Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Love Yourself Love Your Life by A.P. Filosa, Psy.D.

Dr. A.P. Filosa is a licensed clinical psychologist based privately in Virginia, using and refining her techniques in the day-to-day operation of her therapeutic practice. She brings over 25 years of clinical experience to the table and incorporates every part of this into the composition of her book, Love Yourself Love Your Life, which aims to bring a revolutionary method of self-help to readers called “shattered analysis.”

Many of the core tenets of Filosa’s doctrine stem from longstanding traditional beliefs and practices in psychological health, to the degree that various claims and general references to scientific findings are rarely […]

James Grimsby2019-02-11T09:41:01+02:00June 16th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Self-Help|

Review: The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi Series Book 1) by Michael Pronko

Hiroshi Shimizu could be mistaken for one of any number of the faceless salarymen in Tokyo. With a stable desk job and a wage that gives all the small luxuries one can expect to enjoy from it, he can swallow his past regrets and the warm hazy memories of not so long ago. But Hiroshi isn’t just any old desk jockey; he’s a detective, specializing in white-collar crime – a serious problem with the inhumanly-efficient paperwork fever dream of modern Tokyo. And things are about to get a lot more complicated.

When Hiroshi’s mentor calls in a favor in investigating […]

James Grimsby2019-02-11T08:40:32+02:00June 15th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction, Michael Pronko, Noir|

Review: To Hair and Back by Rhonda Eason

★★★★½

A delightful romp through a woman’s head, the hair on it and the brain inside it, To Hair and Back is a life story told, as the author states, “one strand at a time.” In this well-conceived memoir based on Rhonda Eason’s now-overcome longing for what she saw as “perfect” hair, she demonstrates her artistic verve, cleverly aligning various stages of her life to the struggles behind the scenes with her uncooperative tresses.

African-American author Eason describes how her obsession with hair began as a girl growing up in the tough streets of Detroit. Her father was gone, and […]

Barbara Scott2021-10-15T07:09:07+02:00June 14th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir, Rhonda Eason|

Review: Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily

When Cassandra Patton Conover, a lone nature writer and conservationist, takes to the Maine wilds with her dog Pock into private grounds for good fishing, she discovers the body of her friend crushed under a tree. Confused by the circumstances of her friend’s death, she must now risk everything she cares about to uncover the mystery behind her untimely death in Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily.

Cassandra’s task isn’t so easy – she kind of dislikes people, and the politically motivated swarm descending on the issues of deforestation, resources, and the matter of extinct wolves finding their way back to […]

Naka Jackson2022-12-23T13:33:46+02:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Mystery|

Review: Come As You Are by Steven Ramirez

★★★★

If anyone discovers a source of mysterious power that can help solve all their problems, it is probably too good to be true. That is certainly the case in Come As You Are, a chilling YA horror novella from author Steven Ramirez.

When Ivan, an often-bullied seventh grader, finds a magical notebook in an old locker at school, he thinks that his middle-school years might be salvageable after all. The list that this notebook contains doesn’t necessarily make sense, but Ivan knows that he must complete the list if he wants to unlock the full potential of this […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-02-16T11:45:39+02:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror, Steven Ramirez, Young Adult|

Review: Federal Prison Handbook by Christopher Zoukis

There is a great deal of literature written about the prison system in the United States, and given that roughly 1 out of every 100 adult Americans will be incarcerated at some point in their lives, it is a subject that deserves attention. However, books written from the perspective of an inmate, about the detailed inner workings of life in prison, are far less common. In Federal Prison Handbook by Christopher Zoukis, no aspect of prison life is overlooked, making this a deeply compelling read for anyone who has ever wanted to learn more about life behind bars.

The book […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T09:50:00+02:00June 8th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Non-Fiction, Prison, Social Science|

Review: Intrinsic by Jerry Collins

★★★★

Jatara is a powerful and of course, beautiful and magical Kali-like goddess who can destroy men and cities in a moment. Her war of terror spans Ancient Greece, Egypt and the slaves of the Pyramids where her humble beginnings are revealed, to modern-day New York, with her dark magician son Kragon taking on the power of the nastiest demons to conquer all men, despite having a mortal, pregnant girlfriend.

Intrinsic, Book One of a series, follows various uber-evil superbeings through a vast amount of time, mostly following Kragon, a flawed antihero with magic skills who thrives on gore […]

Naka Jackson2017-06-14T06:04:41+02:00June 8th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy, Time Travel|

Review: Banged-Up Heart: Dancing with Love and Loss by Shirley Melis

★★★★½

Business and travel writer Shirley Melis experiences love and devotion for two amazing men in her life and suffers the loss of both in her poignant memoir Banged-Up Heart: Dancing with Love and Loss.

Honesty is the hallmark of this memoir, a paean to the best of relationships beset by the inevitability of death. Two years after the sudden loss of Joe, a fellow writer, political activist, and her husband of thirty years, Melis arranges to meet an old acquaintance and recent widower for a possible new start. She is urged on by a coterie of old friends. […]

Barbara Scott2019-01-22T11:33:30+02:00June 7th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir, Non-Fiction|