Lead Story

Lead stories from SPR’s ever-growing independent book portal

Review: The Ishtar Cup (The Bart Northcote Series #1) by Murray Lee Eiland Jr.

★★★★★ The Ishtar Cup (Bart Northcote #1)

As far as private investigator novels go, there are certain expectations and traditional themes that seem to always pop up. There is usually a mysterious femme fatale, a gruff PI who marches to the beat of his own drum, and enough twists to keep a reader tearing through the pages.

In The Ishtar Cup, Book 1 of the Bart Northcote Series by Murray Lee Eiland Jr., some of these commonalities seem to appear almost instantly, but with a flavor all its own. While there is comfort in convention, this book also offers a different tone and a more […]

2020-12-23T05:49:06+02:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |

Review: Once Upon a Lie by Michael French

★★★★½ Once Upon a Lie by Michael French

In Once Upon a Lie, author Michael French takes a long, hard look at the binary universe in which we live – rich or poor, black or white, woman or man – and explores how those ideas change and grow within two young people on the cusp of adulthood. It’s a timely and powerful tale of race and love.

These two characters, Jaleel and Alex, couldn’t be more different than one another if they tried, and the early chapters paint starkly different portraits of their lives in the same overlapping bubble of a city. The marvelously detailed and […]

2017-04-04T10:24:10+02:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: Fire Thief Reborn (The Edge of the Known Book 4) by Seth Mullins

★★★★★ Fire Thief Reborn (The Edge of the Known Book 4)

Fire Thief Reborn is the fourth installment in Seth Mullins’ riveting Edge of the Known series. In previous installments, we’ve seen the band Edge of the Known struggle in obscurity and then shoot to stardom, told through the eyes of its artistic visionary, Brandon Chane. Brandon’s had his struggle in relationships, and with the artistic process, through it all. Success isn’t always an answer.

In Book 4, it’s seven years after the band’s rise to stardom. Brandon’s found the peace of an artist who’s said everything he needed to say, and reached a willing audience. He’s content, for perhaps […]

2018-02-16T11:46:10+02:00April 3rd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , , |

Review: My Kill Play: When a Virus Hijacked the Roller Derby by Tim Patten

★★★★ My Kill Play: When a Virus Hijacked the Roller Derby by Tim Patten

Roller derby, in its modern form, has been a cult phenomenon across the world. A thrilling and dangerous sport, it has evolved from childhood pastime to a spectacular arena of courage and cunning on-wheels. My Kill Play: When A Virus Hijacked the Roller Derby is a personal account of author Tim Patten’s experiences with the sport, as childhood hobbyist to professional, and the way his life and those around him changed throughout the late 20th Century during one of the most infamous first-world medical crises of the past forty years.

My Kill Play joins Patten’s previous publication, Roller Babes: […]

2017-03-31T11:44:57+02:00March 30th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |

Review: P.O.VEE (The Chronicles of VEE Book 1) by Denis Jay Klein

★★★★★ P.O. Vee by Denis Jay Klein

There are many things we disagree about here on Earth, but the fact that we are in a period of rapid technological advancement isn’t one of them. Human beings are doing things every day that would have seemed like something out of far-flung science fiction fifty years ago.

In the cleverly titled P.O.Vee by Denis Jay Klein, readers are flash-forwarded two decades into the future, when android technology is beginning to find its footing, and the first real attempts at artificial intelligence are being fleshed out. Klein is a masterful storyteller who paints the future in completely believable terms, […]

2019-04-29T12:16:52+02:00March 22nd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: The Diary of an Immortal (1945-1959) by David J. Castello

★★★★ The Diary of an Immortal by David Castello

In The Diary of an Immortal, author David J. Castello shows his skills as a wordsmith and creates an unforgettable narrative that looks at immortality from every possible side.

As a main character, readers can hardly ask for more from Steven Ronson, who begins as a hapless but heroic young man who stumbles upon something unimaginable – a formula that allows him to live forever. Readers are quickly taken away from the battlefields of WWII, but the fight is far from over. Ronson soon learns that chasing his every dream, without fear of failure or fatality, is not […]

2019-01-24T19:47:01+02:00March 1st, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: Don’t Go, Ramanya by Rush Leaming

★★★★½ Don't Go, Ramanya by Rush Leaming

Transporting readers to another world, a different time, or a new way of looking at things is the great task of an author, and in Don’t Go, Ramanya, author Rush Leaming does a marvelous job of doing all three. Packed with vivid descriptions and unique, unforgettable characters, this novel grabs readers within the first few pages.

The story centers on three men, Father Bob, Michael Shaw and Ramanya, an ex-rebel soldier from Burma, as they serendipitously join forces and attempt to smuggle Ramanya back into his home country. This simple premise goes far deeper, as Ramanya is also […]

2017-02-17T04:43:17+02:00February 3rd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: Detention Land (Book 1) by Susan Orion

★★★★ Detention Land (Book 1) by Susan Orion

Detention Land by Susan Orion is a wholly unique and affecting young adult novel about Roger Prism, who’s trapped in a prison of his own making. Roger keeps acting out at school, including drawing his teacher on a blackboard in permanent ink, which lands him in the strange zone dubbed Detention Land, in which a woman’s voice behind the wall probes Roger about his misdeeds. This limbo reflects Roger’s own mind, and his feeling of being trapped in his life, and he must come to a better understanding of himself if he’s ever going to be free of Detention […]

2017-02-17T05:40:52+02:00January 14th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |
Go to Top