Reviewed by Jessica Barbosa for Readers' Favorite

The Valley Iris is the first book in A Lost Pharaoh Chronicles Prequel Collection by Lauren Lee Merewether. Tey, daughter of Rai, has envisioned her future for a long time. She imagines herself as a good wife to Woser, son of Theshen and Senisonbe. She imagines herself in a happy, loving marriage with him, surrounded by their loving children. What she did not imagine was to be rejected by Theshen and Senisobe, even though their two families were the closest of friends despite their difference in statuses. Tey thought they would approve of Woser’s intention to marry her, but, apparently, she is not good enough in their eyes. Tey is confused, heartbroken, and angry towards Woser for not fighting for their love. She is angry with Woser’s family for their prejudice against hers and with her mother for being on Foreman Theshen’s side. Tey tries to move on with Bek, a kind young man who is willing to wait for her, but moving on from her love for Woser is no easy feat. Tey’s jealousy and pain over the whole ordeal uncover a long-kept secret that will change her life as she knows it.

Tey, daughter of Rai, the protagonist of this novel, is an admirable, strong woman who is greatly affected by the sins of her parents. She goes through so much just to survive in an unkind world. Her reaction and confusion to Theshen and Senisobe’s rejection of Woser’s intention to marry her is understandable and I could feel the resulting heartache and fury through the pages. I felt angry and betrayed on her behalf when she found out the truth. The suffering she experiences cut through my heart and I wished greatly for her safety as she battles her inner demons and against the provoked mob. I was with the protagonist through every up and down and I sympathized with her. Honestly, this book caught me hook, line, and sinker. The Valley Iris relentlessly pulled me through its pages. The emotions it evoked in me were deep and unforgettable. Every character was memorable in their own way, they all played an important role and elevated the plot to greater heights. The Valley Iris is truly riveting and mesmerizing. Lauren Lee Merewether’s narrative delivers the emotions of the characters and effectively describes the setting, adding depth and easy visualization. Overall, a spectacular and noteworthy historical novel! Outstanding job!

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

To the Top of Greenfield Street is a coming of age novel for young adults written by Ryan Standley. It was June and summer should have been Eric’s next opportunity to shed his chubby-boy image through hours of basketball and healthy eating. But this June was different. The house that he and his dad lived in, complete with his dad’s pizzeria on the first floor, had burnt down. After the fire, he and his dad moved to a room in a hotel while his dad looked for a job, but there was nothing. Finally, their funds almost all gone, they drove to Freeport, Illinois to stay with family friends, the Garcias. Nate Garcia was Eric’s age and was his oldest friend, and Manny Garcia had hired Eric’s dad for as long as he needed. While it had been a while since the two friends had seen each other, they soon fell into the easy camaraderie of years back. Freeport, Illinois was different somehow. The kids there didn’t see a young fat boy to be bullied and laughed at. Eric had a chance -- this might be his summer after all.

Ryan Standley’s To the Top of Greenfield Street had me realizing once again why the genre is one of my all-time favorites. Eric’s transformational time spent on Greenfield Street is breathtaking, even at the remove of being a reader rather than an actual witness to a real-life story. Standley sets his tale in the summer of 1993, a pivotal time considering the internet and tech explosion that would soon be changing life as we knew it then. I loved re-experiencing the music and culture of the time and seeing the story unfold historically. While an experienced writer of news articles, this is Ryan Standley’s debut novel, and it’s peopled with characters who are complex, unforgettable, and very true-to-life. I was wrapped up in his story from the first pages until the last and loved every minute I spent on Greenfield Street. To the Top of Greenfield Street is the best coming-of-age novel I’ve read this year, and I’m looking forward to future works by this author. It’s most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers' Favorite

Bake Believe by Cori Cooper is magical, warmhearted, and will have you craving baked goods by the end. Cat Anderson's excited to get back to her friends and to her classes. Only by some mistake, she ends up in a culinary class. She has no idea what she's discovering when she bakes her first batch of cookies and soon learns a family secret. She finds a newfound path and part of herself as she learns more about her family's special gift with cooking. Just maybe she can learn that to use her newfound gift to make the world a better place.

Bake Believe is an upbeat and lighthearted tale of baking, magic, and the power to change the world told from a teenage perspective. The story is similar to baking in how it gives you the same warmth and bubbly feeling that comes from making or being given delicious baked goods. Cori Cooper captures the essence that baked goods can provide in their warmth and sweetness through the humorous and lighthearted tone of the story. The primary theme of the book is happiness, self-discovery, and the power of baking via a unique gift that allows Cat to create food that reflects her emotions. Her family has a special gift to affect people through food, such as when Cat makes cookies when she was sad and in doing so filled a boy she likes with this sadness. By unlocking these abilities, she's able to find a part of herself that enjoys cooking and allows her to see the joy that sharing food with others can bring.

Cori Cooper delivers a story that will give you a bubbly feeling and will make the whole family want to get into the kitchen. The writing has an upbeat style that is driven through humor and cooking references which work well with the fun personality of Cat. The writing has fun phrases such as 'you don't want to have a bland tortilla life' and 'to bake the world into a better place' with food references that are clever, witty, and will make you hungry. The book focuses on the art of cooking and shows food as a catalyst to bring people together which has a magical spin woven into it through Cat's unique abilities. Each chapter comes with a variety of yummy baking recipes including snickerdoodles, banana bread, and pancakes. Bake Believe is clever, charming, funny, and will have you wanting to bake cookies by the end.

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

What She Lost by Melissa W. Hunter is part fiction, part memoir. Sarah Waldman is 13, enjoying life with her family in Olkusz, Poland. The family are Jewish and have no idea that their peace will be shattered and lives will be changed forever. In 1939, the Nazis were in power, and Sarah and her family are about to face years of upset and fear, years of concentration camps and Jewish ghettos, years that will tear them all apart. Sarah is strong-willed and determined but is it enough to survive? When everything she knew and loved is ripped away from her, Sarah must fight hard to get through it, to rebuild her life, and find love once more.

What She Lost by Melissa W. Hunter is a fantastic story of courage and survival against the odds. Written by Sarah’s granddaughter, it is based on real life but written the way Melissa imagined it all happening for her grandmother. A poignant story, it details the horrors of the Holocaust, the unimaginable pain, suffering, and fear in the Jewish ghettos, and the cruelty that people suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It’s hard to read it as a fictional story, having read other accounts from survivors, but this has the love story that came after the horror to soften it. It is a page-turner that will keep you reading to the very end, and one that will stay with you even after you read the last page. It's thought-provoking and a remarkable tale of survival against the odds, a story that elicits every emotion you can think of. The characters' stories will resonate with you in a haunting, moving, beautifully told tale that, if nothing else, should teach us all that this kind of horror should never be allowed to happen again.

Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite

Kila has everything a girl could want: A happy family, more than one best friend, a boy who adores her, and a killer playlist. Her only problem is that the boy she likes isn’t the one who wants her. There is also someone else who sparks her interest. How was she to know who is a contender for her heart? Maybe, just maybe, she really doesn’t know what her heart really wants or needs. As Kila struggles with indecision and unfair choices, she realizes that high school relationships are often made up of false charm and undetermined shifts in personality. It’s not all good and can be dangerous “dressed up in” vocals, making music the universal catalyst of life.

Everything All at Once by Ivy Cayden is aptly titled in this unique teen story of first love, first kisses, and appropriately manufactured musical interludes. Cayden presents a unique way to enjoy an already fun story. Throughout the text are highlighted song titles that, when downloaded, the reader is encouraged to activate for an interesting addition to the reading experience. Well-developed realistic characters share their musical interests to make this almost a dual plot, filled with age relatable symbolism and common teenage situations. As a great addition to a classroom or personal library, young adult readers will become enraptured with Everything All At Once while anxiously awaiting (as am I) the next in the series.

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

In Sight of the Mountain is a work of historical fiction set in the late nineteenth century, and it was penned by author Jamie McGillen. Focusing on themes of the liberation of women, the American class system and effects of colonialism, this intelligent and heart-warming novel introduces us to Anna Gallagher at the tender age of nineteen. Time is ticking for this young woman to marry and secure a future for herself, and Anna is not without some options, but her real passion lies at the peak of Mount Rainier. Aiming to be a pioneer for women mountaineers everywhere, Anna pursues her dream in secret, until the day she must risk it all to show the world that she is more than just someone’s bride to be.

In an epic and gripping work of historical fiction with modern sensibilities, author Jamie McGillen gives you everything you could possibly hope for in this inspiring and dramatic tale. Anna is a thoroughly well-developed heroine, not a modern woman thrown into history, but appropriately forward-thinking and authentically brave for her time. The descriptions of the people and attitudes which she faces really convey the class structure and hierarchies of money and gender extremely well, giving a sense of the many cages she must break out of to reach Rainier’s summit. And despite the independent vibe of the tale, there is indeed romance, intelligently and realistically portrayed. Overall, In Sight of the Mountain is the perfect historical read for fans of pioneering heroes and tales of triumph over discrimination.

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

What really makes a man what he is? Beneath the pain and thrill of life, what is the stuff we are made of? These are questions that Pablo could have answered with certainty had life not dealt him very serious and painful blows. He’s been sure of everything in his life. He has a love life, a loving family, a future, and a mission, until tragedy strikes and then he has to seek answers — seriously. A Voice Beyond Reason by Matthew Félix is a contemplative story; one with the kind of lessons one reads in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Pablo sets out on a journey that will transform his entire life. Here is a story that powerfully shows how our mental attitudes affect our physical results.

Matthew Félix’s writing is purposeful, written to provoke readers into asking serious questions about their choices, their attachments, relationships, and fears. It reads like a spiritual odyssey, a journey a young man from a mountain hamlet in Spain makes to his inner core, assessing his values and re-defining his personality. This might sound like a preachy kind of novel, but it is far from it. In fact, it is mind boggling, but it entertains beyond measure. The reader will enjoy the wonderful culture around the plot, the beautiful setting, and themes like friendship and love, family, the meaning of suffering, and inner peace. The writing is beautiful and it features great cultural elements. I enjoyed the fact that the author weaves phrases of the Spanish language into the naturally flowing dialogues. A Voice Beyond Reason is a story about the courage to listen to the incessant beckonings of our heart and to embrace the path that communicates meaning to us. I loved the writing, the plot, the characters, and - above all - the powerful and inspiring message of this tale.

Reviewed by Caitlin Lyle Farley for Readers' Favorite

A sudden awakening of magical powers that coincides with a prophesied sign mark a twelve-year-old slave, Kibure, as the agent of a dark god in Derrick Smythe’s thought-provoking epic fantasy, The Other Magic. Shackled, gagged, and caged, it seems death is the only outcome for Kibure when Sindri, the renegade priestess hired to sever Kibure’s magical ability, is unable to do so. However, Sindri has reasons of her own for wanting to keep Kibure alive and convinces his master instead to take Kibure to the Eastern Markets and sell him there. Meanwhile, Magog, the god-king of Angolia, charges high priest Grobennar with finding and destroying the dark god’s emissary as part of the preparations for the prophesied Purge.

An exhilarating and unpredictable plot combined with steady pacing in The Other Magic makes for addictive reading in The Other Magic, book one of debut author Smythe’s Passage to Dawn series. Smythe masterfully conveys the more complex elements of world-building through legends and myths mentioned within The Other Magic. Spoilt Prince Aynward’s tertiary education allows for a fascinating intellectual exploration of the perceived ties between magic and religion and how this applies when every faith’s followers consider their institution and the deities they observe to be the one true faith. This also provides a stimulating thematic link to Kibure’s trials and the purposefully warped perspective on good and evil displayed by the god-king and Klerol priests. The Other Magic is an exciting epic fantasy debut with an invigorating, mentally stimulating thematic premise that will delight YA and adult readers alike.

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

The Prince is a work of fiction in the high fantasy, coming of age, and action and adventure sub-genres, and was penned for young adult audiences by K. C. Herbel. The third installment in the Jester King Fantasy Series, the work is suitable for teens and up due to the moderate nature of its fantasy-action content. In this part of the story, we catch up with Billy as he deals with the new realizations and powers that his previous exploits have brought him, only to find that his arrival in Tirn Aill brings yet more problems to the fore. Here, deathly visions plague him with what he must do to reclaim and bring peace to the war-torn world around him.

Author K. C. Herbel continues this epic fantasy series with yet more surprises, dynamic action, and deeper, darker worldbuilding than ever before. The fae and pseudo-medieval themes of the fantasy construct produce an exciting world that is very well built and logically ordered by the author, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of dark surprises in store, especially where the wicked King Ergyfel is concerned. I really enjoyed the development and presentation of Billy, which is delivered with a keen eye for emotions and a close narration that allows us to really feel the triumphs and traumas along with his as the plot intensifies. Overall, I would highly recommend The Prince and the rest of the series in general to fantasy fans seeking accomplished and fully realized works with truly compelling storytelling.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Conor Archer's life in Chicago has been a simple one. He has been home-schooled by his mother, Finola, and he spends his evenings playing music at a local pub. All that changes one night when he meets a strange, leather-clad man at that pub who gives him a strange liquor to drink and then savagely bites his hand, and later encounters a strangely beautiful woman who binds that wound with a cloth and pin. All the weirdness of these events is compounded by the death of his mother, who had been ill for some time. Her final instructions are for him to travel to a small town, Tinker's Grove, in Wisconsin, where his aunt Emily would care for him and continue his education. As he is travelling on the bus, his wounded hand festers, and he arrives at his destination more dead than alive.

"Roan" is not a book you should consider spending a long evening reading. It is not a fast and easy read, quickly absorbed and then forgotten. E.R. Barr's urban-epic fantasy is much more than that, and it should be savored. I quickly found myself enthralled by the characters and the plot, and became reluctant to hasten my adventure through this book. It is an amazing mix of urban and epic fantasy, shot through with Native American, Irish and Welsh mythology, people with characters who are both filled with human frailties and are larger-than-life. If you are like me and have become somewhat jaded by epic fantasy, you are in for an awesome treat. This is the real deal.