“Everything Burns.” Keith Carruthers Hold on to your hats. This one is a wild ride. In S.A. Cosby’s newest, The King of Ashes, we meet Roman Carruthers, a successful wealth management professional. One evening he receives a call from his sister, Neveah, telling Roman to come home. Their father, Keith, has been in a terrible…
If you lost a loved one and found yourself unable to manage your profound sadness and sense of loss, would you choose to sleep it away? Could you sleep your grief away? Nikki Erlick poses these are the questions in her newest, speculative work, The Poppy Fields. Our tale begins in the Kansas City airport.…
“...the cat knew, because it’s the impermanence of life that makes it perfect.” Family, redemption, and cats are all subjects that draw me to a book. Annie Harnett beautifully explores these topics in her quirky, heart-tugging novel, The Road to Tender Hearts. From the opening pages when Pancakes, the cat, not only predicts…
Families are the compass that guide us.” Brad Henry Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith is a family drama filled with laughs, heart, and road trips. The Endicotts, by anyone’s measure, are extraordinary (emphasis on the extra). Jude is an Oscar-nominated actor; Roddy is an elite athlete, and Connor is a…
No one wants to be the bad guy, and so we distort facts to suit our images of ourselves, and we do this so often that eventually, the lie becomes the truth. – The Lost House There are time when I want to curl up and read a dark, complicated book. My longing for…
Nothing better during these frosty winter months than snuggling down with a cup of something warm and a cozy read. I recently had the pleasure of curling up with Julie Leong’s debut novel, The Teller of Small Fortunes. A fantasy tale of found family, adventure, and immigration (featuring a magical feline – I mean but…
“No matter how great a work of art is, it comes to an end. In fact, in order to be great, it must end.” Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds, pg. 305 When I was five years old, I wanted to be a ballet dancer more than anything in the world. All my child-sized brain…
Would you let your children pick your next date? In Is She Really Going Out with Him? (I must confess to humming the old Joe Jackson song every time I say the title) by Sophie Cousens that is exactly what our narrator agrees to. Anna Appleby is a busy, newly divorced mother of…
Who doesn't love a grumpy old man sticking his nose in other folks' business? In this case it's a grumpy old pony sticking his snout in his other people's business. Like Marcellus the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures, we have an animal intervening in human affairs and ultimately, saving the day. Pony after being sold by…
Sometimes a book just evokes a visceral reaction. The Wedding People by Alison Espach was that book for me. I picked up this book thinking I’d get a light, breezy read and got a whole lot more than I expected. Phoebe Stone, in a fabulous dress and heels, checks into Newport,…
