Recommended Reads

Set on a wind-scoured stretch of Great Lakes shoreline, The Lanternkeeper's Daughter is a quietly assured novel about inheritance, weather, and the stubbornness of grief. When Maren Holt returns to the island lighthouse her late father kept for forty years, she means to stay only long enough to sell it. The season, the town, and a box of her father's logbooks have other plans.

The prose is spare without ever feeling cold. Storms arrive on the page with real menace, and the quieter passages, Maren repainting the lamp room or reading her father's terse weather notes, carry just as much feeling. The supporting cast of islanders is drawn with warmth and a welcome lack of sentimentality.

The novel's greatest strengths are its sense of place and its restraint in the final act. A slower middle section asks for patience, and largely earns it. A thoughtful, atmospheric read for anyone who loves character-driven fiction with salt in the air.

— The Sheridan Review

In The Clockmaker's Orchard, an orchard of mechanical trees keeps time for an entire valley, and the apprentice who tends them is the first to notice when one simply stops. What follows is an inventive, big-hearted fantasy that never loses sight of its characters amid the clockwork.

The worldbuilding is generous but never heavy, revealed through small, tactile details: brass leaves that tick in the wind, seasons measured in winding keys. The central friendship is the book's beating heart, and its climax is both surprising and earned.

A delight for readers who like their fantasy warm, clever, and a little bit whimsical.

— The Sheridan Review

Salt Road Summer follows two former rivals who end up sharing a food truck for one chaotic summer of lakeside festivals. It's a sunlit, funny second-chance romance with sharp banter and a genuinely tender core.

The leads' history is revealed with good timing, and the supporting characters, especially a deadpan teenage cashier, steal several scenes. A few middle chapters repeat the same misunderstanding once too often, but the payoff is satisfying.

An easy recommendation for readers looking for a warm, witty summer read.

— The Sheridan Review