Book Review: The Cottager

An elderly woman travels back in time to save her teenage son’s life. She’s waited decades for this opportunity, but when it comes, she finds herself in a past she doesn’t recognize. Her family appears the same as she remembers. Her son, for now, is alive–but when she installs hidden cameras throughout the family home, she uncovers another layer of his life, a pain she’s never seen.

Did she go back far enough? When did he decide to take his own life? She watches from the empty house next door, observing her past from every angle. Still, the more she looks, the more she wonders what she can’t see–and what happens when the past notices she’s watching?

Book Review: A Killer Plot

Jane Hepburn has almost made it. After solving the murder of her literary agent at last season’s crime-book festival, Jane receives a burst of internet fame that lands her an invite to a splashy book launch in London. Visiting beloved bookstores along the winding alleyway of Cecil Court, and brushing shoulders with famous writers and the editors and agents who made them stars, Jane is looking forward to a fun, murder-free weekend and a distraction from her own writer's block. The party might not be for her novel, but still, Jane’s happy to celebrate her far more successful friend with free wine and plenty of books.

However, things take a turn for the worse when the hotshot editor is nowhere to be seen. And they really go south after Jane discovers a body in the bookshop cellar. To ensure that another event isn’t overshadowed by an unsolved murder, Jane and her two friends—debut novelist and star of the party Natasha Martez and clumsy publicity assistant Daniel Thurston—must put their sleuthing skills to the test. But nothing is as it seems at a party full of attendees with secrets they'd do anything to keep.

Book Review: Like Water for Chocolate

In well-born Mexican families, tradition dictates that the youngest daughter not marry, but remain at home to care for her mother. Even though Tita has fallen in love, Mama Elena chooses not to make an exception, and instead, arranges for Tita's older sister to marry Tita's young man.

In order to punish Tita for her willfulness, Mama Elena forces her to bake the wedding cake. The bitter tears Tita weeps while stirring the batter provoke a remarkable reaction among the guests who eat the cake. It is then that it first becomes apparent that her culinary talents are unique.

Book Review: Love Machine

Friends. Lovers. Therapists. ‘"Deathbots." AI is taking on unprecedented roles for millions of us every day – but how are these new relationships rewiring us?

Beyond those who are using chatbots for everyday tasks, many are turning to them as friends, mentors and sexual and romantic partners. Some are men who are preparing to adopt children with their AI partners; others are reaching out to companies offering "deathbot" services based on a deceased loved one's text messages and voicemails; others still look to therapy bots to find treatment for their mental health issues.

Book Review: The Pale

Something strange is killing people in The Pale of Settlement—the strip of Western Russia where the Czars let Jews live.

When military hero Sergei looks up from the kid’s body on the street of the captured Polish town under his charge, he’s met with the most terrifying thing he’s seen in years: a flea-bitten orthodox Jew who looks just like him and knows his true name.

When Yankev of Vishanev—down on his luck demon hunter, once powerful kabbalist—looks into the eyes of the brother he thought dead half a lifetime, he’s certain he’s finally back on the path God laid out for him.

When the monsters attack, when the angels speak, when something darker than human violence threatens the Jews of the town with extinction, will these two have what it takes to find their way back to being a family? Will they have what it takes to stop what’s coming?

Book Review: The Block Party

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold—discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems.

The Block Party by Jamie Day was published July 2023 by St. Martin's Press.

Book Review: The Big Gang Theory Pop Culture Reference Guide

It was 2007. The era of Must-See TV had ended. There was no Friends, no Will and Grace, no Seinfeld. The broadcast airwaves were being ruled by reality television series like American Idol and Big Brother, coupled with the expanded offerings of cable networks. Only CBS was seeing some success with the traditional multi-camera sitcom structure through shows like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. Into that very lineup, sandwiched between the two hit series, came a fresh take on the sitcom setup: What would happen if two brainy nerds found themselves living next door to a beautiful woman? And television history was made, while educating readers about pop culture and world events.