Outcasts with magical abilities find love and friendship in Angel Martinez’s "Mage on the Hill". Toby Jones’s inability to control his magical powers is killing him. Desperate for help, he turns to the magical guild of Montchanin,... Read More

Raymond Luczak’s novel "Flannelwood" is a subtle, sexy exploration of love gained and lost—and a moving literary tribute to Djuna Barnes and her groundbreaking novel Nightwood. Bill, a forty-year-old MFA who’s getting by with a... Read More

"Trap", the fast-paced second entry in Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s Icelandic crime trilogy, picks up mere weeks after its predecessor Snare ends and further showcases Sigurðardóttir’s facility with intricate plotting and sympathetic... Read More

Paula Martinac’s latest novel, "Clio Rising", is both a story of lesbian friendship and a literary mystery. Livvie Bliss—a young, out lesbian fresh from the North Carolina countryside—and Clio Hartt—a closeted lesbian known for... Read More

Ari Silverman’s violent encounter with a neighborhood boy leaves him questioning himself in Aaron Hamburger’s "Nirvana Is Here", a coming-of-age novel set outside Detroit amid the rise of grunge. It is a nostalgic, wrenching... Read More

Delving deep into the psyche of teenage pain and identity-building, Aimee Herman’s "Everything Grows" turns dark circumstances into an encomium to the adults who help teens grow. Eleanor has trouble from all sides: she is still reeling... Read More

In Audrey Coulthurst and Paula Garner’s touching "Starworld", high schoolers Sam Jones and Zoe Miller are the unlikeliest of matches. Sam is an awkward, artistic brainiac, and Zoe is outgoing, popular, and has a jock boyfriend.... Read More

Louis Bayard’s "Courting Mr. Lincoln" begins its story of Lincoln when he was still a roughhewn Springfield lawyer whose potential was guarded by a friend and roommate, Joshua Speed, and admired by a politically minded debutante, Mary... Read More