Debut novelist’s tale brings together two women and two centuries in a satisfying book that “sparkles with excitement, history, and the agency of women.” —Valerie Green reviews The Champagne Letters, by Kate MacIntosh (Toronto: Gallery Books, 2024) $36.99 / 9781668061886
Set in an apartment building that is “like a big hug,” The Secret Office is aimed at Grade Three readers, “but its appeal transcends easy age categorization.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews The Secret Office,
by Sara Cassidy (illustrated by Alyssa Hutchings) (Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2024) $8.95 / 9781459839465
“For the reader, it’s the enjoyment of a thousand experiences and observations unexpectedly articulated, and that’s the thing about this novel. Every sentence.” —Caitlin Hicks reviews Chandelier, by David O’Meara (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $22.95 / 9780889714762
The fifth book in an “inspired by” series “succeeds in being true to form: this Anne Shirley is imbued with the characteristics that have made the original Anne Shirley endure nationally and internationally for over a century.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Anne Dares, by Kallie George (illustrated by Abigail Halpin) (Toronto: Tundra, 2023) $16.99 / 9780735272101
Nigeria-set sophomore novel “has enough tangly relationships for a soap opera, ample tension for a psychological thriller, and meaningful, if slightly under-explored sociopolitical commentary on race, religion, and gender.” —Jessica Poon reviews Every Drop of Blood Is Red, by Umar Turaki (New York: Little A (an Amazon Imprint), 2024) $24.99 / 781662508110
Deeply whimsical story of a plucky orphan “reads like a forgotten classic,” and—when it works— “is almost endlessly charming.” —Greg Brown reviews Library Girl, by Polly Horvath (Toronto: Puffin Canada, 2024) $22.99 / 9781774883341
Masterful debut story collection captures innocence and its loss as well as gradual recoveries from precipitous falls. —Linda Rogers reviews Transactions With the Fallen, by Michael Elcock (Oakville: Rock’s Mills Press, 2024) $25.00 / 9781772443233
“As much as this is a document of a slice of the war, it is a novel about a distinctive character and personality.” —Theo Dombrowski reviews The Forgotten: A Novel of the Korean War, by Robert Mackay (Surrey: Now or Never Press, 2024) $26.95 / 9781989689752
Set in the late ’70s, a hearty story for young readers portrays the triumphs and setbacks of a 12-year-old child named Truly. —Alison Acheson reviews Elvis, Me, and the Postcard Winter, by Leslie Gentile (Toronto: DCB Books, 2024) $14.95 / 9781770867666
Debut novel, based on family memories, probes the “pitch-black reality of the Holodomor, the Soviet-engineered famine that is estimated to have killed up to five million Ukrainians in the early 1930s.” —Ryan Frawley reviews Black Sunflowers, by Cynthia LeBrun (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2024) $21.95 / 9781554556434
“Remembering, as British writer George Orwell showed in his Homage to Catalonia, brings bloody thoughts to the surface and can unearth opposing memories. Spaner does not shy from including such moments and these add a tough realism to the novel.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Keefer Street, by David Spaner (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781553807209
Featuring a tyrannical emperor, a kindhearted young hero, a daunting quest, and an “exceedingly chaste” romance, the novel succeeds on its own terms. —Jessica Poon reviews The Last Dragon of the East, by Katrina Kwan (Toronto: Saga Press, 2024) $24.99 / 9781668051238
A debut novella, in “some ways a mini-version of the classic Great Canadian Novel,” is “also a haunting subversion of that same overdone CanLit subgenre.”—Daniel Gawthrop reviews Yellow Barks Spider, by Harman Burns (Regina: Radiant Press, 2024) $22.00 / 9781998926190
At a glance a standard police procedural, this debut novel “offers an extra layer of depth that examines deeper truths of the human condition.”
—Trish Bowering reviews Barcelona Red Metallic, by Christine Cosack (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781772603910
“At times, the novel feels—and this is praise—like a couple of opinionated art students kvetching while wearing designer clothes—or latex—in Geneva.” —Jessica Poon reviews Bold Strokes, by Jane Boon (Toronto: Regan Arts, 2024) $22.00 / 9781682452288
Enthralling, comedy-flecked murder mystery capably illustrates how a “lot can go right–and terribly wrong–in a 24-hour window.” —Caileigh Broatch reviews Bronco Buster, by A.J. Devlin (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781774391020
With “each new offering, Van Camp reminds us of his remarkable gift for storytelling. ‘Beast’ is no exception.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Beast, by Richard Van Camp (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $24.95 / 9781771624145
Writing “evocatively with gutsy language and pacing that moves along,” this debut YA novelist also “handles the humanity of her characters with a sense of honour; they feel to be so fully-developed that they’re letting her know where they should be on the page.” —Alison Acheson reviews Devil by the Tail, by Caroline Lavoie (Winnipeg: Deep Hearts YA, 2024) $21.99 / 9781998055616
A veteran writer’s new novel is defined by meticulous, expansive, and breathtaking world-building. Sometimes, though, too much is too much. —Zoe McKenna reviews Blackheart Man, by Nalo Hopkinson (Toronto: Simon & Schuster / Saga Press, 2024) $34.99 / 9781668005101
Part hippie hitchhiker’s odyssey, part draft resister’s memoir, this novel “reads like the diary of… countercultural wanderers of the 1960.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Waiting for the Revolution, by Ross Klatte (Altona: Friesen Press, 2024) $22.99 / 9781039188877