By Kerryn Mayne

** Publication Date 9 July 2024 **

4.5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today. 

Lenny Marks is an odd duck. Socially awkward, somewhat introverted, odd. A good person, as far as we can see, a schoolteacher for grade 5. She’s set her sights on befriending the two new prep teachers who are not only besties, but also the epitome of mean girls.
Lenny used to be another person. A person she’d rather forget, and mostly has. Her foster father called her Lenny, so she kept it. She also took their last name. Lenny Marks is who she is now. That’s what’s important.

But Lenny’s world is being turned upside down when she receives a letter about her former stepfather. Buried memories, long since compartmentalized and stored away, are coming back. Her foster mother Fay is still insistent that Lenny try to get a life, a real life, with friends and maybe a bit of therapy. Always though, Lenny insists she’s fine.

Until she’s not. And that is when the story gets really good. Throw in a cute grocer, a stolen dog, long lost family members, and a bit of criminal mischief and you have yourself one heck of a good story. Lenny will warm your heart.

Loved it. If this really is a debut novel, bravo. Written with so much humor even in the midst of reality, it is such a great read. Highly recommend it. 

By J. Courtney Sullivan
** Publication Date 2 July 2024 **

4.75 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today. 

J. Courtney Sullivan’s novels transport you to different times and places. The Cliffs takes place in a small tourist hamlet in Maine, a spot where the cliffs jut out into the ocean. The place is called Awadapaquit. Once inhabited by Native Americans, eventually became a land of Englishman and eventually Americans. But the Native American history is strong. As are the spirits.

Jane Flanagan is an archivist at the prestigious Schlesinger Library at Harvard. She specializes in women’s history. When her own mother is dying, Jane goes home to Awadapaquit to help put her mother to rest. After all, this was Jane’s home as well. Jane never suspects that she will eventually come home to reside here permanently.
Jane’s husband David is faithful and loving to a fault. But after her mother’s death, Jane kind of goes off the deep end drinking. Her mother was an alcoholic. Likely her sister Holly is as well, but Jane’s never thought of herself as having a drinking problem. Until she manages to drink herself into a blackout and change the course of her life.

Add in the history of the Lake Grove Inn, an abandoned home on the cliffs, which housed a lot of women over the years. Their stories get woven into Jane’s. A medium named Clementine who relays information that propels Jane to find out more about not only her history, but the history of the Lake Grove Inn and its inhabitants. This novel is layered with depth and history. 

I loved this. I loved every step of the journey from Hannah Littleton, one of the original inhabitants of the Lake Grove Inn, to Kanti, one of the original tribe that made what was once called Sawadapskw’i their home. So much to learn about the Native Americans. The horrible history of what the new settlers did to force them off their land. About the ghostly people that still roam some of these Native lands - not all of them Native.

The Cliffs will keep you riveted and engrossed in the women of Maine, past & present. I cannot recommend this book enough. 

By Lauren Aliza Green
** Publication Date 2 July 2024 **

4 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today. 

Life is sometimes really hard when you’re a young adult. Sometimes so hard you see no other way out than the terminal one. Such is life for Alice. Alice decides that she’s done. We don’t know why, but we do know how. The prologue gives us that much info. The rest of the novel flips back and forth between before Alice ends her life and after. Culminating in an epilogue.

Alice’s family must go on. Linnie, her mother, goes back to school. Nick, her dad, finds himself with a new family. Benji, her brother, ends up with Alice’s best and lifelong friend, Morgan. Which is an utter and complete surprise to both Benji’s and Morgan’s families and friends. Benji and Morgan wait until the very last moment to share this with their families. In fact, they announce their relationship just before the wedding invitations are about to go out. 

So the novel unfolds with the tales of all the starring players and what’s happened in the time since Alice stepped off that bridge. Each person has secrets that will be revealed during the wedding weekend. Secrets that could change life moving forward for every one of them. 

What a great character study of how people treat one another while we’re alive, and how we react after they are gone. Alice is the central figure in all these stories, and she had a different affect on each of their futures. It’s a sad novel. I didn’t really feel as though anyone had the happy-wrap-things-up ending. Maybe except for Alice. It’s beautifully written and has amazing depth. A really good piece of debut fiction. 

By Sarah Brooks
** Publication Date 18 June 2024 **

5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today. 

There is only one way across the Wastelands, the Trans-Siberian Express. The Wastelands are a mysterious and dangerous place. Passengers of the train are trying to get from China to Russia or back again, though they also want to have the experience of the Wastelands and its magical creatures.

Weiwei is the child of the train. Born to a dying mother on the train, she has been raised by the entire crew, from the cook to the captain. Weiwei is as much a part of the train as the engines.  As the train ventures from Beijing for Russia once again, with both first and third class full, Weiwei finds a stowaway. A young girl, about Weiwei’s age, Elena seems to know more about the Wastelands than anyone. Weiwei is torn whether to report Elena to the captain or help her stay hidden away. 

On the last passage, something went wrong. Neither Weiwei nor the other crew nor the frequent travelers remember what happened. Which causes Weiwei, the child who knows more about this train than anyone, to be somewhat afraid. With her stowaway friend’s help, perhaps Weiwei can solve some of the mysteries and get the train safely through the Wastelands to Russia.

Truly a magical story about a special young girl and her friend, and a quite incredible train. Each character’s piece of the story belongs. These pieces are so well interwoven to create this incredible fantasy of the wildness that can consume us all. If you’re a fantasy fan, you should love this tale of an unbelievable place and the people that cross it. 

By Kimi Cunningham Grant
​** Publication Date 18 June 2024 **
4.25 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today. 
How does it feel to have your life pulled out from under you? To lose your way in life. To feel like you have to leave everything behind and start over. The Nature of Disappearing tackles this for one young woman.

Emlyn has run away from life more than once. She learned it well, from her mother. And then in college, Janessa befriends her and turns her life upside down. Suddenly the reclusive, shy Emlyn is wearing fancy clothes and visiting clubs and going to exclusive parties. All because of Janessa.

Then Emlyn meets Tyler. Who also turns her life upside down. It also causes Emlyn and Janessa to no longer speak. So when things go wrong with Tyler, Emlyn has nowhere to go but away and start her life over, yet again, this time as a wilderness guide in a small town. 
Until Tyler shows up in Emlyn’s new life and begs her to help him find Janessa. Janessa has gone off grid and Tyler is thinking the worst. Because Emlyn is Emlyn, she agrees to help Tyler try to find Janessa in the wilderness. What Emlyn doesn’t expect is for things to go terribly wrong.

Loved this suspenseful novel about love and loss and fighting for your life - not only the physical life, but your heart and soul as well. Emlyn is someone that you want to fight for. She’s fought so hard in the past and present - as the novel does flip back and forth. Janessa is a wealthy social media star, but she has some very tough girl qualities that can make her endearing. This is a good one.