by Philip Eliot | May 10, 2026 | History, Politics & Culture |
A U.S. Navy submarine officer. A diplomatic post in Kyiv. And five months to prepare for the largest European war since 1945.
In the tradition of Herman Wouk’s sweeping wartime sagas, Fallout of War is a military thriller set during the opening year of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, following Lieutenant Commander James Fairbanks from his September 2021 arrival as naval attaché at the American embassy in Kyiv through the first twelve months of full-scale war.
Fairbanks arrives with his wife Lucy, a State Department analyst, and finds a country bracing for something most of the world refuses to believe. Through encounters with Ukrainian special forces training in the haunting ruins of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, intelligence briefings that grow darker by the week, and an extraordinary personal audience with President Zelensky, Fairbanks becomes one of the few American officers who truly understands what is coming.
When Washington selects him to deliver a presidential warning directly to Vladimir Putin, Fairbanks confronts the Russian leader in a tense Kremlin meeting and is offered an unprecedented tour of the invasion forces massed along Ukraine’s borders. His classified report to Washington becomes the most prescient and controversial intelligence assessment of the conflict’s first year.
After the February 2022 invasion, Fairbanks remains in the combat zone, embedded with Ukrainian special forces and the engineers building Ukraine’s revolutionary naval drone program. Drawing on his submarine warfare expertise, he helps develop wolf-pack tactics that sink Russian warships, culminating in strikes against the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva. Meanwhile, a heartbreaking parallel story follows a Ukrainian mother’s desperate flight from Bucha with her four-year-old daughter, framing the invasion through the eyes of those who cannot escape.
From embassy corridors to the Pentagon briefing room, from Chernobyl’s radioactive forests to a nighttime commando raid on a Russian pontoon bridge, Fallout of War combines the geopolitical sweep of a Tom Clancy thriller with the intimate human cost of a Herman Wouk epic.
“An examination of warfare that doesn’t lose sight of the people involved.” – Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review from BlueInk: “Readers looking for a compelling war story with characters beating the odds will find Fallout of War utterly engrossing.”
For readers who love military fiction by Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Daniel Silva, and Mark Greaney.
For fans of historical war novels by Herman Wouk, Ken Follett, and Jeff Shaara.
Perfect for readers interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, modern drone warfare, U.S. Navy fiction, and military espionage thrillers.
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by Philip Eliot | May 9, 2026 | Literary |
Some debts are financial. Some are emotional. The ones that haunt you most are the ones you never agreed to carry.
In eight unforgettable stories set in the cities of Bombay and Bangalore, Manik Bal brings together a cast of ordinary people navigating the weight of their choices. A musician who can’t outrun the ghost of a first love. A young bride discovering the distance between the life she imagined and the one she’s been handed. A man who hasn’t visited his childhood neighborhood in decades — and the phone call that makes him reckon with why. A boy whose recklessness one night costs him everything.
These are not dramatic lives. They are yours, your parents’, your neighbors’. But in Bal’s precise, empathetic hands, the familiar becomes quietly devastating — and quietly beautiful.
Dates, Debts, and Dates is Book Five in the celebrated Odd Tales from Bombay and Bangalore series — and a collection that proves, once again, that the most extraordinary stories are hiding inside the most ordinary lives.
For readers of R.K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Raymond Carver. For anyone who has ever asked: what do we owe the people we’ve left behind?
by Philip Eliot | May 9, 2026 | Contemporary Romance |
Some debts are financial. Some are emotional. The ones that haunt you most are the ones you never agreed to carry.
In eight unforgettable stories set in the cities of Bombay and Bangalore, Manik Bal brings together a cast of ordinary people navigating the weight of their choices. A musician who can’t outrun the ghost of a first love. A young bride discovering the distance between the life she imagined and the one she’s been handed. A man who hasn’t visited his childhood neighborhood in decades — and the phone call that makes him reckon with why. A boy whose recklessness one night costs him everything.
These are not dramatic lives. They are yours, your parents’, your neighbors’. But in Bal’s precise, empathetic hands, the familiar becomes quietly devastating — and quietly beautiful.
Dates, Debts, and Dates is Book Five in the celebrated Odd Tales from Bombay and Bangalore series — and a collection that proves, once again, that the most extraordinary stories are hiding inside the most ordinary lives.
For readers of R.K. Narayan, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Raymond Carver. For anyone who has ever asked: what do we owe the people we’ve left behind?
by Philip Eliot | May 9, 2026 | Christian Fiction |
In the snowy heart of Alaska, love blooms where it’s least expected in this clean and wholesome romance collection.Unforgettable tales of second chances, emotional healing, and finding your place in the world unfold in the breathtaking Alaskan wilderness. Follow three courageous women as they discover the power of friendship, dog-sledding adventures, and unexpected romance in the most remote corners of small-town Alaska.This special edition includes:• The Loneliest Cottage• The Brightest Light• The Truest HomePerfect for fans of cozy love stories, slow burn romance, and dog lover’s fiction, this bundle brings all the feels and snowy charm you’ve been craving.Grab your copy and fall in love with Alaska.
by Philip Eliot | May 9, 2026 | Paranormal & Fantasy Romance |
CHECKED OUT BY A MONSTER—sounds hot, right?Except I’m not the type anyone ever gives a second glance to, let alone is interested in. The only thing guys check out from me are the books in the library that I oversee.But every day, the same Chupacabra comes back. At first, I think he’s just lonely as he prowls behind me as I work, asking me questions.Then I realize he can’t read.Knowing his job depends upon it, I offer to teach him, reading stories aloud to the sweet monster. Everything is great until he brings me The Tentacle Kama Sutra and Monster Orgasms with a wink, silently daring me to open them—and like an idiot, I accept the challenge.Now the damned man won’t leave me alone. He’s always lurking behind my shelves…Chasing me.Charming me.Cherishing me.It’s almost like one of those monster romances I secretly read alone at night—but those stories are labeled fiction for a reason.Will I continue to hide behind the pages of my book, or will Chente prove love isn’t just make-believe?
