Reviewed By Lesley Jones for Readers' Favorite

Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon is an extraordinary novel. In the summer of 1955, nine-year-old Amanda Gerber has to say goodbye to her best friend, Francine. She travels from Brooklyn to deep within the Catskill Mountains, where Grandma Sarah lives. Although she is sad to be apart from Francine and worries that her absence will end their friendship, Amanda soon meets her cousin Laura who joins her on an exciting and sometimes dangerous adventure. Amanda also meets some eccentric and colorful members of her extended family. With each summer break spent with Grandma Sarah, Amanda learns that becoming a teenager brings new challenges and responsibilities. She also discovers that sometimes not everyone has good intentions or values. As her family faces tragedy, relationship breakdowns, and dark secrets from the past, Amanda learns the importance of treasuring the relationships with those you love.

Floating in the Neversink by Andrea Simon is a descriptive narrative that will transport you back to the innocence of your childhood. I resonated immediately with the eclectic mix of characters. Each of their backstories was well-detailed, which made their personalities so realistic and vivid. Their reactions to each situation were believable. I feel the sharp and authentic dialogue was the strength of this novel. It powerfully encapsulated the emotions of the characters. I thought the conversation between Amanda and her father around mental illness was particularly poignant. Although I adored Amanda, I also loved Laura and her strong character and sharp sense of humor. Her personality particularly shone through when discussing the origins of snow with Grandma Sarah; her reply was hysterical. The plot explores vital issues that every teenager will face in their lives, such as relationships with the opposite sex, family tensions, peer pressure, and grief. There were also subtle but powerful life lessons entwined throughout the plot, like her father not becoming a doctor. This line from Amanda around qualifying as a doctor was superb: “I guess they didn’t need to know that stuff in the sweater factory.” Many scenes highlight the importance of accepting differences in others, the willingness to step out of your comfort zone, and attempting new challenges. It is a highly engaging coming-of-age novel.

Reviewed By Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

Have you ever started a book, debated continuing, but something the protagonist has said or felt compels you to read on? That’s what happened to me when I began reading Forbidden Woman by Blair Bronwyn. There was something about Lucille, pregnant and abandoned, that spoke to my inner female core...that deep strength, intelligence, and resilience we women know we have, but that men have done their best over the centuries to control. As I followed Lucille’s self-deliverance from heart-hardening poverty and abuse as a prostitute to success, both as an independent woman and business person throughout the war years, I felt proud to be a woman. She learned how to “use” men...for lack of a better word...to regain power and control over her own life.

Blair Bronwyn’s ability to capture Lucille’s emotions, which ranged from shutting out any people, places, or things that deterred her from fulfilling her dreams, to finally opening up her heart again was beautifully done. Along the way, denying herself the need for the love buried deep in all human souls, she deprived herself of a fulfilling relationship with her only daughter. Thankfully, as fate stepped in and took away the only man she ever truly loved, a Christian pastor, she acknowledged how much her pursuit of money and security had cost her. Did her epiphany come in time to salvage the relationship with her daughter and the grandchildren she didn’t know she had? You will need to read Forbidden Woman to find out. The engaging plotline and its characters will ensure you keep turning those pages.

But Forbidden Woman is much more than just a great story. It’s a clever, ongoing commentary on the status of women, not just women of color, but all women. Forbidden Woman gives readers so much to think about. The deeper I got into the story and the themes, the more I felt the urge to do some personal exploration into religion, the American dream, the status of women. For me, that’s the sign of a great piece of writing. Blair Bronwyn tells us Forbidden Woman is the first book of a trilogy. It’ll be interesting to see what she will come up with next.

Reviewed By Teresa Syms for Readers' Favorite

Becoming Olive W.: The Women of Campbell County by S. Lee Fisher tells the story of the youngest daughter of Henderson Westchester. Olive, who was left orphaned at the age of three when her mother died in childbirth, struggles to find her purpose and place as the youngest child in the Westchester family, the business, and the world. She is feisty, dominant and, most times, a rude young girl who grows up and learns the family farming business from the financial side, challenges her father, controls the money and the rest of her large family. Henderson wants Olive to attend finishing school, as most women of the early 1900s did. What Olive wants is to further her education by going to high school and then college, but Henderson will not allow it. Olive fights her family at every turn and the society where she finds herself trapped in the male-dominated times. How will Olive cope with the pressures of life, love, and family while trying to carve out a life for herself? Only time will tell.

S. Lee Fisher has created a beautifully written and well-developed story. Becoming Olive W.: The Women of Campbell County highlights the rural life of Olive Westchester and her dysfunctional large farming family. Henderson only tolerates Olive's behavior because she is so like her deceased mother in looks and behavior. Her siblings, spouses, and teachers despise Olive and her abrupt, harsh, and rude mannerisms. However, her brother Fred is her only true champion. The reader will be transported and absorbed in the story as Olive fights for her place. The author provides a clear picture of what rural Pennsylvania life was like in the early 1900s. Fisher’s detail in describing clothing, furnishings, rural life, West Point, and New York City will leave readers with a clear picture of how Olive suffers at the hands of her family. I found it difficult to put the book down. I needed to keep reading to discover what happens to Olive and her family. A well-written story and I look forward to more from this author. A great book.

Reviewed By Jose Cornelio for Readers' Favorite

Slender Notions by Nicholas Antonopoulos is a unique, emotionally intense narrative. The protagonist is Leo, an indifferent and bored twenty-three-year-old man stuck in a small town in Massachusetts. He is a victim of opioid addiction, which brings his life to a standstill. His addiction numbs him, makes him indecisive even when overtaken by the urge to go out and roam in the woods. There is also Cole, a divorced, unhappy Bostonian of middle age. He suffers from regret and experiences spells of rage. In a moment when he is really low, he makes a surprising discovery when he wakes up laughing in the morning. His life might have some direction and purpose after all, and that purpose is in infecting the entire city with joyous laughter. At a poetry reading, Leo and Cole launch what they call the 'laughter challenge' in an effort to create unity. They become popular and are challenged to face their personal struggles.

This is a captivating story that stands out in its originality. The first-person voice pulls the reader into the conscious minds of the characters, inhabited by wild thoughts at times. The lethargy they experience, the depression that tugs at the edges of their hearts, and the overpowering thought of living a meaningless life are conveyed through streams of consciousness and the visible effects of the mental struggles the characters face. Slender Notions tells the story of two misfits with strong psychological issues and the path they take toward liberation. The humor is biting, the imagery very strong, and the narrative voice gripping. The power of shared laughter is beautifully captured and the humanity of the characters is deeply explored in the narrative. Readers are pulled into the inner world of deeply troubled characters and, as they navigate that world, they find echoes of their own broken humanity. It is a hypnotic and hugely entertaining story by Nicholas Antonopoulos.

Reviewed By Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

The Best Part of Us is a contemporary literary fiction novel written by Sally Cole-Misch. Beth had always known that her mother, Kate, had expected her kids to follow the roadmaps she had charted for their futures and to see the island everyone else in her family had loved so dearly expunged forever out of their lives. Beth had gotten over losing the island and all it meant to her. It had been where she had always felt most alive until it was torn from their grasp after a massive storm and an even more massive disagreement between the First Nations people and her hot-headed grandfather. Now she faced a decision, the biggest one in her life in so many ways. What would letting the island back into her life mean to them? How could she reconcile the demands of Kate with the needs of her grandfather and her own?

Sally Cole-Misch’s novel is a lush and lovely homage to the natural places where her protagonist grew up. The careful reader won’t fail to hear the haunting cries of the loons in the early morning as Beth and her grandmother row out to catch the day’s fish or feel the sun begin to warm the chilly morning air as she and Dylan set out for that day’s painting adventure. Readers who are into the outdoors, hiking, and nature won’t be able to resist the pull of this remarkable novel, as will, no doubt, many more who’ve never quite seen the outdoors made real and tangible in such a persuasive way before. The author has done a grand job of making Beth, Dylan, Ben and a host of other original and genuine characters come to life. The plot spanning past and present kept me enthralled and engaged throughout my reading of this exceptionally good book. The Best Part of Us is most highly recommended.

Reviewed By Carolina Restrepo for Readers' Favorite

Lost Girls goes through a variety of stories from different women; they range from love to heartache, to grief, to making themselves heard and the importance of leaving the past behind. An unmarried young woman finds solace and comfort in a breast feeder’s support group, a girl creates a ritual when it comes to commemorating the life of a kidnapped girl from her town, time and old age haunt and follow a woman. More than a dozen stories fill this novel with eloquent experiences that shed light on the challenges and joys of being a girl, teenager, young adult, and woman in this world. Ellen Birkett Morris gives life to stories that are typically overlooked by everyday life. These women confront their challenges and find some peace.

Ellen Birkett Morris has reminded me of how fragile and yet how strong women can be, regardless of age, economic situation, sexual orientation, and everything else. I have smiled, frowned, cried, and sighed while reading such amazing stories. There are value and importance in every woman’s story, no matter how far they are from the commercialized conventional woman. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to every single man and woman out there. Lost Girls has made me love women even more than I did before. No woman’s life is easy; we all know that there are more than enough unpleasant experiences, but thankfully there are incredible and unforgettable experiences that allow us to forget about the evil out there. Thank you, Ellen, for giving us these stories.

Reviewed By Tom Gauthier for Readers' Favorite

There are few inhabited places on earth as remote as the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Northern Scotland. A windswept victim of whatever the North Atlantic Ocean storms deliver with unchecked fury. These same storms gather the flotsam of a world far away and gently deliver it to the hightide mark of the beaches. This is the setting that Dianne Ebertt Beeaff has chosen for her cleverly composed stories of lives as disparate as a Chicago widow in Quebec and a North Carolina shrimper’s daughter in a hurricane gleaned from a discovery on a small beach on the west coast of the Isle of Harris.

A young writer, Erica Winchat, has come to this place on holiday, seeking some refuge from the stress of her first writing contract and her doubts about her ability to write more. Walking along Tràigh Lar, she stumbles on a seaweed tangle of fishnet flotsam. Idly curious she counts thirteen items in the jumble. And sees a story in each one. Who lost these? Where did they come from? Erica sets out to tell their stories and the result is a collection of stories, uniquely written around a character named for a wildflower that grows on the machair above the beach, Tràigh Lar, where she stands. Thirteen unique and compelling stories of the lives and the dramatic events that left their shadow thousands of miles away and set an item afloat into the unknown. Common items, a cigarette lighter, a jar of pickled onions, the handle of a child’s bucket, an empty ketchup holder, a green plastic laundry basket, a packet of arthritis pills … with uncommon stories. The last item, the thirteenth, a laminated badge for entrance to a rock concert, inspires Erica to write a novella with the separate first-person stories of four fans of the Scottish rock band Datha. A story that culminates in their reunion at a concert in Chicago. And a tragic ending.

I was immediately drawn to Dianne Ebertt Beeaff’s writing style in On Tràigh Lar Beach. It is free, fresh, and spontaneous yet peppered with crisp particulars of setting and people. A stream of consciousness that reflects how real people actually think and brings her characters to the front, shoulder to shoulder with me as I read. Each of the characters that Diane introduces through Erica is dealing with their own unique demons. She is masterful in allowing them, in the first person, to slowly reveal their circumstance and ability to deal – or not deal – with it. Especially with the four rock star fans, we see a range from dangerous addictive personality to devil-may-care/comme ci comme ça flings, delivered without pop-psych analysis. Just allowing us to be there, feel, see, hear, and care about each individual as they experience elation and despair, soaring and plunging through their lives. Dianne Ebertt Beeaff deserves every accolade for On Tràigh Lar Beach.

Reviewed By K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

Sweet Jane is a work of literary, character-led fiction penned by author Joanne Kukanza Easley. It is written for adults due to some mature themes such as alcohol abuse, but also for mild use of explicit language and some sexual situations. The plot follows our titular character Jane from her early childhood when the drunken rages and ramblings of her vodka-addicted Mama lead her to run away as soon as she is old enough to fend for herself. Although Jane’s life looks like she’s achieved a lot and is on top of things, a visit home for Mama’s funeral sends her on a journey back through the stages that have made her into the woman she is.

Author Joanne Kukanza Easley really knows how to tell a story deep from the heart, with a raw and well-considered emotional makeup that makes her characters realistic, interesting and also easy to relate to. Jane has a hard life with many concealed secrets, and the plot is extremely well designed to unveil these moments in connection to her past. In true literary fiction fashion, this plot moves slowly and steadily, and the focus is very much on the character as we see the effects of Jane’s present and past colliding, and those clashes which will ultimately shape her future. What results is a well written and well told biographical narrative, deep in its description and psychology as it is in atmosphere, charm, and heart. Sweet Jane is a highly recommended literary read.

Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

On Swift Wings: The Travails of Cygnus by Brett Wiens is a meld of adventure, fantasy, and humor, a novel filled with humor and fun moments. The protagonist is Cygnus, a young man who survives a plane crash in the ocean, and unwittingly finds himself stranded on an island inhabited by a race of horses that holds humans captives, and the humans do not look normal. It's just the beginning of an adventure that leads to an encounter with unusual situations and peoples - immortals of Loogenage, sorcerers, magicians, giants, and miniature creatures. He goes through heart-wrenching experiences and encounters with strange races. The conclusion to his adventures is as exciting as it is revealing of the mysteries of life. Rollicking and fun!

On Swift Wings: The Travails of Cygnus is a deftly written story that is most appealing to fans of the classic Gulliver's Travels and it is designed to offer pure entertainment. The imaginative character of this novel is noticeable from the way the setting is described and how the author brings to life geography that is fictional and races that are imaginary. However, the sense of realism and humanity is apparent, perhaps because the protagonist is a character like any of us. And I like how the author creates rules in this world. I am writing this review after a good sleep that followed my reading of this book and the world this author created inhabited my dreams. Readers will feel like they are waking from a dream with a "Wow" after reading this book. It is well-plotted and the characters intelligently developed. Brett Wiens has a strong imagination but apart from that, the author is a great storyteller. This is a must-read for anyone looking for a good adventure.

Reviewed By Jon Michael Miller for Readers' Favorite

In Beena Khan’s The Name of Red, a beautiful, sexy woman in a tight red dress walks into a busy bar, orders a vodka, opens a book, and starts reading. She shuns the advances of all admirers. She returns each night. Kabir, the owner, is entranced and begins leaving books for her with little notes. Their relationship weaves and grows from there at a slow, intimate pace. The characters are mid-Eastern, giving us a peek into this under-exposed minority—their speech, their internal struggles, their hearts. “We’re all people who life has messed up,” the bartender explains. Beena Khan’s first novel is an in-depth exploration of how love relationships begin from nothing and grow in small steps to overwhelming importance in our lives. And the novel deals also with how they end.

I loved Beena Khan’s The Name of Red. First of all, it’s about readers—two at least. Second, it’s a powerful look into how love starts and how it grows. The insights reach our innermost being. Third, the writing is innocent and engaging, especially in that it is unabashedly English as a second language, which, though not always “correct,” gives us the feeling that we are glimpsing into a sub-culture. I’m glad the “mistakes” were not edited out. The read is quick and easy, always clear. There’s an innocence about the writing that grows in intensity, even passion, to a deeply moving climax. I recommend this novel to anyone who has been hurt in love and yet realizes that after all the hurts we may suffer, love, with all its difficulties, is what matters most. Bravo, Ms. Khan, for a triumphant debut as an author!