The triumphant comeback of Simon Plaster, the Heartland’s most irrepressible satirist, and his beloved heroine! Henrietta returns to the little ol’ Oklahoma hometown she was named for and attempts to launch a career in the world’s reputedly second-oldest profession in three side-splitting tales of law and disorder.
Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
I started Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan, not knowing what to expect. The story follows Dame Eleanor Kingman, a hugely famous children’s writer — the kind who’s everywhere and has sold an unbelievable number of books. You can feel the weight of all that success on her right from the start, tightening around her even before the book hints at anything darker. Purchase Here.
There’s a moment early on at her birthday event where a little boy suddenly yells that she lies and makes everything up. It’s quick, but it hits her hard. His words shake her in a way that feels almost too accurate, like he’s spotted something she’s been trying to hide for years.
Next, we witness a dreadful moment as strange emails begin flooding her personal account. Their deliberate word choice leads her to believe that the sender either knows her just too well or knows something cold about her from before her fame. Here, the reader joins her as she tries to deduce the source, flipping through rejected manuscripts and a young woman’s first identity. You sense that failure to do that will not just be an embarrassment but the total annihilation of everything she has become.
What impressed me most was how the author weaves in secondary accounts of Eleanor’s children, including Rachel, who is her accountant, and whose husband is deeply weighed down by life-threatening financial issues. As I engaged with her, I felt the tragic irony of two women, a mother and a daughter, both terrified of exposure and both hunted by versions of themselves they want to keep hidden. Their stories move with what feels like tide pacing, each adding several inches of water with every new chapter. They are, however, made more interesting to follow by a critical detail, that one of them has long learned to compartmentalize all her negative emotions and thus cannot afford to feel any sorrow. As secrets unfold about her children, one wonders whether she might drift from them as she focuses on finding the anonymous sender.
The conclusion of Sarah Vaughan’s Based on a True Story left me stunned. As someone drawn to psychological suspense that digs beneath the surface, this hit exactly the right nerve. Readers who’ve ever felt the tension between their outward persona and their inner truth will find an uncomfortable, familiar echo in these pages—and that’s part of what makes it so powerful.
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Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
A Twist in the River starts out feeling like a straightforward mystery, but it slowly becomes something more personal — almost like you’re watching someone get pulled back into a life they thought they’d stepped away from. Jake Jackson tries to keep his distance when Livia tells him about the missing woman’s belongings turning up. You can feel him trying to protect whatever peace he’s managed to build. He knows how cases like this can take over his mind, and he’s not eager to go down that road again. Purchase Here.
But then Claire’s husband shows up, and the whole situation shifts. The man is exhausted, scared, and clearly out of options, and Jake can’t pretend he doesn’t hear the desperation in his voice. That moment pulls him back in, not because he wants the attention or the challenge, but because he can’t ignore someone who genuinely needs help.
The pacing is steady — not slow, not rushed — just steady enough to let the characters breathe. Jake feels like someone who’s been shaped by the things he’s seen, and Livia balances him out. She’s the one who keeps him from slipping too far into his old habits, especially once she tells him she’s pregnant. That news adds a different kind of pressure, the kind that makes every decision feel heavier.
What stood out to me is how Abell mixes the personal moments with the darker parts of the story. He doesn’t gloss over the reality of violence against women, and he doesn’t turn Jake into some larger‑than‑life hero. Jake cares, maybe more than he should, and that’s what makes him compelling. As people start praising him — both in town and online — there’s this uneasy feeling that the attention might not be harmless. You start to sense that something is building underneath all the admiration.
The suspense grows quietly, almost unnoticed. It’s the uncertainty around Jake that keeps you hooked, the sense that he’s walking into something he can’t fully see. It’s the kind of book you can read in a couple of sittings, but the ending hits with enough force that you keep thinking about it afterward. The final twist lands clean and sharp, leaving a little echo behind.
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Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
“Sometime This Century: A Regency Rom-Com” by Samantha Silva follows Annabel Blake, who has just finished writing her first novel titled “What You Wish For.” Her mother wishes she could instead focus on getting a real estate license and, in due time, move out of their house, even though she is still paying rent. Annabel is a Jane Austen fanatic and has even mashed up Austen’s heroines for her pen name. She can’t wait to present her manuscript to her boss, Stella, who until now didn’t know Annabel writes. Stella, however, detests anything related to Jane Austen’s world. To her, Jane Austen is dead! Purchase Here.
As a fan of Jane Austen, I couldn’t wait to see how Stella would react to Annabel’s Regency manuscript. In all honesty, the world Annabel captures made me early on agree with Silva that she might have been born in the wrong century. But what especially moved me was that Annabel had never fallen in love, so someone like Stella could easily believe she was way out of line to write about the Regency. And true to my suspicion, Stella advises her to rewrite the novel, but this time stick to what she knows.
Annabel is a woman her family believes is living in a fantasy world. I found myself appreciating what Silva does with her, including throwing her headfirst into a historical recreation of the Regency Society setting before sending her into another world where she gets to decide whether to write her love story or simply live it. Silva deliberately injects Annabel’s family’s sentiments here and there, as well as their pressure on what she should become. This made me, as a reader, care about and worry for her dream at the same time, especially for her influencer sister, Cassie.
“Sometime This Century: A Regency Rom-Com” is dialogue-heavy and is explicit in its reveal of the power of desire. It moves at a deliberate pace, every page sinking the reader into a world that some characters see as captivity but that the reader knows is the heart of the novel. It’s a great read, well-choreographed, and though dense, worth every page for a reader who’s ever wished for a world of their own.
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Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
“Murder Most Delicious” by Danielle Postel-Vinay is a novel that serves up a mystery so rich in atmosphere and intrigue that it ensnares you completely, refusing to let go until its secrets have been fully uncovered. It pulls you into a world where every scent feels like it is holding a clue and where every character seems to be hiding something, setting the stage for a charged mystery, in which the loss of one sense might just be the key to discovering a deadly truth. Purchase Here.
The story follows Olivia Beech, an American sommelier, whose career in New York crumbled after Covid robbed her of her sense of taste. She is not the kind of sommelier trained through trial and error like many others, but one born with a heightened, almost inborn sense of smell. Today, she is heading to an interview at the legendary bistro Chez Jacques, where one of the most exacting French chefs in Paris will test her ability to taste wine. Passing the test will give her more than a job. She will be able to repay her debts, rebuild her reputation, reclaim her dignity, and, more importantly, have a chance to start over. But the moment the tasting begins, she detects something deeply disturbing in the glass before her. This is right after a sinister scent, which she compares to a snake hidden in a basket of cherries, hit her nostrils. Unable to truly tell what it truly is, the only thing that remains is for her to taste the wine. Jacques, however, grabs it from her, insisting that its cork was intact. However, things take an unexpected direction when, after one gulp, he collapses.
The next scene introduces Chantal, a local florist who owns a flower shop called Les Fleurs d’Amour, and who is part of a tight-knit group of locals who look out for one another. She witnesses the incident, moves in with the composure of someone already used to crisis, and objects to calling the police, arguing that they will not hesitate to arrest Olivia since she is the only person who was with Jacques at the time of his death. In a neighborhood that is as gossipy as it is protective, and where everyone knows everyone else’s habits, secrets, and grudges, the reader is drawn to the edge of their seat as the mystery suddenly explodes beyond a single death into a web of suspicion and conflicting loyalties. Here, one can’t help but wonder whether fate will, once more, extend an olive branch to Olivia and offer her a true chance at redemption, or whether the incident will wipe out every remaining ounce of hope she has left.
This book gave me an experience of sheer immersion, where I was utterly captivated by a setting that functions as a character in its own right, rather than just a backdrop to the story. The tension felt masterfully woven, striking a compelling balance between the story’s central mystery and the emotional weight of the protagonist’s sensory journey. The characters won my heart early in the read, especially Olivia, whose vulnerability and resilience anchor the story with a quiet, persuasive power. I found the prose elegant and precise, its language both sensual and controlled. The subtle incorporation of French in phrases, culinary terms, and cultural rhythms didn’t feel ornamental at all, but instead pulled me deeper into the world, making the language itself part of my sensory experience.
I have never wanted to move back into a neighborhood to see what mystery and what surprise awaited next, as I did with the one in this book. “Murder Most Delicious” by Danielle Postel-Vinay didn’t emerge as just a mystery to be solved, but as an experience to be savored. It was richly rewarding to me as a reader who enjoys lingering with uniquely-gifted characters, and who loves following carefully placed clues that persuasively invite you to solve their puzzle. I highly recommend it to readers who appreciate beautifully-crafted mysteries that engage both the heart and the mind.
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Reviewed by Nancy Eaton
This first book in the Rebecca Orange Castle Cozy Mystery Series delivers a fun, comforting escape: a charming castle setting, quirky characters, a loyal dog, and a mystery that stays light without losing its intrigue.
Rebecca Orange has a rough day at the start of Mystery at Monrovia Castle—she loses her job and her relationship almost back‑to‑back. It’s a mess, but it pushes her into this unexpected chance to work with the royal animals in Monrovia, a tiny country that feels like something out of a storybook. It’s a fun setup, especially if you like cozy mysteries where someone gets a fresh start in a completely new place. Purchase Here.
When Rebecca gets to Monrovia, she’s not impressed. The place feels a bit weird, and the people she meets are all quirky in their own ways. She can’t figure anyone out yet. The flower shop sounds nice, though. Even though the Duke is polite, he is definitely holding back something. Her dog Joe is honestly one of the best parts. Big, calm, and just kind of comforting whenever he shows up.
The mystery starts to matter once the castle’s architect turns up dead. Someone Rebecca barely knows but already feels okay around suddenly looks like they might be involved, which throws her off balance. Even with that going on, the book doesn’t get dark. She spends a lot of time wandering around the castle and the town, trying to figure out who’s being straight with her and who’s just acting strange because that’s how the place is.
The setting sticks with you more than anything. Monrovia is easy to picture — old stone buildings, little shops, people who seem to know everyone else’s business. The writing leans more toward comfort than tension, so the mystery feels like something you can read at night without getting wound up.
If you like mysteries that are easygoing and have a main character you can root for, Mystery at Monrovia Castle is a nice start to a series that seems like it’ll only get more fun.
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Reviewed by Lily Andrews
“Venera LTD.” by Stuart Nosler begins in 2025 in Australia, under the shadow of a global radiation crisis where Dr. Hendrick Campbell, a nuclear physicist, is pulled from university research to investigate a mysterious wreck of a sunken warship, a North Korean vessel, which was carrying radioactive material, and whose contamination is spreading quickly, collapsing fishing economies and seeding cancers in populations across the Pacific. What follows is a journey that sees him rise from an academic to a rich head of Venera Ltd, a space logistics company that begins as a student initiative to launch a satellite cheaply, before it transforms into a monopoly that dumps the world’s most dangerous waste on Venus. Alongside this ascent is his life’s slow unraveling, which slowly grows into a desperation that later threatens to consume everything that he has built. Purchase Here.
“The amount of plutonium aboard was absurd.” Hahn continued.” From this passage, as the reader, I understood the weight of the catastrophe, even as I was primed for a journey that would be unforgiving and test the resolve of a team of researchers tasked with containing an escalating global crisis. Campbell’s journey forms the backbone of the story. He is a protagonist whose importance, I believe, lies in his transformation and in how he reveals ambition, grief, and what happens when compromises accumulate. Watching him move from a man who gets terrified that he has poisoned his pregnant wife to someone willing to suppress uncomfortable truths felt like watching the slow death of conscience by a thousand justifications. Then there is Henry Rockford, who, unlike traditional villains, is a brilliant and charismatic figure. Seeing him discover Campbell’s capabilities and then exploiting his vulnerabilities reveals the quiet art of manipulation at play. He carries the image of a predator circling not with claws, but with a patient, unblinking assurance that everything is just business until the prey believes it too.
One of the most outstanding elements of this book is its structure, which spans several years of its characters’ phases. The story rides on a deliberate, measured pacing in the first part, which then noticeably accelerates in the second and third parts, before slowing down a bit in the fourth part. One feels like the chapters, which grow tenser with each new one, directly work one-on-one with the pacing, making the reader feel the unbearable weight of events way before they come to pass. A shorter novel feels like it couldn’t have sufficiently captured the protagonist’s transformation with the same conviction. Personally, I would have resisted the leap from professor to a compromised titan, had the novel not made me live inside the duration of that fall. “Venera LTD.” by Stuart Nosler is a book worthy of its length. It understands that life’s greatest horrors are rarely the ones that come explosively, but those that accumulate patiently, silently, and without blinking. It is a book I would recommend to fans of character-driven tragedies as well as those who enjoy slow-burning science fiction.
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Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
“Mrs. Shim Is a Killer” by Kang Jiyoung follows Shim Eunok, a widow and mother of two whose husband took his life five years ago following a series of complications with his health. She is now unemployed, hopeless, and ashamed, and dreads going home to the sight of a mailbox overflowing with unpaid bills. We meet her at one of her lowest moments, overwhelmed by despair, where we are reminded that the family had to sell their butchery to pay off the damages of a pub her husband drove into, in what police ruled as suicide. Purchase Here.
As fate would have it, Eunok stumbles upon a Help Wanted notice from a private detective agency. She’s all too aware of the worn clothes on her back and the fact that her schooling ended early, and the worry creeps in that they’ll judge her before she even gets a word out. As she pauses outside the building, an older guard gives her a salute that feels strangely knowing. It’s a small, unsettling moment that hints at something bigger already moving around her—something she hasn’t begun to piece together.
The interview shifts from odd to chilling as the interviewer focuses on her experience with knives. And much to her shock, he offers her a job on the spot, leaving her feet frozen to the floor in disbelief. You almost want to scream at her to resist the offer, but that is just before a gold bar is placed on the table, promising quick wealth that could secure her children’s future, if she does the new “job” well.
From there, the novel expands outward, shifting perspectives to reveal the agency’s inner workings and the many lives entangled within it. You are drawn into a layered story that moves between various voices, among them, The Boss, a relentless secret agent, a watchful daughter, and clients whose pain is so deep that revenge feels like their only remaining answer. These voices do not unfold in a straight line, and by taking that form; readers are offered the thrill of assembling the puzzle pieces themselves. Through it all, Eunok remains at the center, not as a cold professional but as a reluctant woman learning to survive inside a world that demands detachment. In that light, as a reader, you might feel forced to root for her even when questioning the morality of her choices, especially when consequential figures from her personal life begin brushing dangerously close to her new reality.
This book will surprise you with how well it balances humor and horror. It moves steadily, allowing tension to build through shifting viewpoints and quiet revelations, as well as unsettling realizations that raise the underlying personal stakes into something that can’t be solved with skill alone. If you enjoy stories that blur the line between dark and playful, or where characters are underestimated only to quietly reinvent themselves in ways that surprise even them, then “Mrs. Shim Is a Killer” by Kang Jiyoung should be your next read!
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Reviewed by Matthew McCarty
Life is full of choices. The choices we make often lead us down the wrong path, or one full of potholes and sadness. Choices are what help us make sure we make the right decisions. “First Loser“, the recent book by Scott Walker Cunningham, outlines the choices that open up in life and how those choices can influence the journey of life. The characters in “First Loser” illustrate just how important making the right choices can be, but also just how often the right choices are overlooked. Purchase Here.
Connor Castaway is an all-state wrestler. He works hard to be the best wrestler in the state, but struggles with his personal life and the loss of his dad. He also struggles with the damage that wrestling is causing to his body and how he has to turn to narcotics to manage the pain that he experiences throughout his life. Connor is emblematic of a tortured soul who often wonders why his life has turned out as it has. He feels like he is responsible for not helping his dad recover from the illness that claimed him in the prime of life.
Connor experiences many ups and downs and difficulties as he navigates trying to succeed in wrestling. He manages to gain a new perspective when he sees his best friend struggling with how to win a match and fight off his own demons that will eventually consume him and leave Connor wandering about what might have been. Connor prevails through a world of hurt, anxiety, stress, and confusion to become a strong provider who learns how to conquer his doubt and fear. The lessons that Connor learns help him to become a father to his own children and a dedicated husband to his wife Isla. These lessons underscore the humanity that comes with life’s struggles.
“First Loser” is a work that could be useful in guiding young lives in decision-making. The lessons presented deal with behavior, choices, and dealing with pain and doubt. These lessons not only affect the lives of star athletes but also those of all human beings. While not a book for a general reading audience, “First Loser” can be impactful on the lives of teens and their family members. It could definitely help with some difficult conversations and could be a light for any young person struggling with what choices to make and how those choices can impact everything that happens in their lives.
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Reviewed by Nancy Eaton
The cover of Ms. Mia and Murder at the Grand Island Hotel caught my eye – enough to make me want to read the book, and I’m really glad I did. It has that classic cozy‑mystery feel, but it never drags or gets too predictable. The whole story has this easy flow to it, like you’re just tagging along with someone who’s naturally good at noticing things the rest of us would miss. Purchase Here.
Ms. Mia herself is a great character. She’s sharp, but not in an over‑the‑top “super detective” way. She feels like a real person who happens to be curious enough (and stubborn enough) to poke around where others wouldn’t. I liked her right away.
The hotel setting is perfect for a mystery — a little glamorous, a little eerie, and full of people who all seem to be hiding something. The author does a nice job giving each character just enough personality that you start forming your own theories about who did what.
As for the mystery, I thought I had it figured out twice, and both times I was wrong. The clues are there, but they’re subtle, and the ending actually makes sense once everything clicks into place. It’s satisfying without feeling forced.
Overall, Ms. Mia and Murder at the Grand Island Hotel is a fun, quick read with a good balance of humor, suspense, and character moments. If you like cozy mysteries with a smart but relatable lead, this one is definitely worth picking up.
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