Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Empire Paladin: Realm of the Dead by M.S. Valdez

Author M.S. Valdez delivers a staggering read with Empire Paladin: Realm of the Dead, the first book in a longer series that promises to be a dark delight. Set nearly eight centuries in the past, during the sinister and sacred times of the Holy Roman Empire, this is an epic tale of nobility and magic, salvation, justice, the end of the world, and everything in between.

Seated firmly at the center of this sweeping novel, with reins and warhammer in hand, is Lady Camila Chastaine, a paladin in service to the Empire, who takes her God-given task very seriously. […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-06-05T04:29:37+02:00April 28th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy|

Review: Thomas Gomel Learns About Bullying by Shirley McLain

Author Shirley McLain unpacks the complicated issue of bullying and the psychological impacts it can have in Thomas Gomel Learns About Bullying.

Written for a younger audience, ages 10 and up, this book tells the story of a young boy who has been suffering the torments of an older bully for years, and it goes on to explore how these seemingly simple schoolyard actions can have far-reaching effects, impacting mental health in the young, as well as long-term behavioral patterns in adults.

Thomas Gomel is like many other students, trying to fly under the radar during his awkward years, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-02-28T08:01:51+02:00April 25th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Bullying, Children's Books, Shirley McLain, Social Science|

Review: The Freedom Building by Martin Kendall

Author Martin Kendall delves into a tangled and untrustworthy mind in the unsettling psychological thriller The Freedom Building. A plot that keeps you guessing overlays a much deeper exploration of memory, repression, and identity in this mind-bending read.

John Gowan is an ambitious British architect with big dreams, but little chance of winning the contract for the new building to replace one attacked by terrorists. After visiting the future site and doing a bit of dreaming, he gets in a car accident, only to wake up the next day to find that more than three years have passed.

More […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-04-11T09:34:05+02:00April 19th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Psychological Thriller, Thriller|

Review: Colors by J.M. Ferreira

Colors, J.M. Ferreira’s stunning literary debut, paints a startling picture of race and sexual discrimination in a not-so-distant future Hawaii.

The year is 2026. Thirty-six-year-old Pualani “Pua” Kahahawai is an educated native Hawaiian living in the shadow of her older brother, Kalani, the “jailbird sovereignty messiah of the Kahahawai clan,” now doing 30 years in state prison. Having lived the first half of her life in a tent on the beach, Pua now lives in an old plantation-style house with her parents, her aunty and her aunty’s son and wife, and their son. Her father is confined to a […]

Marta Cheng2020-04-17T04:57:16+02:00April 16th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction|

Review: The Truth Within: A Humanist’s Memoir by Leonard M. Cachola

Author and artist Leonard M. Cachola has composed an emotive exploration of life’s vicissitudes in his engrossing memoir, The Truth Within.

Son of a hotheaded, alcoholic, and often abusive father and a calm and mostly forgiving mother, Cachola found solace in the fantasy worlds of arcade gaming and comic books. He created pictures at an early age, ran a cartoon strip for his college newspaper, and eventually launched a laudable career in graphic arts. As he sought balance in his life, he pursued diverse hobbies that included autocross racing, dancing, and photography.

His girlfriends ranged from the rather raunchy […]

SPR2020-06-03T04:26:27+02:00April 15th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir|

Review: Memloots: The Exposition by Francis O’ Joseph

Author Francis O’ Joseph immerses readers in a sci-fi world that looks oddly similar to our own in Memloots: The Exposition. Tapping into philosophy, religion, agricultural practice, economic theor,y and sociology, while still maintaining an air of whimsical adventure, this is a YA novel brimming with creativity and potential.

Philo Heartfield is like so many other young people on the planet Petrichor: studying hard and aspiring to earn a spot at a prestigious university. He dreams of traveling to Maraville, the home world of the intelloyds, outer-space philanthropists who have transformed his home into a thriving, livable planet.

Ringed by […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-06-02T07:30:23+02:00April 14th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction, Young Adult|

Review: Garden of Locusts by J.T. Ruby

A vicious murderer, two twin boys, and a determined sheriff swirl at the center of Garden of Locusts, a gripping new novel from author J.T. Ruby. In the pressure cooker of small-town Alabama in the 1970s, this family drama is a sweeping Southern epic that embraces everything from young love and parental loss to fraternal conflict and institutionalized racism.

Ben and Owen Hood are twin brothers trying to find their own ways in the world, deeply connected but also vastly different. Simon Singleton is a detective now sheriff from across the pond whose nose for serial killers and penchant for […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-04-14T10:25:15+02:00April 13th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: J.T. Ruby, Thriller|

Review: The Meaning of Life by Nathanael Garrett Novosel

A professional researcher has considered and compiled data from various fields to create a goal-oriented exploration of life’s meaning in the informative and impassioned The Meaning of Life: A Guide to Finding Your Life’s Purpose.

At the outset of the comprehensive tome, author Nathanael Garrett Novosel offers a “Pre-Book Assessment,” allowing the reader to rate his/her current “ability to derive meaning from life,” with a simple analysis of the resulting rating. He propounds that no important information about how to live can come from one of our most basic questions: How did life come to be? Instead, we should […]

SPR2020-04-14T11:06:40+02:00April 12th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Nathanael Garrett Novosel, Self-Help|