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The Legend of Leanna Page
In The Legend of Leanna Page, Volume One, author Cedar Flyte opens a deliberately old-fashioned fantasy saga in the World Within the Woods, where Masor, Pavoline, and the fairy nation of Alquoria are knotted together by grief, political suspicion, inherited hatred, and dangerous magic. At the center is Leanna Page, a servant’s daughter with dream-born powers and a fierce bond with the fairy Kennedy; as rulers scheme, a drought spreads, and the Jewel of Nebulous becomes a weapon of power, Leanna moves from hidden child to moral force, challenging kings and kingdoms that have mistaken prejudice for wisdom.
I was taken by the book’s insistence that wonder should carry ethical weight. The fairies aren’t merely decorative wings in the trees, and the kingdoms are not simple chessboards of good and evil. Flyte gives the world a parchment-and-ivy texture: songs, epistles, maps, courtly titles, family grudges, and little ceremonial gestures accumulate until the setting feels less invented than unearthed. The prose asks the reader to slow down. Its archaic turns will not suit every taste, but I found that, once my ear adjusted, the language gave the story a pleasingly lantern-lit cadence.
What stayed with me more than the spectacle was Leanna’s particular kind of bravery. She isn’t brave because she is untouched by fear; she is brave because fear keeps arriving and she keeps answering it with tenderness, wit, or defiance. Her relationship with Kennedy gives the book its warmest pulse, and the political plot gains bite because the personal stakes are so intimate: fathers, mothers, servants, monarchs, and children all pay for the stories their societies choose to believe. The pacing can feel slow, but that slowness also lets the emotional and philosophical consequences settle instead of simply rushing toward the next marvel.
I would recommend this to readers of epic fantasy, YA fantasy, fairy lore, queer romantic fantasy, and coming-of-age adventure, especially those who enjoy immersive worldbuilding and prose with an antique shimmer. It may appeal to fans of Tamora Pierce’s moral clarity and courtly adventure, though its diction and legendary framing also bring to mind older Arthurian retellings. The Legend of Leanna Page is a lush, earnest, many-chambered beginning: a fantasy that believes peace is not naïve, but arduous, luminous work.
Pages: 342 | ASIN: B0G26ZL86L
Keeping Secrets
The Wizard’s Apprentice follows a sixteen-year-old prince training in magic who is haunted by visions of his kingdom burning, and must decide whether he is fated to destroy it or destined to save it. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The Children of Colonodona is at its core a sequel series to The Sitnalta Series. A lot has happened to Lucas’ parents, and in many ways, he is hampered by this notion that one day, he will have some massive shoes to fill. The adults around him, his mother, father, and his mentor Kralc, all have such high hopes for him. That’s a lot of pressure for a kid to deal with and to live up to. In truth, we as parents often set our own kids up for failure a lot of the time by expecting them to turn out a certain way. How can anyone find their own path or come into their own with that much pressure put upon them? Lucas is a way to answer that question. Will he rise to the occasion, or will he quite literally crash and burn?
How did you shape Lucas as a believable teenage lead, and what makes him different from typical fantasy heroes?
Lucas is full of flaws, but none of those flaws stop him from wanting to be good, to do good. For me, that was the starting point with him. I think of my own boys and what they love, and how much they love their family, their friends, and their hobbies. Teenage boys are so full of potential, energy, and passion. But sometimes (often, if you’ll ask their sister), teenagers are also frustrating and frustrated. They want to grow up so fast, and they also want to stay children. It’s a bit of a paradox. They are goofy and silly, and angry and in a rush to do so many things. That is Lucas. He is a boy who wants to be looked at with the respect due to someone many decades his senior. At the same time, add in magic powers.
What makes him different is that he is human first, wizard last. I wrote him primarily as a son and as a brother. Contrary to so many books out there, the parents and family are all very much in the picture from the first page to the last. There is no escaping them, and they are all essential to the story as opposed to where Lucas escapes to after his story is over.
What themes did you know you wanted to explore from the start?
I wanted to explore the ideas of love, both familial and romantic, grief, and the idea that keeping secrets can be what hurts those you love. Honesty is always key. It’s the secrets that have the potential to be really dangerous. This is a family haunted by grief and secrets. Both Lucas and his sister Audrina are coming of age in a home filled with ghosts, and this is what they must navigate to figure out who they’re growing into.
What will your next novel be about, and what will the whole series encompass?
The next novel in the series is called The Island of Mystics, and we will see a lot more of what lies beyond the border of their kingdom. Without giving too much away, both Lucas and Audrina are dealing with the fallout of what happens in The Wizard’s Apprentice, and Lucas in particular craves an escape. Where this escape takes him is far beyond where he ever imagined.
The rest of the series investigates Audrina’s choices in love and Lucas coming into his own. We also meet a couple of new characters that I dearly love writing, and I can’t wait for you to meet them!
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When a young woman enters the lives of the royal family begging for help, she quickly becomes Prince Lucas’ unexpected confidant. Meanwhile, Princess Audrina gravitates towards her in ways that place her in a difficult situation for an heir to a throne. As an investigation unfolds for the truth, the prince’s nightmares become increasingly horrifying, the princess’ feelings grow more complicated, and the newcomer’s intentions are cast into doubt. The royal family must discover the stranger’s secrets before hearts are broken and events reveal whether or not Prince Lucas’ dreams are leading to a deadly future in The Wizard’s Apprentice.
Actually Invisible
Actually Invisible is a contemporary literary novel that follows Josie Rein-Thompson, a gay high school English teacher trying to hold together grief, marriage, motherhood, fertility struggles, and a sudden wave of public scrutiny after a student’s homophobic comment turns her private life into a community issue. The book moves between Josie’s present-day life in 2019 and earlier moments from her youth, letting us see how her bond with her late father, her first experiences of desire, and her long habit of making herself smaller all feed into the woman she has become. By the end, the story brings those threads together in a way that feels earned, with Josie finding both public affirmation and a deeply personal bit of hope.
Author Elisa Greb does not try to make Josie neat or polished all the time, and I appreciated that. She is funny, sharp, insecure, loving, petty, generous, exhausted, and very believable. The voice has that intimate quality where it feels like someone is telling you the truth before they have had time to clean it up. I liked that a lot. The book is at its best when it trusts ordinary moments to carry emotional weight: a classroom exchange, a fertility appointment, a memory in a car, a glance across a room. Even when the novel gets heavy, it keeps its feet on the ground.
I also admired the author’s structural choices. The back-and-forth timeline could have felt busy, but here it works because the past is not just background. It keeps answering the present. Josie’s father is not treated like a sentimental device. He feels like a living force in the book, especially through the robin motif, which could have been too much in another novel but works here because it grows naturally out of memory, grief, and repetition. The school storyline is handled with more nuance than I expected. The novel is clearly angry about prejudice, but it is more interested in the daily wear of being made visible on other people’s terms, and in the quiet bravery it takes to stop apologizing for existing. That landed hard for me.
I would recommend Actually Invisible most to readers who like character-driven fiction, queer fiction, and contemporary literary novels that care more about emotional truth than flashy plot. It will especially speak to people drawn to stories about teachers, family grief, chosen family, and the strange mix of tenderness and fury involved in being seen clearly at last. I think readers who want a reflective, intimate novel with a steady heart will get the most from it. It is not trying to dazzle. It is trying to be honest. And for me, that honesty is exactly what gives it its power.
Pages: 298 | ASIN : B0CW1M5M7W
The Prince’s Dress Dilemma
The Prince’s Dress Dilemma, by Sara Madden, follows young Prince Eric, a kid who seems to have it all. He is growing up in a palace with his twin sister, Erica, and their dog, Arthus. His days are full of games and little adventures, and every night he pulls on his favorite nightgown and drifts off to sleep completely content.
One morning, though, everything feels different. Eric wakes up to discover he’s had a growth spurt. Overnight, he’s shot up so much that none of his clothes fit, especially not anything fancy enough for the upcoming royal ball. He’s worried, but his parents aren’t. The king and queen quickly come up with a plan: they’ll send him to the dressmaker to have a royal ballgown made just for him. Once his new outfit is finished, Eric heads to the ball ready to enjoy himself, confident that he looks exactly the way he wants to look.
The Prince’s Dress Dilemma, by Sara Madden, is a short children’s book that feels perfect for young kids, especially as a bedtime read or a cozy rainy-day story. The plot is simple, the language is accessible, and the pictures help carry young listeners through the story without losing their attention.
It’s hard to talk about this book without mentioning the obvious: Eric wears nightgowns to bed and prefers dresses during the day. The book is welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community, even though those terms never appear in the book, and it tells a supportive story for anyone who may find themselves in Eric’s shoes. Eric’s family accepts his clothing choices without fuss, and that quiet, steady support turns the story into one about exploring and celebrating gender expression that doesn’t always fit traditional expectations. The warm and charming artwork reinforces this, especially scenes from the ball that show same-sex couples dancing together.
Parents who want their children to grow up seeing and valuing diversity are likely to embrace The Prince’s Dress Dilemma. The story itself is gentle and good-natured. It encourages kids to feel comfortable in their own bodies and their own choices. That’s a message many parents can stand behind. And for the children who read this book, there’s a clear and valuable lesson: acceptance and kindness toward people who are different from you are not just important, they’re normal, and they’re good.
Pages: 43 | ASIN : B0C5P1TN2H
Secret Hotwife Auction
Secret Hotwife Auction follows Jay, a small-market radio host whose marriage to Luna teeters between stagnation, resentment, and a forbidden erotic current neither of them fully acknowledges. When Luna becomes entangled in a coercive arrangement with Turrell, a domineering figure from her strip-club job, Jay finds himself secretly watching as Luna is pulled into a world of degradation, power play, and chaotic desire. What begins as suspicion becomes voyeuristic shock, then a spiraling series of nights in which Jay bears witness to Luna’s submission, her awakening, and his own uncomfortable hunger to see more.
Reading this in the first person felt almost destabilizing. Jay’s voice wavers between self-pity, grim fascination, and a strange tenderness that persists even in the most explicit moments. His narration is confessional but unreliable in a human, flawed way, as if he’s trying to justify not intervening, even while cataloging every detail with forensic attention. I found myself both repelled and drawn in. The erotic scenes are not merely graphic; they’re narratively freighted, charged with humiliation, longing, shame, and the dizzying relief of letting go. Jay’s emotional oscillation, wounded husband one moment, breathless voyeur the next, gives the story a queasy intensity that lingers.
What surprised me is how the book balances raw explicitness with genuine psychological tension. Luna isn’t simply objectified; she’s volatile, frightened, exhilarated, and sometimes fiercely self-possessed. Jay, meanwhile, discovers parts of himself he clearly didn’t anticipate. Even the seedier settings like the rundown strip club, the back-door midnight encounters, and the bar’s clandestine auction, are described with a kind of smudged realism that makes the story feel less like fantasy and more like a secret someone shouldn’t be telling you. That transgressive intimacy is the book’s true power.
Readers who gravitate toward erotica, cuckold/hotwife fiction, and BDSM-inflected power-exchange stories will find this novel exactly in their wheelhouse. Fans of authors like Penthouse-era John Cleland redux or the darker edges of Selena Kitt may recognize a similar willingness to plunge past boundaries without blinking. Secret Hotwife Auction is unabashed, messy, and compulsively readable, a story that doesn’t ask for permission and doesn’t apologize. A feverish, boundary-testing descent into desire that’s hard to look away from.
Pages: 66 | ASIN : B0FV5N2CZ6
Common Sense & Other Tales of Disillusionment
Common Sense & Other Tales of Disillusionment is a haunting collection of short stories that peels back the soft skin of ordinary life to reveal the raw nerves beneath. Each story takes place in familiar settings like a home, an office, and a neighborhood, but nothing stays familiar for long. Saxsma writes about people who are breaking down, sometimes quietly, sometimes violently, under the weight of their own choices and circumstances. The opening story, “Drive You to Violence,” sets the tone: a domestic world suffocating in silence and habit, where love and resentment sit side by side at the dinner table. The prose is stripped down, careful, yet full of emotional danger. By the end, the book has become a mirror that reflects not what we wish we were, but what we fear we might be.
What struck me first was the rhythm of Saxsma’s writing. It moves in circles, looping back on itself, pressing the reader to sit in the discomfort of repetition, the same routines, the same conversations, the same small cruelties. I found myself frustrated at times, but in a good way. That frustration was part of the experience. The language is plain and unadorned, but it works like sandpaper, roughing up the smoothness of everyday life until you can feel the grain. There’s an honesty to it that’s hard to shake. I didn’t feel like I was reading stories so much as eavesdropping on private lives that were coming undone in slow motion. Saxsma’s characters don’t confess their feelings. They leak them.
As I read deeper, I started feeling uneasy, almost complicit. The book makes you question what “normal” even means, and whether common sense is really sense at all or just a way to survive disappointment. Some scenes left me angry, others hollow. There were moments I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. Saxsma has a way of making the ordinary grotesque without ever being sensational. The writing reminded me how fragile the line is between patience and despair, between love and control. It made me think of people I know, people who keep smiling while their lives quietly cave in around them.
This isn’t a feel-good read. It’s a feel-something read. I’d recommend Common Sense & Other Tales of Disillusionment to anyone who likes fiction that cuts deep, that doesn’t flinch, and that finds truth in the cracks of small, painful moments. It’s for readers who don’t mind sitting in the dark for a while, trusting that somewhere in all that disillusionment, there’s something honest, maybe even redemptive, waiting to be found.
Pages: 258 | ASIN : B0D5BBB2FS
Understanding and Solidarity
Well, Mama, This is It (it’s Now Or Never) is part confession, part storytelling, and part letter-writing, all stitched together with raw honesty and a strong emotional pulse with reflections on love, faith, and the messy business of being human. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book was important for me to write because it allowed me to explore different characters and express what I had imagined. It was a way for me to connect with readers who may be going through similar struggles and offer them a sense of understanding and solidarity. This book is a testament to the power of vulnerability and the beauty of embracing our imperfections.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
There were key ideas that I found important to share. Some of these ideas include the importance of self-love, unapologetically being yourself, and the value of perseverance in the face of challenges.
How has writing this book changed you as a writer, or what did you learn about yourself through writing it?
Writing this book has changed me as a writer, and it’s all thanks to amazing readers like yourself and everyone who has been a part of this journey. I have learned that I am capable of overcoming challenges and self-doubt to produce a work that I am truly proud of. This experience has not only improved my writing skills but also boosted my confidence in my abilities as a storyteller. Writing this book has shown me that with dedication and passion, I can achieve my writing goals and continue to grow as an author. Once again, thanks to everyone!
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from Well, Mama, This is It (it’s Now Or Never)?
I hope that readers take away a sense of empowerment and inspiration.
Author Links: GoodReads | Snapchat
We don’t have to fight
We do not have to cry for the rest of our lives
Cause Boys
Girls
And Everyone we know
Seems to drift away just a little bit
That’s life”
Step into a world where love knows no bounds and equality reigns supreme. In this gripping tale, a group of men and women defy the odds and fight for their right to be themselves. As they navigate the twists and turns of their lives, they discover that the greatest strength comes from within.
Meanwhile, teenagers grapple with their own struggles, trying to find their place in a world that often seems to be against them. But as the characters’ stories intertwine, they learn the power of love, the importance of equality, and the beauty of being true to oneself. This is a story that will inspire young women and men in our community to embrace their uniqueness and strive for greatness. So come along on this unforgettable journey of self-discovery and empowerment, and discover the power of love and equality in a world that often seems to be lacking in both.
Well, Mama, This is It (it’s Now Or Never)
Well, Mama, This is It (it’s Now Or Never) is unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s part confession, part storytelling, and part letter-writing, all stitched together with raw honesty and a strong emotional pulse. The book moves between voices, sometimes it’s a teenage boy writing to his grandmother, other times it’s a young woman chasing a dream life, or even a haunting personal tale of loss and survival. At its heart, though, the book is a letter to her mother, a brave and vulnerable coming-out story wrapped in poetry, reflections on love, faith, and the messy business of being human.
In “A Story of a Friend of a Friend,” when Adaina shares her journey from being a teacher to a stripper, the descriptions are almost cinematic. She writes about smoky eye makeup, French pedicures, and stepping into the strip club as if it were a Hollywood set. It’s dazzling, but then the tone flips as she describes the loneliness and danger behind the glamour, and suddenly I was pulled from the surface glitter into the heavy silence of regret. That swing between fantasy and reality is something the book does again and again, and it made me feel the same kind of emotional whiplash she must have lived through.
I also loved the way she mingles imagination with truth. Take “Secret Agent (Voodoo Princess),” where Rebecca Tanon, a demon-child-turned-undercover-agent, blurs the line between folklore and personal reflection. At first, I thought it was a sharp left turn into fiction, but it clicked for me as a metaphor for how heavy family expectations and inherited trauma can feel like being born with a mission you never asked for. The story gave me chills, not just because of the supernatural edge, but because of what it revealed about how powerless a child can feel in the hands of adults.
In “To My Newest Pen Pal, Jant Leaps,” Adaina writes a heartfelt letter that evolves into a romantic confession, blending vulnerability with defiance against judgment. In “Sexual Orientation,” she reflects on faith, family, and identity, ultimately affirming that love is sacred regardless of gender. She weaves in verses about love, love with a woman who makes her feel free, love that pulls her away from Hennessy and Ecstasy, love that feels holy even when the world insists it’s wrong. There’s vulnerability in her admission, “I never thought I could fall in love with Eve’s gender,” but also defiance when she insists, “Yes, I am a Christian, but my religion is kindness.” That blend of fear, yearning, and courageous self-acceptance struck me deeply. It’s not polished in the way mainstream memoirs often are, but that’s what makes it powerful. It feels like a real letter, one that trembles with truth.
In the end, I walked away from this book feeling like I had just sat across from someone who didn’t hold anything back. It’s raw. It’s uneven at times. But it’s alive with feeling, and that’s rare. I’d recommend this book to anyone who craves honesty in writing, teens struggling with self-expression, readers curious about queer coming-of-age stories, or anyone who wants to feel less alone in their own mess of faith, love, and identity. It’s not a book for someone looking for clean lines or tidy endings, but if you’re okay with sitting in the chaos of someone else’s truth, then Well, Mama, This is It (it’s Now Or Never) will move you the way it moved me.
Pages: 51 | ASIN : B0DT7FZS7Q
