Blog Archives
The Dragon Moonstone
The Dragon Moonstone follows the chaotic, funny, and often heartfelt journey of Noah Farmer, a young man who discovers he’s inherited wizard blood and must learn to control his unstable magic before it consumes him. What starts as an odd encounter with a mysterious enforcer quickly spirals into a whirlwind adventure full of enchanted forests, eccentric mentors, and mischievous magic gone wrong. At its heart, it’s a story about self-discovery, friendship, and finding courage when the world turns upside down. It’s got the charm of a coming-of-age tale with the wild unpredictability of a modern fantasy romp.
Reading this book felt like riding shotgun on a road trip through chaos and wonder. Garske’s writing is lively, cinematic, and easy to slip into. The banter between characters kept me smiling, especially the snarky exchanges between Noah and the exasperated Erik Guyguyum. I liked how the humor softened the heavier themes about loss and growing up. The energy of the story carried me forward. It reminded me of the kind of fantasy I read as a kid, where everything feels possible and slightly dangerous.
What really struck me was the emotional thread running beneath all the spells and mayhem. Noah’s grief, his uncertainty, his stubborn will to find where he belongs, all of it felt real. The story doesn’t just play with wands and wizardry; it digs into what it means to grow into yourself when you don’t fit neatly anywhere. I found myself laughing one page and unexpectedly touched the next. Garske’s characters are flawed in the best way. They make bad choices, say dumb things, and still keep trying. That’s what made them feel human, even when surrounded by magic frogs and talking raccoons.
I’d recommend The Dragon Moonstone to anyone who loves lighthearted fantasy with a dose of heart. Teen readers, fans of quirky wizard tales, or anyone needing an escape into a fun, fast-moving adventure will enjoy it. It’s about friendship, family, and finding magic in the mess.
Pages: 301 | ASIN : B0CK6G9V11
The Long Farewell
The Long Farewell is a haunting and relatable story set in the grim rise of Nazi Germany. It follows Marina Nesdrova, a Belarusian refugee trapped in a loveless marriage to an ambitious German officer, and her son Hermann, a boy torn between the warmth of his mother and the cold ideology consuming his father. Through their eyes, the book reveals the slow poisoning of ordinary lives by fanaticism. Love, guilt, betrayal, and fear mix with the heavy shadow of history, turning the personal into something almost mythic. Author Bob Van Laerhoven writes with the precision of a historian and the soul of a poet, weaving the domestic and the political into a tapestry that feels both intimate and terrifying.
What I liked most was the raw, unfiltered emotion beneath the words. Every page hums with quiet menace. The author doesn’t let us look away, and I found myself torn between admiration and discomfort. Marina’s despair feels like a slow drowning. Hermann’s innocence is eaten away scene by scene until you realize there’s no escape for him. Laerhoven’s prose is elegant but never showy. He keeps the sentences sharp and grounded, and the translation by Vernon Pearce carries a dark rhythm that lingers. It’s not just a story about Nazis and victims, it’s about what happens when love rots in the shadow of power.
I won’t lie, reading it was emotionally difficult. I felt angry, then sad, then strangely numb. The violence is understated yet suffocating. It creeps in like a chill. I found myself wanting to shake the characters, to warn them, but they kept walking toward their fate, blind and hopeful in equal measure. What I loved most, though, was how the book refuses to moralize. It just presents life as it was, messy, cruel, and tragically beautiful. It’s that honesty that makes it unforgettable.
The Long Farewell is not a book you finish and set aside. It’s a book that keeps you thinking well after it’s ended. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction that bites deep, who doesn’t mind feeling a little broken when they turn the last page. If you want to look straight into the heart of human weakness and still find traces of grace there, this book will stay with you for a long time.
Pages: 365 | ASIN : B0FPK7P459
Inheriting Karma
I went into Inheriting Karma expecting a mystery, maybe some crime or supernatural twist, but this book was something else entirely. It’s mysterious, sure, but not in the usual “whodunit” way. It’s like stepping into someone’s mind after everything has fallen apart. The story is fragmented, poetic, and even a little trippy. It talks about guilt, fate, and what happens when your past won’t stop chasing you. It’s weird, dark, and hypnotic in a way that’s hard to explain and hard to look away from.
It wasn’t easy to follow. The writing feels like a code at times, like the story wants you to dig through the mess to find the meaning. But there’s something addictive about that. The mood is heavy, almost haunting, and I found myself flipping back pages trying to piece together what was real and what was just in the narrator’s head. It’s got that eerie, unsettled vibe that keeps you tense even though you don’t know why.
If you’re the kind of mystery reader who likes neat clues and clean endings, this might throw you off. But if you enjoy stories that play with your head, that make you question what’s happening, this book has that in spades. It’s like a psychological puzzle wrapped in poetry. I wouldn’t call it a traditional thriller, but it definitely gave me chills.
I’d recommend Inheriting Karma to readers who like their mysteries a little offbeat. Fans of surreal or psychological thrillers where the real tension comes from the mind, not the crime. It’s strange, but it’s the kind of strange that sticks with you.
Pages: 328 | ASIN : B0FM6TTGJG
A Dark Night In Oregon: A Short Story
This short story grips you from the first flash of lightning. It begins in a lonely Oregon diner, rain pounding outside, and ends with the revelation that the frightened waitress, Linda, isn’t who she seems. She’s Jo Jordan, a wanted criminal tangled in a past of violence, betrayal, and survival. The tension builds fast. What starts as a quiet night at a retro café turns into a deadly standoff, where trust collapses and hidden truths crawl into the light. It’s short, sharp, and intense. Every page hums with unease.
Reading this, I felt caught in Jo’s turmoil. She’s dangerous but relatable. The writing doesn’t beg for sympathy, but it gives her enough raw honesty that I couldn’t help but feel torn. I liked how Ana Cortes layered Jo’s history through quick flashes of memory rather than long explanations. It kept the story moving and my nerves tight. The dialogue felt real, too. Short, clipped, sometimes almost choking on itself, just like real fear does. The violence hit hard but wasn’t overdone. The only thing that tripped me up was how fast it all happened.
What stuck with me most was the quiet sadness under the action. This isn’t just a story about crime. It’s about running, from others, from guilt, from yourself. I felt the rain, the loneliness, the weight of being hunted. The author writes with a movie-like rhythm, but she sneaks in emotion between the bullets. It made me think about how far someone might go just to start over, and how the past has a way of finding you, no matter where you hide.
I’d recommend A Dark Night in Oregon to readers who love fast-paced thrillers with a human edge. It’s perfect for anyone who likes stories that twist crime and emotion together. It’s dark but not hopeless. If you want something that makes your pulse race and your chest ache a little too, this one’s worth your time.
Pages: 10 | ASIN : B0FBW4292Y
Ghost Writer
Arjay Lewis’s Ghost Writer is a haunting, twisting tale that begins with a bitter divorce and spirals into the supernatural. The story follows Joe Riley, a washed-up novelist who inherits his late uncle’s cabin deep in the Poconos. What starts as a man’s desperate retreat to escape his failures turns into a psychological unraveling filled with eerie noises, mysterious pages that write themselves, and the blurred line between inspiration and possession. At its heart, it’s about creativity, grief, and the price one pays when the muse turns monstrous.
This book gripped me right away. Lewis writes with an easy rhythm that feels like an old friend telling you a story over a drink. The voice is sharp, cynical, and soaked in the kind of regret that only comes from living hard and losing often. Joe’s bitterness feels real. His loneliness cuts deep. There’s humor too, dark and dry, that makes the pain go down easier. What I liked most is how the writing itself mirrors Joe’s mental decline. Sentences start crisp and clear, then grow jagged and strange as his sanity unravels. It’s the sort of book that keeps you awake at night, not because you’re scared of ghosts, but because you recognize the ghosts inside yourself.
The supernatural element creeps in slowly. At first, I wasn’t sure if what Joe was seeing was real or just his hangover talking. That’s what makes it so effective. Lewis never rushes the reveal. Every scene in the cabin feels heavy with memory and regret, every creak in the floorboard feels like a heartbeat. The book plays with the idea that creation and madness might be neighbors. I loved that. It’s not flashy horror; it’s quiet, psychological, and deeply human.
I’d recommend Ghost Writer to anyone who loves stories that blend the eerie with the emotional. Fans of Stephen King’s Bag of Bones or Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House will feel right at home here. It’s for readers who enjoy slow burns, flawed characters, and the unsettling feeling that maybe the scariest thing in the room is your own mind.
Pages: 322 | ASIN : B0CWYCWPVS
A Female Perspective
Pain Games follows the member of a Female Engagement Team on her journey from enlistment through boot camp to deployment in Iraq, capturing the brutality, absurdity, and dark humor of military life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Kate Molsin, the main character, is a Military Police Officer who’s hand-selected to lead a Female Engagement Team (FET). The original idea for what became Adrenaline Rush actually started when I was in middle school. Back then, I was sketching out the blueprints for a story about service, sacrifice, and adrenaline—but I set it aside when I enlisted in the Air National Guard. The concept stayed in the back of my mind for years, though, simmering until I found the inspiration I needed to bring it to life.
That spark came after I transferred to active-duty Army three years later. I was stationed in South Korea as a Military Police Officer, and being in that environment—serving with so many incredible men and women who became like family—gave me clarity on what I wanted the story to become. That’s when Adrenaline Rush evolved from a single story into what’s now a full series.
During my time in service, I realized how few military stories are told from a female perspective. We go into combat alongside our brothers-in-arms, shoulder-to-shoulder as equals, but we process war, trauma, and resilience differently. That contrast stuck with me, and I wanted to explore it honestly. In many ways, this series is my version of a Tom Clancy or Jack Reacher story—told through a woman’s lens. Because the truth is, men aren’t the only ones who like to blow stuff up, tote guns, and fight for their team.
Ultimately, I hope Adrenaline Rush serves as both a platform and a conversation starter—to educate, entertain, and shed light on what all soldiers and veterans experience, especially women whose stories too often go untold.
Your characters are wonderfully emotive and relatable. Were you able to use anything from your own life to inform their character development?
Yes, absolutely. Kate Molsin is a blend of all the incredible women I’ve served with—myself included. She embodies our strength, humor, resilience, and the emotional depth that comes from serving in uniform. Many of the other characters are inspired by the remarkable men I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. Their personalities, quirks, and unspoken camaraderie helped shape the realism behind each scene. In many ways, these characters are tributes to the people who’ve stood beside me through chaos and calm—the brothers and sisters who became family through shared hardship and service.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Oh man, there are so many. The main themes I wanted to highlight in the lives of soldiers are honor, courage, commitment, and resilience.
Honor—for us, it means living by the core values instilled in you from day one of boot camp: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, integrity. It’s about making a vow to use those values as your moral compass, both in and out of uniform. We don’t always get it right—we’re human—but honor is a cornerstone of what it means to be a soldier.
Courage—it’s doing what’s right, whether you’re on the battlefield or navigating your personal life. It’s having the courage to walk into the darkness, sometimes alone, because you made a vow and you stand by it.
Commitment—as a soldier, you’re committed. Bottom line. To the mission, to your team, to your values. It’s that unbreakable drive to show up, even when everything in you wants to quit.
Resilience—the military will test you in every possible way: emotionally, psychologically, and physically. You have to take care of yourself so you can keep completing the mission. You have to learn to get back up after being knocked down, again and again. This life isn’t for the faint of heart—war doesn’t care about your feelings—but resilience is what separates those who endure from those who fade.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Katie and the direction of the second book?
Actually, the third book—Adrenaline Rush: Operation Homefront—will be coming out soon, and I’m really excited about it. Like the rest of the series, it’s packed with non-stop action, but it also dives deeper into the emotional and psychological battles soldiers face once they return home. It explores what it’s like to transition back into what we call the “civilian division,” or civ div—that uneasy process of trying to fit back into a world that feels both familiar and foreign.
This book highlights the reality that the fight doesn’t always end when the deployment does. Sometimes, the toughest battles are the ones you face after the war—when you’re trying to rebuild, reconnect, and rediscover who you are outside the uniform.
Author Links: Facebook | Website | Instagram
When a terrorist organization threatens American lives in Iraq, the Black Devils are tasked with finding the leaders and eliminating the threat. Working alongside her love interest Alex and confronted with the loss of a team member to an IED, Kate embraces her iron-clad resilience. She’s given three days to capture three enemy combatants by the Ops Commander. Her singular thought: “When messing with the Black Devils, the cost of penance is high.”
Have You Seen Him
Kimberly Lee’s Have You Seen Him opens with a brutal bank scene and spirals into a decades-later mystery that tangles grief, identity, and moral reckoning into a slow-burn thriller. The story follows David Byrdsong, a weary public defender who discovers a missing-person ad bearing his childhood face and a stranger’s name. That bizarre discovery unravels a buried past, a vanished family, secrets hidden by his adoptive father, and a network of people who’ve been searching for him for decades. Lee layers the suspense with emotional depth, flipping between timelines and perspectives to show how loss ripples across generations.
I was hooked from the first chapter. Lee writes with an intensity that sneaks up on you. Her sentences are clean but punch hard, and her dialogue feels lived-in, not polished. The tension never drops, but it’s not all fear and chase scenes. It’s the quiet unraveling of a man realizing his life might have been built on a lie. Some sections hit me right in the chest, especially the flashbacks to David’s childhood. There’s a sadness there, a kind of ache that sticks. I found myself pausing just to think after some of the reveals. The pacing dips here and there, but that slower rhythm gave me time to absorb the emotion under the mystery.
What I admired most was how human the story felt, even when it got dark. Lee doesn’t rely on shock for impact. She writes about fear the way it really works—slow, creeping, sometimes disguised as routine. The villains aren’t cartoonish, and even the side characters have small flickers of truth. David’s hesitation, his guilt, his strange calm in chaos made me want to shake him. But maybe that’s the point. He’s not an action hero. He’s someone who’s survived by pretending he’s fine, and that resonated with me.
Have You Seen Him is about finding yourself after everyone else thought you were lost. I’d recommend it to readers who love stories that balance plot with heart, especially fans of psychological thrillers like Gone Girl or Everything I Never Told You. If you like your thrillers with a pulse and a conscience, this one’s worth every page.
Pages: 270 | ASIN : B0F9TJYN8V
Conversations With My Mother, a Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast
Conversations with My Mother tells the tender and heartbreaking story of a son watching his mother fade into dementia. Set on the coast of Maine, the book unfolds through small, vivid vignettes that capture the everyday beauty and sorrow of a family coping with loss long before death arrives. Through these fragments, each like a brief conversation or memory, the narrator shows his mother’s slow descent into confusion and fragility, while also revealing flashes of her wit, compassion, and stubborn humor. It’s as much about remembering as it is about forgetting, about holding on when life insists on letting go. The setting, with its shifting skies and sea winds, mirrors the mother’s mind, sometimes calm and lucid, sometimes clouded and unpredictable.
Reading this book felt like sitting in a quiet room, listening to two people who love each other deeply but know time is running out. The writing is simple yet piercing, with a kind of understated poetry that sneaks up on you. I found myself laughing at the mother’s dry remarks one moment and then, without warning, feeling my throat tighten the next. Gilbert doesn’t dramatize dementia; instead, he honors it with honesty. The story never begs for pity. It just shows life as it is, messy, unfair, beautiful. I admired how the author used humor to cut through the sadness. It’s the kind of humor that comes from people who’ve lived long enough to know that grief and laughter are two sides of the same coin.
What struck me most was the way Gilbert made the ordinary feel sacred. A drive to a hair salon, a walk to the beach, a chat about blueberries, these moments hold whole worlds of memory and meaning. The mother’s voice lingers long after you finish, a mix of sharp wit, old-world grace, and quiet resignation. There were times I wanted to reach into the page and hold her hand. The author’s restraint, his refusal to sugarcoat or sensationalize, gives the book its power. It’s a love letter wrapped in loss.
I’d recommend Conversations with My Mother to anyone who has cared for an aging parent or watched a loved one slip away piece by piece. It’s not a light read, but it’s a comforting one, full of truth and tenderness. This book is for readers who value quiet stories that move slowly and hit hard. It left me sad but grateful, reflective but strangely uplifted. Gilbert reminds us that even as memory fades, love stays, steady, stubborn, and shining through the fog.
Pages: 315 | ASIN : B0DHW9B73V
LITERARY TITAN 