Book Review: Silverskin

When Ellie Forth sets out to have a great Alaskan adventure with her remaining family members, she’s got something to prove—and not to them, but to herself. Four years after the unexpected death of her mother and sister, she’s ready to re-embrace her adventurous side. Oliver Cole’s life, on the other hand, is very simple: go to work, catch fish, come home, and stash every penny earned into his bank account so he can afford to pay for college. But his life is turned upside down when Ellie and her brother—two nearly-forgotten acquaintances from his childhood—burst back into his life. After a horrific encounter with the supernatural deep in the Kenai Peninsula, Ellie and Oliver must team up to discover the truth about what happened in Portlock, and how to fight a rising tide of evil that has the power to envelop not just Alaska, but the entire world.

Book Review: The Path of Celestial Thunder

In a world of power, Jasmine is the outcast. No matter how long she meditates, breathing in the vital aura of the world, her soul refuses to cultivate. Her betters say the Heavens forbid it, but Jasmine isn’t so sure. She can’t be destined to live the quiet life of a nun. She is tired of being pushed around and watching others treat her friends like trash. She’ll do anything, even break the peace of the valley, to fix her condition and protect those she loves. Meanwhile, Ti'Lee is trapped by tradition. His father expects him to become an imperial scholar, but his true passion lies in spiritsmithing—a career that would blacken his family’s name. As the entrance exam for the School of Rising Sun approaches, Ti'Lee must make a choice that will change his destiny forever. Little do Jasmine and Ti'Lee know, their fates are intertwined, and the choices they make will alter the course of their ever-dying world—a world their Emperor spent centuries building. And he’s not about to let them ruin it.

Book Review: Moon & Shadow

Moon & Shadow is the first book in The Channeler Trilogy. A finalist in the 2021 Best Book Awards and a second place winner in the 2021 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, J. Steven Lamperti’s Moon & Shadow is an enchanting fantasy with sweet romance, quirky characters, and engaging humor.

Book Review: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic

On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she's intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro's illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman—a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel. But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe's discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible. But if she plays them wrong… she'll learn slavery in her pursuers' hands is a fate far worse than death.

Book Review: In the Heart of the Garden Is a Tomb

This garden is full of haunted people. There’s Wash Greavor and his friends, lost on backwoods logging trails, who stumble on an ancient graveyard where a monstrous sentry from long ago awaits them. Then there’s Corbin Grimwood and his new gun. It hums in his hand like a can full of bees. And there are others. Lost souls seeking a way out. But there’s no escaping the bitter truth that awaits us all in the heart of the garden.

Book Review: Bloody Spade

A girl full of heart A thief touched by darkness A hot-tempered golden boy An unwitting servant of evil The era of magic was once thought to be a myth, but after the Reemergence ushered forces both dark and light into the mundane world, it has since become a harsh reality. Now those affected by this strange power—a specialized group of Empowered called Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay—must protect their world from the darkness that threatens to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy. But the Reemergence was only the beginning. When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, an unfortunate encounter at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt and legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the inevitable natural disaster it first seemed. Someone is trying to tear down the barrier that separates the magical realms from the mundane. The question is why, and can Cardplay stop them before it’s too late?

Book Review: The Outlands

In the ruins of the world that was lies the city of Dios, a haven protected from the hostile environment known as The Outlands. Ruled by an oppressive Patriarch, the people of Dios are conditioned in fear. The smallest infraction could result in banishment to the Outlands, a fate worse than death. With his make-shift family of “Undesirables”, Jett Lasting struggles to find his place in a world where drawing attention to yourself can get you killed. His very existence is considered a crime. To survive, he must avoid guards, beggar gangs, and an ever-growing tension that could drag the whole city into chaos. Jett unwittingly becomes entwined in a plot to overthrow the government where his choices could lead to freedom or the death of everyone he’s ever known or cared about.

Book Review: What Was Your Name Downriver?

THE WITCHER MEETS TRUE GRIT Evaline Cartwright, a world-weary bounty hunter, and runaway Trivan Esterhazy are newly-met on a riverboat while fleeing the violence of the gold fields, eager for a return to civilization. But the frontier isn't done with them yet. Beset by the foul magicks of a rogue mage and the schemes of mutinous passengers, the women will have to navigate hostile country together, using wits and weaponry both, to have any chance of reaching their destination alive.

Book Review: The Inconvenient God

What happens if you try to retire a god who is not ready to leave? An official from the Ministry of Divinity arrives at a university to decommission a local god. She is expecting an easy decommissioning of a waning god of mischief but finds instead an active god not interested in retiring and university administrators who have not told her the full story about the god. Can the Decommisioner discover the true story of this god in time to prevent his most destructive round of mischief yet?

Book Review: Swan Lake

The Swan is not as innocent as she appears... Doubts and fears of her own making have kept April a prisoner of her mind for far too long. Her promising ballet career was halted after a violent attack, forcing her into a rehabilitation facility to cope with her crushing emotional pain. Now, eager for a fresh start, she battles to hide her daily struggles under an ill-fitting mask of control. Until she meets William. Older. Mysterious. Dangerous. Underneath his intoxicating guidance, April explores exquisite freedoms that unlock a powerful side of herself she never knew existed. But the handsome billionaire has a dark side of his own, and may not be the modern-day prince the world believes him to be. Plagued by labels of both good and evil, will he be her salvation? Or her ultimate undoing?