Coming of Age Fiction

Small Town and Young Woman Haunted by Ghost of the Past in Chilling Mystery

Author Lana Sabarwal has written a memorable debut novel, Maya, Dead and Dreaming, a compelling mystery featuring an intelligent and emotionally fraught protagonist and an intriguing plot where friendly faces hide secrets, motives and the identity of a killer. Maya Hickman’s death in 1938 was tragic, and the circumstances around…

Philip ZozzaroJune 10, 2025

Fiction Recommended

Gripping Coming-of-Age Offers Poignant Reflection on Community, Resiliency and Destiny

In her latest gripping novel, Closer, Miriam Gershow drops us into an Oregon high school in the Winter of 2016 on the day a young student, Livvy, has been found dead. Clear your day for this one; you’ll be hooked from the first paragraph and unable to walk away until…

Kristin KeatonJune 3, 2025

Recommended

Chasing Chords, Women, and Ghosts of War in “Wither Creek”

To say Bill Ehnert appreciates women is an understatement. Whatever female strays into his peripheral vision, he sees through his own particular pair of rose-colored glasses, which makes Ken Rossal’s newest novel, Wither Creek, a joyous and libidinous ride. Starting out at 16, living in Smalltown America, Rossal’s everyman first…

Sherri DaleyMay 27, 2025

Fiction Listicles

Craving More Sally Rooney? You’ll Love These 6 Rooney-Esque Books

I, like so many others, have constantly chased the high I feel when reading books by bestselling author Sally Rooney. She has a way of making the most mundane subject matter fill you with such emotion as each book portrays the spectrum of human connection and interpersonal relationships. The same…

Kelsey HallSeptember 24, 2024

Fiction

Young Lives Shattered in Dark Dystopian Fantasy, “The Capital of Dreams”

The Capital of Dreams is one of those rare books that when finished leaves the reader both slightly mystified yet completely held in its thrall, dazzled by the imaginary world created by author Heather O’Neill. It defies standard genre classification as this novel-length fable blends magical realism with literary fiction…

Linda HitchcockFebruary 19, 2025

Thrillers

Murder, Secrets and the Long Road Back in Snowy Legal Novel

“Nora Sheehan sits in a jail cell in Lodgepole, Colorado, surrounded by three cinderblock walls and the kind of steel bars she’s only seen on television, gray and cold. She’s thirteen, the woman she might become still a shadow even though she’s ready to discard her childhood. A longing for…

Neil NyrenJanuary 31, 2025

Fiction Miscellany

Bruce Lee, Defying Stereotypes, and the Catharsis of Writing

Most writers embark on projects with a clear sense of what they want to say, often revisiting familiar characters, themes and settings. When my publisher agreed to launch Johnny Delivers, a standalone sequel to the award-winning Letters From Johnny, they likely had no idea of the deeper struggles I had…

Wayne NgOctober 28, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Young Woman Embarks Across America & War-Torn Vietnam for a Place to Belong

Inspired by snippets from the author’s life, Ida Mae and Her Passage to Chautauqua (Koehler Books) is a historical nonfiction narrative by award-winning poet and author, Rick Taylor. The story spans two generations, recounting the journey of Ida Mae Glockley and that of her son Adrian from their childhood to…

Natalia KavaleMay 22, 2024

Fiction

First Love Gets a Second Chance in Emotional, Visionary Novel

If you were presented with a chance to go back into your past to rekindle a romance with the one that got away, would you take it? Andrea Ezerins explores this tantalizing question in a coming-of-age historical romance tale that contains elements of magical realism. Again and Again Back to…

Natalia KavaleSeptember 3, 2024

Young Adult

Teen Grapples With Mind Reading Powers in YA Novel

Author Wendy Wunder of the acclaimed novel The Probability of Miracles is back with a playful yet profound story in her latest YA, Mysterious Ways. Our main character, 17-year-old Maya has a gift (or should we call it a curse?) that allows her to instantly know everything about a person…

Kelsey HallAugust 27, 2024

Fiction Podcasts

Books & Looks Podcast: Love, Lies and Leaky Roofs: Amy Jo Burns Discusses “Mercury”

Books & Looks: Real Books for Real Readers was started as a podcast to supplement Blaine Desantis’ website, ViewsOnBooks.com, and expand into audio and video interviews with authors. With Books & Looks, Blaine’s goal is to focus on real books that real people will read. At least half of the books he reviews…

Blaine DesantisMay 8, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Humorous, Bittersweet Take on the “Millennial Quarter-Life Crisis” Novel

Linh Ly is NOT doing just fine. But she is trying to convince herself she is. At 27 years old, Linh feels like she should have everything figured out by now, despite the difficult past she must reckon with, and the challenges facing her day-to-day. Thao Votang’s Linh Ly is…

Megan BeauregardJuly 23, 2024

Fiction

Coastal Town Stunned by Mysterious Tragedy in Literary Fiction

A wonderful debut by Alina Grabowski, Women and Children First follows the lives of ten women before and after the death of a high school student in a coastal Massachusetts town. It is a story about community and how people’s lives are intertwined, female friendships, agency and memory. Grabowski shows us the…

Jennifer BlankfeinJuly 22, 2024

Fiction Recommended

Timeless and Evocative Love Story Between Troubled Artist and Writer

When something hurts, it’s easy to access medical books, Google or physicians for the answers. When it comes to love, the prescriptions are not so simple. Peter Sarno does a masterful job of dissecting love to its barest roots and greatest pains in his complex novel, Visions of Johanna (PFP…

Jim AlkonDecember 9, 2022

Book Club Network Fiction

Three Generations of Young Men Come of Age in the Wonderfully Complex “The World Played Chess”

Robert Dugoni treats us to his expert, character-driven storytelling about growing up, and you won’t want to miss it! In his latest novel, The World Played Chess (Lake Union), recent high school graduate Vincent has a job working construction to make some beer money the summer before he goes off…

Jennifer BlankfeinOctober 14, 2021

Fiction Fiction - Featured

Fishing a Couple’s Rubicon River: “Ruin, A Novel of Flyfishing in Bankruptcy”

Character and chance braid vividly throughout Ruin (City Point Press), a tale by Leigh Seippel of a couple’s shattered glittering life. Young Frank and Francy had every settled marriage’s nightmare of sudden total loss of basic viability. But they wake into that nightmare, which becomes reality for them. Completely bankrupted…

BookTribSeptember 27, 2022

Coming of Age Fiction

Small Town and Young Woman Haunted by Ghost of the Past in Chilling Mystery

Gripping Coming-of-Age Offers Poignant Reflection on Community, Resiliency and Destiny

Chasing Chords, Women, and Ghosts of War in “Wither Creek”

Craving More Sally Rooney? You’ll Love These 6 Rooney-Esque Books

Bruce Lee, Defying Stereotypes, and the Catharsis of Writing

Young Woman Embarks Across America & War-Torn Vietnam for a Place to Belong

Books & Looks Podcast: Love, Lies and Leaky Roofs: Amy Jo Burns Discusses “Mercury”

Humorous, Bittersweet Take on the “Millennial Quarter-Life Crisis” Novel

Timeless and Evocative Love Story Between Troubled Artist and Writer

Three Generations of Young Men Come of Age in the Wonderfully Complex “The World Played Chess”

Fishing a Couple’s Rubicon River: “Ruin, A Novel of Flyfishing in Bankruptcy”

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