Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Academy Award Winning Movies 1928-2020 by Diane Holloway Cheney

Author Diane Holloway Cheney celebrates her clear passion for cinematic history and keen skill as a researcher in Academy Award Winning Movies 1928-2020: How Movies Have Changed Through the Years. With a confident and knowledgeable pen, Cheney hosts a historic rundown of the legendary Academy Awards ceremonies, overflowing with backstage insights that will pull in any lover of the silver screen.

Ideal for movie lovers who like to have a bit more background info or even Hollywood gossip to inform the cinematic experience, this book connects the dots in movie history, without getting bogged down in too many of the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-03-15T01:31:57+02:00February 16th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: History, Hollywood|

Review: Your Little Big You Adventure by L. Owen Paxton

Author L. Owen Paxton delivers an uplifting and invigorating map for personal progress with Your Little Big You Adventure: The Secret to Discovering Your Enlightened Life. Drawing on ancient wisdom, philosophical traditions, and modern revelations regarding human psychology, this book encourages readers to live in their true identity by shifting their perspective to uncover their full potential.

Where this book veers away from traditional discussions about “enlightenment” is that it focuses on the enlightened self that already exists within each of us – our inner child, our most innocent self, our playful id. The idea is that within our […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-02-17T05:19:25+02:00February 16th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Self-Help|

Review: Sick as Our Secrets by Jim Christopher

The second title in the Utopian Testament series, Jim Christopher’s Sick as Our Secrets is an action-packed, white-knuckle blend of thriller and fantasy about an epic fight for the life of a boy with supernatural powers.

Hawk is a restrained and mysterious man, employed at Utopia Farms in the rural Texas countryside, a marijuana dispensary, which may be doing something shadier under the table. Hawk does what he can to keep the farm running smoothly, despite having to deal with inexperienced employees who are only in charge due to nepotism. Nearby, a strange woman named Irene and her disabled landlord, […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-02-15T07:52:53+02:00February 15th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy|

Review: Gloryland Reprise by Drew Signor

Take an entrancing journey through the wild and wickedly beautiful world of Arizona in Gloryland Reprise: Walking the Arizona Wilderness and the Spiritual Implications of Landscape, a touching ode to the road by author Drew Signor. Detailing dozens of mountain ranges, backcountry journeys, tiny towns, unexpected detours, and unforgettable characters along the way, this eclectic read is a testament to a windblown life well lived.

As Signor explains in the introduction, “In my imagination, all my roads are headed west,” and his years of yarn-worthy trips certainly follow that trajectory. Drawing on the tradition of great wanderers, and the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-03-09T08:45:55+02:00February 14th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Travel|

Review: FitzDuncan’s Enlightenment by John Spearman

Author John Spearman offers a whip-smart installment to his sword-swinging series with FitzDuncan’s Enlightenment, a savagely clever and entertaining adventure.

Still reeling from his last adventure with the broken nose and bruises to show for it, Casimir FitzDuncan plunges directly into his next job, one that will also involve Lucy, his “betrothed and beloved.” Caz’s reputation as a finder of lost things and a messenger of unusual retribution has spread to the highest halls of power in Aquileia, including the king, queen, and crown prince. Far superseding the status of his birth, they royally task him to accompany the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-03-08T09:30:40+02:00February 14th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Action and Adventure, Historical Fiction, John J Spearman|

Review: Beyond Sunlight by David Crane

A 29-year-old professional illustrator transforms into a vampire in David Crane’s Beyond Sunlight – an intelligent and inventive take on undead creatures of the night.

Melanie Brace is living comfortably in Manhattan when a chance encounter at a jazz club changes her life forever. She’s attracted to the bar’s featured musician for the evening, so she strikes up a conversation that ends with a startling premonition; Martin, the musician, claims that she has inoperable cancer and doesn’t have long to live. Melanie is, of course, startled and confused, and a doctor’s appointment reveals that Martin is exactly right. But how […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-03-07T11:20:27+02:00February 10th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: David Crane, Vampires|

Review: Tales of the Axis: The Hunter’s Prey by Justin Hui

Author Justin Hui catapults readers into a wild, humanity-filled galaxy in Tales of the Axis: The Hunter’s Prey, a character-driven thriller armed with clever sci-fi twists.

After centuries of tepid tolerance and extraterrestrial expansion, the United Commonwealth and the Valderian Empire are on the verge of historic trade agreements that could reunite the human race. However, when the Valderian emperor is killed in an explosion, Princess Adelia finds herself thrust into power, and dropped into a lion’s den of deadly manipulation and political maneuvering.

Adelia’s tragedies continue after being arrested by her father’s “best friend,” who alleges that she […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-03-04T08:24:34+02:00February 8th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera|

Review: The Ferryman’s Toll (Hourglass Book 2) by Daniel James

Diving even deeper into an elite criminal echelon of New York City, as well as the dubious powers of a shadowy government agency tasked to deal with supernatural threats, The Ferryman’s Toll by Daniel James is a raucous and action-fueled sequel to Hourglass.

Rose Hadfield’s Intensive Scare Unit and the rest of the Hourglass gang once again come to blows with the Cairnwood Society and their devilish ambitions. The creepy cabal isn’t snatching souls from the realms of Erebus this time around, but they are creating a murderous battalion of super-powered assassins, which sets the stage for some epic […]