Blog Archives
Forces Outside Our Control
Lily Starling and the Storm Riders follows the captain and crew of a starship who, while on a routine rescue mission, get ambushed by a group of raiders wielding the power of a cosmic tempest. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The first book is about agency—Lily finding her own way, claiming an identity, learning she has a voice in her own story. For the second book, I wanted to put her up against something she couldn’t just outwit or outfight. There are forces in life that are simply bigger than us, no matter how defiant we feel. You can raise your middle finger to them all you want, but they don’t go away.
So the storm became that unstoppable force. It isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a presence—something ancient and impartial that challenges the crew at every turn. Lily has to confront what it means to face chaos after she’s already defined herself. She’s grown, but she’s still running from her heart, still scared of commitment, and still making messy, very human decisions. Some of the consequences this time around are unavoidable. I wanted to see how she—and the people around her—hold up when survival itself is on the line.
The supporting characters in this novel were intriguing and well-developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?
Xynn, without a doubt. She plays a much bigger role in this book, and her dynamic with Lily is becoming one of the central threads of the series. They’re opposites—Xynn is organized, methodical, practical, while Lily is impulsive and emotional—and that tension makes every scene between them spark. I hit a point while drafting where I realized something was missing, so one night I sat up in bed and wrote an entire novella about their time together on Adius II between books. That’s how real they feel to me—sometimes the story just demands more space for them to breathe.
Beyond that, I had so much fun bringing in new voices. Charlie and Tevya were a blast to write, and Ronin—well, who doesn’t love a good villain? But Xynn and Lily together are where a lot of the emotional heart of Storm Riders lives.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
A big one was the idea of forces outside our control. The storm is a metaphor for that—chaos that no one can outrun. I think the pandemic left us all with a deeper understanding of how uncontrollable events can reshape our lives, and how our reactions to them can send us in completely different directions.
Another theme is faith twisted into extremism. I grew up in a religious environment, and while that gave me empathy and perspective as an outsider, I also saw firsthand how beliefs can be damaging or dangerous when taken too far. That’s woven into Leviathan’s Hand in the book, which is less about any specific faith and more about how conviction can be distorted into violence.
I also wanted to explore Earth. Lily didn’t want to go back—she dreaded it—because she already knew it could never be the place she once imagined. And she wasn’t eager to reopen her own past. That visit forces her to confront the tension between leaving the past behind, letting it haunt you, or finding some middle ground. For her, it’s not nostalgia—it’s reckoning.
And threaded through all of this is a layer of hypocrisy. If you look closely, it comes up again and again: institutions, leaders, even individuals who claim one thing but act in another way. That contradiction is part of what the crew—and Lily in particular—are wrestling with in Storm Riders.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
The main arc will be at least five books—possibly more if spin-offs grow out of it—but there’s a clear throughline I’m building toward. Book three, Lily Starling and the Death Machine, continues some of the threads from Storm Riders while taking a few turns I don’t think readers will expect.
The central theme this time shifts toward the institutions we put our trust in every day. When you start peeling back the layers, you may find less to believe in than you hoped. Any organization with great power, even one with the best intentions, carries secrets. The questions become: where is the line that finally causes you to lose real trust? Is it possible to do good from within a flawed or corrupt system? Or does integrity mean walking away?
And of course there will be plenty of adventure—space chases, a manhunt across the stars, friends pitted against each other, and a mystery or two to keep readers guessing. I’m just as excited as anyone to see where the adventure takes us.
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Lily Starling thought she’d finally found her place among the stars. But when a routine rescue mission turns into a devastating ambush, she watches in horror as the Storm Riders—a ruthless band of spacefaring raiders—vanish into the chaos, taking her closest friend with them.
Now, with the Salamander crippled and the galaxy on edge, Lily must convince her crew that the Storm Riders are more than just pirates. They are zealots, wielding the power of a cosmic tempest the Union refuses to understand—one that may have been set in motion long before Lily was even born.
As the hunt takes her to the farthest reaches of known space, Lily must rely on unlikely allies, question everything she’s been taught, and face the growing storm within herself.
Because the leader of these zealots is hiding a dark secret.
And if Lily can’t stop them, the storm will swallow everything.
Lily Starling and the Storm Riders
The book drops us straight into a storm of action and emotion. Lily and her crew are thrust back into danger when a rescue mission spirals into chaos, colliding with an ancient cosmic storm and a fanatical enemy who wields it like a weapon. At its heart, this is a story about survival, love, and the weight of choices when the universe itself feels like it’s stacked against you. The pace moves between quiet, intimate moments like conversations, stolen touches, inner doubts, and scenes of sheer calamity, where ships burn and loyalties fracture. The writing is vivid, cinematic, almost like watching a film unfold one cut at a time, and it never lets you forget that every storm has both destruction and renewal at its core.
I found myself swept up not just by the big set pieces, but by the little moments of humanity tucked inside them. The way Lily clings to fleeting closeness with Xynn, even when she can’t say the words that matter. The way Calan feels the burden of leadership pressing on his back, even in the rare seconds of rest. These characters feel authentic. They make mistakes, lash out, and then turn right around to hold each other up. Sometimes the dialogue felt a little on the nose, but I forgave it because the raw feeling underneath was honest. The ideas the book wrestles with, like faith twisted into violence, what it means to belong, whether love can anchor you through chaos, stick in your head long after the action cools.
What I enjoyed most was the storm itself. It isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a character. It moves like a god, ancient and impartial, swallowing whole colonies without malice, carrying both ruin and rebirth in its wake. That idea sat heavy with me. It made me think about how much in life is out of our control, and how we cling to each other anyway, even if we know the tide is going to take us eventually. There were moments where I had to stop, take a breath, and remind myself these are fictional people because the grief and yearning bled off the page like it was mine. That’s not easy to do, and I admire the author for leaning into the messy vulnerability of it all.
I’d say this book is for readers who love their space operas messy and full of heart. If you want battles alongside bruised relationships, if you like a science fiction story that can swing from humor to heartbreak in a single chapter, if you want characters who feel like friends you’re worried about, this book is for you.
Pages: 412 | ASIN : B0FHG94GBQ
The Most Magical of Worlds
The Floating Lake of Dressa Moore follows two university professors who embark on a scientific expedition to a mysterious floating lake where they encounter pirates, cursed crew members, ancient magical sources, and an empire that doesn’t like being questioned. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I always loved the idea of science and magic blending together in a logical way. Jonathan’s drive to understand magic at the most basic level is fascinating to me. I always felt that science would have a place in the most magical of worlds.
I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?
I wanted to write a magical fantasy novel, but have it border on the absurd, but still make some logical sense. What better way to start than a lake floating above the world? As I wrote the novel, I had to remind myself to ground every detail, no matter how nonsensical, in some way that made that detail believable.
In fantasy novels, it’s easy to get carried away with the magical powers characters have. How did you balance the use of supernatural powers?
That’s always difficult. Magical beings can do amazing and wonderful things. No one in Dressa Moore really understands magic. They just know how to cast a few spells here and there, and a lot of the time, they don’t cast them correctly. So, even though lots of characters can cast spells, no one is very good at it. Of course, that might change in future books.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
There are a lot of places to go for sure. There’s Marta’s story, and finding her way back home. Jonathan will continue to research magic, and who knows what he may find. William is on the brink of uncovering forgotten truths that could be both fantastic and cataclysmic, and there’s always Commodore Wilkes and the empire. Now that they are in Dressa Moore, I don’t think they are leaving.
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In an effort to unravel the mysteries of magic, and save their dying relationship, Jonathan Braxton and William Watts Worthwaddle have embarked on a journey to investigate the source of sorcery.
Their pursuit leads them to the skybound lands of Dressa Moore where a magical battle between a wizard and dragon sent the lake soaring into the sky. But the professors are soon entangled in a deadly game of global politics—pawns in a struggle between empires, gods, magi, constables, religious zealots, and anti-zealots.
Hunted from all sides, the professors race to conduct their scientific research. But they soon learn that science alone is no match for mysteries of sorcery and their research just might create a magical tsunami that could destroy the world.
The one question they never considered asking—should magic be researched at all?
Blood on the Mountain
Blood on the Mountain, by Kristian Daniels, is a deeply personal coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of family conflict, small-town traditions, and the slow unraveling of childhood innocence. The story follows Noah as he navigates a tangle of faith, family expectations, and the painful realities of growing up different. Through his eyes, we see the sting of bullying, the quiet terror of not fitting in, and the tentative steps toward self-discovery both in terms of identity and sexuality. The novel blends these intimate struggles with generational drama, love stories, and moments of hope, creating a portrait of adolescence that feels as raw as it does real.
The writing pulls you right into the emotional center of each scene. The author captures the ache of wanting to belong and the fear of being yourself, especially in a world that can be both judgmental and unkind. The depictions of bullying are tough to read but impossible to ignore. They’re sharp and often mirror the subtle cruelties that linger after the school bell rings. Against this backdrop, Noah’s quiet journey toward accepting his sexuality unfolds in small, tender moments that contrast beautifully with the hostility around him.
The ideas here resonate on multiple levels. This isn’t just a story about teenage hardship. I think it’s about the courage to live authentically in the face of fear. The book speaks to the LGBTQ experience without turning it into a cliché or a token subplot. Instead, it weaves identity and sexuality into the fabric of Noah’s growth. It also asks hard questions about family loyalty, faith, and the cost of speaking your truth in environments that demand silence. While I enjoyed the novel, I believe that some of the antagonists felt a bit too black-and-white, but the emotional honesty in Noah’s perspective more than balances that out.
I’d recommend Blood on the Mountain to readers who value heartfelt and character-driven stories. Especially those interested in LGBTQ narratives, anti-bullying themes, and the messy, beautiful process of self-discovery. It’s a moving, sometimes difficult, but ultimately hopeful read.
Pages: 393 | ASIN : B0FLVW2J1J
The Dark District Primer: Duology on the Lore and Lure of the Dark District
C.J. Edmunds’ Dark District Primer is a strange, soulful, and genre-bending exploration of myth, memory, and magic rooted in the Philippines. It combines two novellas, Sojourn and Take Me Now, weaving personal identity with fantasy, Filipino folklore with urban life, and spiritual questions with surreal encounters. The main narrator, David Lansing, acts as our curious guide, relaying his disorienting journey through magical encounters, visions of cultural archetypes, and confrontations with hidden truths. These experiences are framed through a personal, at times confessional, lens as he is summoned by a supernatural Council to explain his strange awakening in the Dark District.
Reading this felt like peeling through layers of memory, myth, and grief. The writing style is introspective and poetic at times, with bursts of long, flowing paragraphs that spill over with emotion and insight. Edmunds has a real knack for setting scenes that feel alive. The haunting streets of Manila, the hidden halls of the Council, even the surreal blankness of the otherworldly realms. At its heart, though, what struck me most was how much Dark District Primer is about identity, especially queer identity, cultural identity, and spiritual reckoning. I could feel the author writing through pain and purpose, and while some parts meandered or repeated themselves, the raw honesty kept me hooked. The lore is fascinating, especially the blending of Filipino myths like the Tikbalang and Manananggal with modern, urban queer life.
The ending of Take Me Now leaves just enough unanswered that I found myself eager to dive into the next chapter of the story. That brings me to Take My Hand, the upcoming installment teased at the end of the book. The preview promises bigger stakes and deeper dives into the lore. Take My Hand promises to have more world-building and capitalize on the lore in the introspective tone that I enjoyed.
There were times when whole pages spiraled into inner monologue, and the pacing slowed in the second half of Sojourn, where narrative momentum gave way to philosophical reflection. Edmunds isn’t just telling a story, he’s sharing something personal and vulnerable. You can feel the care and love he has for the lore, the community, and the craft.
I’d recommend this book to readers who want something different. If you like urban fantasy with depth, or if you’re curious about queer stories grounded in Southeast Asian myth, this will hit home. It’s not a quick read, but it rewards with a haunting and heartfelt experience. Especially for queer readers, Filipino readers, or anyone feeling caught between two worlds.
Pages: 298 | ASIN : B0FDGS86JT
A Fatal Affair
A Fatal Affair is a cozy mystery with a sharp, sly, character-rich story set in the sleepy town of Nyes Landing, where drama unfolds both on stage and off. The plot kicks off with Officer Callum Nowak dealing with a belligerent actor at a local tavern, and it snowballs into a tangled mess involving poisoned meatballs, backstabbing actors, an ambitious theater production, and one very chaotic opening night. As the small-town cops try to uncover what made a dozen townsfolk sick and nearly killed Oliver Crispin, the reader is treated to a fast-paced, often hilarious, and sometimes poignant whodunit.
From the very first chapter, I was thoroughly engaged. Callum emerges as a compelling narrator, direct, introspective, and burdened with a complex personal history that adds real depth to the narrative. From the opening barroom confrontation with the volatile Crispin, a character who consistently tests the boundaries of acceptable behavior, it’s clear this is no conventional detective story. Williams’s writing is sharp and kinetic, with brisk dialogue and a narrative pace that rarely lets up. Scenes unfold with a kind of controlled chaos, where tension builds only to erupt in the most unexpected ways, such as the unforgettable moment during the theater scene, when guests begin hallucinating and turning on each other in a frenzy of accusations. It’s outrageous, unpredictable, and thoroughly compelling.
Williams also handles the emotional undercurrents of the story with remarkable sensitivity. Callum’s relationships, particularly with his boyfriend, Demetrius, and his longtime friend, Annie, are portrayed with nuance and authenticity. His emotional distance and reluctance to fully embrace intimacy add a compelling layer to the central mystery. Moments like the tense camping discussion, the uneasy dinner with Demetrius and Annie, and the confrontation at the crime scene reveal a man grappling not only with external conflict but with internal scars that refuse to fade. This is as much a story of emotional survival as it is of uncovering the truth.
Some of the dialogue occasionally veers into melodramatic territory. Characters like Daphne, the self-styled diva, and her theatrical circle often feel as though they’ve stepped out of a reality television set, with moments of exaggerated flair that strain plausibility. Lines such as “They’re witches!” or Ernest Drucker’s over-the-top reactions can be both amusing and distracting. However, this heightened drama ultimately suits the tone of the novel. Nyes Landing is a town brimming with unresolved tensions, long-standing feuds, and relentless gossip, and it’s this very turbulence that fuels the narrative’s energy. Even the local goat farm is not without its share of theatrics.
A Fatal Affair is sharp-witted, queer-friendly, and packed with snappy dialogue and messy humans. If you’re into small-town mysteries with theater kids, found families, emotional baggage, and a touch of camp, this book’s for you. Fans of Only Murders in the Building, Knives Out, or even Gilmore Girls with body bags will feel right at home in Nyes Landing.
Pages: 286 | ASIN : B0F9X8ZZR1
One Night With Finnbar
Leo D’Lance’s One Night With Finnbar is a historical novel set in late 18th-century England, following the young aristocrat Martin as he prepares to leave his family estate to join the Royal Fusiliers. What begins as a reflective and somewhat humorous account of country life slowly unfolds into a deeply personal and emotional journey of identity, attraction, and transformation. At the heart of the story is Martin’s unlikely and intense connection with a stable boy named Finnbar, an ethereal, wild figure whose sudden appearance shifts the entire course of Martin’s life. Told with lyrical detail and a sharp eye for atmosphere, the novel weaves themes of class, repression, love, and liberation across a vivid historical backdrop.
The writing is immersive. The book takes its time, and I appreciated that. It’s not in a hurry to throw Martin into drama, but instead builds a world where things matter. The dialogue, too, had its own flavor. It’s clever and organic, full of tension and little moments of humor that make the characters feel real. But more than the writing style, it was the emotional honesty that drew me in. Martin isn’t always likable, and neither is Finnbar, really, but their flaws are human, and that made their bond all the more compelling.
There were also moments when the pacing slowed a bit. Some chapters seemed to linger on internal thoughts or minor domestic scenes. Still, I found myself drawn to the quieter emotional beats, the hesitation in Martin’s thoughts, the unspoken truths hanging in the air. The scenes between Martin and Finnbar crackle with tension, both sexual and social, and I admired how D’Lance didn’t flinch from the confusion, fear, and longing that come with forbidden desire in a rigid world. The book balances sensuality and restraint in a way that feels both grounded and poetic. It’s romantic, but also raw. Brave, but never melodramatic.
By the end, I wasn’t just invested, I was moved. One Night With Finnbar isn’t a sweeping epic or a battle-heavy war tale. It’s a story about moments, small choices that change everything. It’s about the ache of living in between what you want and what you’re allowed. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys quiet but powerful historical fiction, particularly those interested in LGBTQ+ themes, character-driven stories, or slow-burn romance. It’s for readers who enjoy books that aren’t afraid to linger in difficult emotions or sit with the silence between words.
Pages: 346 | ASIN : B07QTC6SDX
Bloodbound: Extreme Temperatures
Extreme Temperatures is a gritty and emotionally-charged supernatural novel that dives deep into the tumultuous life of Hunter, a vampire with a demon’s blood and a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. The story kicks off in a raucous biker bar, where Hunter’s thirst for blood, for identity, for understanding sets off a chain of events that unravel his past and ignite his inner turmoil. Alongside complex allies and lovers like Gibson and Kai, Hunter battles not just external enemies, but the firestorm erupting inside him as he begins to literally burn with the onset of his demon puberty. The narrative explores themes of identity, betrayal, found family, and the painful journey toward self-acceptance, with a cast of supernatural beings navigating loyalty and loss in a world that’s as violent as it is emotionally raw.
I enjoyed the writing style. It’s brash, fast, and pulsing with tension. The prose punches through scenes with vivid violence and palpable emotion. There’s blood, there’s sex, there’s fire—sometimes all at once. And somehow, it works. The balance between raw supernatural action and aching vulnerability is impressive. The characters don’t just react to their world; they bleed through it, and the world bleeds right back. Hunter is infuriating and lovable all at once. He’s damaged goods, and you feel every splinter. Even when he lashes out, you get it. You want to scream at him, then hug him, then scream again. And that, to me, is good storytelling.
The story isn’t for the faint of heart. It hits heavy emotional beats—abandonment, identity crisis, the scars of betrayal—and it does so while vampires are biting throats and werewolves are shifting mid-fight. At times, I found myself reeling, not because the plot was confusing (it’s actually paced very well), but because the emotional intensity rarely lets up. The stakes are always high, the emotions raw, the danger close. Still, the underlying themes hit home: what does it mean to be yourself when your origins are ripped away? How do you forgive someone who shattered you without meaning to? And how do you keep from burning the world down when you’re on fire inside?
Extreme Temperatures is a wild and heartfelt ride. It’s angry, it’s tender, it’s fierce, and it’s not interested in sugarcoating the path to healing. This is a book for readers who like their vampires with more bite than brooding, who crave supernatural drama that digs into the heart as much as it tears through flesh. If you enjoy character-driven stories where the monsters are just as broken as the humans they once were, this one’s for you.
Pages: 240 | ASIN : B0DZYQX31N
LITERARY TITAN 