Blog Archives
Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Talthybius by Jessie Holder Tourtellotte and Nathaniel Howard
Golem Mine by Donald Schwartz
A Trail in the Woods by Mallory O’Connor
Messenger of the Reaper Part 2 by Jimmy Straley
Missing in Lincoln Park by Staci Andrea
Medusa: Or, Men Entombed in Winter by Kyle Farnworth
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
The Moments Between Choices by Harris Kamal
Secretos De Familia by Diego Uribe
Once Upon A Time In The Big Easy: Down On The Bayou by Wilson Jackson
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Out of Mind
Out of Mind follows Paige as she rebuilds her life after a violent attack and the loss of her closest friend, all while her dangerous ex-lover Max Dovic remains a shadow over every step she takes. The story cuts between Paige’s attempt to find peace in Michigan and Max’s own slippery survival, creating a tense back-and-forth rhythm that carries through the book. The plot keeps tightening as their worlds drift closer again, which gives the story a steady pulse that never really relaxes.
Reading this book gave me a strange mix of nerves and curiosity. The writing feels punchy and quick, almost like it is trying to outrun the danger inside the story. I liked that. I also felt the emotional weight of Paige’s grief in a way that surprised me. Her memories show up like bruises. Small, painful, and always there. Sometimes the dialogue moves fast, and at other times the scenes linger on the characters’ inner messiness. That shift made the story feel alive. It kept pulling me through, even when the subject matter got dark.
Max’s chapters left me unsettled. They show a different angle, one that is slick and cold. I found myself rooting for Paige even harder because of how sharply the book paints that contrast. The pacing kicks up in the middle and does not really let up afterward. I enjoyed that jump in energy. Some twists were wild and maybe a little over the top, but I did not mind because the book leans into that dramatic style. It feels like it knows exactly what kind of ride it wants to be.
The story gives thrills, heartache, and a good punch of tension. I would recommend Out of Mind to readers who enjoy fast suspense, emotional stakes, and characters who carry real scars. It is a good pick for someone who wants a gripping story that stays close to the characters’ feelings and keeps the pace hot all the way through.
Pages: 293 | ASIN: B0FP7P4RJ2
Embrace the Darkness
Lilly Gayle’s Embrace the Darkness is a heady blend of crime thriller, paranormal romance, and psychological suspense. The story follows Detective Amber Buckley, a battle-scarred Iraq veteran turned cop, as she dives into a string of eerie murders tied to a medical research company in Asheville, North Carolina. What starts as a routine investigation into missing persons and blood-drained bodies quickly twists into a world of genetic anomalies, ancient secrets, and forbidden desire. At the heart of it all stands Gerard Delaroche, a mysterious, brooding man with an unearthly charm and secrets that blur the line between man and monster.
This book surprised me. The writing is straightforward yet atmospheric, painting tension with just enough detail to make the hair rise on the back of your neck. The dialogue feels snappy and relatable. Gayle doesn’t drown you in gothic language or purple prose; instead, she uses small, vivid moments to pull you into Amber’s mind, her trauma, her skepticism, her growing attraction to Gerard. The pacing is tight in the early chapters, almost cinematic. The mix of crime procedural and supernatural tension feels fresh, even though vampires in fiction are well-trodden ground. I found myself flipping pages faster than I expected, caught up in that blend of fear and curiosity that makes for a good late-night read.
The romance, though passionate, can lean into melodrama, and some of the dialogue between Amber and Gerard feels like it was lifted straight out of a classic paranormal romance novel. But even with that, I couldn’t put it down. There’s a pulsing emotion beneath the clichés, a raw honesty in Amber’s pain and Gerard’s guilt that kept me rooting for them. I liked that the book didn’t just use darkness as a metaphor for vampires, it used it as a mirror for trauma, for secrets, for the parts of ourselves we try to hide. It’s messy and human and oddly touching.
Embrace the Darkness is more than a story about blood and lust. It’s about trust, redemption, and the strange ways two broken people can find light in each other. It’s gripping, emotional, and full of heart. I’d recommend it to readers who love their mysteries with a supernatural twist, especially fans of shows like Bones or The X-Files. If you like crime stories spiced with danger, romance, and a little bit of the uncanny, this book is worth diving into.
Pages : 303 | ASIN : B0FRYLWCVX
Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Childhood’s Hour: The Lost Desert
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Filaments by KZK Zuganelis Kasling
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
This Fight Inspired Me
Full Circle follows a counterterrorist organization that becomes the target of someone they thought was dead, who now has to find and eliminate the threat. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I spent 22 years in the CIA, primarily in the field of counterterrorism. I spent considerable time in the Philippines where we had to take on the New People’s Army (NPA) which was the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. This fight inspired me to write this book.
How did you come up with the idea for the antagonist in this story, and how did it change as you wrote?
I wanted the antagonist to be an opponent that had not been seen before in novels. Having an NPA Sparrow (assassination) unit gunman as the killer felt to me to be a novel and different idea for a bad guy. It changed as I wrote as I decided to have a back story explaining how he ended up in the NPA when he started off as a good kid. He was still bad and had to be stopped by my protagonist, Jack Trench and his team, but I wanted to make the bad guy more than a one-dimensional character.
How did you balance the action scenes with the story elements and still keep a fast pace in the story?
I wanted the action scenes to grab the reader from the first chapter. But having too many action scenes makes a book too cartoonish. So, I made sure the story carried the day while the action sequences provided the necessary support to the story. I also made sure the action sequences were realistic based on my background in the CIA and as a police officer in Oakland, CA.
Where do you see your characters after the book ends?
I have written two more books in the Jack Trench series and in each one, the characters are drawn back into the world of covert action. But you also see more information revealed about them as the books progress. I want the readers to really feel like they know the characters and what makes them tick.
Author Links: Website | X | Facebook | GoodReads
Or, so he thought.
A phone call brings Jack back into the spy game. Someone is coming after his old team, critically wounding one and landing him in the ICU. Now Jack is out for revenge. And as the clues start emerging as to who might be behind the brutal assault, the team must reunite one more time to take on a lethal foe. A foe they thought no longer existed.
They were wrong. Once again, it’s kill or be killed.
Jack Trench is about to find out, in life, things can go full circle.
LITERARY TITAN 