Starred Review

Forged for Destiny: A Heroic Fantasy with a Chosen-One Twist

by Andrew Knighton

A fresh take on the reluctant hero trope, Andrew Knighton's Forged for Destiny, the first volume in a planned trilogy, is brimming with complex characters and shades of morality.

Raul knows that Prisca and Valens aren't his birth parents, but he is happy learning strength and fighting from Valens and studying history with Prisca. After Raul stumbles across a prophecy involving a symbol that matches his birthmark, Prisca tells him he is the son of the queen who died two decades earlier when the Empire of Estis

The Lilac People

by Milo Todd

With The Lilac People, Milo Todd delves into the nearly lost history of trans people in the Holocaust. Integrating imagined characters with historical research, Todd's novel brings humanity and specificity to atrocities that are still being uncovered. The heartbreaking result honors love and friendship, and ends with hope for one built family of survivors.

The opening pages find Bertie on the outskirts of the German city of Ulm in 1945. He has ridden out the war with his partner, Sofie, "on a little farm

Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown

by Candace Fleming

Acclaimed nonfiction author Candace Fleming (Is It Real?: The Loch Ness Monster; The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh) documents with the tension of a thriller the history of an infamous 20th century cult while maintaining a sense of humanity that conveys immense empathy for its victims.

Death in the Jungle is a gripping and disturbing nonfiction narrative about cult leader Jim Jones, the survivors "who lived through their association with [his] organization," and the victims who died under his leadership.

Hail Mary

by Funmi Fetto

Funmi Fetto, style editor for British Vogue, offers her first work of fiction with Hail Mary, an electrifying nine-story collection centering women on the move, some toward freedom, others toward disaster, others caught facing dead ends. Fetto opens with "2 Samuel 6:14," about a pastor's wife who finally plans her escape from heinous abuse; the cleverly chosen verse, "And David danced before the LORD with all his might," provides aspirational inspiration.

Other women are not so lucky, fleeing one bad situation

The Mother: A Graphic Memoir

by Rachel Deutsch

In her debut, The Mother: A Graphic Memoir, Rachel Deutsch pays blisteringly honest and acidly funny homage to the temporary hell that is brand-new parenting.

"I'd always wanted a baby," Deutsch writes; she figures "they would grow to only hate me a little." But when Deutsch finds herself pregnant, she worries: "What if I don't relate to being a mom? What if I become my mother?" After her daughter is born, Deutsch feels overwhelmed, and her relationship with her partner, Marc, suffers. They spar over who can

First Times: Short Stories About Sex

by Karine Glorieux, editor, trans. by Shelley Tanaka

Young adults bumble through a variety of often lovely, sometimes awful, regularly awkward sexual firsts--with themselves, with others--in this much-needed collection of boldly honest short stories.

First Times: Short Stories About Sex features nine works of fiction by nine authors (edited by Canadian Karine Glorieux and translated from French by Shelley Tanaka) regarding "first times." The key message is that it is not likely to look, sound, smell, or feel anything like sex in the movies or on the Internet.

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Shelf Discovery

The World of Nancy Kwan: A Memoir by Hollywood's Asian Superstar

by Nancy Kwan with Deborah Davis

In her engaging and sobering memoir, Nancy Kwan writes of being at the vanguard of change as an Asian actor who began her career during Hollywood's golden age.

Starred Review

by Andrew Knighton

by Milo Todd

by Candace Fleming

by Funmi Fetto

by Rachel Deutsch

by Karine Glorieux, editor, trans. by Shelley Tanaka

Welcome

Shelf Discovery

by Nancy Kwan with Deborah Davis

by Chiyo Uno, trans. by Rebecca Copeland

by Charles Hood

by Lai Chu Hon, trans. by Jacqueline Leung

by Kate Messner

by F.T. Lukens

by Belinda Bauer

by Matthew Specktor

by Jasmine Guillory

by Dan Nadel

by Yigit Turhan

by Chuck Wendig

by Tom Spencer

by Beth Revis

by Sarena Nanua, Sasha Nanua

by Mark Synnott

by Julia Elliott

by Lynn Steger Strong

by Cutter Wood

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