Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Emboozlement (McCall & Company Book 3) by Rich Leder

Emboozlement is Rich Leder’s third novel in the excellent McCall & Company series. Kate McCall, an off-off Broadway actress has inherited her dad’s private investigator business, and now finds herself embroiled in a possible embezzlement scheme at a popular sports bar run by a former Major Leaguer, while somebody is murdering lawyers – who may just be her father’s killer – and somebody is letting her know about the murders ahead of time.

Meanwhile, Kate might be falling for the ballplayer, and also meanwhile he might just the one committing the embezzlement. As always, Leder provides a uniquely entertaining page-turner […]

Henry Baum2019-02-11T08:40:58+02:00September 15th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction, Rich Leder|

Review: Rented Souls by Eirik Moe Dahll-Larssøn

★★★★½

What if all the ghost stories and paranormal events that happened in the world weren’t the result of hoaxes and overactive imaginations? What if otherworldly events and creatures do exist, but science simply hasn’t advanced to the point of understanding what they are? This is the reality posited by Eirik Moe Dahll-Larssøn, the author of Rented Souls, an intensely amusing and clever novel about a world where the things that go bump in the night are actually there.

In a scenario where paranormal believers are not only taken seriously, but represent the majority of the population, a decent […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-08-01T10:23:29+02:00September 15th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Eirik M. Dahll-Larssøn, Paranormal, Speculative Fiction|

Review: Theologia by Stephen Pippin

A thought-provoking examination of major Christian tenets, Theologia by Stephen Pippin presents creative arguments for belief in Biblical truth.

The title means “the study of God,” and as author and evangelist Stephen Pippin reminds us numerous times, there was a time when he himself did not study God. He felt that heaven, for example, would not be “cool” because it disallowed sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But his life changed in the light of his understanding of the Bible and its teachings.

Two central points are presented in this treatise: only the story of Jesus has ever been historically […]

Barbara Scott2019-02-11T09:44:56+02:00September 14th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Religion|

Review: Maddie & Sayara by Sanjyot P. Dunung

Maddie and Sayara meet the way many new friends do – enjoying their vacations. After their time together on the water slides and in the swimming pools, however, they return to vastly different worlds.

Maddie lives in an open society where the government does not enforce severe dress and behavioral restrictions. Sayara’s home, the Kingdom, denies women the right to choose their own clothing or drive a vehicle. Everywhere Sayara goes, she must be accompanied by a man. Sayara’s vacation is, in fact, cut short after her cousin is arrested for daring to drive. Maddie struggles to understand the differences […]

Mindy Hood2019-02-11T08:51:02+02:00September 13th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: International Fiction, Young Adult|

Review: Stalker, My Love by Zack Scott

★★★★½

Small towns often provide the best settings for thrillers, as they are rife with secrets, suspicions, old grudges and hidden motivations. The process of watching detectives and suspects roil around in the same intimate space makes for high drama and excellent character development, as is the case in the excellent Stalker, My Love by Zack Scott.

In this cozy mystery, we see a town turn on some of its own, desperate for answers, in the search for a missing girl: Rosalyn Ray. Readers are first introduced to Rhett and Rosalyn in a strange way – during a confrontation where […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-09-15T12:55:31+02:00September 13th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Thriller|

Review: Island of the Assassin by Joseph Roccasalvo

★★★★½

Most people don’t see a moral gray area when it comes to killing other human beings, but there are certain evils in the world that must be eradicated, whether or not the public is told about it. There are also those shadowy figures in our government’s Rolodex, agents who operate in the darkness, doing what “needs” to be done to protect their country.

In Island of the Assassin by Joseph Roccasalvo, loyalty, morality, and abstract ideas of the greater good collide in a stunning and revelatory novel about the fuzzy edges of good and evil.

Kai Landrie is a […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-09-25T08:36:31+02:00September 7th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller|

Review: Native Girl Rites by Indigo Cox

Tragedy and loss are inescapable, especially for women at the bottom of the social pecking order, which is movingly portrayed in Native Girl Rites by Indigo Cox.

Mari is no stranger to pain. She lost her mother, a nurse, to a botched procedure after the color of her skin and gender forced her into an inescapable position. Her grandmother passed down native traditions to give her strength as a woman. Her father offered safe abortions so no one else in their town would have to grieve such as senseless loss, as he had. But Mari’s grandmother passes on, and her […]

Mindy Hood2019-02-11T09:20:42+02:00September 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction|

Review: Incognolio by Michael Sussman

★★★★½

For readers who are eager to have their imaginations shattered into a thousand pieces, this bizarre and fascinating novel by Michael Sussman is sure to please. Incognolio, both the title of this novel and the ultimate goal of anyone trying to shed their conscious mind, is a strange journey with unreliable narrators who seem to be having a perpetual identity crisis.

From the very first page of this novel, you can tell that the read will be an unusual one to say the least. The subtle style of writing in surreal details, or breaking the fourth wall of […]