I work part time in a small, independent bookstore, and when we kept selling out of a book called “Theo of Golden” Naturally, I grew curious, because I’m always interested in what book clubs are reading. I heard through the grapevine that the author had originally self-published the novel in 2023 and it sold so many copies through grassroots marketing that eventually it was picked up by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2025. Knowing how hard it is to publish a novel and get people to read it, never mind attracting the attention of a Big 5 publisher, I requested the book from my library. After a seven-week-long wait, it arrived…