Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: A Force of Nature by Dan McEwen

★★★½

A Force of Nature by Dan McEwen follows Canadian PR superstar, Claire Chandler, as she takes a long weekend in idyllic Bay Harbour. There she meets a number of mysterious and colorful characters. Most mysteriously, she’s shadowed by a ghostly white wolf and the victims of a murder, and she’ll soon solve a decades-old mystery, as well as get into a romantic tryst with enigmatic pilot and treasure-hunter, Tom Katz.

A Force of Nature is the type of book that works on a sentence by sentence level – McEwen is an interesting, eloquent writer who clearly loves his subject […]

Review: Momster by Laura Jensen-Kimball

★★★★½

Momster is a delightful and instructive children’s book about the value of listening and doing your chores – the main value is not turning your mom into a Momster: a screaming, clawing beast with cloven feet and a dragon’s tail.

In spirited rhyme, Momster begins with a boy standing in a playground warning the other kids about the terrible Momster. When his mom asks him to help with the groceries, “It didn’t sound important so I finished the cartoon- Mom called a few more times and then she barked like a baboon!” things escalate from there. Eventually the boy […]

Lysa Grant2016-03-04T03:58:06+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Children's Book Reviews, Parenting Book Reviews|

Review: Awaiting the Doomsday by Paul Slutsky ★★★

Awaiting the Doomsday is an alien invasion story with an intriguing premise: a second sun suddenly appears in the sky. Astrophysicist Alan Norton makes the discovery that the object has a trajectory unlike any planet. Norton, along with other worldwide scientific leaders from Russia and Japan, among others, is tasked with contacting the craft to understand its motives.

Obviously a civilization that could travel through space is highly advanced, and so potentially dangerous. Some just want to nuke the thing out of orbit immediately. Norton must stem the paranoia in order to save the human race from a self-created disaster.[…]

Henry Baum2020-05-06T03:47:35+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Apocalyptic Fiction Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Cold Beer and a Hot Dart by Brandon Wolfe

★★★★½

Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is the inspirational memoir by Brandon Wolfe as he travels from his comfortable home in Washington to the wilds of Australia, Polynesia and beyond, battling disease, cannibals, prostitutes, drug use, and other nefarious problems, as well as having the time of his life. A restless soul at heart, Brandon Wolfe is also a spirited storyteller, making Cold Beer at once a page turner and a moving meditation on finding your place in life.

Wolfe’s own summary of the novel is a very good indication of what you’ll find in the book:

Over a

[…]

Henry Baum2016-03-04T04:19:55+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Self-Help Book Reviews|

Review: Bully by Emme Dun

★★★★★

Bully, by Emme Dun is an intelligent and aptly-timed legal thriller.

Based on true events, Bully kicks off during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The discrimination and hysteria surrounding gay parents resulted in many being treated as second class citizens. By 2008, Joanna Crawford, now an elected family court judge wants to atone for her treatment of her own father, a gay man. Lisa White, a lesbian mother, finds herself in Crawford’s court and their children become political pawns.

First-time author, Emme Dun, has penned an important and fascinating legal thriller that will captivate […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T15:38:03+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Legal Thriller Book Reviews, LGBTQI+ Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Noble Warrior by Becca Ketelsleger ★★★★

Noble Warrior, by Becca Ketelsleger, presents a different take on the legend of the Knights of the Round Table.

When Aceline Grosipan’s father is arrested, the young woman masquerades as a knight in order to set her father free. Against all odds, she enters the masculine world and finds a new home serving the king who imprisoned her father. Over the years, she goes to war, experiences loss and heartbreak. She also discovers what it means to be brave and noble.

The author loosely bases her story around the legendary Knights of the Round Table. Fans of the old-fashioned […]

T B Markinson2015-10-27T09:01:18+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Novel Life of Coral Ambrose by Bonnie Ballou

★★★★½

The Novel Life of Coral Ambrose, by Bonnie Ballou, is a fun and imaginative magical realism story that will delight book lovers.

Coral Ambrose is a personal trainer by day and a voracious reader by night. On the surface, she seems content. But a five-year gap in her memories has spurred Coral to record every aspect of her life and to save every single book she’s ever read. Her apartment is filled to the max with books and journals. During a visit to a used bookstore, the owner gives Coral a messenger bag he claims will give her […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:20:33+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: L.A.’s Lost Soul by Dominic Ryan

L.A.’s Lost Soul is the engaging and spirited story about Dominic Ryan’s stay in Los Angeles from the U.K., while he spends seven months learning the ropes at an acting school. It’s an entertaining fish-out-of-water story exploring what it’s like to land in Hollywood with relatively little money, no contacts, and without even a place to live. It’s a pretty harrowing prospect, but Ryan faces it all with cheerfulness and optimism.

First, the title is a bit of a misnomer. “Lost Soul” suggests someone forsaken and unhappy, but that’s absolutely not the case for Ryan. He had his share of […]

Henry Baum2019-02-11T09:54:59+02:00October 5th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|