Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Black River Chronicles: Level One by David Tallerman and Michael Wills

★★★★

Finding a unique angle in a new fantasy series can be difficult, and creativity remains the most important element in the genre. In The Black River Chronicles: Level One (Black River Academy Book 1) by David Tallerman and Michael Wills, readers are fortunate to find a brand new world filled with recognizable characters – or at least classes – and a heartfelt tale of growth and friendship. It’s a keen mixture of the familiar and the innovative.

For anyone who has ever played a role-playing game, the concepts of leveling up and choosing a class are very familiar, but […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-02-17T05:39:57+02:00November 27th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy|

Review: Winter (A Crow Creek Novel) by Thomas Drago

★★★★★

With the third installment of the Crow Creek series, author Thomas Drago brings yet another high-octane story arc to his fans. After the Red Queen has been brought down, Amanda Simmons has rebuilt Carolina Entech, the corporation that built alliances with Carolina Energy and even the US Army. Now she’s hoping to bring back a powerful nuclear air carrier by harnessing the power of the sun. But things are about to get very weird very quickly, and yet again Sheriff Gleason of Crow Creek is going to have a fight on his hands – with mortality, this time in […]

James Grimsby2019-01-22T05:45:35+02:00November 23rd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Horror, Paranormal, Thomas Drago|

Review: Molto Mayhem by Deanne Wilsted

Molto Mayhem is a romantic family-set story based around Lucia, freshly-returned to Tuscany from her new home in San Francisco, now hoping to spend time with her extended family, namely her slightly crazy aunt Christina and uncle Gianni, and a strange British guy called Aiden with whom she finds herself wandering dilapidated buildings in search of abandoned religious icons.

As in Eat, Pray, Love, the Italian flavor of this book lies in the crumbling herbs and baking of her uncle’s cooking, and the drifting beauty of the Tuscan landscape, and readers are going to find themselves salivating at the […]

Lysa Grant2019-02-11T09:20:27+02:00November 22nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Women's Fiction|

Review: Santa’s Rescue Dog (Super Speed Sam Book 5) by Monty J. McClaine

★★★★

Books have always had the power to bring families together, allowing parents to share powerful, memorable stories with their children. In Santa’s Rescue Dog, Monty J. McClaine adds on to his popular series of children’s book about Super Speed Sam, his family’s loyal basset hound. In the first four installments of the series, readers were introduced to Sam and saw his amazing super-speed abilities in action. No one in the family knows about these powers except for the youngest of the McClaine clan, Molly the baby, but these books actually function as a portrait of the author’s family, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T08:36:27+02:00November 8th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Children's Books|

Review: Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl

★★★★½

Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl is a stunning start to an exciting new series.

Time travel is a popular theme in fiction – YA and otherwise – and Blowback ’07 stands out immediately within the sub-genre for its original plot and charismatic heroes, Arky and Iris. The context of the story is revealed rather quickly, and we soon learn that Iris is in possession of a family heirloom – the Jongler cor anglais – a musical instrument with unknown powers that their mother left to the twins before she disappeared.

Arky and Iris don’t always get along very well, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-03-02T09:39:48+02:00November 6th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Brian Meehl, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Young Adult|

Review: Bridget’s Hanging by Sheila Duane

Bridget’s Hanging by Sheila Duane is the author’s presentation of the historical account of the life and times of Bridget Deignan (a.k.a. Durgan or Dergan) who was sentenced to hang in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1867. An Irish immigrant from a Catholic upbringing ousted from her home at the age of 22, she became a domestic worker for Coriell in 1866, and she would be charged with the murder of Mrs. Coriell the following year – a crime of which the local community would unerringly find her at guilt for, with or without substantial evidence.

The […]

James Grimsby2019-02-11T09:32:47+02:00October 11th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: History|

Review: Leading People Safely by James T. Schultz and Brian L. Fielkow

★★★★½

If you are interested in learning to better your leadership abilities, utilizing up-to-date safety methods in your working life, and looking to get an edge in your business, then Leading People Safely: How to Win on the Business Battlefield covers all the bases, and then some. James T. Schultz and Brian L. Fielkow introduce us to the world of safe and effective leadership in business through “safety culture” in their debut guide.

The two authors have close ties as co-managers of a waste management service and they’re long-time friends besides, however that is by no means their only claims […]

James Grimsby2016-10-12T04:12:42+02:00October 3rd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Business, Leadership|

Review: The Bulls of War (Chronicles of the Andervold Thrones Book 1) by E.M. Thomas

★★★★½

The Bulls of War, the first installment of E.M. Thomas’s sword-wielding epic Chronicles of the Andervold Thrones, follows friends Tyghus and Kyrus The Younger, as they find themselves falling onto the bloody blade of a war of empires and emotions. Vast in its conception, saga-like in its imagining, the dramatic realization of the battle will pull readers into its dense, murderous clutches as the two leaders must face a feat of endurance to test even the strongest of men.

While the genre of epic historical fiction serves somewhat to describe author Thomas’s writing, the description of this book as […]

Cate Baum2016-09-23T03:51:03+02:00September 22nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy|