When the elves vanished after stopping the undying threat of Mallon years ago, they left the Keepers as humanity’s last line of defense against the followers seeking to resurrect their dark master. J.A. Andrews assembles three unlikely heroes to stand against dragons, frost goblins, and traitors—Alaric, haunted by the failure to save his wife despite betraying everything he believed; Will, a storyteller convinced his weak magic renders him useless; and Sini, a former slave girl carrying unimaginable power she has no idea how to wield. 🐉The land faces plunging into darkness as Mallon’s minions gather strength, hunting the Keepers who represent the only obstacle to completing what the undying began. These storytellers, historians, and magic-wielders must survive not just external threats but also the betrayals within their own ranks. Andrews builds epic fantasy around broken characters discovering whether shattered people can still become the heroes a desperate world needs. ⚔️

Each member of this makeshift alliance carries wounds that make them doubt themselves, yet together they possess the knowledge and power to oppose forces that would overwhelm them individually. The author explores how history and storytelling themselves become weapons when conventional strength fails. Their quest becomes as much about believing in their own worth as it is about saving civilization from an ancient evil’s return. 📚

What makes this essential: An epic fantasy where three damaged heroes—a man haunted by betrayal, a storyteller doubting his magic, and a former slave with unleashed power—must overcome dragons, frost goblins, and their own self-doubt to prevent Mallon the Undying’s followers from completing their master’s dark work and plunging the land into eternal darkness.

When college student and social justice activist Karim Jackson joins a protest at Tacoma’s newly completed private jail, a confrontation with the facility’s director ends with a fatal head wound and a murder charge that proves fighting the system means the system fights back. Attorney Talon Winter takes on the case, struggling to convince prosecutors that Karim didn’t cause the death and was acting in self-defense—but they’re not cutting deals for someone accused of killing one of their own. ⚖️Stephen Penner brings courtroom authenticity from his own experience as a criminal defense attorney, crafting legal thrillers where the truth becomes secondary to institutional power. When Talon gets too close to exposing what really happened, a third lawyer enters the arena—a partner from Talon’s old law firm, now representing the private jail company with resources far exceeding what any single defense attorney can muster. The case transforms into a battle against both prosecutorial authority and corporate prison interests. 🏛️

Talon must navigate a system designed to protect itself while trying to save a young activist from losing his freedom for a crime he didn’t commit. Penner exposes how the machinery of justice can become a weapon against those who challenge it, with private incarceration profits adding another layer of complexity to an already rigged game. The fourth Talon Winter novel delivers tension both inside and outside the courtroom as the stakes climb higher than any legal precedent. 💼

Why I’m including this: A legal thriller where defense attorney Talon Winter battles both government prosecutors and corporate prison lawyers to save a college activist falsely accused of murder during a protest, exposing how the system protects its own while Penner’s real courtroom experience brings authentic tension to this fourth series installment.

Mitchell Brannon’s ordinary evening shatters when his beloved wife Jill doesn’t return home from her conference, leaving only a cheerful voicemail promising to pick up dinner as the last trace of her existence. Hours stretch into days, days into weeks, and Mitch’s irritation transforms into soul-crushing dread as every lead turns into a dead end. Deborah Raney crafts Christian suspense around the devastating question of how to honor marriage vows to someone who has seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. 💔When police investigations yield nothing, Mitch turns to their next-door neighbor Shelley—Jill’s best friend—to help search for answers that remain maddeningly out of reach. As the two work together, their shared grief and desperate need to find Jill draws them into a friendship that grows ever closer and decidedly more complicated. Raney explores the impossible emotional territory of ambiguous loss, where there’s no body, no closure, no way to move forward or back. 🙏

The author examines how faith, loyalty, and the human need for answers collide when someone simply disappears without explanation. Mitch faces an agonizing limbo where he’s neither married nor widowed, committed to a woman who may never return while struggling with growing feelings for someone who’s been by his side through the worst nightmare imaginable. Raney delivers suspense through emotional devastation rather than action, making readers feel every moment of Mitch’s anguished waiting. 🕊️

What makes this compelling: Christian suspense where Mitchell Brannon’s wife Jill vanishes after leaving a cheerful voicemail about picking up dinner, forcing him to navigate ambiguous loss with help from her best friend Shelley as their search brings them closer together and Mitch faces the impossible question of honoring vows to a woman who may never come home.

On the junk world of Torrent Four, self-taught engineer Ben Griminski scours endless fields of trash and derelict ships for anything valuable while dodging the Salvage Scalpers who enslave anyone with a knack for finding treasures in the refuse. Life is perilous and unbearable for most, but Ben carries a secret that makes every dangerous day worth surviving—buried deep in the salvage fields, hidden by mountains of rubbish, lies a Kestrel-class starship that after a decade of tireless work is almost ready to fly. 🚀Toby Neighbors builds space opera around the last vestiges of freedom in a galaxy crushed under the Royal Imperium’s iron fist, where liberty exists only for those with fast ships, able crews, and the right connections to stay under the radar on hundreds of oppressed worlds. Ben has spent ten years transforming discarded parts into his ticket to the stars, literally building his escape from poverty and servitude one salvaged component at a time. Now he faces the challenge of assembling a crew and obtaining enough precious Zexum fuel to power their escape. ✨

The author explores how hope survives in the most desperate circumstances, with Ben representing everyone trapped in systems designed to keep them down while their dreams of something better remain just barely out of reach. Freedom becomes not a birthright but something you have to build yourself from the galaxy’s garbage, risking everything for the chance to discover what life might be like among the stars beyond the Imperium’s reach. Neighbors delivers classic space opera themes through a hero who’s literally piecing together his future from the past’s wreckage. 🌌

Why I’m including this: Space opera where self-taught engineer Ben Griminski spends a decade secretly restoring a hidden Kestrel-class starship in the trash fields of Torrent Four, building his escape from the Royal Imperium’s oppression one salvaged part at a time while dodging slavers and planning to assemble a crew for freedom among the stars.

They were supposed to die five years ago when the residents of Gerbera subdivision in Fallen Oaks were brutally murdered in their beds, but the Fallen Oaks Five survived as children—practically strangers then, forever connected now by the weight of all they witnessed. Kiersten Modglin delivers crime thriller intensity when the now-grown survivors receive letters warning that the killers are still out there and aren’t finished with them as the anniversary of their families’ deaths approaches. 🏘️In a race against faceless, nameless murderers, the Five must return to their old homes to piece together events from a night they’d all rather forget, finding their old town riddled with secrets where every person becomes a suspect. Modglin explores how childhood trauma bonds survivors in ways nothing else can while asking whether they can solve the mystery and finally learn the truth about the night that cost them everything. The author builds suspense around the question of whether they’ll find justice or become victims of a fate they should’ve succumbed to years ago. 🔍

With everything at stake, Modglin transforms survivor guilt into investigative urgency as the Five discover that escaping death once doesn’t guarantee you’ll escape it twice. The crime thriller examines how incomplete closure haunts people, with the faceless killers representing not just physical danger but the psychological terror of unfinished business. Every revelation brings them closer to the truth while potentially walking them straight into the trap the murderers have been planning for five years. ⚠️

Why I’m including this: Crime thriller where the Fallen Oaks Five who survived their families’ brutal murders as children receive warning letters five years later that the killers aren’t finished, forcing these now-grown survivors to return home and piece together the night they’d rather forget before becoming victims of their postponed fate.