Solitaire
Solitaire is a political thriller with a strong espionage pulse, and it opens by dropping us straight into a public shooting in Times Square that turns a mayoral campaign into a conspiracy story about surveillance, synthetic identities, and power hiding behind official systems. At the center are Grace Delgado, a relentless New York journalist, and Michael Sloane, a ghostlike operator tied to the Ace of Spades and a trail of old secrets, as they circle the murder of Deputy Mayor Robert Caldwell and the shadow network called KATSAI. What starts as a city corruption story grows into something broader and darker, with fake donors, weaponized tech, and a private apparatus trying to bend politics into obedience.
I really enjoyed the book’s momentum. Author Bill Pepitone writes like someone who knows how institutions sound from the inside, and that gives the novel a kind of hard floor under its feet. The scenes in City Hall, the FBI office, and the street-level New York moments have a lived-in feel that kept me leaning forward. I also liked that the book doesn’t pretend its people are clean heroes. Grace is stubborn, emotional, and smart in a way that gets her into trouble. Sloane is built like myth, but the book keeps trying to press bruises under the myth, especially in the quieter moments when his control slips. The dialogue can sometimes feel like everyone has a comeback in the chamber, but even then, the energy carries it.
I found the author’s choices around KATSAI and the fake donor machinery especially interesting because the book isn’t just chasing thrills for their own sake. It’s clearly interested in what happens when surveillance stops being a tool and starts becoming a nervous system for power. That idea lands. The novel’s best move, for me, is that it keeps tying giant systems back to private fear: Caldwell hiding a drive behind a picture frame, Shaw collapsing under pressure, Grace realizing too late that information itself can act like a flare in the dark. There is a pulp sheen to some of it, sure, and Sloane sometimes feels almost too competent, but that is also part of the book’s genre DNA. This is an espionage thriller fiction that wants to be sleek, tense, and a little larger than life, while still keeping one foot in recognizable political rot.
I came away feeling that Solitaire knows exactly what shelf it wants to sit on. It’s the kind of book I would recommend to readers who like conspiracy-driven thrillers, cat-and-mouse espionage, and stories where modern tech and old-fashioned power games collide in the same room. If you enjoy fast, cinematic fiction with a political edge, a wounded central duo, and a hero who moves through the world like a rumor with a passport, this will be very much your thing.
Pages: 259 | ISBN : 9781105802713
I Was Just Sitting There Eating A Salad…
I Was Just Sitting There Eating a Salad… is a loose, comic tapestry rather than a traditional story collection with hard walls between pieces. The book keeps circling back to Green City and its recurring cast, especially Edward Loomis, the salad-eating private detective whose disastrous encounters become a running joke, while other stories widen the town into something stranger and more affectionate. One minute, the book is leaning into broad farce with names like Randolph and Imogene Scary and a whole town rattled by an “alien” misunderstanding, and the next it opens into more ambitious comic sci-fi through Jerald Cross, Sarah Smart, Greg Lieberman, and the wormhole device that turns a small West Virginia town into the center of increasingly absurd adventures. What finally holds it together is the sense that Green City is its own comic universe, one where gossip, coincidence, pulp plotting, and homemade science all somehow belong in the same weather.
The opening salad story is such a good example of the collection’s method because it commits completely to repetition, timing, and escalation until Edward’s laugh becomes practically mythic. I also found myself genuinely charmed by the way the stories start cross-pollinating. “Wormhole” could have felt like it came from a different book, but instead, it deepens the world, giving the collection a stronger spine than I expected. The courtroom frame, the teenage inventiveness, and the uneasy moral turn after the Nevada chase give that story real momentum, and later pieces gain extra pleasure because they’re no longer isolated gags. By the time the book gets to ghosts, pranks, and military suspicion, it’s working with a whole local mythology, and I admired how casually it builds that mythology without ever sounding solemn about it.
Author Victor Coltey’s prose has a talky, easy-going looseness that can be funny, especially when a narrator is half deadpan and half delighted by his own nonsense, but it can keep pushing after the laugh has landed. Some of the character descriptions and comic premises are intentionally outrageous, though for me they worked. There were stretches where I felt the book’s affection for eccentricity and caricature was warm and knowing. The author’s note helped confirm what the stories themselves suggest, which is that the book is openly trying to mix humor, sci-fi, and what Coltey calls “a little idiocy,” and I think that self-awareness is important because it frames the collection less as polished satire than as a homemade comic world built out of tall tales, genre love, and an authentic voice.
This book is rough-edged, but also lively, distinctive, and cohesive. Its best stories have the pleasure of hearing a practiced raconteur keep a straight face while the town around him slips further into absurdity, and its larger appeal is the way it treats small-town life as a stage big enough for wormholes, ghosts, Sasquatch, and very bad lunches. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy offbeat regional humor, linked story collections, and comic speculative fiction that feels homemade rather than slick. It’s the kind of book for someone who likes their fiction odd, chatty, and full of personality.
Pages: 203 | ASIN : B0GG7TV3TG
Donahue Pass: A Sierran Philosophy
Donahue Pass, by Charles Weeden, is a work of philosophical nature writing, part trail narrative and part extended dialogue, in which two friends hike from Rush Creek over Donahue Pass while talking their way through Darwin, Descartes, Heidegger, pragmatism, interpretation, and what it means to live with purpose. The book moves between mountain description and conversation, using the climb itself as both setting and structure, so the switchbacks become a kind of thinking pattern as the two men test ideas, joke with each other, and slowly arrive at a rough synthesis about evolution, meaning, and interpretation.
What I liked most is that the book never feels like it wants to lecture from a podium. It wants to walk beside you. That matters. The writing keeps returning to the body, to thirst, altitude, sore legs, a heavy pack, the small relief of water sitting in the mouth, and that physical strain gives the philosophical talk some grit. Without that, a lot of this could have floated away. Instead, the ideas stay tied to the trail. I also liked the friendship on the page. Mike’s sarcasm keeps puncturing John’s loftier turns, and that back and forth gives the book warmth and movement. It is often funny in a dry, relatable way. You can feel the book understanding that big ideas are easier to bear when somebody beside you is rolling their eyes.
I found the author’s ambitions more interesting than fully convincing, which is not a complaint. It is part of the book’s charm. Some stretches of the dialogue feel like a real conversation, and some feel more like a staged debate where each friend takes turns carrying a stack of books up the mountain. I did not mind that, exactly, but I noticed it. The book is strongest when the landscape and the thought are in balance, when a stream, a warbler, or the simple fact of climbing gives the philosophy something to push against. When it gets too deep into the argument, it can feel a little airless, which is maybe fitting for a book set above 10,000 feet. Still, I admired the reach. The author is braiding science and the humanities together and asks whether selection and interpretation are really separate ways of seeing the world.
I would recommend Donahue Pass most to readers who enjoy reflective nonfiction, philosophical fiction, and nature writing that is willing to stop and think instead of rushing to plot. It is especially suited to people who like books where conversation is the action, and where a hike through granite and water opens into questions about how to live.
Pages: 31 | ASIN : B07VV4X57K
Ripple Effect of Healing
In Mixtape, you share your experiences growing up as a mixed-race Black boy in Virginia, surviving abuse, battling confusion and loneliness, and overcoming the odds to find personal freedom. Why was this an important book for you to write?
You can’t move forward if you’re haunted by the past. Going back and exploring these stories (Sankofa) was necessary to my survival and healing. Furthermore, I believe our stories can have a ripple effect of healing when shared. I hope my story resonates with readers and makes them feel less alone. And as a father, I feel proud knowing my daughter will get to read this someday to see the work I did to create a better life for her than I had.
What role did music play in helping you process or remember different moments in your life?
I think musically. If I were filming the movie of my life, I’d be most concerned about the soundtrack. Music complements, drives, and speaks with and through my storytelling. Songs evoke memories and assure me I’ll never run out of things to write about.
How did your understanding of your parents and family change as you grew older?
I didn’t buy the lie that “We did the best we could.” They didn’t, and it shows. This is magnified by the reality that I’m a parent, and I’m successful at it by primarily doing the opposite of what my parents did. Parenting is a big responsibility. Our kids didn’t ask to be here. It is the parent’s job to be the best they can be so that their kids can thrive.
What conversations do you hope your book inspires in your readers?
I hope they recognize the need for reciprocity in relationships and that they leave feeling loved, liked, and/or understood.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
In Mixtape: A Memoir, therapist and storyteller Johnzelle Anderson weaves a raw, lyrical portrait of resilience, identity, and healing.
Born to a disengaged West African father and a volatile white mother, Anderson grows up mixed race in 1990s Roanoke, Virginia—feeling like an outsider in every room. Amid childhood abuse, neglect, and racism, he clings to the safety of his grandmother’s love and his inner voice’s promise of a better future.
Told in tracks rather than chapters, Mixtape charts Anderson’s journey from trauma to triumph—from being body-shamed and silenced to building a career in mental health and forming a family of his own. Along the way, he confronts the legacy of generational pain, redefines his sense of belonging, and takes a life-changing trip to Ghana in search of the roots his father never shared.
Honest, at times humorous, and unflinching in its vulnerability, Mixtape: A Memoir is a coming-of-age story for anyone unlearning and daring to rewrite the soundtrack of their life.
Resilient Couple
Albert DiNardo: The Last DiNardo is the story of a family that immigrated to Colorado from Italy and built a successful business despite facing many hardships along the way. What first inspired you to tell the story of the DiNardo family?
I was first inspired to write the story after meeting Albert DiNardo at his story in Canon City, Colorado. My wife had discovered the story on a recent trip and hit it off with the owner, Albert, and his companion, Heidi Willard. She told me about meeting this resilient couple, and I was intrigued by their story.
What surprised you most while researching immigrant life in Colorado during that period?
I was most surprised by two things I discovered while researching this story. The level of corruption at the Colorado state government in the 1920s, and also the lack of humanity at the federal government level in passing the Johnson-Reed Act limiting Italian immigration so severely. Second, I was inspired by the resilience and stubbornness of the parents of Albert DiNardo. They were really remarkable people.
The twins, Albert and Mario, grow into very different personalities. How did their contrasting strengths shape the family business?
Albert and Mario were very different in almost every aspect of their business life. Albert did the heavy lifting, the nuts and bolts of the business. Every day grinding was what he lived for and continues to live for. Mario, on the other hand, despised hard work. However, he did like the aspects of running the store and talking to customers, basking in the glow of hard work he was assumed to take part in. He did grind in his own way as long as it was indoors, out of the weather, and in the comfort of a heated and air-conditioned building.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
I would hope readers would be as inspired as I was learning about these people and their lives. The absolute refusal to give up or fall victim to circumstances. They pressed on no matter what bad luck brought them, refusing to stop living for the better day that would come if they kept trying. Their belief in each other was inspiring to me.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
A Place of Healing
In The Race of Your Life, you walk readers through your experience living with interstitial lung disease and share the faith that is bringing you through each day. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I wrote this book because when I was looking for help in coping with my diagnosis, I could not find the kind of encouragement I needed. Everything I came across focused on statistics and prognosis, and honestly, it felt cold and hopeless. I wanted something that spoke to the heart, something that reminded me there could still be joy, peace, and purpose in the middle of a hard diagnosis. That is why writing this book mattered so much to me. I wanted to encourage both myself and others to look beyond the numbers, hold on to the goodness of God, trust His timing, and remember that even when so much feels out of our control, we still have a choice in how we respond.
I appreciate the candid nature with which you share your story. What was the most difficult thing for you to write about?
The hardest thing for me to write about was getting my diagnosis alone in the hospital during COVID-19. I did not fully realize how much that moment had stayed with me until I began writing it down. As I wrote, I cried because it brought back the fear, the loneliness, and the feeling of being abandoned in that moment. But it also became a place of healing for me. In the middle of writing, I was reminded that I was never truly alone. God sustained me through that scary time and protected me from COVID-19 during the first two years of my journey.
The book blends memoir with practical spiritual guidance. How did you decide on that structure?
When I first wrote the draft, it was very chronological and straightforward. I was simply telling the story as it happened. But a friend of mine challenged me, saying I had more to offer than just the timeline of events. She reminded me that I am a Marine, a teacher, and a woman of strong faith, and that those parts of who I am shaped not only how I lived this journey, but also how I could share it with others. I took time to reflect on that and asked myself how I would tell this story if I were sitting across from someone who needed encouragement. That is what led me to blend memoir with practical spiritual guidance. I wanted the book to feel like a conversation, filled with honesty, hope, and the most heartfelt advice I could give.
What advice would you give to people who want to support a loved one with a chronic illness but aren’t sure how?
My advice would be to simply be there for them without overwhelming them. Your presence matters, but sometimes saying less and listening more can mean everything. Try not to feel like you have to fix every hard thing they share, because sometimes they are not looking for solutions, they just need a safe place to vent and be honest. One of the greatest gifts you can give is to be yourself around them. People living with chronic illness still long for normalcy, genuine connection, and the comfort of being treated like themselves, not just like their condition.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
If you’re facing a diagnosis, sitting by a hospital bed, or living with an ache you can’t fix, The Race of Your Life will meet you there. Author Stacy Kincer invites you into her journey with interstitial lung disease—the tests, the fear, the waiting—and the God who kept breathing life into her faith when her lungs could not.
Through honest stories, Scripture, and gentle reflection, you’ll discover:
How to pray when words run out and anxiety spikes at 2 a.m.
Practical ways to let others carry you when you’re too tired to carry yourself.
Rhythms of rest and truth that steady your mind when your body is weak.
The promises of God that hold when everything else feels unsteady.
This isn’t a quick fix. It’s a faithful companion for the long road—for anyone walking through illness, loss, or uncertainty. If you’re short of breath—in body or soul—let this book help you take your next brave breath.
The Race of Your Life reminds us: God’s strength carries us when we can’t carry ourselves—and every breath can become an act of worship.
Unquestioning Companionship
Whisper (Book One) follows a young girl who leaves the turmoil of her family’s home with the gentle guidance of a clever dog, the first creature in her life to ever put her at ease. Where did the idea for this story come from?
I wanted to challenge myself in writing about something quite different to what was contained within any of my earlier works, in the process tackling several reasonably serious or thought-provoking themes which are concerningly becoming far too common a problem in the real world, all while keeping its use of language, and descriptive tone regarding quite sensitive subjects, aptly suitable for a younger aged audience.
Is there anything from your own life included in Britney’s traits and dialogue?
Not that I am significantly aware of. Unless you include her general love for animals, whose unique bonds with humans I always enjoy exploring in my writing, especially that of ‘man’s best friend’ and the invaluable role dogs play in their undying loyalty and unquestioning companionship with humans. While some of the themes in this book may reflect what I’ve observed in the real world, I don’t think there is anything specific that stems from personal experience besides that.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I always enjoy writing about issues such as friendship, and these books are all about how unique individuals relate to those around them, whether they’re connected by blood or circumstantially joined together through the kindness of strangers. This series wonderfully illustrates the love that can flourish between different kinds of people, young and old, when their differences are clearly put aside, and only willing acceptance and open acts of kindness are freely offered in their place. Recovering from childhood trauma and abuse are key aspects of this book, but several reviewers have expressed appreciation for how these issues have been approached with gentle sensitivity and respect, without losing any of their weight in emotional depth and overall meaning.
Can you give us a peek inside Book 2 in this series? Where will it take readers?
With Lucas (Book Two), I really appreciated having the opportunity to give readers another chance to better get to know the man who eagerly took the vulnerable Britney under his wing. Understanding more about Lucas’ background lends credence to the idea that his own childhood years had also been extremely difficult for him to overcome, which is likely a huge part of the reason why he didn’t like seeing another distraught child being caught in a similar position and quickly jumped at the prospect of taking responsibility over her care. Despite being orphaned at a young age, Lucas finds his place with a caring older couple who model compassion and kindness every day of the week, which in turn consistently serves to teach him to always treat others with the same amount of endless love and unbridled respect that they do. By continuing the series, readers will have the chance to see things from another point of view, this time from Lucas’ perspective rather than Britney’s.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Facebook | Amazon
Quiet Sacrifice
Family follows a grieving woman who stumbles upon a family secret when she attempts to trace threatening letters back to their mysterious sender. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
There is a very old, soft leather wallet from before the Civil War that has been handed down in my family. In it are letters. They outline one man’s attempt to hold on to our family’s good reputation when his brother‑in‑law and sister allegedly stole their father’s cash, leaving many debts. This was a family matter—no charges made in a court of law, but a conviction made in the court of public opinion. The man’s sister blamed him. The brother‑in‑law and sister left for Ohio.
The man stayed. He worked for years to pay off every one of those debts and avoid selling his father’s farm in a depressed market. When prices finally rebounded, he did sell it, then sent money to his brothers—and yes, to his sister.
That mixture of duty, hurt, and quiet sacrifice stayed with me. Family is my way of exploring what happens when secrets, loyalty, and public reputation collide in another time and place.
Were there any twists or revelations that changed during the writing process?
Yes. I’ve worked with this story for years, so there have been more changes than I can easily count. But that’s part of what I enjoy about writing. I originally drafted more than twenty books in this series just for my own pleasure, and now I’m editing them so I can share them with others. Each book goes through several iterations as the characters and their choices become clearer to me.
The revelation I enjoyed most in Family was the carriage scene where the older, married people are sharing their most embarrassing courting stories. Those moments arrived quite naturally on the page—and yes, both stories are drawn from my own experience. I laughed while I wrote them.
Faith is woven naturally into the characters’ lives rather than presented as a simple solution to problems. Why was that approach important to you?
I chose to write about 1619 London because faith was central to life then. For many people, it was simply the air they breathed. I wanted to give readers a chance to think about how people can live with faith in that kind of world—sometimes through short, sincere prayers in the moment, sometimes through wrestling with God rather than receiving quick, tidy answers.
My hope is to gently encourage readers who are inclined toward faith to consider weaving it into their ordinary days—not because I think they “should,” that’s between them and God, but because of the comfort and peace it often brings. I admire people who can quote chapter and verse. I can’t. And I don’t believe the insight and comfort I gain from a passage is always the same as what someone else might take from it. That’s part of the beauty for me.
On my website I offer a free 35‑page booklet titled Living With Faith… When You Feel… It looks at feelings many of us experience at one time or another—being overwhelmed, afraid of the future, and discouraged. It’s not a project or a checklist; it’s meant to be a quiet companion. You choose a verse that might speak to how you’re feeling and let it sit with you. No memorizing. No turning it into another task in an already busy life. Put it near your coffee maker or toothbrush, let your eyes land on it, and allow its meaning to stretch forward to greet you where you are on your journey.
That’s the kind of faith I wanted to reflect in Family: honest, present, sometimes questioning, always entwined with real life.
What is the next book you are working on? When can readers expect to see it released?
Thankless Child, book three in the On The Wings Of Angels series, is set in 1619 London. Elizabeth Bowmar’s life is shattered when she tries to help an old friend. Forced into an uneasy alliance, she must unravel a conspiracy of greed and betrayal to save herself and expose the corruption strangling the city.
Thankless Child is currently in edit and will be released in a few months. I’m excited to bring readers back into Elizabeth’s world as she faces new dangers and deeper questions of justice, loyalty, and faith.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
Amidst the shadows of 1619 London, Elizabeth Bowmar, a young midwife devoted to helping others, confronts an unseen menace that strikes at the heart of her own household. Whispers in darkened doorways, missing letters, and subtle threats all point to a danger that knows her routines, her loyalties, and her weaknesses far too well.
As conspiracy and fear tighten around her family, Elizabeth must trace the threat back to its source before it destroys the people she loves—and the hard‑won future she is only beginning to claim. Her world may be 1619, with cobbled streets and dim candlelight, but her fight for independence and the right to choose her own path is timeless.
When every choice seems to carry a cost, Elizabeth must decide whom to trust, how fiercely to protect her family, and how far faith can carry her when those closest to her may be hiding the deepest secrets.
Set against a richly drawn London on the brink of upheaval, Family weaves together mystery, faith, and love as Elizabeth uncovers a plot that could shatter more than her home. Step into a world where history unfolds, faith prevails, and love stirs in this gripping Christian historical mystery, Book Two of the On the Wings of Angels series.
Family will appeal to readers who enjoy the rich historical atmosphere and slow‑building romance of Julie Klassen and the faith‑forward intrigue of Roseanna M. White.
