John Staughton, Senior Reviewer | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Veinbound by Anne Pengelly

Hauntingly epic prose and one fierce firebrand of a protagonist make Veinbound: The Red Bargain by Anne Pengelly a must-read novel for fans of thought-provoking dark fantasy.

In a realm where blood can be burned as magical currency, paying one’s debt is a matter of life and death, and the Red Church always comes to collect – desperate to control the wielding of all sanguinary powers. Nyxa Reddane has been an orphan from birth, raised by a hedge priestess who taught her the workings of blood rites, simple healing spells, and how to eat the sins of the suspicious townsfolk […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-23T16:05:39+02:00September 4th, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Before We Arrived by Jodie Pine

An intimate and tangled novel that delicately dissects grief and the difficulties of healing, Before We Arrived by Jodie Pine is a nuanced and emotionally charged character-driven drama. In a time-leaping web of interlinked memory, three people seek redemption after bearing more than their fair share of inherited hardship and systemic trauma. Rivka’s compulsive compassion, Henry’s quiet isolation, and Jayce’s haunted history are gradually unraveled as their unfiltered stories overlap across space and time. From radical empathy and epigenetics to internalized racism and mental health epidemics, this generation-spanning story explores a range of existential turning points and contemporary crises with […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-04T14:19:08+02:00September 4th, 2025|Categories: Editorial Reviews|

Review: You Don’t Have to Be Famous to Write a Memoir by Stephen Mark Silvers

The uncut account of a life well and truly lived, You Don’t Have to Be Famous to Write a Memoir by Stephen Mark Silvers is a free-wheeling testament to the unimportance of age and the timeless power of remembrance.

Beginning with over a dozen adoringly detailed chapters about each of his relatives, Silvers invites readers into the inside jokes, unforgettable anecdotes, and unwavering devotion of his family, from his first meeting of Grandma Bertha in Venice Beach to his sister’s theatrical passions and his father’s noble nature. Beyond painting a vivid picture of the people and places who raised him, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-22T11:09:30+02:00September 4th, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: The Mystery of the Scroll by Ann Beltran

Two intellectual lovers with very different minds become tangled with the unexplained wonders of the universe in The Mystery of the Scroll by Ann Beltran, a heady ride through science, spirituality, and the unknowable past.

On his way to start working as a lab technician at the Smithsonian, Jeremiah stops by his old Joshua Tree stomping grounds during a cross-country trip with his anthropology PhD partner, Sunny. Returning to the site of an unforgettable discovery from his childhood, the pair uncover an inexplicable artifact: a rawhide pouch containing an impossible treasure from the past.

As they settle into their new […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-19T08:21:05+02:00September 3rd, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: A Necessary Death by Terri Karsten

Immersive, clever, and impeccably detailed, A Necessary Death by Terri Karsten is a charming historical mystery with a healthy dash of pastoral romance.

Freshly widowed and left penniless by her seafaring husband, Penelope Corbitt is heading towards a new life in colonial Boston with her two children – 16-year-old Nabby and young Nathaniel. On the journey north, however, accompanied by her dour brother-in-law, a stagecoach accident diverts them to a roadside tavern, where Penelope promptly finds a dead man in the outhouse.

Miles Turner, the gruff innkeeper, constable, and a fellow widower, may not appreciate Penelope’s presumptuous nature, but her […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-17T17:56:13+02:00September 2nd, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Cozy Mystery Book Reviews, Mystery Book Reviews|

Wonderment Within Weirdness by Jaime David

A sci-fi screed with hidden wisdom amongst the madness, Wonderment Within Weirdness by Jaime David is an unfiltered and electric stream of imagination.

When James abruptly dies in a landmine explosion, he not only wakes up in Heaven, but immediately finds himself in a breakneck journey across multiple timelines and unknown universes. From a heist in hell to steal a God-killing gun to unraveling paradoxes in the midst of school shootings, this book is a wild-eyed spree of multiversal hijinks, not to mention demons, portal guns, and saving the human race from multiple agents of destruction.

Despite the feeling of […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-09-02T13:50:20+02:00September 1st, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Joedan II by Matthew Rossignol

A medieval adventure from a distinctly modern voice, Joedan II: A Different Path by Matthew Rossignol is the bold next chapter of an original rags-to-regal trilogy. Still recovering from his heroic exploits to save Amelia from the Count’s sinister clutches, Joedan is plunged into the fire of a soldier’s life – quashing rebellions, investigating conspiracies, and losing loyal allies to rampant violence. As romance blurs with the line of duty, Joedan must navigate the cutthroat players of the court to protect both the woman he loves and the duchy he calls home. The informal style and linguistic slang are somewhat […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-08-29T11:15:07+02:00August 29th, 2025|Categories: Editorial Reviews|Tags: Boost|

Pnĕumä: The Celestial Beings Trilogy by Eli Liszt

A forbidden romance between a spiteful warrior and a mesmerizing mortal threatens the delicate balance of races on Earth in PNĔUMÄ by Eli Liszt.

Jovianus Moreau may be the future leader of the five tribes of Celestial Beings living in delicate, hidden harmony among humans, but that doesn’t prevent this freshly graduated loner from falling fast and hard for the entrancing Simone. Their deepening connection could mean a death sentence for them both, but his obsessive desire for such a lesser being forces him to reexamine every unfounded belief he once held about mortals. Through heartbreak, betrayal, and separation, their […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-08-29T11:18:10+02:00August 29th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Romance Book Reviews|