The Isle in the Silver Sea offers a medieval setting, magical elements, a story within a story, romantasy without swooning, and characters fighting to reimagine their futures. This fantasy novel about the power of storytelling was wonderful. In an alternate medieval England, an island exists because of stories. Those who play key roles in tales die and are repeatedly reborn into various versions of the characters they must play, and they are fated to reenact their own battl

The premise of Missing Sam was a slam dunk for me, and I appreciated the couple's strengthened bonds after unimaginable trauma. But the story jumped around and told more than it showed, and I didn't feel an emotional connection. After married couple Sam and Ali have a silly jealousy-spawned fight after a party, Sam wakes up for a solo morning run instead of inviting along Ali, as she normally would. One unlucky circumstance leads to another for Sam, and when Ali wakes up, Sa

Cate Kay is a bestselling author--and a pseudonym used by a woman who's been running from her past for decades. Cate is at times a young dreamer, a haunted lover with a hardened heart, a wildly successful author dipping her toe in the world of Hollywood, and an imperfectly healed friend ready to face the future. My friend Jenny mentioned this book to me, and I'd never heard of it but loved the premise. I was hooked the whole way through as I read. The reclusive author Cate Ka

Seth Haddon's slim science fiction debut offers action and a risky space quest, revenge, and love, but it's also a poignant, lovely story about being seen for your true self, being vulnerable, and thinking beyond traditional standards. Wylla's ship has seen better days, and she's desperate for a break. When she catches wind of a valuable, mysterious piece of technology on another planet, she banks on her wiliness and speed to beat other treasure hunters to it. Wylla's own mas

Woodworking explores interconnected transgender characters' experiences, fears, challenges, and joys as they work toward living true, fulfilling lives. Emily St. James's debut novel is poignant, funny, heartbreaking, often surprising, and heartwarming. It's called woodworking. Someday they will wake up and you will be gone. To have a future, you cannot have a past. You will have to disappear into the woodwork to finally be seen. Emily St. James crafts a tender, funny story wi

Grossman's reimagined Arthurian legend gives center stage to a ragtag band of misfits, celebrates diversity, and builds a patchwork of adventures, discovery, and widened horizons culminating in a satisfying new, reimagined path forward. Collum is an instinctually gifted, strong knight who has literally fought for sword training as a lowly ward; his family has little use for him; and his heart is set upon joining King Arthur's court. But when he finally makes his way to the Ro

Novik's novella The Summer War reads like a fable, with unexpected twists and turns; duty, clever evasion, and curses; a strange world...

The Briar Club employs nine points of view to tell the story of life in a female-only boarding house in 1950s, McCarthy-era Washington,...

Patrick Ryan's literary fiction traces decades of the messy, poignant lives of two families shaped by uncompromising societal...

This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and...

I love an astronaut story, and while Reid spent far more page time on relationships than on the astronaut or space aspects, there was...

While Veronica and Stoker stay close to home while entering into danger and solving the mysteries in book six of this series, Raybourn...

The unnamed main protagonist in All Fours frequently made me feel uncomfortable because of her unorthodox decision-making and...

Dunlap's debut novel explores early Edinburgh surgical schools, questionable methods of obtaining study subjects, a main protagonist's...

Much of The Safekeep feels claustrophobic, quiet, and hopeless, but unexpected shifts late in the story turn accepted histories on their...

Frances White's debut is a locked-room mystery on a magical ship full of uncertain alliances, deadly vendettas, and a sassy and...

Croucher's young adult queer medieval adventure romance is sweet, spunky, and full of great banter, with characters finding their way...

Our Evenings explores a young, often cruel, existence at a British boys' boarding school; later fits and starts of exploring sexuality...

The reality-show setting and LGBTQIA+ representation in Ever After flips the traditional fairy tale in satisfying, heartwarming ways in...

Grey Dog begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s rural England, but it becomes a...