The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review
Review: Between Midnight and Morning by Beverly Mitchell Dodd
★★★★½ 
Between Midnight and Morning, by Beverly Mitchell Dodd, is a hard-hitting women’s fiction novel that explores the dichotomy between personal freedom and family obligations and traditions.
When Lena turns eighteen, she leaves her home, her father and sister, and their church and religious beliefs. In her new life she meets Cos, she marries young, and has her son, Nathan, soon after. However, she can’t escape her painful past. Years pass and then something terrible happens. Lena and Nathan move back home, and she feels trapped in the past and present. Will she be able to pull herself out […]
Brothers in Arms by Jack O’Riley follows a group of friends who spend a lot of time drinking (and drinking and drinking) who takes their antics too far and end up violently beating up a husband and wife with a pious vanity plate. The victims of the crime are then pegged as snobs as the small band of misfits then become a major phenomenon in the Twin Cities, and the city is plunged into a debate about the nature of crime and punishment.
Alfred Woollacott didn’t have to look too far from home for an idea about a novel. He turned to his own family tree to find inspiration. While The Immigrant: One from My Four Legged Stool is historical fiction, it’s about his ancestors during the 1600s. His imagined account not only seems plausible, but is a wonderful and enthralling read.
Everything I Know About Zombies, I Learned in Kindergarten by Kevin Wayne Williams follows 9-year-old Leticia leading a terrified band of elementary school students through the perils of a zombie apocalypse. As the promo materials make clear: this is emphatically not a book for 9-year-olds. However, for adults, and perhaps young adult readers, it is a stellar addition to the zombie genre, at once page-turning and lyrical.
A Better World, by Belangela G. Tarazona, is a difficult, but uplifting, read about three women who have to endure harsh realities.
Billed as a “fresh retelling” of the classic book The Phanton of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, Caridad Martin has tapped into the public domain treasure trove and settled on adding to the overflowing list of Phantom “adaptations” available online.
Venus Lionheart: The Witch and The God by Dino Costi is an action-packed Young Adult fantasy novel.
It’s Like Here Only Better by Robin Landry is a telling of real events of a lost son whose inspiring messages from the afterlife continue to give his family and friends hope and comfort about his unexpected and devastating fate.