In his third poetry collection, following “Boy Kant You Read!” and “Eating ‘Round the Toilet Stool,” Drummond’s muse is the world at its worst, the mind most tainted, and humanity’s horrors in the absence of hope. “Mother, // I’ve been bad before // but never this bad,” he writes in “Final Goodbye,” which explores the speaker’s suicidal mental state, but also the role society has in creating toxic conditions: “You wonder who it was // who stuck the gun in my hand // and showed me how to wave.” Though Drummond’s poems speak to narratives of separate individuals, like the “Down Home Girl” too young to know the connection between her spirited dancing and what the “‘Men-folk’ crave,” they together illuminate a broader shared experience.

While the provocative cover suggests content of a fantastical evil, Drummond’s poetry is rooted in the sociological issues that continue to roil our world, like toxic masculinity, misogyny, racism, and poverty. “Down Home Girl” and “Lady Dee” for example, express the loss of sanity and innocence women experience as a result of sexual violence, while “Cotton Snow Flying” and “Black Lines” offer insightful commentary on the damaging effects of racism: “Black marks filling // White paper // no meaning, really [...] The meaningless dance of dark charcoal // on cotton fields.”

Besides the various forms of social oppression, making art is also a source of pain, both existential and personal. The collection’s first poem questions poetry’s validity as a form of art, and in “Foggy,” the speaker remarks “the corners of my mind // folds upon itself and // drifts away // and the world spins on.” Though despairing, Drummond’s verses also offer comfort and catharsis. The injustices, violence, and grief he identifies are those various readers suffer from, and many readers will recognize the pain on the page as their own—or learn from them. Though many of these selections sting, Drummond also offers the relief and freedom of urgent truthtelling.

Takeaway: Pained yet inspired collection that finds catharsis in misery and injustice.

Comparable Titles: Lucille Clifton’s “my dream about the second coming”; Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool”

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

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This encouraging debut from Liu, former COO and current Master Executive Coach, offers both a practical guidance to finding one’s own voice and pursuing one’s dreams without compromising one’s integrity, and a sort of spiritual biography of a self-described introvert’s journey through hardship toward no longer feeling “lost, stuck, anxious,” and “frustrated.” Liu offers short lessons and reflections on subjects like patience, visualization, the “life-long practice” of learning resilience and more, detailing how she (quietly) triumphed over hindrances—which were legion given her background and upbringing—and found personal and financial success despite discovering that she desired a life "beyond the one I had with big corporate employers.” Through reflective prompts and lessons mined from her own challenges, Liu warmly nudges readers toward self knowledge and positive change.

Liu shares stories from her childhood, lessons imparted by a controlling father who grew up in a Communist regime and could never express his love and pride in her. That powers one of her major breakthroughs: her desire to create “an environment in which those around me can share, grow and learn together.” Liu is frank in relating her father’s severe, authoritarian behavior, some of which could be considered abuse, and the teachings she learned for good or ill. But she is also a generous daughter, acknowledging that “My parents did the best they could, based on what they knew at the time.”

Each chapter represents a theme followed by descriptions of her father’s use (or abuse) of those attributes. She explores some painful material, describing bosses whose behavior ranges from disrespectful to racist to threatening to harassing, describing the techniques she developed to handle predators—and those she still employs in the ongoing work of healing. Chapters end with thought-provoking questions the reader can apply to their own struggles, like “How can you befriend this part of you, so you can be kinder to yourself?” This is a helpful chronicle and also a work of courage, determination, and empathy.

Takeaway: Heartening guidance for living at one’s best, derived from a life of lessons.

Comparable Titles: Ryuho Okawa’s The Unshakable Mind, Suzanne Rocha’s The Joyful New Me.

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

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“They were a sorry lot,” Mason quips in a sharp yet emphatic introduction of 24-year-old German soldier, Bernhardt, fighting for survival in war-torn Tunisia. Watching his comrades die, Bernhardt begins questioning the Nazi ideals he had been indoctrinated with as his disillusioned sense of duty dawns on him: his life has always been dictated—by family, military hierarchy, and “the faceless old men” driving the war. Ironically, his capture by British and American forces ultimately offers him a sense of relief—though his future as a prisoner is uncertain. Mason fast forwards from there to 12-year-old Joseph Holliman, abused by his tyrannical father, who, through an act of resistance, marks a pivotal encounter with Frank, a gruff but compassionate man offering him a different life.

Mason (author of EO-N) weaponizes profound symbolism and poignant prose to unite Joseph and Bernhardt’s struggles of being trapped in oppressive systems that deny them autonomy and their quest to reclaim some sense of identity. The pacing, patient but never sluggish, excels in its visceral depiction of violence—“the fractured, the burnt, the crushed and torn”—but its focal point is the endearing characters’ existential battles within. Bernhardt epitomizes the collective loss of faith in a cause for which dehumanized soldiers had been willing to risk their lives, while Joseph represents societal neglect of the most vulnerable. The narrative picks up when both attempt to carve a new life for themselves.

The tone, often gritty and grounded—“things people die from aren’t necessarily the things that kill ‘em” a character muses—softens in moments of reflection and human connection. "Sometimes you gotta be where you don’t wanna be, but that doesn’t mean you can’t leave whenever you want,” Frank says, inspiring hope in an otherwise bleak world. Lovers of historical fiction rich with wisdom will find this book haunting but healing.

Takeaway: Captivating study of the futility of war and the emotional toll of violence.

Comparable Titles: Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

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

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This powerful memoir chronicles Lewis's remarkable journey from a challenging childhood in 1970s Washington, DC, to becoming a transformative corporate leader and advocate for social change. With unflinching honesty and compelling narrative skills, Lewis weaves together accounts of personal struggles, professional triumphs, and breakdowns of hard-won convictions to create an inspiring roadmap for achieving success without compromising one's values or identity.
 The book surprises—it’s much more emotionally impactful than most business memoirs, and Lewis plays smartly with readers’ expectations, as in the way the expression of blunt toughness on the cover contrasts with the humanity and tenderness within, especially when it comes to pushing for racial and gender equity in the business world or frankly addressing abuse in his childhood.

Striking detail abounds as Lewis describes his beginnings, struggling to feed his family, investing himself in his wife’s place of work, Taco Bell, both to support her and to master the logistics of the business as he began his ascent up the ladder at Pepsi Co. Branding himself the “enterprise go-to guy,” he made a name for himself as he earned his MBA, refusing to be intimidated by the corporate world. Lewis covers his rise with heart and insight about losses, setbacks, monetary struggles, and some harder travails, too. Readers will feel the impact of witnessing his mother, during his childhood, defend him and his siblings from abuse. Through it all, Lewis’s determination and resilience pulse on every page.

Some formatting issues and attention paid to niche experiences diminish narrative momentum that could have been more personable. Readers not invested in the life lessons one can derive from golf may find themselves impatient on occasion, though the story of having to participate in a charity golf tournament despite never having swung a club proves rousing: “Watch, learn, socialize, and, most importantly, have fun,” Lewis told himself. This empowering memoir serves as a testament to personal resilience and a blueprint for achieving success while holding firm to what matters.

Takeaway: Inspiring memoir of business and personal growth and a commitment to justice.

Comparable Titles: John Daymond’s Rise and Grind, Aurora James’s Wildflower.

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

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Redvale's polished debut thriller offers high stakes, desperate action, and memorable twists as a former Navy SEAL teams up with a most-wanted criminal for an unsanctioned mission that’s both globe-shaking and intimately personal. As a former Navy Seal, Captain John Mitcham has survived death and loss, in both his professional and in his personal life. While on the outs with his wife, Claire, due to the strain and grief after their daughter’s death by suicide, John yearns to mend his marriage. When Claire is kidnapped, John launches into action to discover what happened and bring her home alive. He learns that the CIA has involved Claire in a life-threatening conspiracy involving a bleeding edge computer project called the Quantum Grail that, in the hands of the Russian FSB, could mean world dominance. Enlisting the help of notorious super hacker Nia Banks, John must navigate the minefields of government secrets and high-profile Russian criminals, pushing himself to the limits in a race involving every intelligence agency and his own past.

Powered by a hard-edged, highly trained, but engagingly human protagonist facing a host of competing military and government agendas, The Quantum Grail moves fast, with tense scenarios, crisp chases and confrontations, and surges of page-turning adrenaline. Both banter and violence hit hard, but the uneasy alliance between John and Nia—blasting AC/DC and TLC—gives the material heart, especially as John uncovers dark, intimate secrets about his own marriage. The plotting is somewhat convoluted, revealed through flashbacks and character relationships, but Redvale makes the puzzle pieces clear, matching the intensity of the threat to John’s intensity of feeling.

Fans of conspiracy-inspired thrillers and no-nonsense heroes will be captivated by this involved mystery and its leading man. Redvale knows his genre and what readers want. Technical detail is convincing but not belabored, smartly blending thriller elements—government agencies, covert ops, terrifying tech, the rigors of SEAL training—into a strong debut.

Takeaway: Riveting thriller debut of a SEAL, conspiracies, and deadly new tech.

Comparable Titles: David Baldacci's Absolute Power, John Connolly's The Dirty South.

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

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A quick summation of the plot of Kind's delightful debut suggests how its playful, densely nested rhymes read on the page—and will enliven storytime. There’s a party happening at the zoo, but Sue, the blue kangaroo, won't be able to attend, as she has lost her shoe, which traveled to Timbuktu … and, perhaps inevitably, even Peru. Soon, Cuckoo Lou (with the big tattoo) flies in to request help for some friends, declaring, with Seussian flair, “Boo has twin red / boo-boos, Sue. Boo-boo one / and boo-boo two.” Fortunately, problems like that can be helped if Sue gathers some "tall bamboo” and crafts solutions. Full of humor, fun animal characters, lively verse that’s a joy to read aloud, and a warm lesson about being helpful to others, The Lost Orange Shoe is a tongue-twisting pleasure.

Kind's short lines and rapid rhymes are a joy, as Sue patiently tackles problems faced by her amusing friends: Hippo Pou, who has ripped her tutu right before a big performance; Lou’s nephew Boo, who needs a bamboo crutch; and on and on. Celebrating innovative thinking, crafty ideas, and patience within friendship, Kind showcases the truth that helping others sometimes leads to helping yourself as Sue makes smart use of the bamboo, making a canoe so that Moo can cross a river, or using it to make stew for her sick friend named—wouldn’t you know it!—Chu.

Shirin Hashemi’s crisp, appealing character design deepens the fun, with each animal boasting memorable details (Sue’s scarf, sneezy dog Chu’s monogrammed hanky, Pou’s pink tutu) and big, relatable emotions that drive home the beats of the story. Taking in the drawings proves as much fun as speaking lines like “Pou has torn her tutu, Sue. / Right before her big debut!” Also included: fun guided questions to check for comprehension and to further engage young readers with Sue's tale.

Takeaway: Problem-solving and tongue-twisting rhymes power this delightful debut.

Comparable Titles: Eve Bunting's Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?, Sarah Seung-McFarland's Where The Lost Things Go.

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

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Reminding young readers that Jesus “is the thread that solves the biggest, most important mystery of all,” Pietzsch's debut middle-grade novel is a fast-paced, faith-based beginning to The Royal Mystery Searchers Club series, offering an entertaining, even inspiring introduction to both sleuth-work and growing up with the “armor” of belief. When third-grader Ada, who dreams of one day becoming a detective, first sees Ivie in class, she knew how it felt to be the new girl—not fun. Her dad accepted a job in a whole other country, whisking her little brother, herself, and her mom from Coal Town, sunny year round, to the Coldland town of Hillview, with its four seasons, cow and horse classes, and students who sneer things like “Why on earth are you wearing that?” Out of her element, Ada has had a hard time making friends, but her connection with new arrival Johann gives her the courage to reach out to Ivie.

With her new crew by her side, Ada finds uplifting community in her church youth group … and she leads her friends in taking on a highly personal mystery involving Johann’s mother that will test Ada’s—and readers’—detective skills and lead to unexpected developments. Ada is an engaging, relatable protagonist who works at sleuthing, training herself in observation and striving to work out puzzles of faith and souls. Pietzsch pays touching attention to the other mysteries of growing up, like bullies, loneliness, and the persistent fear, shared by Ada,“They were probably laughing and making weird faces behind my back.”

A story of family, friendship, and finding strength in yourself through faith, Finders of The Armor will appeal to young Christian readers who relish working out clues, making sense of the complexities of relationships, and all the work that goes into putting on a play. Pietzsch writes with welcome warmth about issues of self esteem, of uncovering principles of faith, and applying them in a tangible way.

Takeaway: Heartfelt, relatable, faith-based middle grade mystery series starter.

Comparable Titles: Colleen Coble’s Rock Harbor Search & Rescue series, Amanda Cleary Eastep’s Tree Street kids series.

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

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Alive with mad inventions, scientific breakthroughs, a wicked sense of play, and a commitment to finding reasons not to let ourselves feel “alienated and alone in a cold, incomprehensible cosmos,” this ambitious debut dazzles, touches, surprises, and sometimes exhausts. Johnson, a professor of physics and contributor to top SF magazines, conjures a singular bildungsroman narrated by John, the brilliant but isolated son of a physicist. John’s father runs a cyclotron in a sewer, injects caged lizards with a potential anti-tumor serum, and harbors a big secret that John’s mother and Trotskyite sister suspects is an affair. Despite the novel’s buoyant humor and pervasive wildness—expect chimps and giants, circus life and Los Alamos secrets, mirror neurons and a probability pump—real human feeling is Johnson’s throughline, as John’s family faces episodic misadventures and, eventually, heart-rending loss that even science can’t fix.

The family material constituting the novel’s first third is a marvel of domestic SF, deftly blending last-century Americana with gee-whiz kid’s-adventure enthusiasm, creature-feature consequences, surprises both pleasing and dark, and dead-serious acknowledgement of the destructive powers of nature and the frailty of human life. John’s father is both brilliant and reckless, the classic archetype, and the disasters that his family faces—all written with brisk elan—pulse with humor and invention. That’s true even of tragic beats, as when someone John loves becomes a “walking, talking nucleo-chemical time bomb.” John’s maturation and separation from the clan finds the comic energy fading, somewhat, though Johnson still springs daft surprises (one favorite: a chimp’s academic career). As John loves and experiences fresh loss, the story’s darker undercurrents become ever more urgent.

Lovers of thoughtful, humane science fiction steeped in weird science will feast, though the novel’s daunting length and lack of narrative momentum may keep readers from discovering the pleasures and startling insights within. Chapters tend to be paced like short stories, introducing and exploring a new, strange scenario and then wringing it, with crisp efficiency, for all its resonance.

Takeaway: Thrillingly inventive novel of growing up the son of a mad scientist.

Comparable Titles: Nick Harkaway, Lauren Beukes.

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

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Set in a near-future of economic collapse and a devastating “epocalypse,” this sweeping, hugely ambitious tech-thriller and thought-experiment, Martorano’s debut, considers urgent questions of humanity’s future, centering questions of faith and science, AI and consciousness, and more. “Where will we find meaning?” asks Ping, a Chinese factory worker facing the rise of automation and robots who can create themselves, “without human intervention, encompassing design, production, assembly, and packaging.” The material is heady, alive with technological breakthroughs, terrorist attacks, human minds outliving their bodies, a world-shaking treatise that “distill[s] God from religion,” and MARTIN, the computer intelligence responsible for the “greatest atrocity in human history.

For all the bold ideas and epic length, Martorano spins a tense and surprising thriller story of warring factions. There’s the secular elites in the domed paradise Babylon, complete with its own constitution, an amphitheater named after Homer, and founding “Giant”s whose consciousness, through a complex ascension ritual, can now live forever. They’re attacked, on occasion, by the hardscrabble, tent-dwelling New Amish, led by a preacher named Jeb Thompson, whose past is connected to Babylon—and possibly the world’s—greatest failing. That is the creation of super AI MARTIN, the “greatest military mind in history,” who 28 years before the novel’s present killed millions.

The stakes are both intimate and civilizational as Jeb seems determined to boot MARTIN back up. The climactic confrontations and battles, involving robot “Centaur” tanks, are exciting, though the plotting is perhaps inevitably dense and overstuffed with incident and backstory. But what shines here is Martorano’s concerns for the hearts and souls of his people, from a displaced laborer who learns to live off the land to the presciently named Eve, the woman accused of murder, who strives to live a life of faith. That empathy extends to even the immortal and artificial minds, as Martorano strives throughout to find the human (and perhaps the God) in the machine.

Takeaway: Humanity shines through this epic SF thriller of near-future division and automation.

Comparable Titles: Nick Harkaway, Mark Germine.

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

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In this compact guide to training the brain for the new era of digital media, McCollough introduces his "Tenets of Critical Thinking" and provides clear, practical guidance on how to avoid the “pitfalls” that even intelligent people can fall for, especially online: confirmation bias, logical fallacies, misinformation, pseudo science, deep fakes, and more. A champion of the scientific method and principled debunking of misinformation, McCollough lays bare the urgency of the problem– "The Internet helps lies to spread much faster, and AI makes it much harder to detect the lies.” Through detailed research and real-world examples, this resource provides clear definitions of the ways that nonsense gets passed off as truth plus actionable steps to stop simply accepting what we're told—and to demonstrate, though time-tested steps, truth from falsehoods.

Writing in a personable tone, McCollough implores readers to apply logic and critical thinking skills to everything they are told, from the government, news outlets, in school curriculums, and especially any time we might feel pressed to surrender money or our personal information. "Be skeptical,"he writes, noting that “there is money to be made by feeding into people’s paranoia.” Through brisk, organized chapters, McCollough explores the history of scientific reasoning (science, he argues, is “the greatest good that humans have ever come up with”) and lays out how to incorporate its rigor and logic into everyday thinking. McCollough convincingly demonstrates the importance of parents learning this for themselves and also teaching it to their children.

Touching on conspiracy theories, faith and religion, and cause and effect, Debunk offers a quick, inviting introduction to the "real-world consequences" of misinformation and outdated science, providing multiple avenues—“Observe, Predict, Test”— to keep from being taken in. The book is not comprehensive, but readers new to the question of what we can do to shore our minds’ defenses up in this ever-evolving information age will find much here that is instructive and illuminating.

Takeaway: Clarifying introduction to critical thinking in the extremely online era.

Comparable Titles: Cindy L. Otis's True or False, John Grant's Debunk It!.

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

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Hamilton’s gore-drenched debut urban fantasy thriller, his first in the Shattered Dogma series, pits a guilt-riddled detective against a vicious serial killer whose unstoppable spree threatens to drown the city of Silvergate in chaos. James Black is a good cop fighting to keep the streets safe, but the enigmatic Rune Killer has other plans. As the bodies stack, Black and his partner, Detective Jenna O’Malley, turn to the only clues they have: strange sigils carved into the victims that point to a connection with an ancient civilization devoted to a deadly form of justice that threatens everything Black believes in.

Readers will squirm at the sickly-inventive means by which the Rune Killer dispatches victims, with scenes soaked in viscera and a palpable brutality. Black is an effective, if familiar, lead as the dour-yet-determined noir detective, whose visits with his institutionalized brother, Samuel, lend a tender vulnerability to his otherwise monochromatic portrait. Black’s partner, O’Malley, alongside their fellow detectives Jones and Ramirez, however, rarely escape the gravity of Black’s ethos, operating more as thematic enactments of duty and struggle than fully relatable characters. The plot’s meditations on the restless battle of good vs evil paints an appropriately taxing picture of Black, though some readers may lose interest in the drawn-out proceedings by the novel’s end.

Hamilton flourishes when envisioning gruesome contraptions and building a nihilistic, brooding framework. The Rune Killer’s reverence for the ancient Ordo Iustitiae and supernatural flourishes adds welcome texture to familiar roads, though the book’s procedural aspects are hindered by overly convenient staging, sacrificing suspense at times while lessening reader commitment to Black and his cohort of beleaguered but unwavering cops. Still, there’s plenty of potential brimming in this moody, violent urban thriller, where detectives are inherently good and the enemy is a viciously satisfying rendering of “evil in its purest incarnation.”

Takeaway: Gruesome noir detective story that flirts with supernatural elements.

Comparable Titles: C.L. Thomas’s The Hollow, John Connolly’s The Black Angel.

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

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Retired psychotherapist Goodbrand spent his career helping individuals face their problems. For his second book, he sets himself a bigger project: assessing the essential problem confronting humanity. Goodbrand calls this work “an experiment in thinking about our earthly presence from outside our human point of view.” But, as he acknowledges more than once, our human point of view—the product of our brains that are themselves the result of millions of years of haphazard biological evolution—is all we have.

To solve this conundrum, Goodbrand relies on science, based on observation and evidence. He gives a brief but thorough overview of the formation of the universe and the development of biological life, rooting humans firmly in the cycle: “We are part of nature which is embedded in us as we are embedded in nature.” He then ties humans to what he calls the “arc of the cosmos”: “the elimination of matter” through the burning of energy—in other words, the unraveling of all life. This seeming paradox, that the point of life is to destroy life, in Goodbrand’s view, lies at the heart of human misery and conflict.

Goodbrand dedicates many pages to dismantling humanity’s view of itself as the pinnacle and point of life, saying our “self-centered exceptionalism” leads us to “cruelty and destructiveness.” Yet those traits, he notes, seem inevitable, as we follow our own ruthless survival instincts and therefore fulfill the cosmos’ larger aim of taking everything apart. Accordingly, Goodbrand doesn’t come up with a solution to life’s woes so much as propose a temporary fix: relative safety for the greatest number of people achieved through technology and adherence to scientific precepts, combined with a realistic acceptance of our fleeting place in a larger scheme that will end in universal extinction. It’s not the most optimistic place to end up, but for those readers with a hardy existentialist bent, it should prove enlightening.

Takeaway: Insightful, unsparing look at humanity in a universe hostile to life.

Comparable Titles: Marcelo Gleiser’s The Dawn of a Mindful Universe, Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens.

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

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In this surprising YA portal fantasy debut, young Manhattanite Aries D’Angelo Lacroix goes from reading a book titled Faeries, Fae, and Magical Beings to living it as he discovers a strange clockwork flower in Central Park that whisks him away to Underhill, a subterranean realm where all of mankind’s fantasies and myths live in peace… or they did, until the arrival of one Adolf Hitler. (Aries’s response to this: “"Hitler, like World War 2 Hitler?”) As a prophesied Guardian, Aries learns that finding six clockwork artifacts and saving the day is up to him and his newfound friends: Grip the imp, dwarven blacksmith Thelgrim, and punk-rock pixie Aluwyn. That’s easier said than done in Stevens’s chaotic fantasy, as they’ll have to survive dragons, commando goblins, harpies, and a decision that could alter Aries’s life forever.

A Clockwork Flower offers an appealing riff on the classic, tried-and-true portal fantasy quest narrative, complete with a found family of oddball adventurers whose bonds, for readers, may prove more enchanting than the adventure itself. Aries’ pleasure in befriending “magnificent” (“albeit, terrifying”) creatures shines through, as does Stevens’s—the novel pulses with a deep love of fantasy, its fey and tricksters, and of chapter-ending cliffhangers that keep the momentum barrelling along. While the fleet pacing is admirable in a genre known for its protracted epics, things here at times feel rushed, both in plotting and prose, and a lack of polish, from repetitive phrasing (”My heart felt like a drum. It pitter-pattered and began to flutter like a butterfly.”) to the presentation of dialogue, will prove a hurdle for readers.

That’s too bad, as the book is alive with love, invention, and a spirit of exuberant adventure. Stevens’s time spent traveling shows in his fondness for the varied lands the heroes explore (and the book’s accompanying map), like the purple grasslands of Forever Fields, or the gleaming techno-magical city of Telmara. There’s promise, here.

Takeaway: This portal fantasy's colorful cast and imaginative world deserves more polish.

Comparable Titles: John Van Stry’s Portals of Infinity, Rhaegar’s Azarinth Healer Series.

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

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Setting up a classic middle grade hero’s journey, Nuri introduces readers to Deniz Sayber, a boy whose desperate family situation leads to the revelation of his own magical powers—and casts him directly into the fire of an age-old struggle between good and evil. When Deniz turns eight, his father’s mounting debts threaten the family, forcing them out of their beloved home and into an apartment in a new town. While Deniz copes with the loss of his old friends, the family falls further into disarray, until Deniz finds himself—along with his mother and sister—relocating once again, to a strange, mystical town called Seventh Stream.

That sparks Deniz’s fantasy journey, played out in an enchanting valley where it’s spring-like year-round, nature puts on strange light shows, and a friendly rabbit is more than it seems. As Deniz begins to realize his new home is far from typical, the landlords—the Hatchers—take him under their wing, revealing he is a Sventur and has inherited magical abilities. Under their tutelage, he learns that forces larger than himself are at work, feeding on the world’s “suffering and fears,” and have their sights set on convincing children to cross “the line between good and evil.” As Deniz prepares for this final battle, Nuri probes how souls can be damaged by life’s experiences—and whether cruel people can ever change.

Ending with a hint at more to come in this complex world, Dragon’s Heart embraces deep emotional themes within a familiar framework. Genre fans will recognize many of this debut’s fantasy elements, though Nuri caches these within intriguing magical lore. Issues with pacing and stilted dialogue will require patience from readers, but for those dedicated to fantasy that inspires, Dragon’s Heart makes a stirring promise that “we’ll cry many more times in our lives, but we mustn’t break.”

Takeaway: Troubled boy discovers magic powers in time to save the world.

Comparable Titles: Jenny Nimmo’s Midnight for Charlie Bone, B.B. Alston’s Amari and the Night Brothers.

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

Click here for more about Dragon's Heart

Musician Himeda continues the warmly creative Bardic Isle Series, set in a world where music is literal magic. Kaelin is a teenager with gifts that could make him a great power, but like anyone with enormous potential, he needs training. He seizes the opportunity to learn from the four Masters of the Bardic Isles. But forces within the Bardic Order consider Kaelin a threat, and it all goes wrong when he’s falsely accused of stealing a Master’s tuning fork—and, until his judgment, gets placed under an “instrumental restriction,” meaning he can’t even play his flute or harp. The apprenticeship he longed for is now something like being out on bail, as the men whose respect he needs think he’s a thief.

As in the first volume, Himeda’s love for music shines throughout, and the reverence her characters feel for it is matched by the author’s interest in the art and craft of making it, from tone to tuning to the “shades of expression” coaxable from harp strings and vocal cords. Even as he can’t actually play, Kaelin eats, drinks, and dreams music as he moves from one Master to the next. The stakes are high, involving the future of the Order and more, but also intimate, charting in lively, engaging detail Kaelin’s coming of age as a person, creative artist, and wielder of magic.

The prevailing sense of humanity, of characters who respect even their adversaries, edges the series toward cozy territory, but vivid prose and surprising magic—“low, undulating minor arpeggios” weave around one character, “pulling him gently up and out of his home”—will please lovers of any thoughtful fantasy, The momentum slows for music lessons, but Kaelin is easy to cheer for, a young man of bone-deep goodness, eager to enter harmonious states of learning and creation. This sequel offers enthralling world-building, lush accounts of music and magic-making, and an ending that is truly suspenseful—an especially good trick given that the climax involves men sitting around debating.

Takeaway: Music is magic in this heartening fantasy series of a bard’s road to mastery.

Comparable Titles: Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks, Mary Gentle’s The Black Opera.

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

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This brief historical fiction debut by Grey reimagines Julius Caesar’s life and military campaigns as driven by Vampyre influence. In a detour from similar books, Grey’s Julius Caesar is a study of contradictions: his battles—and political decisions—hinge on the chilling machinations of behind-the-scene Vampyres, though Caesar detests their methods. But even as he bemoans their presence in his life, he reflects that “their advice and manipulation were as responsible for his rise from a disgraced family to one of the most powerful men in all of the Republic as his prowess in battle and ability to inspire men.”

Despite a life lived under the threat of destruction if he disobeys the Vampyres, Caesar’s deep, abiding love for Rome shines throughout Grey’s narrative, serving as a catalyst for his efforts to rid the city of Vampyre rule. Here, his passionate coupling with Cleopatra is formed on their joint desire to expunge Vampyres (referred to as Magicians in Egypt) from their countries, and, as the pair craft secret plans together while fighting the very real dangers surrounding them, Caesar becomes intimately familiar with his eerie enemy—an enemy that Grey casts as tricky, powerful, and, surprisingly, mortal.

Though some scenes stretch credulity—Caesar and Cleopatra’s Nile cruise turns into a Vampyre-catching quest, and after a vicious beating by an irate Vampyre during his North African campaign, Caesar sends out a body double in battle—Grey leaves readers with thoughtful reflections on whether otherworldly persuasions may have affected Caesar’s well-known tactical movements and political shifting. Just as Grey’s Caesar is on the cusp of eliminating his supernatural adversaries, Grey paints him into a desperate corner, turning his desire to break Rome free from Vampyres as the reason for his own downfall. The epilogue dangles other potential historical run-ins with Vampyres, offering readers the possibility of more to come from Grey in the future.

Takeaway: Reimagining of Julius Caesar’s life, dictated by Vampyre influence.

Comparable Titles: Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Brian M. Stableford’s The Empire of Fear.

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

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