Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Secondhand Sight by Rocky Leonard

Dan Harper has a lot on his plate. He’s a computer programmer for Quick Pay and there is a glitch that he has to repair for one of his company’s clients within a week. His pregnant wife is in the hospital after fainting and hitting her head. He has a tennis tournament for the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA), which is the biggest recreational tennis league in the world. He plays doubles and Dan and his partner are one step away from reaching the A-1 level. This level would allow them to compete with former touring pros and college players. […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T05:46:40+02:00September 17th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Paranormal Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: The Missing Portrait by Geraldine Glodek

The Missing Portrait by Geraldine Glodek tells the story of Mary Frances, her mother, five men, and Sharon, the young woman who may live today because Mary Frances had sex with four boys (she had expected three) in 1962 on the top floor of a former United Mineworkers building in a Pennsylvania coal town. The two omniscient narrators are rats, and they are adept at describing the towns in Pennsylvania and Maine, their people, history, and culture.

Mary Frances’ mother, Joyce, is obsessed with denying her daughter’s pregnancy, to the point of explaining that Mary Frances is missing one high […]

Elaine L. Orr2019-01-22T17:56:36+02:00September 14th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Vision by Galen Snowden & Cathy Newcomb

The young girl looked back and merely nodded. “Mommy, where do monsters live?”

“You mean like Elmo?”

“No, real monsters.”

“Honey, there’re no such thing as real monsters. They’re just make believe.”

“There are,” she insisted. Madi leaned in, spoke in hushed tones. “I just saw one.”

Galen Snowden and Cathy Newcomb introduce an unlikely heroine named Madrigal, Madi for short, in their paranormal novel Vision. She’s not a typical woman in her early twenties. She’s shy, doesn’t have a lot of friends, and doesn’t have a family around. She helps run an all-female indie record label with her […]

T B Markinson2014-05-09T21:49:38+02:00September 13th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Christian Fiction Book Reviews, Paranormal Book Reviews, Religious Fiction Book Reviews|

Ordinary Miracles by Krissi Marie McVickers

Some women get pregnant with little effort. Others, however, struggle with infertility issues and need an outlet for both their educational needs and to bond with others in a similar situation. Author Krissi Marie McVicker never imagined that in her 20s she would have trouble conceiving, especially because her twin sister did not. She connected with an online infertility message board for help and was guided toward in vitro fertilization (IVF).

McVicker soon learned that IVF, while offering hope, is no picnic, but a “terrifying, anxiety-ridden, alternate reality.” It involved complicated dosing schedules, numerous drug interventions, blood draws, and painful […]

BlueInk Review2020-02-21T05:36:34+02:00September 11th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|

Review: The Sylvan Song by Phin Scardaw

In The Sylvan Song, Phin Scardaw has created a magical world of truth seekers and those who wish to keep the truth hidden. Symna lives in the township of Galn, in Naulemn. Naulemn is one of the Nine Realms of the Rión, which were created by and remain magically connected by the now-vanished Sylphs. All are part of the imperial Olymphin.

Symna marries Valcomn after a dream told her Valcomn’s brother, Jono, was not her future. Jono disappears even before Valcomn and Symna fall in love, and years later returns with a music box made by the Mystics, and […]

Elaine L. Orr2014-05-09T21:54:23+02:00September 10th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: The Rogue Navigator by E. Steven Newby

E. Steven Newby’s The Rogue Navigator is an exemplar of a genre I’ve never encountered before. I guess you might call it YA Fantasy Space Opera. When one thinks of YA these days, naturally books like the Harry Potter series, the Twilight books, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy come to mind. And of course the Chronicles of Narnia are always hovering nearby. These are all fantasy of one form or another. When one thinks of Space Opera, works like Ian M. Banks’ Culture novels and Verner Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep (as well as less literary works like […]

John Sundman2014-05-09T21:55:40+02:00August 20th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: Small by Melissa Brown Levine

Small begins with A Portrait of Abuse, a marvelously written prologue that doubles as both a series of detached observations about the physical scars, called incidents, covering Ansar’s body and an intimate description of Ansar’s appearance. It’s one of my favorite prologues of all time mainly because it does a great job introducing Ansar, the self-destructive main character caught in the crosshairs of his parents’ battles, and the story’s abstract, sometimes poetic, tone.

Riana and Hoil, Ansar’s parents, have a very volatile and disruptive relationship. Their fights really are more like a never-ending series of battles. In spite of how […]

Tiffany Cole2014-05-09T22:01:10+02:00August 16th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Women's Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Forbidden by Tony Williams

As I started reading this book, I was struck by two things. One, this book has the look and feel of a James A. Michener novel; broad, sweeping, long, intricate, descriptive and not intended to be gobbled up in a few days. The second was the feeling of Roots in in its themes and content. I was taken back in time to before the black man was taken from Africa as slaves to a new land, through the process of slavery and adaptation and then to the present time. But this is no Roots, because this is not America.[…]