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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.
The Island of Mystics
The Island of Mystics is a young adult fantasy that leans hard into emotion, family tension, and the ache of feeling out of place. It picks up with characters already carrying real damage, and that matters. The book opens with grief, moves into separation and escape, and then widens into a story about love, duty, guilt, and belonging. What stood out to me most is that it isn’t built around a single quest so much as a web of relationships under strain. That gives it a more intimate feel, even when the setting gets larger and stranger.
What really gives the book its shape is the way the author lets emotional pain drive the plot. Lucas is crushed by guilt and convinced the people around him would be better off without him. Audrina is trying to hold onto love while living under royal expectations. Gertrude gets pulled between devotion and self-erasure in a way that feels painfully sincere. None of that reads like background decoration. It’s the engine of the story. Even a line as simple as “Nothing lasted” carries weight because that fear keeps echoing through the book in different forms.
I also liked how the fantasy world is presented. The island setting, the mermaids, the unusual birds, the castle details, and the sense of hidden history give the novel a colorful, storybook surface. The book keeps bringing things back to character. It’s less interested in showing off lore for its own sake than in asking what a magical world feels like when you’re scared, heartsick, or trying to choose between love and responsibility. The setting feels vivid, but it never pushes the people out of the center.
The writing has a sincere, openhearted quality that fits the material. Sometimes it’s earnest to a fault, but more often that directness helps. The book is at its best when it lets characters say exactly what they fear, want, or regret. One of my favorite lines comes near the end: “This is not goodbye. This is only until we meet again.” It’s romantic, a little defiant, and very much in tune with the novel’s belief that separation doesn’t have to mean erasure. That same spirit runs through the whole book.
The Island of Mystics is a heartfelt fantasy that cares deeply about its characters and takes their feelings seriously. It’s a book about wounded people trying to find one another, trying to forgive themselves, and trying to imagine a future that isn’t already chosen for them. I came away thinking of it less as an adventure story with emotional stakes and more as an emotional story told through fantasy. That ends up being its real strength. It knows what it wants to be, and it commits to it.
Pages: 236 | ASIN : B0GT26F94N
Three-Dimensional Character
The Metamorphosis of Marna Love is a coming-of-age novel centered around a sixteen-year-old girl in Iowa with a love for existentialism who has a growing suspicion that her mother is keeping a dark secret. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The image of a strange man protecting a little girl popped into my head one day for no particular reason. I had no idea where this was heading, but I fleshed out possibilities and explored potential plots to see where they would take me. I knew if I was going to write about a sixteen-year-old girl, I needed something to make her distinct and original to avoid cliches and stereotypes. I thought back to when I was sixteen and remembered a modern lit class my sophomore year in high school that blew my mind as I discovered existential writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. It struck me that a similar fascination is what could make Marna stand out as an interesting three-dimensional character.
Did you begin with Marna’s inner life, or did the story’s central mystery come first?
I felt Marna’s inner life needed to be developed first. If she was going to remember something, she would need to have first forgotten something that would more fully display what was at stake. People have asked if this story was a mystery, but I see it more as a revelation, a discovery. There are elements of mystery, but I think the real story is what – and how – Marna learns about herself.
The relationship between Marna and her mother, Barbara, feels especially layered and tender—how did you build that dynamic?
I stumbled upon a Girlmore Girls re-run shortly after completing the novel and I thought that’s them! Marna and Barbara were Rory and Lorelai. Maybe they lacked the rapid-fire dialogue and parallel storylines that were a hallmark of the Gilmore Girls, but in this story, there is something in the dynamics between the mother-at-sixteen and her now sixteen-year-old daughter that shone through.
What do you hope readers carry with them after finishing Marna’s story?
As I was writing the story, I saw Marna blossom into an interesting three-dimensional character who began to fascinate me as a distinctly interesting character. With her at times daring, at times endearing approach to life, I see this as more of a coming into consciousness story with qualities that charm readers, leaving them thinking about her.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
When unsettling dreams and hazy memories hint at a long-held family secret, Marna embarks on a journey of self-discovery that challenges her intellect, tests her independence, and awakens a hidden strength she never knew she possessed. From first jobs and chaotic friendships to grappling with modern teen struggles-bullying, identity, and the pressures of growing up-Marna learns to balance her emerging maturity with the everyday challenges of adolescence.
The Metamorphosis of Marna Love is a thought-provoking, emotionally rich coming-of-age story about curiosity, resilience, and the transformative power of questioning the world around you.
The Pressures of Abuse
The Reluctant Bully follows a group of children who try desperately to make sense of the existing pain caused by bullying that occurred long ago. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The characters were originally introduced in my first book of the trilogy, The Lunch Money Treasure. Without giving away the ending of the first book, I wanted to offer different perspectives on bullying, and my intention was to write a more nuanced story for TRB that demonstrates the different ways children handle the pressures of abuse.
What drew you to include the 1982 storyline alongside the 2006 narrative?
Two reasons, and again, I do not want to give away any surprises in either book. I always planned to provide backstories for some characters from TLMT in future books, and the 1982 storyline drives adult decisions in the 2006 narrative. In both books, you are introduced to an adult with a calm demeanor. However, as with a river, what you see on the surface might appear calm, but you do not know what turmoil lies beneath.
Did any of the characters evolve in unexpected ways as you were writing?
Lynn, better known as Smoochie, was supposed to simply be a Nancy Drew-type character in my stories. However, as I was writing TRB, I decided that she would also become a more hardened character and occasionally demonstrate “bull-in-a-china-shop” traits.
What do you hope young readers take away from Lynn’s journey?
That the impossible is possible. I want readers to believe that they can determine their own endings, because they can.
Author Links: GoodReads | The Reluctant Bully | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Journey of Self-Discovery
Adventure: Antarctica! follows a high school senior who sets out on an unforgettable trip to Antarctica that takes him far from the miserable events he has recently endured. What was the inspiration behind this story?
I wrote Adventure: Antarctica! to remind readers–especially young adults–that science is an adventure, not just a subject. Antarctica, Earth’s last true wilderness felt like the perfect setting to explore that truth. At its heart, this story is about finding purpose when life takes an unexpected turn. For Danny Gage, the Antarctic internship begins as a reluctant consolation prize, but becomes a journey of self-discovery, friendship, and awe. I wanted to capture how exploration–of the world and of ourselves–often begins where comfort ends.
What kind of research went into putting this book together?
Interviews, geographical map examinations, reading of science blogs, and watching many videos that scientists and support personnel have posted of their work and downtime over the years.
Your prose is clear and accessible, especially for younger readers. How do you approach writing for a teen audience?
I taught middle school for sixteen years, so my narrator’s voice is just kind of naturally tailored to that audience.
Can we look forward to seeing more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Yes. I’m currently working on a sci-fi/fantasy novel. I also have a time travel screenplay, a musical, and an unfinished comic book series that I’d like to revisit as I have time.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
When high school senior Danny Gage’s world unravels, his soccer dreams collapse, his girlfriend breaks his heart, and his family fractures, he never expects an impossible opportunity to change everything. Instead of a sun-soaked volcano internship in Hawaii, Danny is offered something far more daunting: a last-minute placement on a scientific expedition to Antarctica, the coldest, most unforgiving place on Earth.
Thrown into a world of crevasses, sub-zero survival, active volcanoes, meteorite hunts, and cutting-edge polar research, Danny must confront not only the frozen wilderness but his own doubts, fears, and sense of identity. As danger mounts and the stakes grow higher, one misstep could cost lives, and force Danny to discover what he’s truly capable of when everything is on the line.
Adventure: Antarctica! is a fast-paced coming-of-age adventure that blends real Antarctic science with gripping survival storytelling. Perfect for readers who love exploration, extreme environments, and stories of courage forged under pressure, this novel captures the awe, danger, and wonder of Earth’s last great frontier.
Sometimes, the coldest places reveal the strongest hearts.
The Metamorphosis of Marna Love
Tom McEachin’s The Metamorphosis of Marna Love follows a sixteen-year-old Iowa girl whose strange dreams, appetite for existential literature, and growing suspicion that her mother has hidden something immense from her begin to braid together into a deeper reckoning. What starts as a sharp, observant coming-of-age story about jobs, boys, school, friendship, a bowling alley that feels like sensory warfare, gradually opens into a mystery about memory, violence, and the buried aftermath of a supermarket shooting from Marna’s childhood. The novel’s real engine is not plot alone but Marna’s inward change: she moves from skittish curiosity to moral urgency, and then toward a harder, more adult kind of self-knowledge.
I liked how intimately the book inhabits adolescent consciousness without making Marna flimsy or precious. She’s funny, exasperating, bright, vain in small human ways, and often startlingly earnest. Her running arguments with Kafka and her teacher, her awkward experiments with dating, her loyalty to Kate, and her instinctive but imperfect love for her mother all make her feel lived-in rather than designed. I especially liked the way McEachin lets her mind dart: one moment literary, the next petty, the next wounded, the next brave. That movement gives the novel a supple realism. I also found the mother-daughter relationship unusually affecting. Barbara is not merely withholding information for plot purposes; she is a woman who has survived something and then tried, perhaps clumsily but lovingly, to make a habitable life after it. Their conversations have a bruised tenderness that resonated with me.
What surprised me was the book’s moral texture. A lesser novel might have turned the mystery at its center into a clean revelation, but this one keeps asking messier questions: what memory owes truth, what gratitude owes reality, whether one act of courage can coexist with a damaged life, and how a young person learns to judge others without becoming glib. I liked that the novel grows more serious without becoming pompous. I do feel that some passages could have been trimmed, and now and then the dialogue explains a touch too much, but the book’s emotional candor more than compensates. By the final pages, I felt the story had earned its tenderness. It doesn’t confuse transformation with polish; Marna’s metamorphosis is awkward, costly, and incomplete, which is exactly why it feels true.
I would recommend this novel to readers of young adult literary fiction, coming-of-age fiction, psychological fiction, family drama, and mystery-inflected contemporary novels, especially anyone who likes books where interior life matters as much as events. It should resonate with readers who enjoy the introspective intelligence of John Green, though this novel is earthier and more quietly feral in its emotional weather. I read The Metamorphosis of Marna Love as a novel about how identity is not discovered in one flash but assembled, painfully and beautifully, from memory, language, and the courage to look straight at what hurt you. This is a coming-of-age novel that understands growing up is less a bloom than a reckoning.
Pages: 252 | ASIN : B0GKCJDYGD
The Reluctant Bully: A Smoochie Family Story
The Reluctant Bully is a heartfelt story about kids trying to make sense of pain that didn’t start with them. What I liked most is that author Gary Rivera doesn’t treat bullying as a simple good-guy/bad-guy setup. The book keeps circling back to the idea that cruelty often grows out of fear, shame, and hurt, especially through the parallel thread about Miguel in 1982 and the 2006 story centered on Lynn, her brother Matthew, and Jordan. That structure gives the novel a lot more emotional weight than a typical school story.
Lynn’s voice is a big reason the book works. She’s funny, sincere, dramatic in a believable middle-school way, and easy to root for. Her family life gives the story real warmth, too; the “Smoochie” nickname, the cookies with Luna, and the small everyday moments at home keep the book grounded even when the subject matter gets heavy. I also liked how the story slowly opens up from Lynn’s earlier lunch-money mystery into something deeper involving Matthew, Jordan, and the damage bullying can do when it follows a child home.
What stayed with me most is how compassionate the book is without going soft on the harm. Jordan isn’t written as a neat lesson; he’s guarded, hurting, and hard to read, which makes him feel real. Matthew’s role in the story adds another strong layer, especially as he moves from embarrassment and distance toward trying to help. By the end, the book lands on something hopeful without pretending everything is magically fixed, and that felt earned. Mr. Cavanaugh’s connection to Jordan and the final turn toward safety and care give the story a satisfying emotional payoff.
Like Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The Reluctant Bully looks closely at how children treat one another and how empathy can change a life. It also has some of the emotional honesty and family-centered warmth that readers often enjoy in books like Because of Mr. Terupt. One of the book’s strengths is the time it takes with its characters and their day-to-day lives. That steady, detailed pacing gives the relationships room to grow naturally and makes the emotional moments feel even more powerful when they arrive.
I’d call The Reluctant Bully a warm, earnest, emotionally thoughtful read that cares a lot about its characters and has more to say about family, kindness, and second chances than its title first suggests. I would recommend Gary Rivera’s moving story to anyone seeking a story featuring characters grounded in reality who leave readers pondering their own actions long after the last page.
Pages: 288 | ASIN : B0FH6BL6BV
Adventure: Antarctica!
Jeff Hendricks’s Adventure: Antarctica! follows Danny Gage, a bright but emotionally rattled high school senior whose life seems to come apart in a single miserable stretch: he blows a crucial soccer moment, loses his girlfriend in the middle of an ill-fated promposal, and watches his parents’ marriage crack just as he misses out on a dream Hawaii internship. What begins as a consolation trip to Antarctica turns into something much larger, as Danny is swept through McMurdo, Wright Valley, penguin rookeries, ice dives, Erebus, meteorite hunts, and finally a genuinely gripping scientific discovery involving strange life in Lake Vanda. The novel is both a coming-of-age story and a science adventure, and it keeps braiding those threads together until Danny’s outward journey and inward one feel inseparable.
I found a lot to admire here. What stayed with me most was the book’s earnestness. Danny’s voice has an open, slightly wounded sincerity that gives the early domestic material real weight. The sticky-note promposal going sideways could have played as mere teen melodrama, yet it lands with a real sting, and the family scenes around the separation have an authentic awkwardness I recognized immediately. Later, when the novel shifts into Antarctic mode, it doesn’t abandon that emotional texture. Instead, the frozen setting seems to sharpen it. The homesickness, the odd intimacy of fieldwork, the way Danny’s perspective slowly widens as he learns to stop centering his own disappointment, all of that feels honest. I was especially taken by how naturally the book moves from adolescent embarrassment to wonder, then from wonder to actual peril. A scene with a meteorite turning up in Danny’s pack and the later crevasse and ice-cave survival sequence gave the book a real pulse.
Hendricks clearly loves Antarctic science, and that enthusiasm is contagious. The explanations about Lake Vanda’s stratified waters, cyanobacteria, meteorites on blue ice, and the practical rituals of surviving cold are folded in with enough narrative energy that they rarely feel like homework. The book is strongest when it lets curiosity itself become dramatic. Danny isn’t just learning facts. He’s learning how scientific attention works, how to notice, how to persist, how to be useful to other people. I appreciated that. The prose is more sturdy than dazzling, but it has moments of vividness, especially in descriptions of cold, wind, brightness, and physical exhaustion. The novel sometimes spells out an emotional beat just after it lands. But its warmth is part of its identity, and by the time Danny is moving among Yura, Tatyana, and Ms. Nichols with something like earned confidence, the book has built a persuasive case for science not as abstraction but as a human vocation.
I came away feeling genuinely fond of Adventure: Antarctica!. It’s a generous, heartfelt novel with real narrative momentum, and its belief in growth, curiosity, and second chances feels lived rather than manufactured. It tells a good story and honors science. I’d recommend it most readily to teen readers, STEM-inclined readers, and adults who enjoy adventure fiction with a strong emotional center and a clean sense of wonder. It’s the kind of book that remembers discovery is thrilling not only because of what we find, but because of who we become while finding it.
Pages: 459 | ASIN : B0GBQ4KWNC
