Newsletter for January 2026

Featured Books

Bad Americans by Tejas Desai

 

Summer 2020: the Covid-19 Pandemic is raging. A reclusive billionaire, Olive Mixer, calls twelve diverse & lonely Americans to his mansion complex in the Hamptons: nurses, lawyers, mechanics, social workers, students, financial analysts, soldiers, Uber drivers, engineers, hair salon operators. During the day, the guests meet, compete, date, dine, flirt and fight. Each night, one must tell the group a story.

 

Their tales range widely in subject, style, length and decorum. Many stories respond to each other. They trigger passionate debate and fiery resistance. They change how characters perceive each other and affect the trajectory of the frame narrative. They make us ponder the nature of storytelling itself.

 

Bad Americans is part Boccaccio and part The Bachelor, but it is a creation all its own. Both a novel and short story collection, Bad Americans is at once a powerful portrait of the American pandemic experience and an examination of narrative itself. Bad Americans: Part I includes the frame narrative and the first six stories. Bad Americans: Part II will conclude the frame narrative and include six additional stories.

 

These two books are the second and third volumes of the profound and daring anthology series The Human Tragedy, following the subversive classic Good Americans.

 

Swallowing the Muskellunge by Lawrence P. O'Brien

 

Wild things run loose at the border. They know that the caravan will be coming. Their reach is disturbingly effective, and they have a fierce appetite. The sentinels are patient and can be quite disarming.

 

From the outskirts of Boston, in 1800, London Oxford’s family climbed aboard a sleigh that was bound for the promised land. They, as part of the Wrights’ caravan, travelled north in the dead of winter. London joined four other young families. Nineteen children were twelve years or younger. Young, single men, armed with axes, followed on foot. London, who wasn’t always free, risked everything for a chance at a better life.

 

Moving through the incessant frigid cold and the blinding white made the adults tired and numb. They felt like they were already asleep. That might be why no-one noticed the drag marks in the snow, or why so few questioned the mounting disappearances. The little ones were left to run recklessly and unfettered. London felt like that—until that something woke him up.

 

Fans who like Dan Simmons-The Terror, will enjoy this.

 

A War Through Destiny by Sarah Lindsay Peterson

If beauty could paint itself, it would take the form of freshly fallen snow on a daring yet, inviting mountain top, surrounded by important pines and nature’s stoic presence. If serenity could meet joy and passion, they would do so exploring their purposes on the ancient, cobblestone streets, lined with whispers of encouragement, of reassurance, and of gratitude. And if The Spirits could tell the tale of all that was to come: who would rule, who would protect, who would educate…then Dukhovia would exist in faultless, content bliss. And so it did.

 

Until greed, murder, deceit, and war forever changed the country’s destiny.

 

Stacy Grace Matthews is of this land. Born in Dukhovia, despite her family’s banishment several years prior. After fleeing the country with her family as an infant, Stacy currently resides in modern-day America. Here, she is safe, she has a flourishing social life, and she could never want for anything. Yet, daily, she is forced to see unexplained differences between herself and those around her. Differences that she is certain have to do with her beloved country of Dukhovia, but fear of upsetting her family by asking too many questions of the once great land stops her from ever getting any answers. This problem only intensifies when she begins having a recurrent dream telling her to protect the ‘heir of Dukhovia’—a term she has never heard and has no idea how to find out any information on. But, she is intent that it is her duty, her purpose, and her heart’s desire to fulfill this mission.

 

Nicholas Tyler Andrews is also of this land. Born and raised in the country that should have been a safe haven, but, Dukhovia in his eyes has been more of a torture chamber, causing his own world of confusion. After Nicholas’s family was wrongly blamed for causing the downfall of Dukhovia, Nicholas has dedicated his life to doing any and everything to save their name—even if some of these things have caused him to commit crimes that would cause reason for that shame to exist. After being named one of the two strongest heirs Dukhovia has ever seen—or a potential ruler—Nicholas is more adamant than ever to set his family’s name straight and return Dukhovia to the sanctuary it was always meant to be. But, becoming a ruler means fulfilling the task given to him to find and destroy the other heir—something that would bring the greatest dishonor he and his family would ever know. Still, the mentor who has ruled over him with an iron fist since his parent’s deaths promises him that the risk of the banished, American-raised heir, Stacy Grace Matthews destroying Dukhovia would be worth everything…

The Seven by Igor Stefanovic

 

Abraham Meyer built an empire but lost his family along the way. Now, with time running out, the billionaire widower sends his seven adult children on a quest that sounds like a riddle: travel to seven different continents and find sculptures said to embody the purity of love.

 

None of them take it seriously. They should.

 

Scattered across the world, the Meyer siblings trade privilege for peril as unfamiliar cultures and their own buried truths strip them to the bone. The bizarre assignment becomes a confrontation with who they’ve become—and who they still might choose to be. Because the task itself was never the point; sending them into the wild was.

 

From luxury yachts to unforgiving deserts and ice fields, The Seven is a sweeping family saga that moves like a thriller and cuts like confession. It’s not a story about finding sculptures—it’s about finding a way back to humanity.

 

Book Giveaways for January

Win a copy of The Murder at the World's End by Ross Montgomery.  All you have to do is click on the book cover below.  It will take you to the main page.   Look for the giveaway on the left.  Follow the instructions listed.

Win a copy of The Typewriter and the Guillotine by Mark Braude.  All you have to do is click on the book cover below.  It will take you to the main page.  Look for the giveaway on the right.  Follow the instructions listed.

Book Giveaway Winners for December

 

Get Your Book Reviewed

ARE YOU AN AUTHOR?  GET YOUR BOOK REVIEWED AT BESTSELLERSWORLD.COM.  WITH MOST OF OUR PACKAGES, YOU WILL RECEIVE ENTRY TO OUR BOOK AWARD PROGRAM AT NO ADDITIONAL COST.   (CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO REVIEW PACKAGES)

Reader's Choice Awards Winners - 2025

 

Reader's Choice Awards - 2026

 

The 2026 Reader's Choice Book Award nominations will open January 1, 2026.  Click on this link for more information.  There are many package choices available.  

The 2026 Reader's Choice Book Award nominations will open January 1, 2026.  Click on this link for more information.  There are many package choices available.  

The digital seals are below.

 

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