Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: A Rakista’s 90s Mixtapes by Danna Rose

Author Danna Rose delivers a spot-on dive into the struggle of teenage life in the Philippines with her first novel, A Rakista’s 90s Mixtapes. What begins as a youthful fling of garage band aspirations becomes the real deal, with real consequences, record deals, broken hearts, and a surprising number of dramatic twists.

Evie is like many other protagonists of heartfelt coming-of-age novels, but also incredibly unique, accurately referenced as an “odd boy.” The foundational loss of her father shapes her character in countless ways, most obviously her obsession with all things related to music. How that love and loss are […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-14T18:00:38+02:00August 5th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Coming Of Age, Music, Young Adult|

Review: A Disturbing Nature by Brian Lebeau

A deep, character-driven mystery, A Disturbing Nature by Brian LeBeau is a patient maze of a novel, leading readers on a grim journey through suspicion, murder, and obsession.

Mo is a quiet and mysterious young man with a mind that never caught up to his impressive size, and a lifetime of taunts and tragedies that never leave him. Even as he starts a new chapter at Bryant College as a groundskeeper, where for the first time “independence is not equated with exile,” the jagged pieces of his past are impossible to leave behind. Unfortunately, new surroundings don’t mean an end […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-08-05T05:38:04+02:00August 4th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Mystery, Thriller|

Review: Dreamslayers by J.W. Webb

J.W. Webb weaves a masterful standalone fantasy with Dreamslayers, the newest installment in the expansive Legends of Ansu series. Spinning the worlds of two master warriors into a deadly orbit, this story immerses readers in an unstable world of magic, ever-changing allegiances, power struggles, and the mystical pull of destiny.

When Tulomon Caze suddenly reappears in his daughter’s life, desperate and damaged, the pair must go into hiding from a host of sinister enemies. The powerful Yanturi has eradicated their family and seized their land and possessions. This deadly coup is only the beginning, as there are other powers […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-08-01T05:24:46+02:00August 1st, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy, J.W. Webb|

Review: The Mime by Tommy Tutalo

The Mime by Tommy Tutalo is a fantastical middle-grade story about finding the power in your voice.

Eleven-year-old Florina is a neurodiverse girl living in Mexico, who will not speak, as she struggles to find a place in the ordinary world while taking refuge in her own wonderfully imagined one she draws in her precious sketchbook. With exquisitely inked illustrations by Mexican artist María Gabriela Guevara Sánchez showing young readers Florina’s adventures throughout, Tutalo has created an appealing narrative with fully imagined characters and motivations.

Florina lives in Oaxaca with her guardians the Mochados, who own the ramshackle Indigo theater, […]

SPR2022-09-13T11:53:33+02:00July 22nd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy, Middle Grade Fiction, Tommy Tutalo|

Review: 2048: Demockracy (The Covid Chronicles) by Peter Moore

Author Peter Moore launches an entertaining series of standalone novels set three decades in the future with 2048: Demockracy, the starting point of The Covid Chronicles.

A conservative-leaning commentary on the cancel culture of today, and the slippery slope that progressive ideals can stumble down, this novel is written in the spirit of Orwell’s 1984 with caustic wit and a colorful cast of characters with names that summon visions of England’s past. In this iteration, however, Big Brother has been replaced by Mother, a character depicted as being drunk on their own “wokeness,” power, and societal control.

In this […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-12T17:01:30+02:00July 13th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, Peter Moore|

Review: Brass (The Covid Chronicles) by Peter Moore

Steeped in steamy scenes and dynamic relationships, Brass is a wildly original novel from Peter Moore, the second part of his standalone series, The Covid Chronicles.

Delphine is the captivating protagonist of this steamy read – a fearless femme of the nocturnal economy, raking in duffel bags of dosh for her high-end erotic services. She keeps her income steady and her heart safe by avoiding emotional connection with her clients, but that begins to change when an Adonis-like footballer buys his way into her bed. He invites her to spend a week in Portugal on a pleasure cruise, to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-09T09:08:03+02:00July 13th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Peter Moore, Romance|

Review: The Reluctant Assassin (The Covid Chronicles) by Peter Moore

The exceptional and exciting life of the mysterious Delphine continues in The Reluctant Assassin by Peter Moore, the closing tale of his ambitious series, The Covid Chronicles.

A great deal has changed since Delphine’s dramatic exit from the world of high-class escorts, including being a mother of twins, but intrigue inevitably follows in her footsteps. After innocently offering her info-extracting services to one of her closest friends – and one of the most powerful men in England – Delphine is triggered by her past trauma and finds herself on the guilty side of a corpse.

Her instincts for self-preservation […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-08T16:41:41+02:00July 13th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Peter Moore, Thriller|

Review: Age of Magnus: The Fall of Man (New Era 1) by David Crane

Author David Crane plunges readers into a future where humans have been all but eliminated in Age of Magnus: The Fall of Man, the first book of his New Era series. Detailing the rise of the supercomputer Magnus – from its “birth” in 2050 through its journey towards self-awareness and eventual domination of the planet – this is both a terrifying and wildly creative peek into a possible future.

Magnus was originally designed to help the first manned mission to Mars reach their destination, establish a colony, terraform the planet, and start a new human civilization. Unfortunately, a combination […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-08-30T11:11:13+02:00July 11th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: David Crane, Science Fiction|