Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Birdie Pesky Was Here by Andrew Augustine Connor

A spiraling account of a fictional historical heist, Birdie Pesky Was Here: The Story of the Big Bad Buxom Blonde Boston Bank Boost by Andrew Augustine Connor is a rowdy and unpredictable thriller that teeters on the edge of believable from start to finish, making it easy to forget that this novel is a wildly creative piece of imagination.

Cash and Cary make for an unforgettable duo of safe crackers as they scheme their way around their debt to a dangerous don, with a dazzling balance of laissez-faire larceny and daring deeds. They are a delightfully odd couple, and genuinely […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-10T17:29:21+02:00September 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: One Last Song For My Father by Edwin Fontánez

An elegant elegy for an imperfect man, Edwin Fontánez’s One Last Song For My Father: A Son’s Memoir is a gorgeous blend of alliterative prose, lyrical poetry, and lush metaphoric writing.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, author Fontánez always struggled with his often neglectful and financially irresponsible father, Modesto. A tinsmith metalworker who dropped out of school before the third grade, Modesto enjoyed playing music with friends in his spare time, but his alcoholism left his family in a constant state of impoverishment. Fontánez resented his father’s lack of empathy, particularly for his mother, but his dad did have a […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-10-27T16:56:23+02:00September 23rd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Biography Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Hunted by LaBrie James

Author LaBrie James plunges readers into a tangled nightmare in her gripping debut novel, Hunted, a character-driven dive into dark family drama and deadly small-town secrets.

Stalked by a vengeful shadow, one with a face eerily resembling the chief of police, Lennox Rose is slowly recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a horrific attack, but that brutal night in the snow is only the beginning. After watching her best friend violated and killed, Lennox is shattered both physically and mentally, and has to somehow find a way to rebuild herself.

Finn Holland is the young officer assigned to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-30T09:44:47+02:00September 22nd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: The Happy Valley by Benjamin Harnett

The Happy Valley by Benjamin Harnett is an innovative and genre-bending work that reveals startling truths about an idyllic rural community in upstate New York.

Separated into two parts – “The Farm” and “The Key” – an unnamed narrator embarks on a journey to find June, his ex-lover who has disappeared. Moving back and forth between the historical and more recent pasts (the 1800s, the 1990s) and a futuristic present (2036 and beyond), the novel is part historical novel, part science/speculative fiction, and part self-reflexive meta-fiction.

In “The Farm,” our narrator recalls junior high, where he first met and fell […]

SPR2022-10-17T16:01:09+02:00September 19th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Speculative Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Lady Garland Tames Her Dragons and Brings Peace to the Kingdom by Jane Garland

Author Jane Garland welcomes readers into the messy realm of her life in Lady Garland Tames Her Dragons and Brings Peace to the Kingdom, a clever, heartfelt, and deeply revealing memoir. Though pitched as a fairy tale for adults, this metaphor-laden memoir is playful and nakedly honest, but also academically appealing and philosophically rich. Garland can recount a painful anecdote in one breath, and then impartially dissect her relevant reactions and emotions in the next.

As the title implies, Garland has had a great many battles in her past, and now having found something akin to peace, she has […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-12T11:18:16+02:00September 19th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: The Eagle That Drank Hummingbird Nectar by Aneace Haddad

Reading like a long-form parable for business professionals, The Eagle That Drank Hummingbird Nectar by Aneace Haddad is like no other book in its genre. Blurring the line between fiction, allegory, and self-help, this masterfully penned book probes into the stagnation that can strike anyone, from any life path, and then gently nudges readers into revelation.

Aidan Perez had risen to the top of his industry, achieving the coveted position of CEO, but after his personal life collapsed in tragedy, it radically changed his perspective on wealth and the pursuit of happiness. With his daughter in Singapore and looming loneliness […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-09-29T15:49:20+02:00September 16th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Business Book Reviews, Self-Help Book Reviews|

Review: The Devil You Knew by Mike Cobb

Mike Cobb unravels a sinister, masterfully penned drama in The Devil You Knew. Summoning demons of the past still haunting America today, this period mystery jabs at the most painful nerves of culture and history.

The tone is grimly set in the opening chapters – the deep South of the 1960s, where religion and bigotry reign over a land already scarred by so much sin. When young girls begin disappearing, and then turning up dead, the small community at the heart of this novel is shaken to its core. Billy Tarwater would rather doodle in the hymnal than make […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-10T16:54:06+02:00September 15th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Earth: The Next Trillion Years by Marcy Mekleerer

A philosophical and narrative exploration of everything from computer science and genetic mutation to sentience and morality, Earth: The Next Trillion Years by Marcy Mekleerer is an ambitious, thought-provoking, and eye-opening work of visionary science fiction.

Near the end of the 21st century, an alien life form from Alpha Centauri lands in the Brazilian jungle and begins its deadly spread – mindlessly consuming everything in its path as the world numbly watches. Dr. Kacela, the first on the scene of this extraterrestrial invasion, must set her formidable skills in biomolecular and genetic engineering to the test, even as humanity begins […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-10T11:32:52+02:00September 15th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|