Former physician Rubin (the Liza Larkin series) impresses with this disquieting thriller about an unusual vigilante. Boston internist Hope Sullivan is jogging past an alley when she spots one of her elderly patients being mugged. She intervenes and sends the attacker fleeing, but the encounter convinces her that too many violent criminals walk free. Two years later, Hope is far from over the incident: despite insisting that “as a doctor, I don’t enjoy deliberately inflicting pain,” she’s become a self-appointed (and violent) guardian angel, even going so far as to kidnap and torture a patient’s abusive husband. Hope’s new “macabre pastime,” as she calls it, gets disrupted when she receives an anonymous email that insists “I know what ur doing.” That message is followed by several others, each with escalating threats. Hope realizes she’s met her match when another vigilante drugs and kidnaps her, seeking revenge on behalf of one of her victims. Rubin manages to make Hope an empathetic figure, despite her transgressions, and maintains taut suspense straight through to the devilish climax. This is a winner. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Pryka debuts with a tart if uneven satire of Hollywood ambition and the craze for self-improvement. Nerdy and obese Craig Bunny, 34, lives with his mom outside Los Angeles and can only find acting work in commercials for an IBS treatment. He’s certain that he’s destined for more and hopes his increasingly complex plans for a film adaptation of a classic comic strip called Garfy (a thinly veiled Garfield) will be his big break. When Natasha, an attractive newcomer to his writing group, announces that she’s secured the rights for a film about Prince Michael of Sealand, Craig decides it’s time to make some changes. He hires a life coach named Chad, who puts him on an extreme diet and exercise regimen and encourages him to affect a husky voice. Under Chad’s guidance, Craig grows more confident, even as he goes broke from the coach’s exorbitant fees. He pressures his agent, Denise, into getting his script in front of industry folks, but as his behavior becomes erratic, he risks blowing his chances. Much of the novel’s intended humor is scatological, and it wears thin. Better are the caustic showbiz jokes, as when Denise, who told Craig she specializes in scouting for “normal people,” tells others that she’s actually in the business of “freak hunting.” This has its moments. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Dallas interior decorator Madison Night exploits her remarkable resemblance to Doris Day in her frothy latest adventure (after Please Don’t Push Up the Daisies). Donna Nast, owner of Big Bro Security, has been hired by Texas Luxury Cruises to stop a spate of burglaries aboard their ships. Donna, however, isn’t sure that the cruise company is operating aboveboard, and hires Madison to help vet her suspicions. Madison and her boyfriend, police captain Tex Allen, are to board the next cruise, with Madison posing as a professional Doris Day impersonator and Tex as her manager, to see if they can dig up any dirt. The couple happily accepts the assignment, but soon after the New Nautilus has set sail from Galveston, purser Homer Manalo, the one crew number who knows why Madison is onboard, is stabbed to death. Once again, Madison is forced to draw on her sharp observational skills, both to ferret out Homer’s killer and to determine if the New Nautilus is home to a crime ring. The plot beats are familiar, but Vallere hits her marks, delivering a clever, fairly clued solution. This gets the job done. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hass debuts with a memorable tale of discrimination and hardship faced by a young Jewish man in pre-WWII eastern Poland. In 1933, teenager Wolchi lives with his parents, brother, and sister in a small town in Galicia, where his father works as a bookbinder and printer. Their financial stability is upended when wealthy neighbor Igor Goreki stops the government from using Wolchi’s father as its printer after Igor’s son, Nicholas, is injured while taking part in an antisemitic attack on Wolchi’s family. Determined to fight back against the escalating violence, Wolchi and his sister, Leja, speak out against the town’s antisemitic persecutors. Then, after rising tensions with the Gorekis end in more brutality, they’re forced to flee to Krakow. When the Germans take control of the city, Wolchi and Leja return to their now Russian-ruled town, where more tragedies ensue. As the plot unfolds, Hass documents the gradual erosion of Wolchi’s family’s rights in fine-grained detail, showing how they’re uprooted by the German and Russian occupations alike. Readers will be moved by this story of a never-ending struggle for survival. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

McFarlane’s crafty seventh cozy featuring Massachusetts beautician Valentine Beaumont (after Murder, Curlers & Kites) takes the amateur sleuth out of state and out of her comfort zone. Valentine runs a hair salon in Rueland, a Boston suburb, and is entangled in an intense romance with former NYPD detective Michael Romero. Hoping to improve her bottom line, she brings three of her employees along to a team-building camp in California. There, someone sabotages a human slingshot ride intended as a trust exercise, and Valentine once again leaps into the role of investigator. Then one of the women attending the camp is murdered, possibly with a pair of Valentine’s own thinning shears, and she becomes the prime suspect. To clear her name, she must draw on her detecting skills while keeping her rambunctious colleagues in check. McFarlane’s own cosmetology expertise adds welcome authenticity to the gleeful and goofy proceedings. Fans of Sarah Strohmeyer’s Bubbles Yablonsky series will eat this up. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bestselling romance author Boyle (Six Impossible Things) riffs on It’s a Wonderful Life in this enchanting tale of redemption and time travel. After TV star Madeline Drake finds her producer boyfriend in bed with another woman, she takes a ride from a rugged car service driver named Shandy. The pair get into a nasty wreck and she wakes up to find she’s traveled from present-day Los Angeles to 1907 Bethlehem, Wyo., the setting of her western series in which she plays a saloon keeper. When Madeline realizes she’s not on set, she starts drinking heavily. Shandy, the novel’s guardian angel character, chides her for getting drunk (“You’ll stay stuck forever if you can’t learn from your mistakes”) and explains that she and the other residents of Bethlehem have all been sent there to mend their lives. As Madeline finds a love interest in the town’s handsome sheriff and a friend in the lonely and secretive postmistress, she must choose whether to go back to her old life or stay in Bethlehem, where she’s found happiness. The plot requires an inordinate suspension of disbelief, but readers will fall in love with the colorful characters. This has charm to spare. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

This empowering debut manual from naturopathic doctor Wilson explores how women can stay healthy during and after pregnancy. The prenatal guidance includes consuming ginger to combat nausea, wearing compression stockings to reduce leg swelling, and spending at least 150 minutes per week walking, biking, or doing yoga to regulate hormone levels. Wilson bolsters the guidance with scientific research, as when she notes studies that found iron deficiency during pregnancy correlates with higher depression levels in the child through adolescence; she recommends taking 27-mg iron vitamins before birth and then dropping to 10 mg after. Throughout, Wilson emphasizes the benefits of naturopathic remedies while recognizing their limits, suggesting that while vitamin D and saffron supplements have shown promise in alleviating postpartum depression, there should be no shame in seeking out pharmaceutical antidepressants if symptoms don’t respond to other treatments. Elsewhere, Wilson urges pregnant and postpartum readers to stay connected with loved ones by combining socializing with practical activities (e.g., “a group exercise or cooking class”), and to reduce their exposure to toxins by avoiding sunscreens with avobenzone and nonstick pans made with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Despite the title, the shrewd advice focuses on prenatal and postnatal health equally, and Wilson brings a compassionate outlook that views self-care as a crucial precondition for adequately showing up for a newborn. Expecting mothers will appreciate this. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Harvey (Jamesy Harper’s Big Break) imagines the chilling aftermath of political and climate upheaval in this powerful postapocalyptic thriller. Years of right-wing assaults on government have transformed Canada into a hellhole for minorities: after passing legislation that outlawed contraception and made women second-class citizens, reactionaries overthrew the government and began hunting down queer people and people of color. Iris, a therapist, has no hope of finding justice after being gang-raped in her home. Privileged Ainsley is left at a similar loss after a mob breaches her security system and murders her husband. With a new, deadly virus spreading across the country and global warming leading to parts of Canada’s west coast being submerged, Iris and Ainsley—along with 10 other characters, including a construction worker and a nonbinary teen activist—start their individual journeys toward possible haven on Vancouver Island. Harvey closely follows their odysseys, bringing her grim vision of the future to life through an array of sometimes conflicting perspectives. This unsettling adventure will appeal to fans of Claire Vaye Watkins’s Gold Fame Citrus. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

A 12-year-old boy sifts through his memories of his late father in the nuanced latest from Buzbee (The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop). It’s 1970 when Robert Macoby’s father Elwell, known as Mac, dies of a heart attack. In nonlinear snapshots, Robert muses on the joyful moments they had together, like trips to a bar to hear Mac’s stories about making underwater repairs on Navy ships during WWII, sharing plates of Crab Louie, and watching Mac demonstrate his diving skills. Robert also wrestles with things he only partly understands at his young age, including Mac’s volatile relationship with his older son, who enlists to fight in Vietnam. A parallel narrative follows Mac’s life sequentially, from when his parents left him in an orphanage during the Depression through his early enlistment in the Army at 15, learning to weld, his career in the Navy, and his rocky civilian life, during which his self-worth is caught up in his ability to provide for his family. Buzbee effectively conveys the messy blend of adoration, fear, and affection a young boy feels for his father while making Mac a fully realized character with his own faults and charms. The author’s fans will be pleased. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Belle (Fourth and Long) kicks off the Greydon series with this spirited Regency. Sebastian Grey, sixth Earl of Greydon, views marriage as purely a practical arrangement, hoping that his future wife will rein in the scandalous behavior of his sister and widowed mother. Emmeline Hart, a viscount’s sister who raised her younger siblings (proving she is practical and steady handed) and has expressed no interest in a love match, seems like the perfect candidate. Almost as soon as he and Emmeline are married, Sebastian sends all his female relations to his country estate where he hopes Emmeline will keep them in check while he stays in London. But when each letter she writes to him describes her blossoming friendship with his dashing brother, Sebastian is surprised to grow jealous. Emmeline, meanwhile, realizes that she wants more from their marriage than merely playing family peacemaker. Though the heroine’s arc is not quite as developed as the hero’s, there’s plenty of romantic tension between the two, and Belle adds depth to the marriage of convenience plot via the reality show–level antics of the extended Greydon clan. The result is a fun and fast-paced historical. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink