Women’s Fiction – Write on the World

Fame has always been a commodity, but The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander asks what happens when a family decides to cash in on scandal before anyone else can profit from it first. Funny, smart, and packed with pointed observations about celebrity culture, this June 16, 2026 release transforms a viral affair into a fascinating exploration of ambition, misogyny, and the price of public attention.

The Lowe Job begins when twenty-seven-year-old Lili Lowe is caught having an affair with her married boss, an up-and-coming politician. Overnight, she becomes the center of a media firestorm. Most people would retreat from public scrutiny. Lili’s mother Lydia has other ideas. Rather than managing the fallout, she weaponizes it, transforming Lili’s notoriety into a family brand and launching the Lowes into celebrity status.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer is a chilling cult thriller that feels uncomfortably plausible

June 9, 2026May 29, 2026 Mandy Webster

Some dystopian novels rely on elaborate worldbuilding to make their horrors believable. Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer doesn’t need to. Its premise is terrifying precisely because it feels only a few steps removed from reality, taking current political and religious extremism to their logical, ugly conclusion. The result is a tense, claustrophobic thriller about bodily autonomy, fanaticism, and survival that never overstays its welcome.

I’m a sucker for a good cult novel, so this one was right up my alley. There’s something endlessly fascinating about the power dynamics inside insular religious communities, especially the relationships among women forced to survive within those systems. Kritzer taps into that fascination immediately. The novel is brief and concise, but it uses every page effectively, building constant tension as Doctor Liz navigates a nightmare situation with no safe options.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

I’ll Take the Fire by Leila Slimani: A fascinating literary excavation that never quite becomes a novel

June 8, 2026May 29, 2026 Mandy Webster

Some novels pull you into a character’s inner life so completely that you feel as if you’ve lived beside them. Others keep you at arm’s length, asking you to observe rather than emotionally participate. I’ll Take the Fire by Leila Slimani, which releases June 9, 2026, firmly falls into the latter category. And while there’s a great deal here to admire intellectually, I often found myself wishing the book had trusted readers with less exposition and more intimacy.

Get your copy of I’ll Take the Fire today!

The novel follows Mia Daoud, a young Moroccan woman searching for sexual, political, and personal freedom as she moves between Casablanca, Paris, and London against the backdrop of major historical upheavals. Slimani explores feminism, class, identity, religion, colonialism, family expectations, and artistic ambition, all through a lens that feels deeply autobiographical. The book is filled with sharp observations about power and liberation, and the historical material woven throughout the narrative is genuinely compelling.

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Author Interview

Author interview: Jennifer van der Kleut on The Better Mother, Nancy Drew, and writing thrillers with real stakes

February 17, 2026February 7, 2026 Mandy Webster

From childhood Nancy Drew notebooks to a debut thriller that asks hard questions about motherhood, loyalty, and what we owe one another, Jennifer van der Kleut’s path to publication has always been rooted in curiosity and emotional stakes. Her first novel, The Better Mother, released February 10, 2026, and introduces readers to a protagonist at her lowest point—then dares her to fight her way back. In this interview, van der Kleut talks about the books and writers who shaped her, why community matters on and off the page, the rituals that keep her grounded at the keyboard, and how remembering what’s truly at stake drives every story she tells.

Jennifer van der Kleut’s debut novel, The Better Mother, released February 10, 2026.

Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: As a child, my number-one favorite mystery series was Nancy Drew. I wanted to be Nancy Drew. So much so, that I got a blank notebook, and as I read each book, I took notes of the clues and suspects in the story as though I were the detective myself, and tried to come to my own conclusion before the culprit was revealed.

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Author Interview

Author interview with Melissa R. Collings

December 10, 2024November 14, 2024 Mandy Webster

Melissa R. Collings is the award-winning author of the bittersweet love story, The False Flat. Before Melissa started writing, she worked as a surgical physician associate in Nashville, where one of her favorite procedures was reconstructing a lower-lumbar tattoo after a back surgery. Her stories, like her, are always a mix: light and dark, laughter and tears, outlandish and grounded, beautiful and ugly, glitter and charcoal smears. Her interests are way too varied; her imagination never fails to get her into trouble; and she lives by her life philosophy: nothing is impossible, and everything is better with glitter—except surgical wounds.

Q: When did you first catch the writing bug? What drove you to persist?
A: I’m originally a surgical Physician Associate (medical provider). I worked 50-60 hours per week doing spine surgery, rounding on hospital patients, and seeing patients in the clinic. I enjoyed my job, but when my husband and I were expecting our first child, I decided to take a long hiatus from medical work and stay home to raise our daughter. I’d worked since I was very young, so this was a steep adjustment for me. I needed something for myself, so I turned to a psychological suspense novel I’d started before college.

Back then, I’d been working as a receptionist and had a lot of down time. I had an idea for a book and started writing it to fill my time. I didn’t think anything would come of it. But when I was at home with a newborn, I picked that novel up again, and I discovered a whole new world.

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