Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: Isabel and Siofra: The Heist of 2098 by K.D. Blackwall

Isabel and Siofra: The Heist of 2098

For an adventurous time travel tale for the middle-grade reader, look no further than Isabel and Siofra: The Heist of 2098, written by K.D. Blackwall with illustrations by S. Red Amparo and Oshred Art.

It’s the year 2115 and the first day of the new school year. Isabel (Izzy) Akilina and Siofra (CeCe) O’Malley meet on the hoverbus on their first day as fifth graders at Luna Elementary, located in Luna City on the moon. They’re both in Mr. Saladin’s science class, and during their first day in school both girls discover two important things. The first is that […]

Review: From Within the Firebird’s Nest by Sheldon Charles

★★★★ From Within the Firebird's Nest by Sheldon Charles

From Within the Firebird’s Nest by Sheldon Charles is a timely story of simmering grudges from the Cold War era carrying over into America’s conflicts with international terrorism.

The story centers around the Crimson Firebird Initiative, a secretive Soviet bioweapons program controlled by a rogue ex-KGB agent. The novel follows the efforts of Evan Davis, an American novelist, along with a former Stasi officer and various other intelligence agents, to stop the abandoned, but still deadly program from reawakening. Meanwhile, Abi, a genius Palestinian boy living in London, is also working to uncover the programs secrets, while at the […]

2019-05-03T11:04:16+02:00October 20th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: This Was Never About Basketball by Craig Leener

★★★★★ This Was Never About Basketball

Coming of age and basketball combine in Craig Leener’s thoroughly entertaining YA novel, This Was Never About Basketball.

Seventeen-year-old Ezekiel “Zeke” Archer lives and breathes basketball and has managed to land a full basketball scholarship to the University of Kansas…until an unsportsmanlike punch and a subsequent brawl gets Zeke and his two best friends, Curtis and Stretch, unceremoniously expelled and finishing high school at Ernest T. McDerney Continuation School, a purgatory for at-risk high school kids.

Worst of all, Zeke’s scholarship is withdrawn and his life is on a downhill slide – until he learns of a basketball […]

2019-10-30T10:01:53+02:00October 17th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Beloved Bone of My Bones-Rapturing Love by Myrline Pierre Fils

Beloved Bone of My Bones-Rapturing Love

In her debut New Adult novel, Beloved Bone of My Bones-Rapturing Love, Myrline Pierre Fils tells an engaging story of the complications that arise after love at first sight.

Anna-Marie Henry has been accepted to San Mollan University on a full scholarship, and she’s secretly thrilled to be leaving Boston and her domineering father behind for the warmer climes of California. What she doesn’t count on is falling hopelessly in love with a good-looking guy she fleetingly sees at the airport before boarding her plane for California.

Anna-Marie happily learns that her feelings are reciprocated when the same guy […]

2019-02-11T09:16:56+02:00October 16th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: The Court of Crusty Killings: A Captain Space Hardcore Adventure by Michael Ronson

★★★★ The Court of Crusty Killings

In the realm of the surreal, silly, and downright hilarious, The Court of Crusty Killings by Michael Ronson is an unexpected delight, packed with more tongue-in-cheek humor than one book should ever hold.

Captain Space Hardcore is a character torn from sci-fi pulp thrillers of an older age, but the sharp wit and unique personality of this unforgettable leading man makes him eternally contemporary. His manservant and sidekick, Ebeneezer Funkworthy is an equally entertaining complement to the heroic central figure, and their adventures are truly the stuff of a bizarre imagination.

The premise of Captain Space Hardcore – the […]

2017-11-29T07:49:02+02:00October 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Amballore Thoma by Jose Thekkumthala

Amballore Thoma by Jose Thekkumthala

Thoma and his wife Ann have a hard life, and many, many children, in a world that is also fantastically surreal. In Amballore Thoma by Jose Thekkumthala, fabulism twines with magic realism and surrealism as the poverty-stricken family meets werewolves, Chicken Little, Old Man Monsoon, an eight-armed woman, and more.

Throughout it all, the family’s talking fortune-telling parrot serves as the family conscience and clown. People come back from the dead in disguise, children eat each other, and each event moves as seamlessly as a description of Thoma’s spitting habits or the shape of the family’s apartment. Each chapter in […]

2019-02-11T08:49:54+02:00October 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Srepska by Lucas Sterling

★★★★ Srepska by Lucas Sterling

In a world ravaged by international turmoil and uncertainty for the future, author Lucas Sterling presents Srepska, an intense and politically charged novel that is both timely and terrifying.

Fredric is a German intelligence agent that becomes embroiled in the search for Srepska, a mysterious organization that is a cross between organized crime and a global cabal. Somehow this group is instigating chaos around the world, and taking advantage of the turmoil they create. Their name alone strikes fear in the hearts of those in power, but Fredric isn’t one to be cowed away from his duty. However, […]

2017-11-16T04:50:14+02:00October 11th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: CBT Worksheets for Anxiety (2nd Edition) by Dr. James Manning & Dr. Nicola Ridgeway

 CBT Worksheets for Anxiety

Dr. James Manning and Dr. Nicola Ridgeway once again provide their expertise on mental health in an update to one of their first books, CBT Worksheets for Anxiety. A revised manual, this book is an all-purpose guide to “CBT,” short for “Cognitive behavioral therapy.” This is a type of psychological therapy designed to alleviate anxiety, as well as other psychological issues.

CBT employs goal-setting and incremental, step-by-step rebuilding of unhealthy thought processes and problematic thought patterns, and is currently considered one of the most effective approaches to psychotherapy. This volume focuses on what benefits this approach can have for […]

2019-02-11T09:39:12+02:00October 2nd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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