Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Persecution by Ray Keating

Once again peeling back the shadowy layers of international espionage, author Ray Keating drops another explosive installment of his Pastor Grant series with Persecution.

When videos surface of Christians being executed in Iran, the American government and its intelligence agencies refuse to sit idly by, but geopolitical sensitivity is required, which means covert operations – and a blessing from the pope himself. With his sixth sense for danger and his penchant for finding himself in the midst of it, Pastor Grant and the secretive heroes of CDM are a natural choice for handling a deadly and top-secret mission. Quietly […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-01-11T10:42:43+02:00December 3rd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: International Thriller, Ray Keating, Religious Fiction|

Review: Kidadkill by David Chick

Launching a scathing rebuke of the family law system in England, David Chick details his own harrowing battle against this secretive bureaucratic nightmare in Kidadkill: Spiderman of Tower Bridge.

More than 20 years ago, the author’s life was turned upside down when his relationship with his partner Jo began to break down. As an unmarried father to his beloved daughter Lauryn, he had very few rights to protect, house, and safeguard her. Instead, backed up by bogus claims of violence and abuse, Jo was able to control the narrative and prevent David from seeing his daughter for extended periods […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-01-09T13:45:09+02:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir, Parenting|

Review: How to Stop Thinking And Not Get Eaten by a Bear by Dogu Densei, PhD

Author Dogu Densei, PhD shatters the stuffy traditions of academic texts with How to Stop Thinking And Not Get Eaten by a Bear: The New Cognitive Behavioral Mind Training. A deep dive into the realities and mysteries of the human mind, from out-of-body experiences and OCD to meditation, psychiatric disorders, and daily mindfulness, this tome is both whimsical and wise.

Broken up into three main sections, the book broadly focuses on turning off your mind, learning how to control and manage your thoughts, and then exploring how to escape the natural boundaries of consciousness. As the title implies, the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-30T14:20:39+02:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Psychology, Self-Help|

Review: Earworms by Zack Duncan

Blending character-driven drama and hometown heartache with a psychological crime thriller, Earworms by Zack Duncan is an addictive spiral of visionary sci-fi storytelling.

A lucid-dreaming journalist with a penchant for digging up truths people want to keep hidden, Max Barker has returned home after many years to bury his father. He hasn’t seen his old friend Oren West in over a decade, but the now-famous case-cracking PI is at the funeral with an unusual request: Oren needs Max to operate an illegal memory-accessing device in order to locate a missing 16-year-old girl. Still reeling from the shock and grief of […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-12-23T14:21:20+02:00November 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction, Thriller|

Review: Temberlain’s Ashes (Age of Axion Book 2) by D.M. Wozniak

A bold and breathtaking piece of sci-fi imagination, Temberlain’s Ashes by D.M. Wozniak is a fantastic second installment of the Age of Axion series.

The adventure of Dem, Blythe, Chireseal, and Chimeline is far from over, as they seek to eliminate the cruel practice of voidance across the land. Through their practice of eleutheria, they can free the trapped souls enslaved by dark arcane arts, but convincing people to give up power is no easy feat.

The legacy of magical oppression and unchecked power lingers, particularly in a scarred realm trying to rebuild after the bloody war and the defeat […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-28T12:52:34+02:00November 25th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: D.M. Wozniak, Science Fiction|

Review: Soldier to Sojourner by Gordon Schwerzmann

Soldier to Sojourner: The Journal – Traveling on the 1970s Asian Hippie Trails is a compelling personal and historical travelogue of Gordon Schwerzmann’s time in the military and as a tourist in Asia.

Beginning with his stint as an Army officer in Korea in 1970 and continuing through civilian trips to Japan, Nationalist China, Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, and Burma, the book is a wild and varied trip through exotic locales. Schwerzmann, a photojournalist and travel writer, documents his experiences through detailed descriptions, historical discourse and extrapolated musings, recollections of people he met, and a wide range of photographs […]

SPR2023-03-20T16:58:22+02:00November 22nd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Gordon Schwerzmann, Memoir, Travel|

Review: The Noble Exiles (Ocean Black Book 1) by E.J. Wedge

Author E.J. Wedge plunges readers into the dark and unknown ocean of the future with his first novel, The Noble Exiles, the first installment of the Ocean Black series, a sprawling and visionary sci-fi debut.

Unknown centuries in the future, with Earth long ago abandoned, the scattered seeds of humanity have spread to dozens of other stars and planets across the galaxy. However, the details of how the interstellar Nation was finally united, and how the Forging War saved our species, may not be the true origin story of cosmic peace.

The tale is told largely from the perspective […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-28T11:22:48+02:00November 14th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: E.J. Wedge, Science Fiction|

Review: Derelict by Tracy Grogan

Author Tracy Grogan plunges readers into mysterious new depths with Derelict, the second book in the Divemaster Ricky Mystery series.

After taking a job as a dive instructor in Egypt, it doesn’t take long for the unshakeable Ricky Yamamoto to be caught up in another maritime mystery, when her job prospects literally blow up in her face. On top of that, the local authorities are far too occupied with civil unrest to properly investigate the disappearance of a fellow diver on her team. Unable to shake the feeling that her life has once again stumbled into something sinister, Ricky […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-10T12:45:40+02:00November 10th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Thriller, Tracy Grogan|