Hewitt shows readers the work it takes to be a step ahead, telling the story through compelling action and, at its best, detail that makes it all feel frighteningly real.

Takeaway: A smart, compelling heroine faces stolen plutonium.

Comparable Titles: Fiona Erskine, Stephen Hunter’s The Day Before Midnight.

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

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Johnston’s twisty follow-up to Secrets Unused finds suspense, desperation, and a touch of tragedy in a powerfully evoked everyday milieu: Starlingers, a high-end, family-run grocery store company so refined that nobody dares call it a “supermarket” in front of the Starlinger clan. As Starlingers faces shocking upheaval, two corporate employees, fearing for their jobs, scramble in the buildup and aftermath. Dan Pierce, an associate vice president, and Joan Schneider, its manager of public relations, have reason to worry in the couple years after Starlingers has started outsourcing its advertising. So Joan is terrified when her boss Jeff Starlinger—the quick-tempered heir—texts her to come in early the next morning for an urgent meeting.

But as Joan worries what that portends, something terrible happens to Jeff, to the family, and to the company. Johnston alternates between Joan and Dan’s perspective, while moving back and forth in time—the novel opens with Dan, nerves frayed, racing to the Starlinger estate for some urgent mission several weeks later, before flashing back. It’s less a thriller than a tightly coiled workplace drama, attentive to how such a business works, to the scheming and anxieties of its managers, and to the textures of professional life in a time of uncertainty. Johnston excels at this stuff, threading a line between comedy and pathos, wringing tension out of Dan’s wife’s winning of a raffle at a holiday party and out of Joan’s bold insistence that, when sick, she not come to work.

That means Joan misses out on the setpiece scene, a crisis management session centered on what to do about Starlingers’ own holiday party. The stakes may seem small, but Johnston never condescends to these characters’ concerns—he’s too empathetic to satirize. In fact, his dedication to their hearts and backstories, at times, slows the book down, especially in its first third, where pages summarizing their lives and business outnumber pages of scenic action, with some details belabored. Those lives are convincing and engaging, though.

Takeaway: A tense and humane workplace drama, with a gratifyingly twisty plot.

Comparable Titles: Jillian Medoff’s This Could Hurt, Joshua Ferris.

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

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After a devastating breakup, TV producer Kate Zoe Thomas moves to Wynter Island on Canada’s Gulf Coast to take on the role of station manager at the derelict CWYN television station. Determined to escape New England and past traumatic events, Kate does her best to become acclimated to the small island and its colorful inhabitants. However, everything changes when her ex-boyfriend Daniel Apollinar, a reporter with the Associated Press, is found dead on the island. As the prime suspect, Kate is thrust into the center of a murder investigation. Still new to this isolated place, and unsure of whom she can trust, Kate sets off in search of the truth in the hopes of “finding whoever killed Daniel and making sure they pay for it” in Shapiro’s mystery debut, the polished first entry in a series.

Shapiro keeps the story moving at a fast pace with short, almost episodic chapters. Although Kate is a recent transplant, she has some local enemies and unknown connections to the island that don’t become apparent until the end, which Shapiro somehow manages to weave into a pleasantly surprising whodunit that will keep readers guessing until the last pages. Shapiro takes the story places you wouldn’t expect: Chinese triads, IEDs, international drug trading, post-traumatic stress, and the deserts of Afghanistan. This all makes for action-packed, emotional scenes that move the story forward while adding layers of uncertainty about what’s truly going on.

The milieu is fascinating and established with striking detail, like paying for local eggs with twoonie coins, or the powerfully evoked sense of loss—“Loss of resources, loss of culture, loss of identity”—Kate feels visiting the land of the T’sawout First Nation. A hint of romance is welcome, too, though readers should keep on their toes when it comes to the mystery: following the plot’s many twists and turns as Kate sets off on her journey for truth and justice demands attentive reading. Still, readers who enjoy skewed, twisty plots will appreciate the threads of quirky characters and doubt Shapiro has carefully woven together. Fans of small-town cozy mysteries will enjoy this action-packed yet character-driven story.

Takeaway: Fans of small-town mysteries will enjoy this story and action-packed whodunit.

Comparable Titles: Pat Nichols’s The Trouble in Willow Falls, Allen Eskens’s The Shadows We Hide.

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

Click here for more about The Raven's Cry: A Wynter Island Mystery

This historical time-travel epic from Maidman (Theseus: Vincent Desiderio on Art) immediately upends genre expectations. Yes, when student Claire, attempting a thesis project, somehow emerges from a golden palanquin in the past, in the midst of a Bronze Age battle between the armies of Florence and Genova, she quickly encounters a handsome, street-smart warrior, Marcus Irenaeus, who dedicates himself to her protection. But Claire, unlike many fictional time travelers, immediately understands her situation—and her power. “Sons of Florence and sons of Genova, send for your kings,” she declares. Soon, she’s ushered in an uneasy peace, while Marcus Irenaeus and his Thousand—the soldiers loyal to him—vow to return her to her distant home, Zanzibar. First, though, she must winter in Florence, where King Ambrosius, her apparent ally, faces political unrest.

Maidman ties Claire’s uncertain fate—“Do well, and Ambrosius may get you home. Fail, and he most likely dies”—to the fortunes of Ambrosius’s reign, and the bulk of the novel concerns the politics of Florence, as Claire faces the city’s brutal ways, factionalism, and a brace of memorable adversaries with complex motives. These include a high priest who sees her arrival as “an invasion by a foreign god”; Cleon and Barbarossa Constantine, disgusted at the ascent of “alley rat” Marcus; and most memorably Lady Vara, of the marvelously barbed tongue.

Maidman steeps readers in the era with thrilling oratorical dialogue, rich historical detail, finely tuned prose, and a commitment to the textures of ancient life. The story bursts with scheming, sieges, debates, and portents, all vividly evoked, but the pacing’s more thoughtful than potboiler. The book’s long, demanding commitment, and the choice to keep much of Claire’s backstory a mystery—her plans and feelings about her plight feel distant —may test that resolve for many readers. Still, the twists and surprises (including much ado over Claire’s menstrual cycles) will reward patient readers of serious historical fiction with a touch of the fantastic.

Takeaway: An immersive time-travel epic of politics in Bronze Age Florence.

Comparable Titles: Conn Iggulden, Mary Renault.

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

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This shrewdly plotted thriller from Thomas (author of the Detective Rachel Storme series, among others) grips with cliffhangers, thrills, and smart suspense until the final pages, with a Secrets bind them together: In 2019, Pamela Carter is interning for the Fortune 500 company, Clifford Investments, a dream she’s had since she was a young girl moving to California—but not simply to build up her resume. A few decades earlier, in 1993, Elizabeth Westlake is working as a waitress in a Harlem strip club and believes she’s hit the jackpot when she meets Andrew Clifford III, bachelor and future founder, CEO, and billionaire, who tells her she’s “a good hugger” and promises to read her short stories and help get her a publishing deal.

Shoes will drop, of course, and Thomas paces them beautifully. The twin timelines, both written in crisp first-person perspectives, feed each other with tension, hints, and ultimately revelations. In the present, Pamela has quickly become the now older Andrew’s star intern at the company. Yet soon after she starts, stocks start to plummet, and Andrew sees his company falling apart. He runs away—from the company, his dark past, all of it. Secrets from a haunted night with Elizabeth in 1993 come to light, and Thomas ties it all together with a welcome interest in these women’s surprising connection as the time-crossed plots and characters come together in a thrilling ending.

A ticking time bomb, this novel keeps reader interest in both past and present, teasing out mysteries and schemes that jolt but are firmly rooted in character and a convincingly detailed corporate milieu. The suspense is potent, and the stakes grow more dire with each chapter, as Thomas deftly stokes conflict, both verbal and physical, and crises that will keep readers guessing—and turning the pages. This will be a hit with readers who relish twisty suspense, reckonings with the past, and strong female characters who dare to make a difference.

Takeaway: Tense, twin-timeline thriller about two women’s involvement with a CEO billionaire.

Comparable Titles: Sarah A. Denzil’s Silent Child, Willow Rose’s You Better Run.

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

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The second installment of the Imperfect poetry anthologies edited by author and poet Tabatha Yeatts is a thought-provoking, accessible collection for middle-schoolers that features poems from around 50 different authors, including Paul Laurence Dunbar, François Villon, and Carl Sandburg. What unites these disparate selections is the concept of perspective, which Yeatts represents with an image of Da Vinci’s perspectograph. Da Vinci created this singular tool to help artists more accurately represent reality in paintings. The anthology itself acts as a perspectograph for its young readers, offering a window into reality and its complexities through poetry, offering inviting verse connected to relatable quandaries: “When what you want/ leaves you high and dry/ what you DO have/ will just have to satisfy,” writes Mary Lee Hahn in the striking, direct “What You Want.”

Imperfect II, though, offers readers satisfaction and surprise that they may not yet know they want. Most of the featured poems are simple and lyrical, focusing primarily on the perception of self and the self’s perception of the outside world, with a particular emphasis on identity, as in Linda Kulp Trout’s “Questions,” where the speaker struggles with adults asking them what they want to be when they grow up: “How can I know/ what/ I want to be–/ I’m still trying/ to figure out/ ME!” Rochelle Burgess and Laura Mucha’s “Dropping the Ball" delves into issues related to racism and empathy among two students on a basketball team.

No two readers are alike, and Yeatts has the diversity of her readership in mind, offering selections with traditional structures, like Robert Schechter’s “Compared to What?”, but also some uncommon forms, like Alana Devito’s concrete poem “The Art Teacher Said,” which features her words in the shape of a lizard. Middle-schoolers looking for an introduction to the possibilities of poetry and adults seeking an inclusive, empowering collection for young ones will find this an inspired addition to their libraries.

Takeaway: Poems for young readers delving into perception, identity, and confidence.

Comparable Titles: Naomi Shihab Nye’s Honeybee, John Grandits’s Technically, It’s Not My Fault: Concrete Poems.

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

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This cross-genre debut mixes elements of thriller, horror, and Christian fiction into an emotionally charged story about a young girl literally facing her inner demons. Beauty, as everyone calls her, has heard voices from a young age. Manifesting like split personalities, the eight "beings" inside of Beauty take over her body at the most inopportune times and wreak havoc in her life. After the tragic loss of a child, her mother experiences a loss in her faith, putting a stop to Beauty attending church with her father—one of the few places she feels at peace when hearing about “the Jesus man.” Throughout her life, Beauty is in a constant struggle to maintain control of her life—and her sanity— while battling these eight "oppressors.”

Hieb shines with memorable character development, crisp prose, and fast-paced storytelling. Slowly pulling back the layers and the personalities of each "voice" allows readers not to be overwhelmed by the multiple "characters" inside Beauty. As she fights to remain the dominant presence in her own mind and body, this struggle has a spiraling effect on her life, getting worse the longer she deals with these "demons" on her own. But after a tragic loss, Beauty learns more about her past, shedding light on why she is experiencing the "voices" yet terrifying her of what it all means and will reveal.

Christian faith and themes of belief are woven with care within Beauty's story—the moments of peace and quiet she finds in prayer, and the slow realization that the "voices" do not like God or Jesus, all aid in foreshadowing how Beauty ultimately will face her persistent internal struggle. A sweeping coming of age story of grappling with self-identity and faith, They Call Me Beauty is haunting and affecting, a story of mystery, loss, and redemption that will resonate with and intrigue fans of tales of spirit possession and the redemptive power of Christian faith.

Takeaway: A haunting story of spirit possession and the redemptive power of faith.

Comparable Titles: Rene Gutteridge, Katie Lowe’s Possession.

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

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The first book in Ball’s Blood River series quite literally starts off with a bang, with a jolting confrontation. Then, many years later, Buck Lawson (familiar from Ball’s Raine Stockton Dog Mystery books) is coming down to Mercy, Georgia, to take over as chief of police, feeling like he doesn’t belong—and immediately encountering a robbery in progress at the Stop & Go. As Ball paints vivid local color, Buck quickly comes to discover that small crimes like that are the least of his problems. His predecessor, who convinced him to head up Mercy PD, didn’t die of natural causes—he was murdered. Buck is determined to unravel a cover-up that has resulted in a man being wrongfully charged, but nothing about this job is going to be easy.

Ball does a great job of building suspense and weaving different elements of mystery together in a story that oozes Southern gothic and atmospheric setting. As Buck settles in, the depth of corruption he’s facing becomes increasingly apparent: he discovers racketeering in his department, encouraged by the mayor, and several young women have gone missing. “Half my men are corrupt, the other half incompetent, and they’re all lying to me,” he says, in Ball’s characteristically sharp dialogue. As Ball mines Buck’s uncertainty for suspense, the new chief will also have to deal with conflict with his significant other, Jolene, who’s unenthusiastic about his new job and harbors deep concerns about Mercy’s crime history.

The timelines, which split between the present and occasional chapters about Jolene’s experiences some months earlier, at times slow down the narrative’s momentum, as do Buck’s dream sequences with the deceased Billy. But the interlocking challenges Buck faces will entice lovers of small-town crime stories, and Ball excels at weaving together murder, cronyism, and compelling surprises strong enough to serve as the strong foundation of a series.

Takeaway: A police chief new to the Deep South faces compelling corruption.

Comparable Titles: George Dawes Green’s The Kingdoms of Savannah, John Hart’s Down River .

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

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Sehnal painstakingly traces the career of guitarist/producer Lindsey Buckingham and his decades-long influence on the multi-platinum band Fleetwood Mac. He examines the band's start as a straight-ahead electric blues and rock act centered around bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, until the arrival of Buckingham and then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks in the mid-1970s. With a dramatic style that feeds off of the real-life turmoil within the band, Sehnal crafts a coherent narrative around Fleetwood Mac's success and creativity but also their romantic entanglements and substance abuse. Sehnal keeps the momentum crisp so that even casual fans of the band will find this extended extolling of Buckingham's genius absorbing as a story.

For all of Sehnal's carefully researched assertions of Buckingham as the driving creative genius behind the band’s biggest success, this is far from a hagiography. Sehnal, using a wide variety of sources, paints a picture of Buckingham as abrasive, obsessive, and controlling, a perfectionist with a drug problem. At the same time, he also details (partly through their classic "The Chain") how the band managed to put aside conflicts and use the combustible energy between them to create enormously popular and immaculately crafted hits.

Sehnal jumps back and forth in time a bit to create tension, but this is a mostly straightforward chronology that spends much of its time on the details of Fleetwood Mac's albums as well as Buckingham's solo work. Sehnal credits Buckingham's unique guitar-picking style and willingness to experiment as driving factors in the band's success but also details how Buckingham was sometimes a team player who knew how to make everyone else look good. Buckingham's personal ups and downs are here as well. Some transitions are repetitive or awkward, but for the most part Sehnal gives both the casual reader and most ardent fans a well-researched and passionately argued perspective on music that continues to win new fans.

Takeaway: A deep dive into the art of a Fleetwood Mac mastermind.

Comparable Titles: Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel’s Marking Rumours, Sean Egan’s Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac.

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

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The moon is a busy place in Wilkerson’s debut, an expansive young adult sci-fi adventure that opens the Avalon series with Earth on the verge of collapse due to frequent devastating earthquakes. At only 17, overachiever Tamar Linsky is interning on Lunar Base One as a botanist for her graduate degree, growing trees for oxygen so she can make a name for herself in the scientific community. She works with mechanic friend Ginger, flirtatious prankster and welder Ringo, and narcissistic rich-boy and geologist River. Tamar suffers from survivor’s guilt from the death of her baby sister in one of Earth’s many earthquakes, as well as Low-G Syndrome sickness

In this well-crafted and convincing world with fresh, relatable characters, the young scientists’ work is disrupted when Dr. Michael Duncan and Professor Scott McClellan join the secret government Project Avalon investigating the discovery beneath the Lunar surface of a mysterious metal beam manufactured on Earth but carved with symbols that could be from an earlier unknown settlement or be extraterrestrial. Time is running out for humanity when a series of earthquakes demolish Earth, the lunar base suffers a rash of deadly mental breakdowns, and the scientists must decide whether to stay on the moon or search for survivors on Earth.

This young adult sci-fi adventure rewards readers with young love, mysteries, little reveals, a diverse cast, and a welcome sense of humanity. Wilkerson uses the sci-fi setting to compassionately explore young adult issues like young love, growing up, facing your past, and being ready to achieve great things in the future, along with adult concerns of survival and cataclysmic planetary events. Eager readers will appreciate Tamar’s sassy, take-charge attitude and will enjoy the drama, romance, team-work, thrills, and suspense as the story builds to a surprising ending that answers some (but not all) questions.

Takeaway: Well-crafted YA SF adventure romance on the moon.

Comparable Titles: Natasha Preston’s The Island, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time.

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

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This action-oriented guide from Newman (author of Do It! Speaking) emphasizes finding a sales technique that is specific to the seller. "Where can you zig where everyone else zags?" Newman asks, making the case that becoming a top seller demands standing out from the crowd and mastering a selling keyed to individual personality, interests, and strengths. The advice is straightforward—”Focus only on lead-generating strategies you find easy, effortless, and enjoyable”—but also practical and highly directed, as he identifies prospecting mistakes, demonstrates the power of saying “Oh,” and urges readers to stop wasting time and laser in on the “MMA” (“Money Making Activity”). Sellers and sellers-to-be will find here the tools to craft a personalized selling technique.

Newman promises in the opening pages to avoid the “same-o, lame-o” advice familiar from countless sales books. To his credit, he backs that claim up as he offers fresh approaches, advice, and insights to take the "mystery" out of sales. From the incorporation of social media to networking with big and small business, Newman lays out a clear, original foundation while offering hard-won tips of the trade (“The sooner in the sales conversation you get THEM talking, the more sales you will close”). Each section is broken down into bite-size, easy to comprehend advice that will elevate one's selling potential. Touching on areas such as self-confidence and how to convert the idea of selling into an "invitation" to potential buyers, Newman makes clear that it’s all in the way you approach a potential sale that ultimately yields successful results, even in cases of “cold” selling.

Do It! Selling is an engaging and persuasive guide for those looking to sharpen up their success rate at closing the deal. Newman offers incisive pointers on everything from how high to set your goals to how to use "emotional payoff language" to reel in potential clients, all written in brisk, non-nonsense language and laid out for ease of use. This is an easy-to-read, aestheticaly appealing guide that can be revisited time and time again.

Takeaway: A fresh, incisive resource for anyone in the business of selling.

Comparable Titles: Grant Cardone’s Sell or Be Sold, Tom Hopkins’s How to Master the Art of Selling.

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

Click here for more about Do It! Selling

Prolific clean romance author Johnson (The Grumpy Cowboy Collection) begins a new travel series with an optimistic friends-to-lovers vacation romance. Ever since Logan “Murph” Murphy stepped in as a last-minute companion for Sloane Sanders’ planned honeymoon after her fiancé abandoned her at the altar five years ago, they’ve been long distance best friends and have arranged a yearly vacation week together. But this year in Belize, everything is different: though Sloane’s been indulging in cuddly romantic fantasies about Murph, when he admits he’d like to date her, she’s afraid of ruining the friendship—and of being hurt like she was before.

Romance readers who know exactly what they like — cozy romances with beachy kisses and people learning to trust offers of happiness — will enjoy this execution of a classic formula. Logan and Sloane are likable leads; Johnson depicts them as well-suited to one another, and gives each of their concerns equal weight in the text. Their connection may be a slow burn, though the arc of their emotional progression doesn’t change much: both are interested from the start, as most of the tension comes from skittishness. The aspects of the story that center on becoming comfortable in honest feelings hit solidly. Though beach lovers will sympathize with Sloane’s swimwear decision woes, lovers of travel romances may find details on Belize lacking as the setting remains largely a generic resort.

The dramatic climax follows classic tropes but strains credulity, with the accidental revelation of a surprise from Logan that would have taken serious effort for him to have kept concealed for so long, and then Logan fighting to win her back by engaging in behavior that’s presented as sweet but in real life would set alarm bells ringing. But the sparkling final pages, complete with loop-around closure to the next year’s vacation, is exactly what the story requires.

Takeaway: Lovers of cozy, slow-burn clean romances will enjoy this beach story.

Comparable Titles: Emma St. Claire's Sandover Island series, Francesca Lane’s Grace’s Fake Groom.

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

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Bizarre deaths haunt a rural New England community that's undergoing economic and political changes in this debut novel. Someone is swiftly assembling stone towers in dangerous places, leading to accidents. There are no obvious suspects or even motives, and the town of North Meadows is facing other problems, too: arguments over development plans, a native reservation with its own priorities and a divisive election. Much of the investigation centers on the Reynolds' farm, which is being sold to developers. Abbott, the local state trooper, and Detective Sergeant Nelson and his team wade into a murky crime scene: "There would not be any model to follow for this investigation."

Dayton, a journalist and small-town resident herself, has a perfect eye and ear for what makes towns like North Meadows unique. She does a fine job outlining the different factions in town, sometimes competing, sometimes aligning, as with conservation: for example, one group backs the idea of cutting trees near power lines for safety, while another wants to see trees preserved. The subtle but important class distinctions among the residents come across, as when we learn the descendants of the original settlers have special "members only" meetings. Occasionally, town life crowds out the central mystery, but there's no doubt we get a deep view of North Meadows.

Dayton singles out a few members of the large cast for in-depth development. We get local politician Shelby, who views his elected service to the town "as an indication of social stature, rather than as public service." His journey through the book hovers between pathos and comedy. And investigator Abbott is an interesting cipher, with such close ties to the community we're left wondering if he's too close to uncover the killers. In the end, though, Dayton gives us a resolution for the mystery— and the town, and if it's not what every character wants, it's at least something they can all accept.

Takeaway: Mysterious and deadly stone towers in a vividly realized small town.

Comparable Titles: Tom Bouman’s Fateful Mornings, Louise Penny.

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

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Schmidt (King’s Warrior) launches the young adult Turrim Archive series with this jubilant steampunk adventure with genuine characters in a vividly realized world. Young orchard farmer Grayden Ormond is proud to have received a scholarship to attend the Academy that trains the nation’s future soldiers. On the evening of a town festival held in his and fellow student Wynn Drexel’s honor, the boys dare each other to climb a mysterious tower on the edge of town. Inside, Grayden discovers an old man, Dalmir, who guards a mysterious glowing glass orb. Dalmir claims the orb encapsulates a dangerous prisoner who may escape, because the normally blue orb is now cracked with blazing orange and red. He needs to journey with the young men to the Academy to consult its Library. Traveling by airship, the three are attacked by the pirate Captain Marik and his ragtag crew aboard the airship Valduen Hawk.

Schmidt excels at developing atmospheric situations, and fashioning a vast history and politics of this volatile world on the brink of war. Fresh off a heist stealing fuel cells for airships, Marik is devastated that one of his crew turns traitor, working for the Western nation’s evil warlord Ar’Molon Uun. Ar’Molon Uun’s dastardly plan involves kidnapping Wynn and fellow student Beren, the son of a Council member and the military leader, with an eye toward assassination and war. In a shocking move, Dalmir commandeers Marik’s airship with his powerful magic staff and demands Marik rescue the boys and deliver them all to the Academy.

Schmidt offers an action-packed caravan robbery and spectacular airship battles but still takes time developing the characters’ personalities and essential elements like the anxiety of leaving home for the first time, camaraderie between impromptu new friends, and the impact of revelations of hurtful secrets and memories from their past. Young readers will enjoy the simple text and leisurely pace because the journey is often as important as the destination.

Takeaway: Dazzling steampunk adventures with a practical wizard and an evil warlord.

Comparable Titles: Maria Dahvana Headley’s Magonia series, Kenneth Oppel.

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

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