Summer is finally here, and it’s the perfect time to relax outside and dive into some new books. Luckily for you, SparkPress has some amazing reads coming out this June and July!

The Rules of Half: A Novel, by Jenna Patrick

June 6, 2017

If Will Fletcher’s severe bipolar disorder isn’t proof he shouldn’t be a parent, his infant daughter’s grave is. Once a happily married, successful veterinarian, he now lives with his sister and thrives as the small-town crazy of Half Moon Hollow. But when a fifteen-year-old orphan claims she’s his daughter, Will is forced back into the role he fears most: fatherhood.

Her biological dad isn’t the hero Regan Whitmer hoped for, but he’s better than her abusive stepfather back in Chicago. Still haunted by her mother’s suicide and the rebellious past she fears led to it, Regan is desperate for a stable home and a normal family―things Will can’t offer. Can she ride the highs and lows of his illness to find a new definition of family?

The Rules of Half explores what it is to be an atypical family in a small town and to be mentally ill in the wake of a tragedy―and who has the right to determine both.

“The perfect trifecta of a dysfunctional family, mental illness, and inescapable small town dynamics, The Rules of Half will steal your attention mercilessly from the first page to the last.”
―Redbook

Alphonse: A Novel, by Carl Sever

June 27, 2017

After twenty years of riding the rails, Alphonse has earned a reputation for being a kindhearted soul always ready to help. When he helps the Sadlers, a young couple seeking a better life in small-town 1950s Indiana, he doesn’t intend to stay. But stay he does, keeping a close eye on the Sadlers and their two young sons―and an even closer eye on the town’s new priest, Father Brennon.

On the surface, Brennon seems perfect for the job―but Alphonse crossed paths with him years earlier in the railyard jungle, and he knows better. Brennon doesn’t recognize Alphonse, but Alphonse has never forgotten Brennon . . . or his crimes. So when Brennon assigns the Sadlers’ son, Francis, who is now thirteen, the thankless task of cleaning and maintaining the church’s bell tower―work that often continues into the night―Alphonse immediately grows suspicious. Soon, he discovers that his worst fears have come to pass, and he races to find a way to protect Francis and reveal the truth to the Sadler family.

Colorblind, by Leah Harper Bowron

July 11, 2017

The time is 1968. The place is Montgomery, Alabama. The story is one of resilience in the face of discrimination and bullying. Using the racially charged word “Negro,” two Caucasian boys repeatedly bully Miss Annie Loomis–the first African-American teacher at the all-white Wyatt Elementary School.

At the same time, using the hateful word “harelip,” the boys repeatedly bully Miss Loomis’s eleven-year-old Caucasian student, Lisa Parker, who was born with cleft palate and cleft lip. Who will best the bullies? Only Lisa’s mood ring knows for sure.

Wendy Darling, Vol 3: Shadow, by Colleen Oakes

July 18, 2017

Wendy Darling has found herself once again in the arms of charming Peter Pan, the god-child who desires power above all things. This time, though, Wendy burns not with passion but with a secret: with Hook as her ally, she is there to defeat the evil that lies inside of Peter, the evil that holds all Neverland hostage―the Shadow.

To do this, Wendy must quietly undo Peter from inside his heart while at the same time convincing Tink to betray the twisted love that binds them together. This is a task made nearly impossible by the arrival of Booth, her sweetheart from London and a new pawn in Peter’s manipulative game―a boy whose heart she must break in order to save his life. As all of

As all of Neverland prepares to fight, Wendy races to untangle Peter’s connection to the Shadow, a secret long buried in the Forsaken Garden. When the time comes, pirates, mermaids, Lost Boys, and the Darling family will all rise―but if Wendy can’t call the Shadow, they will all be destroyed by Peter’s dark soul. War has come to paradise, and Neverland will never be the same.

“The soaring conclusion to a brilliant trilogy, Shadow is the icing on Colleen Oakes masterful retelling of the Peter Pan and Wendy story. Oakes invention of a diabolical version of Peter is so wickedly done it will send shivers down readers’ spines, all the while pitting him against a determined and unyielding Wendy. With everything she loves at stake, Wendy must find the strength to outwit Peter and be the savior Neverland needs. Oakes sweeps us along effortlessly to the jaw-dropping climax that will leave readers gasping and crying for more.”
―Alane Adams, award-winning author of The Legends of Orkney series