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Mari’s Light Burning Bright
Kaitlyn Marquart’s Mari’s Light Burning Bright is a young adult contemporary fiction novel about Mari, a teenage girl trying to live with memories of childhood abuse, self-harm, a family move, and the fear that she may never feel whole again. As the sequel to Amber Luna My Bright Light, the book follows Mari after Camp Evergreen as she enters Northstar Wellness Center, meets other young people carrying their own pain, and slowly begins to understand that healing is not a straight path. It is messy. It is brave. And sometimes it starts with simply letting someone sit beside you.
Mari’s voice is raw without feeling forced, and Marquart gives her room to be angry, funny, scared, judgmental, tender, and wrong. I appreciated that. Teenagers are not tidy people, especially teenagers in crisis, and the book does not try to polish Mari into someone instantly inspirational. Her thoughts loop, flare, retreat, and return. That rhythm felt honest to me. The scenes at Northstar could have easily become heavy in a flat way, but the author balances them with small flashes of humor and human detail, like Scrabble games, awkward meals, and characters who are much more than the reasons they are there.
I also found myself thinking a lot about the author’s choices around faith, family, and recovery. Mari’s Mormon background is not treated as a simple answer or a simple problem, which makes the story more interesting. Her family loves her, but they often miss what she is trying to say. That hurt to read because it felt real. People can care and still fail to understand. The book is candid about pain, but it is careful with it. It doesn’t turn Mari’s suffering into a spectacle. Instead, it keeps asking a quieter question: what does it take for someone to believe she is worth saving when shame has been speaking louder than everyone else? The answer comes slowly, through therapy, friendship, memory, music, and the fragile courage to try again.
I would recommend Mari’s Light Burning Bright to readers who appreciate reflective young adult fiction with emotional depth, especially stories about mental health, trauma recovery, friendship, and finding a voice after silence. It’s not a light read, and readers sensitive to self-harm or childhood abuse should approach it with care. But for those who value hopeful, character-driven fiction that understands healing as a long walk rather than a sudden rescue, this book has a steady glow.
Pages: 153 | ASIN : B0H56ZX1V8
The Great Contagion: A Merliss Tale
The Great Contagion is a fantasy novel about Merliss, an ancient and sharp-witted cat with a human soul, who helps a cunning man and his apprentice face a deadly sickness spreading through the Westerlands. As the illness worsens, Merliss and Fendrel are pulled into a dangerous mix of plague, politics, old magic, monsters, and fear. At its heart, this is a fantasy adventure about healing, survival, and the strange loyalty that can grow between people and creatures who do not always understand each other.
What I enjoyed most was how grounded the fantasy feels. Jeff Chapman gives the world a lived-in texture, with herb jars, river paths, sickrooms, sheep farms, old grudges, and weather that seems to press against every scene. The magical elements are there, of course, with pookas, ley gates, goblins, and blood magic, but they don’t t float above the story. They feel rooted in the dirt. Merliss is the reason the book works as well as it does for me. She’s funny, proud, wounded, and practical, and seeing the world through her senses gives the story a fresh angle. A plague story could easily become grim in a flat way, but Merliss keeps it alert and alive.
I also appreciated the author’s choice to let the danger come from several directions at once. The contagion is frightening, but so are suspicion, class cruelty, political power, and ordinary selfishness. The Lord Sheriff’s harshness and the villagers’ fear make the sickness feel bigger than medicine alone. That said, the book asks for patience. It spends time on travel, observation, and small exchanges, and not every reader will want that slower, watchful pace. I did. There were moments when I wanted the plot to tighten, but I also understood the tradeoff. The story is built like a cat moving through tall grass, stopping, listening, circling, then suddenly striking.
I would recommend The Great Contagion to readers who enjoy character-driven fantasy with folklore, healing lore, animal perspectives, and a medieval atmosphere. It will especially appeal to those who like their fantasy thoughtful rather than flashy, with danger that feels physical and moral at the same time. Readers looking for nonstop action may find it measured, but readers who enjoy a strange and clever heroine and a world full of old magic will likely settle in and stay.
Pages: 347 | ASIN : B082F32BHF
Beyond Superhero School
Beyond Superhero School, by Gracie Dix, is a middle-grade superhero fantasy adventure about a group of young heroes trying to survive normal school while hiding powers that are anything but normal. After leaving Superhero School behind, the students land at Lily Flower High, where bullies, awkward classes, emotional wounds, and secret dangers follow them through the halls. Underneath the school drama is a much larger threat: VORK, an evil organization determined to destroy people with powers. The story grows from first-day chaos into a bigger battle involving friendship, fear, family, and what it means to protect each other when the world feels stacked against you.
This book moves fast. Sometimes it feels like the characters barely get a second to breathe before the next problem crashes into them, whether it is a teacher being unfair, a friend disappearing, or a villain stepping out of the shadows. That pace gives the story a lively, comic-book feel, which fits the genre well. I also liked how Dix lets the characters sound young. They argue, tease, panic, overreact, and make jokes at exactly the wrong time. It is messy, but it feels alive. I appreciated the character list at the beginning because the large cast can be a lot to keep track of, especially because so many characters have multiple powers and emotional storylines.
The author’s choices are interesting because the book is not only about superpowers. In fact, some of the strongest parts are about what the powers cannot fix. Nick’s trauma, Spencer’s fear of leaving his friends, Rachel’s anxiety, Will’s struggle to stand up for himself, and the pressure everyone feels to stay hidden give the story a more serious center than the playful title might suggest. I liked that contrast. One moment, the book is goofy and loud, and the next, it is dealing with PTSD, loss, loyalty, or the ache of feeling different. That is a hard balance to pull off, and while the tone can shift suddenly, I found that honesty refreshing. It reminded me that superhero fantasy works best when the powers are not just flashy tools, but extensions of what the characters are feeling inside.
I recommend Beyond Superhero School most to readers who enjoy fast-paced middle-grade fantasy, superhero teams, and stories where friendship is treated like a superpower of its own. Fans who like their adventure loud, emotional, and packed with twists will have a lot to enjoy here. Readers who prefer quieter, tightly focused stories may find the pace intense, but for someone looking for a colorful superhero adventure with heart, humor, and high stakes, this book delivers a spirited next chapter in The Vork Chronicles.
Pages: 543 | ASIN : B0F7MPV4Y5
Keep Close
Kristen Wade’s Keep Close is a tense, family-centered survival novel set after red meteorites strike Earth and unleash creatures that hunt people who are isolated. The book follows Ren Haley and her siblings after a sailing trip goes terribly wrong, while also tracking Lee, a young man in Oregon, trying to keep his own family alive as society breaks down around him. From the opening idea that “The yearning to protect those we love is the most noble virtue we all have in common,” the story makes its priorities clear: this is an apocalypse novel built around loyalty, grief, fear, and the stubborn pull of family.
Ren is the emotional center of the book, and her journey gives the danger real weight. She’s carrying guilt over her father’s death, distance from her siblings, and a sharp sense that she’s failed the people she loves. Being stranded at sea, rescued under suspicious circumstances, and then forced across a devastated Pacific Northwest doesn’t magically fix her, but it does push her into action. Her relationship with Peter and Lizzie is especially strong because it’s messy in a believable way. They snap, retreat, protect each other, and keep going.
The novel’s creature concept is simple but effective: survival depends on staying physically close. That idea turns the title into both a rule and an emotional demand. When Hank tells Ren, “I’ll keep close to both of you,” it lands as more than a promise to follow the rules of this new world. It’s also a promise of care, and the book keeps returning to that kind of protection in different forms. Parents, siblings, strangers, and even flawed people like Lee are all measured by what they’re willing to do for those they love.
Wade keeps the story moving with short chapters, shifting points of view, and plenty of immediate danger. The sea survival scenes feel harsh and claustrophobic, while the overland journey brings in new threats from both the creatures and desperate people. Lee’s storyline adds a strong moral pressure to the book because his choices are often wrong, but they come from a recognizable place: fear for a sick little sister and the old burden of family obligation. That makes the conflict feel less like good people versus bad people and more like people being squeezed until their worst and best instincts come out.
Keep Close is a fast-paced and emotional survival story about how people hold on to each other when the world stops being safe. It has action, creature horror, family drama, and a touch of romance, but its strongest moments come from the smaller acts of care: sharing food, tying ropes, carrying children, forgiving old wounds, and choosing not to let fear decide everything. By the end, the book feels like the first part of a larger story, but it also gives Ren and her family a satisfying emotional arc. It’s the kind of apocalypse novel that’s most interested in what people reach for when everything else falls away.
Pages: 395 | ASIN : B0DV9G8JXG
Trouble at OverTrails Farm: A Journey of Challenge, Persistence, and Awareness
Suanne Lewis’s Trouble at OverTrails Farm follows Nina Walters and her friends as a joyful day at a therapeutic riding academy turns into a murder investigation after stable co-owner Shayne Langley is found dead. When Alex, a kind teen with an intellectual disability, becomes an easy target for suspicion, Nina, Meredith, Miguel, and even Nina’s dog Harry begin piecing together clues involving gambling debts, hidden money, property developers, and a dangerous attempt to cover the truth.
I liked how the book makes friendship its real engine. The mystery matters, but Nina’s fierce defense of Alex gives the story its pulse. Her anger is not reckless melodrama; it comes from moral clarity. She sees how quickly a vulnerable person can be misread, patronized, or used as a convenient answer, and she refuses to let that calcify into “truth.” That emotional through-line gives the investigation more weight than a simple whodunit.
The farm setting also works beautifully. Horses, trails, barns, tack rooms, and the rhythms of therapeutic riding create a textured, quietly absorbing world. At times, the prose explains more than it needs to, but the book’s sincerity really draws you in. I was especially drawn to the way Lewis treats disability, anxiety, and self-worth not as decorative “issues,” but as authentic realities that shape how characters move through danger, friendship, and trust.
The target audience for this cozy mystery and friendship adventure includes readers who like suspense with a strong ethical center. Readers who enjoy Nancy Drew-style sleuthing but want a gentler, more socially conscious contemporary story will feel at home here. Trouble at OverTrails Farm is a warm-hearted mystery with a bridle in one hand and a moral compass in the other.
Pages: 174 | ASIN : B0GX1TL9NV
Adventures of Sher: Surviving the Tributaries of South America
Adventures of Sher: Surviving the Tributaries of South America, by Sherana Barakat, is a childhood memoir told with the wonder, alertness, and emotional honesty of a young girl discovering the shape of her world. Barakat looks back on a nomadic period of her life, moving from Georgetown to Dredge Creek, then into Venezuela’s Amacuro River region, and finally back toward Guyana. The book reads like a memory preserved in color: family, rivers, boats, food, animals, folklore, and danger all sit close together. It’s not just a travel story. It’s a personal record of what it felt like to grow up inside movement, uncertainty, and deep attachment to place.
One of the most appealing parts of the book is the narrator’s sense of freedom. Sher’s childhood isn’t presented as simple or easy, but it’s full of curiosity and confidence. She climbs trees, helps with fishing, watches waterways change color, and learns the rhythms of rural life by being right in the middle of it. When she says, “This was my first taste of living freely,” the line captures the spirit of the book beautifully. The natural world isn’t background scenery here. It’s a living presence, full of mango trees, caimans, piranhas, dolphins, mangroves, muddy waves, and night sounds that stay with her.
Barakat also gives the story a strong family center. Sher’s father stands out as the adventurous force of the book, a skilled navigator who can read the land, water, sun, and stars. Her mother brings steadiness, care, and resilience, especially during the family’s difficult moves. The memoir also honors storytelling itself, from bedtime reading to her grandfather’s folklore about turn tigers and giant creatures. Those stories blend naturally with Sher’s real experiences, especially during the frightening night at Shell Beach when the family believes a jaguar may be outside the door.
The illustrations add a lot to the reading experience. They have a hand-drawn softness that fits the memoir’s tone, and the colored-pencil texture makes the pages feel intimate, almost like entries from a remembered childhood sketchbook. The images of fruit, boats, mangrove roots, waterways, birds, and the child sitting near the river help make the setting feel tangible. Some pictures are especially effective because they don’t just decorate the text. They extend it, giving visual weight to the rivers, trees, and animals that shaped Sher’s memories.
Adventures of Sher is a warm and reflective memoir about a childhood shaped by migration, family courage, and the pull of wild places. Barakat’s voice feels sincere and personal, especially when she writes of the Amacuro River, “This peace and quiet was the perfect harmony for one’s soul.” That feeling runs through the book. It’s a story about looking back with gratitude, not because everything was comfortable, but because those experiences made life feel vivid. Readers who enjoy memoirs about childhood, nature, family history, and life in Guyana and Venezuela will find this a heartfelt and visually rich read.
Pages: 39 | ASIN : B0H2NBCYWK
First Steps From Africa
Andrew Colman’s First Steps From Africa: Sunda & Sahul Book One is a prehistoric adventure built around two twelve-season-old twins, Sahul and Sunda, as their tribe moves through a harsh, changing world in search of food, water, and safety. Set roughly 85,000 years ago, the book mixes survival story, family drama, and early human history in a way that feels aimed at curious young readers. The danger is immediate, with jackals, crocodiles, cave lions, hunger, cold, and drought pressing in on the tribe, but the heart of the story is the twins learning what kind of people they’re becoming.
Sahul is one of the book’s strongest parts because she’s observant, practical, and always thinking a few steps ahead. Her line, “No rain, no grass; no grass, no game,” sums up the book’s whole world in a simple, memorable way. Sunda, meanwhile, is eager to prove himself as a hunter, and his bravery often comes from instinct and action. Together, the twins give the story a good balance: Sahul plans, Sunda acts, and both of them grow through real pressure.
The book is also a story about community. The tribe survives because people share knowledge, watch over children, carry food, learn from strangers, and pass stories from one generation to the next. Waru and Azetta’s arrival adds warmth and variety, especially as their skills and language slowly become part of the tribe’s life. Colman does a nice job showing that survival isn’t just about strength. It’s also about listening, adapting, and accepting help.
What makes the book stand out is how it treats prehistoric life as both dangerous and thoughtful. The characters don’t feel like museum figures. They worry about age, family, fairness, weather, and whether they’ll be ready for adulthood. The book’s educational side is clear, especially in the details about tools, food, hunting, climate, and migration, but it’s usually carried through action rather than lecture. By the end, the line “It is important for us to know that our ancestors survived all this” feels like the book’s quiet message.
First Steps From Africa is a sincere and accessible adventure about young people facing a world that keeps changing around them. It gives readers a sense of how much courage and imagination early humans may have needed just to keep going. For readers who like survival stories with history woven through them, this book offers a grounded and thoughtful start.
Pages: 140 | ASIN : B0GTNB1YRQ
Sanctuary (The Dark Days Series Book 2)
Sanctuary: The Dark Days Series Book Two continues Sonny’s journey after the collapse chronicled in Outbreak, carrying him and his found family toward Fort Gold Rush, a fortified city that seems to offer the protection they have been bleeding toward for so long. But safety is not simple here. Sonny is drawn into a new life of rules, military programs, surrogate family bonds, painful mistaken identity, and fresh violence beyond the walls, making this sequel less a story of escape than a story of uneasy arrival.
I liked how this book changes the pressure without softening the danger. Outbreak was about flight, immediate loss, and the shock of seeing the world die in real time; Sanctuary asks what happens after survivors finally reach a place that claims to be secure. The walls of Fort Gold Rush create a different kind of suspense. Zombies remain a threat, but bureaucracy, grief, loyalty, training, and moral compromise become just as sharp. The sequel understands that a sanctuary can protect the body while still unsettling the soul.
Sonny remains the emotional center, but he feels older here in a way that is both impressive and sad. His relationships with Ashley, Carrie, Will, Kayley, River, Ellen, Clara, Jonathan, Grim, and the others give the book its layered and unique feel, especially when the story explores what family means after biology, geography, and normal life have all been shattered. I was especially drawn to the tension between Sonny’s loyalty to the people who survived with him and the new roles others try to place on him. I had a great time with the battles as well as the quiet recognitions that healing can feel like betrayal, that belonging can be messy, and that a child can become dangerous without becoming cruel.
Sanctuary will appeal to readers drawn to post-apocalyptic survival fiction, zombie horror, young adult dystopian adventure, military science fiction, and found-family drama. While fans of The Walking Dead may come for the undead and the fortified settlements, the book’s emotional compass points closer to the wounded resilience found in The Last of Us. Sanctuary shows that survival is not the same as being saved, and that the hardest walls to rebuild are the ones inside the heart.
Pages: 390 | ASIN : B0G4F9854Y
