Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

A Journey with Panic by Dr. James Manning & Dr. Nicola Ridgeway

A Journey with Panic: With the Latest Advice on How to Stop Panic Symptoms Using CBT is one of the latest of a series of books by Dr. James Manning and Dr. Nicola Ridgeway that aims to use the principles of CBT – cognitive-behavioral therapy – in self-help guides to various common problems, both in normal day-to-day experiences and for those who suffer from more severe symptoms. CBT is a therapeutic approach that asks those taking part in it to self-examine, self-confront, and address their bad habits, thoughts, and behaviors in hopes of setting their minds and habits to a […]

Review: Constant Guests by Patricia Nedelea

★★★★½

Isa would probably say she’s your average girl. Maybe it’s wishful thinking – with all the turbulence in her home and personal life, it’s easier to drown herself in the party scenes of Paris. Too bad for Isa the unusual circumstances of her birth come crashing into her life as her biological mother – the one she only just found out about, no less – dies in front of her without a word.

Confronted with some uncomfortable truths, the unusual event urges Isa to find more, and into a mystery that her mother was willing to die to solve, […]

Naka Jackson2016-08-17T04:47:29+02:00August 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: The Cherry House by C.J. Carlyon

★★★★½

Austen Soren is a young girl – a woman, really – returning home to the scenic valley that her and her sister once grew up in together. Now, with her sister Bronte getting married, Austen is made to face the one thing she hasn’t found in her months of travel: love. All around her – friends, family, neighbours – seem to be getting lucky, at least, but not Austen.

But not for long, when the well-off inheritor of the local estate, Cashel Drai, crosses paths with the unassuming Austen, and with a little push, Austen realises what they’ve all […]

Naka Jackson2016-09-07T07:35:00+02:00August 12th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Romance Book Reviews|

Review: The Hotel Westend by Ashley Lynch-Harris

★★★★

The Hotel Westend by Ashley Lynch-Harris is a classic mystery with plenty of twists.

With eccentric characters, an historic hotel with its fair share of secrets, and an innocent ingénue with a good dose of curiosity, The Hotel Westend is a slow-boiling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end. In the beloved style of Agatha Christie and other British suspense classics, this murder mystery pays homage to the genre in an impressive way.

The gradual introduction of the characters – all heading for the same destination for an unknown reason – has the same slow pacing […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2016-08-12T11:38:35+02:00August 11th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Cozy Mystery Book Reviews, Mystery Book Reviews|

Review: Family Business by Colin Beckett

★★★★★

Family Business: An Outer Banks Crime Mystery by Colin Beckett is a grim, thrilling mystery.

From this book’s cold-blooded opening, readers know that they’re in for a story told by a master of suspense. The patient, calculating and terrifying style that Colin Beckett puts on display in Family Business is unique and chilling, making it nearly impossible to put it down.

When a mysterious serial killer strikes fear in the heart of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, it will take two men to ferret him out from his horrific hole and bring him to justice. Sheriff Martin Tate and Paul […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2016-09-06T05:20:35+02:00August 9th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: The Muses: Vengeance of Time by N.L. McEvoy

★★★★

The Muses: Vengeance of Time is the sequel to N.L. McEvoy’s Escaping Montague Manor, following Sarah and Nickolas McGuire on another harrowing adventure with the mystical muses. This time, Sarah and Nickolas aren’t as intent on escaping their Great-Aunt Vivian’s clutches as they are on reentering them.

When the children’s cousin, Simon, comes down with a mysterious and excruciatingly painful illness, they have no choice but to contact the powerful muses, whom they had previously freed from the machinations of their evil great-aunt and her benefactor, Dr. James. With the diplomatic Brigitta, herculean Bard, stoic Deidre, clandestine Charles, […]

Dakota Kemp2016-09-05T10:28:27+02:00August 8th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: Rubber Match by Marcus Cootsona

★★★★

There is a clear line between comic fiction and intelligent social satire, and Marcus Cootsona’s novel, Rubber Match, treads a careful dance between the two, providing an entertaining narrative, but never letting readers forget that they are enjoying the handily crafted prose of a witty wordsmith. Peppered with clever modern allusions and sharp rhetoric, the novel is a smart, savvy, tongue-in-cheek work of fiction. Cootsona knows his audience and plays to the crowd, moving slowly at times, but always with a feeling that things will soon get uniquely interesting.

Following a few brief, tennis-heavy chapters, Wally, an ex-tennis […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-01-22T15:31:55+02:00August 4th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Humor, Satire Book Reviews, Sports Book Reviews|

Review: The People’s House by David Pepper

★★★★

The idea of corruption in government is hardly a novel thought, and it has been tackled from every imaginable angle, but in these hyper-charged modern times, a bit of escapism to an even more tangled world can be a treat. In The People’s House by David Pepper, an unlikely reporter has one final shot at a career-making scoop, and a chance to save democracy in this generation.

The familiar scene of a campaign reporter, Jack Sharpe, drinking himself silly at bars and feeling dissatisfied with the state of the political world eases readers into the tone of the story […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2016-08-24T05:28:34+02:00August 1st, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Political Thriller Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|