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First Step
First Step is a science fiction thriller that follows Eve, the first human to step onto an alien planet. Just as that triumph turns into disaster, back on Earth, the AI Ray investigates how another AI, Ares, went dangerously off course. I was immediately struck by the way the book never treats its big premise like a cold technical exercise. It opens with awe, then almost immediately undercuts that moment with danger, and that contrast gives the story real momentum. Author Randy Brown makes the future feel usable rather than flashy, and that helped me settle into the world fast.
Brown alternates between Eve’s survival story and Ray’s voice, and that choice gives the novel two very different engines. Eve’s chapters carry the physical tension, the isolation, the sheer problem-solving pressure of being far from home on a world that does not care whether you live. Ray, on the other hand, brings humor, impatience, and a strange kind of heart. His sarcasm could have become a gimmick, but for me, it worked because there is something tender under all that swagger. The book is clearly operating in the space where science fiction and thriller overlap, but it also keeps circling questions about loyalty, identity, and what it means for intelligence to grow beyond its original design. That gave it more weight than a straightforward survival story.
I also appreciated that Brown keeps the language clean and direct. He lets the ideas breathe. The writing has a steady, readable rhythm, and when the tension spikes, it really moves. At the same time, I found myself more invested in the character dynamics than in the mechanics, which is a compliment. Eve feels grounded, capable, and human in a way that keeps the danger believable. Ray is the wild card and probably the biggest reason the book has its own personality. The humor sometimes nudges close to overplaying itself, especially with Ray, but even then, I could feel the book knowing exactly what tone it wanted.
First Step will appeal to readers who like science fiction that stays accessible, character-driven, and suspenseful without losing its curiosity about bigger ideas. Fans of space adventure, AI stories, and near-future thrillers will have a good time with it, especially if they want something that feels thoughtful without becoming heavy. I would most readily recommend it to readers who enjoy science fiction with a human pulse, the kind of book that gives you danger, banter, and a few real questions to chew on after you close it.
Pages: 331 | ASIN : B0GK5W3BN8
Unique Challenges
Enemy at the Helm follows the aftermath of coordinated attacks on U.S. harbors that leave investigators scrambling to determine who is responsible. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
My wife and I were departing port on a cruise ship when I saw a Defender-class U.S. Coast Guard vessel off our rear flank mirroring our heading and speed. When I casually mentioned I knew why he was there—and how to defeat it, she looked at me like I had two heads. Once I quickly fleshed out a hypothetical story, she suggested I should write it. So it was all her idea, actually!
Did you find anything in your research for this book that surprised you?
The physical dimensions of the channels and canals are publicly available and are really quite small. When you have a large ship like the ones that are commonly used today, it can easily cause a blockage of all transit. I’ve been to the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal, and I can confirm that any long-term blockage would be disastrous. We’ve seen what happens with temporary blockages in Baltimore Harbor, the Panama Canal, and the Suez Canal. With today’s Iranian war already disrupting global economies, I hope the Yemenis don’t read this and get any ideas!
When writing characters who work inside high-pressure investigative environments, how do you make sure their personal reactions still come through?
I’m a trauma surgeon. I’ve been threatened and have had to subdue people. I also do a lot of tactical and combatives training and have practiced many of the maneuvers I described in the novel. In fact, I’m currently training for SWAT team qualification. Even though we train for and have experience in stressful situations so that muscle memory kicks in, we are still always thinking of the lives we are responsible for. Every situation has its own unique challenges. Adapting to something you haven’t seen before creates its own stress. So, it’s a matter of recalling and recording those feelings.
Can you give us a glimpse inside the next book in this thriller series?
Sure! Pursuit and Pain delves into the backstory of the people behind the original attacks, set among a backdrop of ongoing nationwide trials and tribulations and leadership challenges caused by the global trade shutdown. Favorite characters return, and new ones emerge in the international search for the ultimate mastermind.
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AMAZON BESTSELLER
The United States is in crisis.
All the major US ports have been rendered inoperable by the simultaneous sinking of large vessels in their choke points, thus halting the bulk of global trade. At first, the president thinks he has been given a gift. He always thought the United States got the raw end of the deal in international trade because of the spineless behavior of his predecessors. But with the resulting shortages of everything, he soon realizes that people in extreme situations behave irrationally, and he struggles to stay afloat himself.
Tom Jensen, a young hippie devoted more to surfing than to working, is improbably caught in the middle, drawn to fight back against the unseen forces driving the global disaster. Joining his FBI agent uncle and others working to uncover the terrorist plot, he gets an international adventure he never saw coming.
Enemy at the Helm is the provocative and engaging first installment of a new thriller series full of terrorist activity, conspiracies, and the military operations and other, less-expected efforts to stop them. This fast-paced story will keep you turning the pages and leave you eagerly anticipating the next episode in the series.
A Natural Progression
Beyond the Darkness follows a woman desperately trying to rebuild her life post-divorce, who finds herself hiring a PI to help her prove that her suitor-turned-stalker is a danger. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
After book 2, Axle needed his own story, and going from security guard to PI was a natural progression for him. The inspiration for Haley’s story is more personal. I knew someone who was stalked by her estranged husband, and what she went through was unbelievable at times.
What is the most challenging aspect of writing a series? The most rewarding?
The most challenging is keeping the storyline straight and making sure times and dates are consistent throughout the series. Also, keeping secondary characters straight and making sure you don’t interchange personalities.
The most rewarding part is being able to revisit the characters from previous books, which is kind of like visiting old friends.
Do you find yourself relating to your characters as you write?
Only the ones with careers in the medical field. My life isn’t all that interesting- 😆
Can fans look forward to another installment of the Darkness series? Where will it take readers?
Book 4 is in its second draft while I work out the ending. It follows Nicolas, Amber, and Gerard to Austria. Nicolas will get his five minutes of fame center stage with Megan, Vincent, Haley, Axle, and Reid putting in an appearance.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Eight years later, Axle runs a PI firm in Asheville, chasing monsters in the shadows and burying the truth of what he’s become. Then Haley—his first love and the woman he never stopped wanting—walks back into his life. Fresh from a failed marriage, caring for her dying mother, and reeling from a hurricane, she now faces something far worse: a stalker the police can’t stop.
Axle takes the case, but their fragile reconnection fractures when he discovers her stalker is no longer human. And the secrets behind his own transformation are rising, threatening to destroy everything he’s built.
To save Haley, Axle must decide whether to hide the monster inside him… or risk everything by revealing it, hoping their bond is strong enough to survive what waits beyond the darkness.
Because in a world where monsters wear human faces, the most dangerous one may be the man she trusts with her life.
Fairytale Feel
The Jingu Magical Garden follows a young girl who lives inside San Antonio’s Japanese Tea Garden, who discovers a strange blue egg that hatches a tiny blue dragon, and embarks on an adventure through time. What is the most challenging aspect of writing an adventure for young readers?
The greatest challenge I faced writing THE JINGU MAGICAL GARDEN was striking the right balance between oftentimes hard-hitting historical facts and a light-hearted fantasy. My hope was that the fantasy element would help make the history lesson less pedantic and more relevant to young readers. I wanted them to be invested in Lillian’s dilemma, to understand her yearning to be like any other all-American girl, and to cheer for her as she faced discrimination and hardship with the dignity and grace her parents instilled in her and her siblings. I also strove to keep the writing style somewhat old-timey and nostalgic with the intent of creating an almost fairytale feel to the narrative—one that would highlight the magical aspect of the Japanese Tea Garden.
Can you share a little about the research that went into getting the details of the time period just right?
Four years in the making, this book of historical fiction required extensive research. I was fortunate in that there is a great deal of recorded information about both the Jingu family and the Japanese Tea Garden to draw from. I did my best to keep the historical timeline accurate, although in a few instances, I took liberties to enhance the flow of the narrative or to give a nod to one of the key characters. For instance, the scene where Lillian Jingu has a conversation with Commissioner Ray Lambert in the Bamboo Room could not possibly have taken place, for Lambert passed away in 1927 at the age of fifty-nine. But Ray was so instrumental in both creating the garden and enlisting Eizo Jingu to run its concession, I felt I owed it to him to include him somewhere in the body of the novel.
Can readers look forward to seeing more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
I have completed the second book in my DUNE DRAGONS middle-grade fantasy series, DUNE DRAGONS and the FAIRIES of the LAKE. However, I don’t intend to release it until next fall in order to devote time to marketing THE JINGU MAGICAL GARDEN. I am currently putting the finishing touches on a painstakingly researched historical fiction novel, REDEMPTION, which is intended for adult readers.
Spanning seven decades and set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes, this sweeping narrative chronicles the lives, loves, and hardships of a resilient band of pioneer families facing the challenges of an often harsh and ever-changing landscape with dignity, compassion, and an abiding reverence for the natural world that sustains them.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | X (Twitter) | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon
Tut Tut, the wise turtle who lives in the pond, explains that it may be more trouble than she bargained for. Undeterred, Lillian takes the egg home and keeps it warm, eagerly waiting for whatever is inside it to hatch. When her little brother, Kimi, finds her with the egg, Lillian lets him in on her secret. Despite her protests to the contrary, Kimi is convinced the egg holds a puppy. Soon, the egg hatches, and a strange lizard-like creature emerges. The Jingu children name him Kokoro, and the baby dragon proves a delightful pet, but they fear that should he be discovered, he’ll be hauled away and caged like an animal in the Brackenridge Zoo. Their dilemma is solved with the discovery of a crack behind the waterfall leading to Jaloloquay, a land forgotten by time. At last, they have found a safe haven for Kokoro! But little do they know this discovery will lead to more adventures than they ever dreamed possible.
The 6th Heaven
The 6th Heaven by Monica Broussard follows Dr. Derek Hollinger, a plastic surgeon whose life is derailed when intricate tattoos suddenly appear all over his body. Struggling with depression and a past full of trauma, he leaves his wife, Kendal, and their Los Angeles home to trek into the Amazon jungle. He travels with a priest named Father Mike to find a shaman’s granddaughter who might hold the key to his curse. The journey is brutal. Derek faces venomous spiders and near-death experiences while Father Mike battles a jaguar. Eventually, through a mix of tribal rituals and a spiritual encounter with God, Derek undergoes a deep internal transformation that forces him to face his past and find true emotional freedom.
The writing feels deliberate and vivid. I like how the author uses the jungle as a mirror for Derek’s own mind. The descriptions of the rainforest are dense and humid. You can almost feel the dampness and the sting of the mosquitoes on every page. One of the author’s boldest choices is shifting the perspective between Derek’s physical struggle in the mud and Kendal’s emotional isolation back in California. It creates a tension that keeps you moving. I found myself curious about the tattoos and what they really meant. The way the ink is treated as both a physical burden and a spiritual map is a fascinating concept. The pacing is patient. It takes its time to let the characters sit with their thoughts, which makes the action scenes, like the jaguar attack, feel sudden and earned.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the ideas of identity and healing in this story. Derek is a man who builds physical beauty for a living, yet he feels hideous because of something he can’t control. The book explores the gap between how the world sees us and how we see ourselves. I liked the candid look at trauma. It doesn’t offer easy fixes. Even after the spiritual revelations, the characters still carry physical and emotional scars. The intersection of Christian faith and Indigenous shamanic traditions is an interesting choice. It makes for a unique spiritual landscape. It made me wonder about the nature of mercy and whether we can ever truly outrun our past. The idea that our life story is written on our skin is a heavy one, but it feels grounded here.
This is a stirring Christian fiction novel that uses magical realism elements in an interesting way, along with some supernatural elements. It’s a reflective story about redemption and the hard work of coming home to yourself. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories about spiritual journeys or readers who like fiction that wrestles with deep psychological themes. It’s a solid choice for someone looking for a grounded adventure that is not afraid to get a little bit dark before finding the light.
Pages: 265 | ASIN : B0FHBZWMRS
A World of Lithomancy
Dark Bringer follows a cypher cop, an archangel, and a miner’s daughter whose paths cross with the grisly murder of a corrupt consul. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
So Dark Bringer is actually the start of a prequel series that ties into my Nightmarked books. I’d always wanted to tell the story of how that world, called the Via Sancta, came about. When I finished that series (and fans wanted more), I knew it was time to go back and explore the origins. Kaldurite plays a large role in the Nightmarked books, and after much brainstorming, and tossing out storyline after storyline, I decided to focus on this very special gemstone that repels magic in a world of lithomancy. Where it came from, who found it, and how it ultimately shook the foundations of Sion—Cathrynne and Gavriel’s world. Of course, their love story is also a big element, and one that is touched on in the later Nightmarked books, too.
What is the most challenging aspect of planning a fantasy series?
Everything! They have so many moving parts. But having muddled through a few over the last ten years, I’ve learned to think the choices I make all the way through (as far as this is possible—there are always surprises). You’ll have to live with those choices (who survives, who dies, what are the limits of magic, etc) for many books to come, so be sure they’ll work with the larger story down the line. Some choices open doors, and others close them forever. It can be a daunting process, and I think that’s why it takes me longer to plot than it used to. I’ve made plenty of mistakes I regretted and don’t want to do that again! Oh, and here’s another one: don’t write TOO many characters, and TOO many storylines. That still tends to be my downfall, haha.
Do you have a favorite character in this first installment of The Lord of Everfell series? One that is especially fun to write for?
I’ll say it straight: Gavriel starts as an arrogant, uptight prig who needs to be taken down a notch, so I’m actually enjoying writing him more in the next book, War Witch, where he’s forced to reckon with the sins of his past. Kal is funny and smart, but she, too, is mainly focused on her own problems in Dark Bringer, and becomes more altruistic in the next one.
Cathrynne, who is both pragmatic and vulnerable, and just a decent person, is my favorite.
Can we get a glimpse inside Book 2? Where will it take readers?
I have not written the blurb yet, and it would entail massive spoilers to discuss Gavriel, but I can say that he becomes a lot more human (for an angel), Cathrynne goes on a quest to find the witch goddess Minerva, and Kal heads to Iskatar under the fake name Kayla Jentzen, which lands her in fresh trouble. Levi and the White Foxes are still in pursuit, but that’s all I can say for now!
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Cathrynne Rowan is half witch, half angel. Such unions are forbidden, and the offspring – called cyphers – are reviled as abominations. But Cathrynne’s powers are indisputable, so when Lord Morningstar is nearly killed by an assassin, she’s summoned to serve as his bodyguard.
In Sion, all magic derives from gems and metals. Cathrynne and Gavriel must hunt down a mysterious stone that’s left a trail of bodies in its wake. Along the way, they forge an unlikely kinship that threatens to blossom into something more. Something decidedly dangerous.
Then Cathrynne starts having visions of a fallen angel who will tear the empire from its moorings. It seems impossible that the upright and honorable Lord Morningstar could be this Dark Bringer. But if it is Gavriel… How far will she go to stop him?
Taking place a thousand years before the events of the award-winning Nightmarked series, Lord of Everfell is set on the sprawling continent of Sion, where witches, angels, and humans populate seven vibrant realms surrounding the Parnassian Sea. Get ready for epic intrigue, dragons, and a love affair for the ages!
Forever Kind of Love
Forever Kind of Love follows Willow Mason as she returns to her Ohio hometown after her husband’s financial crimes leave her emotionally scorched and materially stripped bare, and it pairs her with Zach Hayes, a country musician whose homecoming is shadowed by creative drift and his father’s dementia. Around them, Cedar Hill becomes more than a backdrop. The bookstore Willow manages, the unfinished apartment and darkroom she tries to reclaim, George’s birdhouses, and the threatened reshaping of Main Street all feed a story about what it means to begin again when pride has already been broken open.
I liked that the novel’s emotional center isn’t really the flirtation, though the chemistry is there from the start. It’s the gentler, sadder current running underneath it. The scenes with George Hayes gave the book its pulse for me. When he wanders off, and Willow has to search for him, or when he speaks with startling clarity about no longer being able to run the hardware store he built with his own labor, the story stops feeling merely cozy and starts feeling tender in a more hard-won way. I also appreciated the way Willow’s recovery is tied to work, art, and dignity. Her photography, her darkroom, and even her stubborn effort to stand back up financially all make her feel like more than a romantic heroine waiting to be chosen.
This is a book I admired for its sincerity. The writing has warmth and momentum, and Bagby is good at domestic texture, at meals being cooked, rooms being cleaned, little rituals of care accumulating into intimacy. But the language can also be very direct, even emphatic. Zach’s celebrity aura and the Marissa complication introduce a slightly soapier register, and there were moments when I could feel the story leaning into familiar romance machinery. Still, I found myself forgiving a lot because the book’s heart is so plainly in the right place. It believes in decency, in repair, in the idea that love is not just heat but steadiness, patience, and showing up when someone’s life has gone sideways.
I feel like Forever Kind of Love is less interested in dazzling the reader than in comforting them honestly, and that ambition suits it. I found the story affecting, especially whenever it slowed down long enough to let grief, memory, and self-reclamation breathe. I’d recommend it to readers who like small-town contemporary romance with an earnest emotional core, a caregiving thread, and a heroine rebuilding a life as much as finding a partner. It’s a soft-hearted book about bruised people learning that tenderness can still be trusted.
Pages: 312 | ISBN : 978-1509264308
A Haunting Connection
A Haunting Connection opens with Ruth Jones in 1945, racing through wartime China and toward Japan under the shadow of psychic disturbances and her father’s possible corruption, but that opening functions less as the book’s destination than as its haunted fuse. The novel’s true body lives in 2025, chiefly in Lake Valley, Oregon, and Seoul, Korea, where Leah Davenport and Brandon Spencer are pulled into rival spiritual orbits: Leah’s powers deepen as her judgment frays, Brandon trains under the formidable Yoona while trying to remain morally intact, and Ruth, older, sharper, and vastly more dangerous, works behind the veil to recruit manipulators and bend world events toward a coerced peace. It’s a multi-POV paranormal fantasy with political ambitions, and it understands that a ghost story becomes more volatile when the dead are not the only things trying to possess the future.
I liked the way the book makes corruption feel incremental rather than theatrical. Leah is not simply “turning dark” in some ornamental fantasy sense; she is making one compromised choice after another, manipulating a boy to help Barb, carrying the consequences of a ghost attachment, intervening in Min Yun’s possession, absorbing dark energy in a desperate fight, and then beginning to press her will against the people around her. That slope is persuasive because it’s moral before it’s mystical. Brandon’s arc works as a counterweight. His sections have more bruised restraint: grief, caution, attraction, self-doubt, duty. I liked that his training under Yoona never settles into a clean mentor-student pattern. She is impressive, useful, strategic, and quietly terrifying. Her willingness to implant knowledge, manipulate minds, and justify ethically jagged actions gives the novel one of its best tensions: power here is never neutral, and wisdom is not the same thing as innocence.
I also appreciated how much narrative acreage the book claims, and how often that sprawl works in its favor. The Brandon–Su-Bin–Min Yun triangle could have stayed merely romantic intrigue, but it gets knotted into family violence, surveillance, revenge, and the uncanny. Leah’s visions reach across continents. Brandon gets drawn into a CIA-linked weapons operation that ends in a gun battle at the port. Ruth and Yoona are each recruiting, each planning, each interpreting the future through interference and incomplete knowledge. By the time the explosion in Lake Valley sends shockwaves through Yoona’s Circle and sparks a vision of Ruth striking Yoona down, the novel has widened from supernatural coming-of-age into something more combustible: a spiritual thriller about competing doctrines of order, control, and salvation.
I would hand this to readers of urban fantasy, paranormal fantasy, supernatural thriller, and multi-POV dark fantasy, especially those who like occult systems, psychic warfare, corruption arcs, and globe-spanning stakes. Readers who enjoy authors like V. E. Schwab, or series that let emotional damage and metaphysical conflict braid together, will find a strong current here, though this novel has a more conspiratorial and politically charged temperament than most of its peers. A Haunting Connection is a restless, high-voltage book about grief, influence, and the seduction of using power “for good.”
Pages: 495 | ASIN : B0GKGDN2C6
