Midwestern Strange chronicles B.J. Hollars’s exploration of the mythic, lesser-known oddities of flyover country. The mysteries, ranging from bipedal wolf sightings to run-ins with pancake-flipping space aliens to a lumberjack-inspired “Hodag hoax,” make this book a little bit X-Files , a little bit Ghostbusters , and a whole lot of Sherlock Holmes . Hollars’s quest is not to confirm or debunk these mysteries but rather to seek out these unexplained phenomena to understand how they complicate our worldview and to discover what truths might be gleaned by reexamining the facts in our “post-truth” era. Part memoir and part journalism, Midwestern Strange offers a fascinating, funny, and quirky account of flyover folklore that also contends with the ways such oddities retain cultural footholds. Hollars shows how grappling with such subjects might fortify us against the glut of misinformation now inundating our lives. By confronting monsters, Martians, and a cabinet of curiosities, we challenge ourselves to look beyond our presumptions and acknowledge that just because something is weird, doesn’t mean it is wrong.  

An exhilarating, primal summer fling reveals an intensely sexy, edgy romance, where anything goes in the woods—just remember your safe word.Post-divorce and buried in student loan debt, Claire Collins eagerly enters a spicy business agreement with an acquaintance who wants to explore his primal desires. The deal is simple—thirty days as his sexual prey, $30,000 in her bank account. All she has to do is give Shane Underwood the hunt of his life.Claire’s a physical education teacher and perfectly happy to spend her summer having wild, kinky sex instead of working her usual serving job. But once they cross the tree line, she realizes how little she knows about the corporate lawyer paying her to be his prey.Shane is different in the woods. Brutal. Devastating. Feral.That’s okay with Claire—she is, too. And she’s sinking her teeth a little deeper into Shane’s heart every time he catches her.

Welcome to Taurus Ranch, where the romance is high-heat and heartfelt, and the cowboys are cow men. Broke, jobless, and surrounded by exes and friends I’m pretty sure don’t actually like me, I’m at my wits’ end. So when I get a call that my estranged grandma died and gave me half her guest ranch, I do the only logical thing—pack up my entire life and move across the country to a place I haven’t been since I was six. Reckless? Absolutely. In my defense, I have nothing to lose. Or so I thought. Turns out that the ranch has seen better days and needs a miracle to bring it back to life. To make matters worse, Cal, the grumpy minotaur who got the other half of the ranch, seems determined to make my life a living hell. Too bad for him, I’m as stubborn as the ranch’s namesake. This is my chance to start over and find a place where I belong, and I won’t give up because some rude, annoyingly hot cow man thinks I’m not good enough. As we learn to work together, stern glares and cutting barbs give way to lingering glances and flirty banter. But wanting Cal is far more dangerous than hating him. My heart can’t handle being tossed aside by yet another man, and I refuse to run away from what I’m building. But when he puts his hat on my head and calls me “darlin’”, how am I supposed to resist him? Cowboy rom com meets monster romance in this sweet and spicy story of a fish out of water human FMC trying to rediscover her roots and the experienced minotaur rancher MMC who can’t lose the only place he’s ever called home. Expect witty banter, a grumpy x sunshine slow burn that still packs plenty of heat, and a colorful cast of characters that will have you wanting to revisit the ranch again soon!