Is Johnny Cruel an angel or a demon or just an ordinary boy with an unusual birthmark? In Mark Mustian’s literary novel Boy With Wings (Koehler Books 2025), characters often struggle to make sense of Johnny Cruel’s unusual wings—and readers may feel the same. At times, Johnny is heroic; at others, vengeful. In this novel of […]
Books of Note: “Queen of the Clouds” by Taylor C. Phillips and “Greed at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort by Leslie Noyes
March 18, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Queen of the Clouds by Taylor C. Phillips First woman to fly around the world—Amelia Earhart, right? Wrong! Yet most of us remember Earhart’s name rather than the two women who did complete that amazing solo journey. Queen of the Clouds: Joan Merriam Smith and Jerrie Mock’s Epic Quest to Become the First Woman to […]
“Penalties of June” by John Brandon
February 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Penalties of June (McSweeney’s 2024) by John Brandon is a well-crafted, invitingly atmospheric tale of a motley group of anti-heroes and a lovely, hard-working young woman in 1998 Florida. These characters cross fortunes and fates as their lives interlace again—and again—in a tale that carries a hint of the Southern Gothic within its absorbing pages. Kirkus […]
“The Good Bride” by Jen Marie Wiggins
December 7, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Jen Marie Wiggins’ debut novel The Good Bride (Crooked Lane 2024) recalls a line from a famous Robert Burns’s poem, usually translated as “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” Despite meticulous planning, everything imaginable goes wrong with Ruth Bancroft’s wedding. The lead-up to the event is complicated by stormy weather, […]
“Lake County” by Lori Roy
October 21, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Lake County by Edgar Award–winning author Lori Roy (Thomas & Mercer 2024) is a treasure of a historical mystery/thriller suspense novel. The story is well imagined, and charming, even with its violence. Exuberantly paced, it is a complicated work with a dash of noir and a righteous dose of historical Tampa, Florida. Many smaller stories […]
“Florida,” by Lauren Groff
December 2, 2021 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Bonnie Armstrong Groff’s only short story collection, Florida, is an example of her exploration of individuals pitted against not only society but also their own conflicted and, often, unarticulated desires. These stories present themes of domesticity versus wildness; nature as uncaring and uncontrollable; claustrophobic security versus unmoored rootlessness; and Florida as both a […]