Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Andy Smithson: Blast of the Dragon’s Fury by L. R. W. Lee

Andy Smithson has never heard of the Land of Oomaldee and he has never met Imogenia. However, he’s soon to begin an adventure of a lifetime that involves both. Ten-year-old Andy has parents who are always harping about being respectful and responsible. Andy hates the lectures. It seems that’s all his parents do is lecture him when they aren’t too busy running their own companies. Fred and Emily Smithson are CEOs of multimillion dollar companies. His sister is Miss Perfect. Poor Andy is ignored most of the time by all of them, except when he’s in trouble. Andy’s father is […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T17:50:03+02:00April 30th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: YA Fantasy Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: The Dash by C.J. Duarte

Claire is a woman in trouble when she falls literally from a ledge into a black and white world in which she is oddly transparent, called Cloak Valley. She wakes up alone, not remembering anything but her name, when she meets the large and surly Art Rukin, who carries her off to meet the people of this strange and dull looking town.

First we meet the Smith (TM) family, a trademarked surname to go with the exacting nature of their flat existence, as well as an impossibly vast range of characters including various families and statesmen, such as a child-trading

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Cate Baum2014-05-19T21:25:20+02:00April 9th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Pest on the Run by Gerry Burke

Spoofs are a serious business in literature, particularly when murder is involved. Pulling off a send-up of hard-boiled detective and spy novels is like singing badly on purpose – it ain’t as easy as it looks.

This volume of fifteen short stories, the third in a related series by Australian writer Gerry Burke, provides the reader with everything the crime spoof genre has to offer. Burke’s writing style is terse, the read is quick and no one is bothered by any pesky Oxford commas in these fifteen short stories.

Our narrator is Patrick Pesticide, aka Paddy Pest, a self-referenced ‘discount […]

Lela Michael2014-05-06T22:28:20+02:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Elysian Fields by Mark LaFlaur

In the opening scene of this wonderful debut novel, a southern gothic that is at times comedic, at times heartbreaking, the protagonist, Simpson Weems, considers murdering his brother. We do not learn what Simpson ultimately decides until the end of the book. After the opening scene, the story becomes an extended flashback. Simpson spends the rest of the book dealing with the past, his own past and that of his family—pasts that are, as William Faulkner wrote and Simpson reminds us, never dead, not even past.

LaFlaur certainly pays his respects to Faulkner, and echoes of Flannery O’Connor can be […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-06T22:28:58+02:00April 5th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Cliff Of The Ruin by Bonnie McKernan

Will Teague is a NY lawyer on a new case from his out of town office – he is hired to search for the lovely Mae Kendrick’s husband – that she has no recollection of marrying.

But as he delves deeper into the case, he not only falls for the artistic Mae, but has to move the investigation to her homeland – Ireland. As they set sail for the emerald isle, strange visions and amnesia plague Mae, and when she also vanishes, Will is led by his feelings for her to a mysterious world of Irish mysteries, legend and magic, […]

Cate Baum2014-05-06T22:29:45+02:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith

The book by author Miles Anthony Smith reads as a meaty and backed-up book choc full of crafted points on business leadership – nothing I haven’t read before, but it was all here in one book and documented thoroughly. I didn’t really fully grasp his rendition of the Level 5 Servant Leadership doctrine (I think some explanation is needed further using the originators of this theory as examples such as Greenleaf or Collins – thankfully I am familiar otherwise would have been lost) but thoroughly enjoyed his “start stop continue” team instruction: telling your team where to stop, start and […]

Cate Baum2014-05-06T22:33:43+02:00March 5th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Religious Book Reviews|

Review: The Story Makers by Tamara Pratt

What would you do if your family blamed you for the death of your younger brother? Eden Mellor was 13 when her brother, age 3, died tragically. For three years she lived knowing that her mother and sister blamed her. The night Liam died, Eden can’t remember what happened. Deep down Eden knows she didn’t kill Liam, yet the accusations eat away at her. Three years have passed when the Story Makers invite her and Eden’s best friend, Cynthia, to audition to be the next big celebrity. The Story Makers dream-mine all of the candidates in search of stories for […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T17:50:33+02:00February 26th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, YA Fantasy Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: Guilty of Honour by Tony Mead

Ben Stone has mastered being at the wrong place at the wrong time. His worse instance of bad luck yet – being framed as the murderer of the regional magistrate’s son – is what puts the book’s main plot in motion.

The chase is an intense one. Dogs and men alike are hounding him, and to make matters worse, the weather is absolutely terrible. Even as Ben is running, he knows escaping will mean never seeing his aunt, uncle, and the girl he was falling in love with behind. Then again, it’s perhaps a good thing Ben got away from […]

Tiffany Cole2019-01-22T17:51:08+02:00February 25th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Men's Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|