“A book like One Thousand and a Night stands or falls on the portrayal of its main character, and Lyalya passes every test. She is strong and forthright, brave and opinionated, resilient and optimistic, and it’s hard not to feel just a little in awe of her, just the way her niece does.” —Ryan Frawley reviews One Thousand and A Night as Told by Larissa, Construction Shock Worker, by Marina Sonkina (Gananoque: Guernica Editions, 2025) $25.00 / 9781771839662
In a Vancouver-set debut novel, “an unsettling story about victimization and forgiveness,” 29-year-old Crystal and her teenage daughter Becky struggle on the long winding path of their lives. The “restrained and understated” writing anchors a harrowing account of precarity. —Bill Paul reviews Most Grievous Fault, by Meg Todd (Madeira Park: Nightwood Editions, 2025) $24.95 / 9780889714984
A lovely, poetic, and musical novella traces a homeward journey of two Canadians to Ireland. The story offers enchantment for any reader: “This book would make particularly excellent reading for anyone planning a trip there, as well as those interested in Irish history or ancestry.” —Trish Bowering reviews Looking for Cornelius, by Diana Hayes (Eugene: Resource Publications, 2025) $21.00 / 9798385250332
Clashing politics and unexpected romantic feelings animate a socially conscious novel set in Winnipeg during an era of social disruption and economic disparity. Plot twists “keep readers interested in this study of home-front class differences.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Bittersweet Year, by Barry Potyondi (N.p.: Holand Press, 2025) $16.49 / 9798297500709
Empathetic first novel portrays Kayla, a new arrival in Kelowna who lives on the street and supports herself with sex work. Adept characterization and vivid description add to a tale whose “value also lies in its representation of the humanity and lives of people who find themselves where none of us wants to end up.” —Janet Pollock Millar reviews Still, by Joanna Cockerline (Erin: The Porcupine’s Quill, 2025) $22.00 / 9781774221709
A chilling and enthralling “psychologically perilous tale of deception, manipulation, and murder” is anchored by Esther Maile, a character who strives “to fill her need for connection in the most maladaptive ways.” —Trish Bowering reviews Days of Feasting and Rejoicing, by David Bergen (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2025) $25.00 / 9781773103433
Selfhood, interpersonal relations, family history, and the wonders of the world are examined acutely in a debut collection book of verse, where some poems have greater immediate appeal than others.—Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Stolen Plums, by Alice Turski (Montreal: Signal Editions, 2025) $19.95 / 9781550656770
With a surprising ending that’s “perfect” and a convincing portrait of a recognizably unjust present day political reality and hopeful responses to it, a debut novel thrills as it portrays bookish and venerable activists. —Valerie Green reviews Make No Mistake, by Julie Wise (Penticton: Wise Publications, 2025) $20.99 / 9781069525505
“Don’t mistake my criticisms of this book for my full opinion: there are reasons that I read both Unbalanced and Unbent in very quick succession. The plot kept me enthralled and even when certain moments pushed me out of the story, I was able to quickly jump back in and follow the sisters toward another danger. Formatting, sentence structure, and diction: all put together stunningly.” —Myshara McMyn reviews Unbent, by Courtney Shepard (Calgary: Champagne Book Group, 2025) $31.00 / 9781957228471
Inspired by a fearless and revengeful “Queen of Outlaws,” the spirited young protagonist of a vibrant, prairie-set debut novel begins a lengthy quest for self-determination as she moves from job to job, location to location, and man to man in the early twentieth century. —Trish Bowering reviews I Want to Die in My Boots, by Natalie Appleton (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2025) $28.65 / 9781990071270
With three timelines—1908, 1934, 1998—and “a ghoulish atmosphere that will delight dark academia and horror fans alike,” a prolific author’s latest novel drips with chills, trials, and, of course, witchcraft. —Sophia Wasylinko reviews The Bewitching, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Toronto: Del Rey, 2025) $39.00 / 9780593874325
A “most enjoyable read,” this novel set in rural western Australia in the 1960s recounts the tumultuous coming-of-age of Cheryl, the daughter of a hard-working woman who sells bait worms. —Valerie Green reviews The Worm Lady’s Daughter, by Peter Freeman (Salt Spring Island: Ensilwood Publishing, 2025) $19.95 / 9781990415166
Historical fiction—set in northern Alberta circa 1806—features winter storms, intrigue, romance, and a cougar attack. Given “that few white females were part of the fur trade in the far north of Canada in the early 1800s,” our reviewer has some reserve about the novel’s focus on Abigail Williams. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Fort, by Christy K. Lee (Toronto: Rising Action Publishing, 2025) $24.99 / 9781998076413
A quest to make it—in 1997, as a screenwriter, in Hollywood—animates a lively debut novel that’s mostly lighthearted as captures “the irrepressible youth, hope, and need for external validation endemic to striving twentysomethings.” —Jessica Poon reviews Charity Trickett Is Not So Glamorous, by Christine Stringer (Toronto: SparkPress, 2025) $25.99 / 9781684633166
“[T]his is exactly what I want from a Helen Thorpe mystery: wonderful characters both old and new; a crime that’s solved with a combination of mindfulness and smarts; and a beneficial dose of equanimity.” —Trish Bowering reviews Contemplation of a Crime, by Susan Juby (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2025) $24.99 / 9781443469715
Seattle-set debut novel features a procrastinating romance author whose DIY cure for the blues involves the lives of strangers she observes. Contact with others, she soon learns, comes with responsibilities. And consequences.
—Jessica Poon reviews Inside Outside, by Faye Arcand (Okanagan Falls: Blue Robin Books, 2024) $19.99 / 9781069029508
Written “with wit and great insight,” a sophomore story collection often focussed “on women who live in world of uncertainty and stress,” conveys the unsteady state of mind that can occur when there’s always “one more thing to look out for.” —Bill Paul reviews Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Stories, by Clea Young (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2025) $22.99 / 9781487013196
As she portrays hardship and resilience in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, a debut novelist “tells an engrossing story about Clara, a talented doctor and loving woman trying to find the right path to take in late Victorian Canada.” —Valerie Green reviews The Roads We Take, by Christy K. Lee (Toronto: Rising Action Publishing, 2023) $21.99 / 9781998076062
A poet’s first novel features a cult, an abandoned mall, and a self-aggrandizing billionaire. It also ponders “how we cope with loss and tragedy, how we negotiate feelings of regret, and how these burdens can weigh upon us in ways that shape our trajectories.” —Logan Macnair reviews The Very Good Best Friend, by Taryn Hubbard (Surrey: Now Or Never Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781989689820
Bilingual—Tla’amin and English—picture book “inspires us to be more sharing, community-minded, and aware of nature’s abundance (and the importance of preserving it).” —Ron Verzuh reviews laget hiyt toxwum (Herring to Huckleberries), by ošil (Betty Wilson) (illustrated by Prashant Miranda) (Winnipeg: Highwater Press, 2025) $24.95 / 978177492118