American Royals | Author: Katharine McGee | Rating: 11/11 In all my years I have never been so emotionally involved in a book. I have never been so annoyed-to-boredom with a single character that I wish to fast forward through the chapter. I have never felt love and heartache come so alive through the pages that I feel like I’m […]

Frontier Grit: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women | Author: Marianne Monson | Rating: 7/11 | The 19th century westward expansion of the United States is a story every American knows well. So well, in fact, that it has taken on near-mythical proportions in the collective mind and heart of the nation. This chapter in American history is […]

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories | Author: Ken Liu | Rating: 11/11 | Short story collections allow readers to savor bite-size narratives in between the regularly scheduled events of their hectic, day-to-day lives. The art of short story telling, however, is rarely tackled with much finesse. To be fair, it’s not an easy task to think of an original […]

Before the Fall | Author: Noah Hawley | Rating: 9.5/11 | Sixteen minutes after take-off, a private jet drops into the sea during a routine run between Martha’s Vineyard and New York City. Only two of the ten people on board survive: Scott Burroughs, a down-on-his-luck painter and recovering alcoholic, and JJ Bateman, the four-year-old son of a wealthy media tycoon. […]

All The Missing Girls | Author: Megan Miranda | Rating 10/11 | Hindsight is 20/20. That is something which is often said when looking back at a situation. But what if you start at the end and work your way back to the beginning? How would that change things, your feelings, your interpretation, your loyalty, your perception? Such is the […]

This Too Shall Pass | Author: Milena Busquets | Rating: 8/11 | Love and death are arguably the most universal threads in all of art, and are certainly the prime ingredients in any comedy or tragedy. They also happen to be the central themes of Milena Busquets’ latest novella, This Too Shall Pass, an unconventional love story of sorts between […]

Smoke | Author: Dan Vyleta | Rating: 8 / 11 | The past decade’s increased interest in the Steampunk aesthetic has led to a resurgence of alternative history literature. Readers can choose anything from Abraham Lincoln fighting zombies, to Nazis fighting the Allies with the help of their trained dinosaurs. It is certainly an eclectic trend, but this sort of […]