Richardson’s uplifting debut recounts Pem Dorjee Sherpa’s story—his life, love, success, and eventual immigration to the United States. Born in the remote Nepali village of Chyangba, Pem’s early years are challenging: his parents are subsistence farmers, his father is an alcoholic, and he must walk several kilometers to school. At 12 years old, he runs away to Namche Bazaar to work in a teahouse, later becoming a mountaineer guide and moving to Kathmandu. Pem meets his future wife, Moni Mulepati—“a strong-willed and curious child”—during their time together in an Advanced Mountaineer course, setting the two on a pathway of wild adventure paired with a deep, abiding love.

Richardson’s description of Pem’s harsh childhood, the poverty, and lack of opportunities is both sensitive and authentic; by placing those experiences in the broader cultural, economic, and social conditions of Nepal, she gives them context and breadth. Pem and Moni’s personalities dazzle, etched through small incidents like their rocky start together, when Moni, irritated that Pem kept her awake at night chattering with his friends, did her best to ignore him—but eventually succumbed to his bold courtship. Richardson’s account of their Everest summit bid—which culminated in their marriage at the top and Moni’s record of the first Newari woman to make the climb—is rich in detail, capturing the challenges of Moni’s snow blindness, a constant lack of oxygen, and lurking evils of frostbite and hypothermia.

The book’s highlight is the deep respect and empathy that Richardson has for her subject, as she narrates Pem’s boyhood in Chyangba in nuanced and evocative tones, devoid of sensationalized portrayals, and recounts the courage and determination of both Pem and Moni as they achieve U.S. citizenship—an even “greater challenge than climbing Everest,” according to Pem. This is a crisp, inspiring account not just of scaling a deadly summit, but of life itself.

Takeaway: Exhilarating account of a Nepali Sherpa’s dauntless spirit amid a challenging life.

Comparable Titles: Ed Douglas’s Tenzing, Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman’s Nanda Devi.

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

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When Detective Tammy Sharp returns to her Arkansas hometown after a traumatic incident in Atlanta—where she was shot in the line of duty—she’s haunted by one question: why did she, a distinguished homicide detective, “stand there like a fool instead of pulling the trigger?” That’s the opening act for Brewer’s skillful murder mystery, a novel bombarded by a tangled web of suspects, each harboring their own dark secrets. Tammy’s past gnaws at her, fueling her self-doubt, and leads her to second guess her instincts—a dangerous pastime, considering she’s immediately thrust into a new murder mystery—and an old romance—once she returns home.

Tammy’s life quickly becomes chaotic after her Uncle Ellis’s suspicious drowning, especially once she inherits his estate—and reconnects with Jace Eubanks, a high school love who abandoned her decades ago to marry someone else. The scars from that betrayal still run deep, and the rekindling of their relationship adds layers of complexity to Tammy’s already fraught emotional landscape. Brewer plays off those dynamics in the push and pull Tammy feels between her old life and her new troubles; her mother, Ruby, who embodies old-school Southern charm, fervently hopes that her daughter will resist the temptation to investigate her uncle’s death, but, of course, Tammy can’t turn down the chance to get back in the game.

Brewer—author of Frankie’s Journey, among other romance titles—is clearly committed to clean, values-driven storytelling, which plays out here in moments like Tammy’s mother insisting she attend gospel meetings and then demanding that Tammy pause her investigation to prepare casseroles for a grieving family. Sporadic, first-person chapters provide a chilling glimpse into the killer’s mind, and Brewer deftly weaves together multiple murders, crafting a compelling and suspenseful plot with a satisfying mix of mystery, romance, and small-town intrigue.

Takeaway:Home and heart win out in this small town American murder mystery.

Comparable Titles: Elly Griffiths’s The Postscript Murders, Anne-Marie Meyer’s The Magnolia Inn.

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

Click here for more about To Find a Killer

Steele debuts her Iconic Sons MC series with this heady story of forbidden love, following Charly Sawyer, a young woman with a troubled childhood, as she tries to make a life for herself in an unforgiving, dangerous world. Charly, raised by an abusive stepfather and a mother struggling with addiction, has been in charge of her own safety since she was a kid, taught by her experience that people cannot be trusted. Now an adult, and working at the Brothers in Arms Bar and Grill, Charly faces a whole new threat: her tempting boss, Dominic, and his cousin Jax, both of whom awaken feelings in Charly she never knew she had.

As Charly fights those feelings, Dom and Jax wholeheartedly pursue her, nearly from the start of this racy novel. Members of the Iconic Sons Motorcycle Club, a group Charly suspects is not on the up-and-up, the men exude an animal sensuality, using and discarding women for their own empty gratification—until Charly comes along. Steele renders their devil-may-care attitude toward the one-night stands in their lives remarkably well, while still sketching a deeper, caring side to both men that resonates with Charly. Something about Charly strikes Dom and Jax differently, immediately sparking an explosive yearning between the three that sets them on a path to betrayal, abandon, and delicious, steamy sex.

The central relationship in Steele’s novel is unconventional, but she still hits all the right spots for romance fans. Charly needs rescuing, multiple times, and both Dom and Jax are more than up to the task, demonstrating impressive depth for two unattached playboys. Steele transforms their pursuit of Charly into a reflection on belonging, particularly once Charly learns that Dom’s history isn’t much different from her own. Their time between the sheets takes center stage, but Steele uses that as a springboard for a tender—if unorthodox—celebration of love’s enduring bonds.

Takeaway: Steamy love triangle with surprising depth.

Comparable Titles: Beth D. Carter’s Sin, Leah Brooke’s Every Breath.

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

Click here for more about Resilient

This exceptional reimagining of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s life, inspired by Shank’s study of her writings, brims with impassioned feeling. From a young age, Juana is different: a child prodigy, she yearns to read and write, desires that are fueled by her abuelo—Pedro Ramirez de Asbaje—and his astounding library collection. Juana’s early years are spent by his side, ravenously consuming any learning he offers her, including helping her dress as a man so she can access La Biblioteca de la Universidad, forbidden to women in Juana’s 17th century Nueva España. When her beloved abuelo dies, Juana carries that flame inside, dedicating the remainder of her life to education, writing, and love.

Shank (author of The Mystical Land of Myrrh) acknowledges an absence of factual information on Juana’s life, noting the liberties she takes to fill in those blanks—the end result of which is a stunning tapestry of one woman’s unusually brilliant spark. Juana’s larger than life personality consumes the pages of Shank’s novel, materializing in Juana’s delicately intense writing, perseverance in the face of tragedy, determination to be herself no matter the cost, and passionate love for Maria Luisa, the viceroy’s wife who, in real life, ensured some of Juana’s works were published in Spain. Just as she gives herself fully to Maria Luisa, so, too, does Juana devote herself to the Catholic Church, even when it sanctions her creativity and summons its considerable power to muzzle her talents.

Historical fiction fans will devour Shank’s story, enriched with historically accurate details throughout, including Juana’s nemesis, the Archbishop Francisco de Aguiar, who manipulated church doctrine to silence her outspoken writing, and 1695’s devastating plague, confined primarily to Juana’s San Jeronimo’s Convent, that eventually took her life. This penetrating novel portrays the many sides of an extraordinary woman, who dared to love, create, and pursue the question, “should I dare to fly?”

Takeaway: Stunning reimagining of the inspiring life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Comparable Titles: Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s Sor Juana’s Second Dream, Paul Anderson’s Hunger’s Brides.

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

Click here for more about Sor Juana, My Beloved

Adkins’s post-apocalyptic fiction debut, set in the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse strike in current day Texas, follows Rob and his daughter Ann, as they struggle to reunite in a world rapidly descending into chaos. Rob, determined to rescue Ann from her college campus—now under a strict curfew imposed by Homeland Security—embarks on a perilous journey rife with ambushes and desperate people trying to make sense of the world’s shocking events. Meanwhile, Ann bunkers down in her dorm, uneasy with growing suspicions of Homeland Security’s motives. Their paths converge in a narrative that is as much about the physical journey home as it is about the internal struggle to maintain humanity in the face of adversity.

Rob’s journey finds him grappling with the morality of his actions to protect his daughter, as he navigates through a landscape devoid of transportation and communication, scavenging for resources and avoiding confrontation with those who have turned to violence in the absence of law and order. In the same vein, Ann, increasingly frustrated by campus restrictions, fights the manipulative Sergeant Williams and her violent accomplice, John, in her efforts to return home, fearful that the lockdowns, surveillance, and uncertainty have become her “new world.”

Adkins’s first-person narrative, alternating between Rob and Ann, builds tension effectively, immersing readers in their emotions and experiences, while the novel’s focus on the psychological and emotional effects of the apocalyptic event provides a profound exploration of humanity on the brink of chaos. As Rob reflects that “personal morals will change when you experience enough need, greed, or danger,” he also wonders just how far he’ll go to save Ann, a fear that’s justified as his quest progresses. Homebound is not just a story of survival but a study on the lengths people will go to protect those they love.

Takeaway: A father and daughter fight to reunite after a devastating EMP strike.

Comparable Titles: William R. Forstchen’s One Second After, Harley Tate’s The Darkness Trilogy.

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

Click here for more about HOMEbound: Book 1

The surprising third entry in Wammack’s Beginning of Civilization series continues imagining the root tales and myths of civilization with a welcome emphasis on the human, not the divine. As the title suggests, Dionysus & Hestia concerns the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon, but Wammack never elevates the likes of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and co. over us mortals. Rather, this entry follows the Titan Dionysus’s clever campaign to rebrand the deeply human Olympians as the Nephilim, an upper class so upper they rule without sullying their hands with the details. “Rebrand” might sound too 21st-century prosaic for a story that involves foundational myths like Hades’s abduction of Persephone and the Centaur Chiron living with a birth defect described by Apollo as a “growth from his back that has the appearance of a horse’s hindquarters.” But it’s in the spirit of this entry, as the Olympians—led by Dionysus and Chief-of-Chiefs Hestia and her Executive Assistant Philyra—divvy up their world in pointedly contemporary management-speak. Hades, for example, is named “Chief-of-Metals, Mining, and Manufacturing position,” or “CoM3.”

Wammack again examines moments where civilization flowers. This time, the leap involves class, as the Olympians remove themselves from the rabble, building towers, demanding tribute, and elevating lords to run things, distracting themselves with schemes and orgies. Without losing sight of the dawn-of-humanity stakes, Wammack emphasizes the meetings that keep things running as a cast of Olympians, Titans, and Oceanids makes hilariously un-godly declarations like “We just need some organizational changes.”

The narration, though, remains at an Olympian remove, emulating the declarative nature of ancient texts. The novel is heftily long, purposefully lacking much interiority but packed with incident, discussion, and philosophical inquiry, especially on the part of Dionysus, a figure of real pathos. Much of this is funny, presented in brisk scenes often powered by moral outrage, especially once people begin to think of the Olympians as gods—a development the gods prove happy to exploit and that Wammack, in his provocative, wholly original way, demonstrates as tragic.

Takeaway: Boldly satiric epic novel of the evolution of Olympian godhood.

Comparable Titles: Marie Phillips’s Gods Behaving Badly, Steven Mithen’s After the Ice.

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

Click here for more about Dionysus and Hestia

Feldman’s epic World War II thriller opens with a grabber of a mystery: in 1972, a British colonel is dispatched to a mysterious castle in the Virgin Islands, where “the highest known untried Nazi” has died. Turns out that Nazi—Horst Deeke, architect of the “Warriors des Fuhrer” assassination squad—had, in the last days of the war, struck a deal to be allowed to live out his life in peace as a “(most secret) asset” of England. The hefty but brisk novel that follows reveals how Horst came to betray the Reich and its plan to develop and detonate “superbomb”s, as Feldman offers a globe-crossing story of love, lust, loyalty, espionage, u-boats, uranium, and brutal men who will do anything for power or to satisfy their dark desires.

Patton Mountain eschews traditional spy heroics, instead charting the careers of Horst and others over a decade of scheming and eventually war with striking and persuasive detail, attentive to inner-Reich politics and culture, military tech, and affairs of the heart. As Hitler and Himmler pressure subordinates to develop the war-changing bomb, Horst falls for a young “Valkyrie” of German espionage, Heidi, on assignment in a Nazi-run nightclub in Tennessee, near a plant connected to the Manhattan project. Horst’s journey will, eventually, find him taking bold action to save many lives, but he does so for his own reasons, including love, betrayal, and “to assure a future for my homeland and that of Aryan Europe.”

Feldman complicates his lead Nazis—Heidi comes to love swing music and befriends Count Basie—without whitewashing beliefs or deeds. Vicious acts by less prominent villains, like several graphic rapes including one of a Jewish teen in a camp, are harrowing and outraged but also queasily detailed. Feldman’s prose rarely cues readers to sympathize with Horst, but Patton Mountain still spends its many hundreds of pages in the minds and hearts of Nazis, limiting its appeal to general audiences.

Takeaway: WWII espionage epic of a Nazi who betrays the Reich.

Comparable Titles: Hans Fallada; V.S. Alexander’s The Traitor.

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

Click here for more about Patton Mountain

Mahina Moemoea often dreams of flying towards her mother's voice—a mysterious force calling her to the lava tubes where her parents met their end during a hurricane 13 years ago. Tutu, her grandmother, remains tight-lipped about the tragedy, and when Mahina shares the thrill of her flying visions, Tutu's response is sharp: "The Moemoea dreams … are a curse," she warns, convinced that these dreams led to her daughter’s death. For Tutu, working in their ranch's rich and revitalizing soil is enough. She makes Mahina promise to ignore her dreams, fearing she might lose her granddaughter to the same fate.

Mahina, ever the dreamer, refuses to be tethered by fear and, though plagued with guilt, defies her Tutu. When a hurricane destroys Po'okela Academy, Mahina dares an idea inspired by her dreams—a fundraising concert to rebuild her school—and enlists the help of her best friend, Koa, and her supportive teacher, Ms. Reynolds. What unfolds is a dangerous yet soaring journey where Mahina discovers that the Moemoeas’ irresistible powers are far more than a curse, through secret trips to the lava tubes, bouts of sleepwalking and nightmares, and the growing realization that her visions might even hold the key to combating climate change.

Blending magical realism and Hawaiian lore, Blossom (author of Horse Boys) offers a timeless story, rich with Hawaiian culture, and implores readers to contemplate the power of dreams and the fears that often stifle them, with lovable characters who embody the courage of the next generation. Tutu's words, "the power is not in the dreams. It is in you," resonate throughout, a reminder that dreams mean nothing without action. Mahina Rises is a powerful call for guardians to nurture their children's dreams and for the young to believe they can make a difference in a world ravaged by greed. This is an urgent read on caring for our planet.

Takeaway: Soaring adventure of two kids who combat climate change.

Comparable Titles: Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Peter Brown's The Wild Robot.

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

Click here for more about Mahina Rises

In this interstellar adventure, the first of Scripps’s debut middle-grade series, light and darkness—both literally and figuratively—are at war, as the Light Beings of Starland and the Dark Beings of Planet Shadowland battle to control the auras of humans. When Ruby Diamond's grandmother gifts her a dreamcatcher, she's suddenly teleported, in her dreams, to the planet of Starland, a mystical place where she encounters a glass castle called The Aura Embassy. Fast forward to a year later, and the 10-year-old Ruby, who’s had nothing but peaceful sleep since that time, is ready to return to Starland, to reunite with her “cosmic BFFs,” the Light Beings—and help them make human auras glow.

Scripps introduces conflict right away in this celestial adventure, as Ruby’s desk harbors a dangerous dictionary listing all the signs that make auras glow on Earth, called The Portfolio of Light—a book that no human is supposed to see because it can “mess up the natural balance on Earth.” The story unfolds from the present day as well as from Ruby’s memories of her previous Starland trip, where her presence caused Starland’s Light Beings to feel "the shivers," throwing the magical planet into unbalance and chaos. There, Ruby first learned what an aura is (“a tiny happiness lamp that every human has,” according to the Light Being Aurora), why the Dark Beings were set on stealing the light from both Starland and Earth, and how she may just be the human destined to "[stop] the Dark Beings from dimming Earth's light for good.”

Plagued with typical adolescent struggles, Ruby also has the added pressure of this secret mission weighing on her, which builds tension and adds layered complexities to the story. Filled with secrecy, betrayal, and magic, Ruby’s larger-than-life quest to save two worlds from being consumed by darkness will enthrall young readers.

Takeaway: Cosmic middle grade quest to save two worlds from darkness.

Comparable Titles: Angela Cervantes's The Cursed Moon, Angie Thomas's Nic Blake and the Remarkables series.

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

Click here for more about Glow in the Dark

After the harrowing October 7th attacks, journalist Patinkin was moved to travel to Israel to get a sense of what life was like on the ground, “bearing witness through those touched by war” by reporting on the stories of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Patinkin’s open mind and empathy serve him well in capturing the essential humanity of his subjects, as he profiles people directly affected by the attacks and the conflict that has followed. Unfathomable losses are a common theme. “My niece and her husband were murdered,” an old friend texted him, and through that connection Patinkin interviews teenaged Rotem, whose account of losing his parents in an attack on a kibbutz a mile from Gaza stirs tears.

“People have lost family, land and houses—but not the pride in who they are,” says Aboud Ahmed, in Ramallah, a college student who reminds Patinkin of the diversity of belief and thought among Palestinians, pointing out “We’re not a Muslim monolith.” Visiting Palestinians in Ramallah, including people he had met in the early 90s when he was covering the first Intifada, Patinkin reports encountering anger but also incredible hospitality and painful stories of occupation and seeing rights were stripped by the Israeli government. The interview subjects don’t offer much hope of peace anytime soon, with even a one-time Israeli “peacenik” saying, of civilian casualties, “I hate it. But I don’t think we should stop.”

Patinkin’s approach of allowing people to tell their stories reveals patterns: speakers on both sides believe their claim to the land is irrefutable, beliefs that the escalation of violence confirms for them. Patinkin leaves readers with the hopeful story of a Muslim/Jewish husband and wife who have created a mixed-faith school for young children as a way of trying to transcend these differences Without explicitly saying so, Patinkin suggests it will take new modes of thinking to stop the conflict, and it's this gentle, humane approach that makes this such a moving work of narrative journalism.

Takeaway: Deeply humane accounts of life on both sides in Israel and Gaza after October 7th

Comparable Titles: Cathay Sultan’s Israeli and Palestinian Voices;Ben Ehrenreich’s The Way to the Spring

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

Click here for more about The Holy Land at War

Whitmire transports readers into the inner workings of Gen Z, those “digital natives” who have never known a world without the internet and smartphones, in this savvy debut. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z kids and adults, according to Whitmire, document just about every part of their lives online (TikTok is their kryptonite, he writes, “a platform where short-form videos are king and attention spans are for old people”), and he ably explains the psychological motivations driving their generation, while also exploring how they interface with Baby Boomers, Gen X, and other populations.

Promising to be “your sherpa through this wild journey of understanding your Gen Z child or your Gen Z friend, and better yet, cherishing that relationship with them,” Whitmire goes above and beyond in his attempts to accurately analyze Gen Z, sharing a wealth of research and statistics that offer fascinating tidbits about this captivating generation. Those range from their tendency to spend at least 6 hours a day online, their chummy relationship with Google to answer all of life’s questions, and their overwhelming preference to text before talking. Whitmire’s relaxed style may seem cheeky at first, but readers shouldn’t take that to mean he’s trivializing Gen Z’s contributions; “this generation does not lack motivation or ambition,” he writes—“they were born and bred… to dream big.”

Whitmire does a masterful job explaining the thoughts and objectives of Gen Z—honesty and transparency are key, he asserts—and provides sensible, actionable advice to readers seeking to understand them. He also offers a glossary of Gen Z expressions (covering sayings like “no cap” and “sus”) to help older generations communicate with and develop “genuine understanding and respect for the generation shaping our future.” Celebrating differences is essential, Whitmire urges, and this clever offering does just that—with a healthy serving of playfulness along the way.

Takeaway: Savvy guide to understanding Gen Z for older audiences.

Comparable Titles: Ryan Jenkins’s The Generation Z Guide, Darrell E. Hall’s Speaking Across Generations.

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

Click here for more about The Key to Gen Z

Charlie Wags is an ordinary pup with the best secret ever: he’s a globetrotter, all thanks to “a little wag” of his tail that sends him off to faraway places. This time, Charlie is headed off to New York City, to explore the sights and sounds of a bustling metropolis far away from his cozy white house. His first stop is Central Park, where he happily barks his way through the grassy hills and kite-flying kiddos, on his way to the zoo. Charlie hits all the hotspots on his adventure, making this entertaining tale an exciting way for kids to learn about the Empire City.

Authors Wells and Barclay started this darling series with the hope of giving young readers a glimpse of the big, bright world around them, and this first installment does just that. Charlie is an adorable lead, sprinting and wagging his way through a city that’s teeming with flashy new experiences. He touches on the activities that are just pure fun—like sampling famous New York City pizza—while also perusing monumental landmarks, including Lady Liberty, who “holds her torch with pride,” and One World Trade Center, a towering monument to the power of hope. Sanna Sjöström accompanies those iconic landmarks with textured watercolor illustrations that transform each scene into a work of art, from the fluffy zoo penguins to the swank contours of Charlie’s Broadway play.

Younger readers will revel in Charlie’s adventures, experiencing NYC’s splendors from the comfort of their homes. Of course, Charlie returns safely home—“his favorite place”—at the end of a fun-filled day, ready to rest up for his next journey. The authors close with a brief description of the famous landmarks Charlie visited throughout the story, along with question prompts to help readers personalize his excursions, making this a series kids will relish returning to in the future.

Takeaway: Adorable story of a pup with wanderlust and the Big Apple.

Comparable Titles: Natalia Diaz and Melissa Owens’s A Ticket Around the World, Kari Allen’s The Boy Who Loved Maps.

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

Click here for more about The Tales of Charlie Wags

This distressing thriller by Bowers serves as a prequel to his memoir, Captured by Covid—a nonfiction account of his time spent intubated in ICU, fighting hallucinations while in a coma. Here, Bowers crafts the backstories of the families featured in that memoir, primarily centered on Allen and Kim Schultz and their 15-year-old daughter Olivia. During a family trip to Mexico, Olivia is kidnapped on the day she turns 16 and raped by Julio Mendez, a high-ranking member of a Mexican drug cartel. When both Olivia and her captor are killed in a devastating helicopter crash, Allen and Kim must face their own brutal spiral of depression, grief, and a desperate quest for answers.

Olivia’s story is heartbreaking, made more chilling by the knowledge that Bowers experienced related horrors through his COVID-19 hallucinations. The juxtaposition of Olivia—a fresh-faced teen on the cusp of her 16th birthday—with later scenes of her brutal treatment at the hands of a remorseless cartel leader proves jarring, and Bowers’s trigger warning is definitely warranted. Beyond the shocking abuse, the novel is awash in often awkward and gratuitous sex and sexual references, from frequent comments on how Olivia’s body is “filling out” to the narrator’s compare-and-contrast appraisal of Olivia’s mother’s body (“nice breasts that would make any man’s mouth water”) and Olivia’s own. Like icky speedbumps, those descriptions—including a helicopter rape scene played for shock—disrupt the narrative more than they add depth or context.

Bowers hints at larger conspiracies behind the horrifying circumstances the Schultz family faces, particularly when it becomes evident the US government and DEA know more than they’re admitting. The ending has a staggering twist that readers likely won’t see coming, though the path to get there is littered with Allen reliving Olivia’s ordeals through “artifacts” he requests through the Freedom of Information Act. Readers may want to start with Bowers’s memoir to anchor the events of this unsettling novel.

Takeaway: Unsettling story of a teen girl’s kidnapping and brutal treatment by a cartel boss.

Comparable Titles: Karen D. Scioscia’s Kidnapped by the Cartel, Roger Dean Fischer and Debbie Viguié’s Cartel Heat.

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

Click here for more about Olivia

Vogel crafts a magical world in this YA debut, inspired by her own childhood experiences, that follows 12-year-old Claire Hamilton, who has just moved to Saudi Arabia with her family. Claire is a shy, insecure child and is determined, in her own words, “not to be a loser” at her new school in this new country. But as she explores the local landscape—the souks, the vast desert, and the Arab people—strange, inexplicable things start to happen: a stick turns into a snake at will, gnats and flies seem to be chasing after Claire and her friends, and biblical plagues come with a vengeance, making Claire wonder at her role in all the chaos.

From the start, Claire comes across as a closed-off child, bullied by her parents; in response, she fashions a set of rules to keep herself out of everyone’s hair (“Hide-What-You’re-Really-Thinking” and “Apologize-Often” are just two of those). Comparatively, she is always at ease around animals, who she tends to gravitate towards, and Vogel scatters this entertaining plot with snakes, dogs, horses, and frogs, all of whom draw out the real Claire and show readers a side of her rarely revealed around other humans.

Since the novel is based in Saudi Arabia, Vogel utilizes numerous references to Arabic words, local customs, and myths, all conveyed via the sensitive gaze of a curious 12 year old. But also intriguing is the proliferation of biblical references, particularly in the second half of the book, which help Claire make sense of the inexplicable events she’s facing and culminate in her “liberation,” as readers see her finally open up and come into her own. The end result is an informative, enlightening YA novel that explores the traditions of foreign culture while bringing biblical stories to life. Lovers of magical realism, animals, and coming-of-age adventures will embrace this heartwarming story.

Takeaway: Beautiful coming-of-age fusing foreign culture with biblical stories.

Comparable Titles: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures, Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys.

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

Click here for more about Call of the Desert

This genre-busting epic, Price’s debut, blends a natural tragedy—the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and triggered a nuclear disaster—with an odd-couple police procedural, a secret-society thriller with historical roots, spirited sword fighting, and a dash of the supernatural. In the days before the disaster, Kurosawa Hikaru, a sword-master with the gift of reading auras, comes to the Coast of Fukushima, looking into a conspiracy that his sister, Azumi, has been investigating back in Tokyo, driven by the siblings’ Samurai heritage and sense of responsibility for their family’s history. The mission: something stinks at the nuclear power plant. At the same time, Tokyo’s best detectives, a comically foul-mouthed, high-tech duo that includes a Sumo wrestler/martial arts master, has also been dispatched to the Fukushima Prefecture on a case that will prove to be related: the governor’s disappearance.

A quick summary can’t do justice to the scope of The Tides of March, a novel fascinated by the history and culture of Japan, by the processes of detectives, fishermen, samurai, serial killers, and more, and by the ways that each major character’s convictions on law, justice, and other heady topics reflect Japan itself. That richness of ambition, combined with Price’s wordiness and eagerness to examine every moment in the detail, means the text is often dense, especially in opening chapters, which tend toward the discursive—especially for a novel with pulpy beheadings, corruption, and a serial killer to come. Readers who persevere will find excitement and many surprises, spanning history and worlds, plus international intrigue, wild murders, and an overall spirit of gusto that’s rare in such a thoughtful novel.

Scenes of confrontation, disaster, and otherworldly presences are vivid and unpredictable, while the pained camaraderie between the Kurosawa siblings, cursed by their grandfather’s actions, is affecting. The detectives’ pointedly tasteless banter, meanwhile, can prove exhausting, but readers on Price’s wavelength may relish it.

Takeaway: Genre-bending but wordy epic of cops, contemporary Samurai, and corruption in Japan.

Comparable Titles: Steve Bein, Peter Tieryas’s United States of Japan series.

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

Click here for more about The Tides of March

Thistle’s second collection of tales inspired by animals in her garden, after Under the Garden Gate, is a quaint gathering of poems describing the comings and goings of delightful backyard creatures, including cats, alligators, blue jays, chipmunks, and more. “We double flap our wings… fast as lightning through the air” delicate hummingbirds serenade in “Forest Fairies,” conjuring their daily activities in gentle prose: “first we hover, // then we’re gone. // As we sing a happy song.” Each poem in this inspiring collection is framed by Thistle’s muted pencil sketches, portraying the book’s animals in wispy, subdued form.

In Thistle’s garden, “all are welcome,” and her book rightly celebrates the wonders of that animal world. In “Jump Around,” the narrator identifies various creatures idling on the ground, recommending that readers give them space instead of crushing them underfoot: “Don’t step on the newt, // they’re really quite cute. // Say ‘Hello’ then jump around.” Thistle’s rhymes are simple but memorable, delivering a profound lesson to young readers on the stewardship of outdoor spaces as well as relaying important conservation principles—particularly a sense of community with the natural world.

Much of Thistle’s writing aims for education, like “Wiggle and Bound,” a poem following a family of fisher cats as the babies listen to instruction from their mother: “I’ll show you the path, // I’ll show you the stream, // I’ll show you the rose bush, // remember, always to dream.” Young readers unfamiliar with fisher cats will be enticed to learn more about them, just as Thistle’s “Trinkets and Treasures” opens a world of different birds to children, through exploring an abandoned nest that transforms into a new home. Though Thistle’s illustrations are restrained, her poems are joyful, whimsical, and above all commemorative of the animal kingdom that brings her backyard to life.

Takeaway: Whimsical poem collection describing animals’ garden journeys.

Comparable Titles: Maggie Davis’s A Garden of Whales, Kevin Henkes’s My Garden.

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

Click here for more about Behind the Garden Gate