Lead Story | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Wyrd, TX by David Shawn

★★★★½

Wyrd, TX by David Shawn is a terrifying, stylish thriller.

Balancing humor, wit and terror is an ability that few authors ever master, but David Shawn releases a macabre tour de force in Wyrd, TX, a city that time seems to have forgotten, but demons have not. Shawn marvelously sets the tone for readers within the first few chapters – a supernatural first scene to cleanse the palette for fantasy, followed by patient, thorough introductions of the major characters populating this bizarre world.

Chief Butler is the perfect antihero for this type of setting; a good man with […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-01-22T05:46:01+02:00June 17th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Horror, Paranormal, Thriller|

Review: The Voice of Divine Love by Arlene Dayrit

The author of The Voice of Divine Love, Arlene Dayrit, is self-described as a fervent attendant to God’s will and has spent much of her life in constant search of God’s redemption and love through her spirituality and religious devotion. The result of her meditations on scripture and Christian ideals is her first published work.

Essentially a re-examination of the scripture, the book takes the point of view of the Lord expressing his infinite love for his children and how to interpret his messages from a first-person point of view. Rather than a fearful, vengeful figure depicted elsewhere, Dayrit […]

James Grimsby2019-02-11T09:44:23+02:00June 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Non-Fiction, Religion|

Review: How to Fail at Life: Lessons for the Next Generation by Mark Aspelin

★★★★★

Failure sucks. There’s no denying that. But every pratfall and tumble has an upside, even if it’s just the schadenfreude of knowing someone else screwed up too, or even worse than you ever have.

Enter Mark Aspelin. Aspelin bills himself as an “experienced practitioner in the failure arts” who has “been there, done that, and got the t-shirt when it comes to messing up in life.” Aspelin boasts years of speaking experience prior to his newfound membership into the circle of author-hood, focusing on the subject of failure and the lessons to be learned from the falls we inevitably […]

James Grimsby2016-06-16T03:15:56+02:00June 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Humor, Self-Help|

Review: The Hourglass: Life as an Aging Mortal by Pamela Cuming

The Hourglass: Life as an Aging Mortal by Pamela Cuming is an insightful book about a topic no human being can escape. Cuming’s book addresses how to live with the knowledge that one will eventually die. But it isn’t only about a person’s impending doom. She discusses at length how to view the aging process and how to accept it as part of life.

The topics in this book aren’t easy to confront, no matter what stage of life the reader is in. Almost every person on the planet has lost a person they loved or has encountered insurmountable grief […]

T B Markinson2019-02-11T09:28:49+02:00June 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Health, Non-Fiction, Self-Help|

Review: Children of Swan (The Land of Taron Vol. 1) by Coral Walker

★★★★

It’s every child’s worst nightmare to wake up and find that their parents have vanished without a trace. Unfortunately for Bo, Jack, and Brianna, it’s not just a nightmare, it’s real. With the siblings struggling to find out what could have happened, they’re unaware that the worst is yet to come.

Little do they know that their parents were secretly the prince and princess of a faraway planet known as Cygnore, in the land of Taron, having eloped twelve years ago to Earth to start a family together. Now returned, they must find a way to look after their […]

James Grimsby2016-06-16T03:09:37+02:00June 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy|

Review: Brown Sugar in Minnesota by Joe Field

★★★★

Brown Sugar in Minnesota by Joe Field is a short, thrilling ride fueled by drugs and danger.

By their very definition, thrillers are high-intensity stories, and whether that manifests in the form of action or psychological drama doesn’t actually matter. Readers seek out an author like Joe Field for his ability to create an atmosphere where both types of drama can play, where readers fear what’s around the next page, but can’t help but keep turning. Brown Sugar in Minnesota is a patient, slow-burning book that digs surprisingly deep for being such a short read. It’s perfect for an […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2016-06-16T04:54:58+02:00June 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Thriller|

Review: Crowning Glory by Stacy Harshman

★★★★½

Crowning Glory: An Experiment in Self-Discovery Through Disguise by Stacy Harshman is an original and laugh-out-loud memoir.

Stacy Harshman, an unemployed musician and artist, decides to embark on an experiment in hopes of coming to terms with her crippling depression, panic attacks, and psychotic breaks. The project involves wearing different wigs and eye-catching outfits. Harshman hires an assistant to keep track of the data while she parades in different parts of New York City. Will Harshman be the same after weeks of pretending to be other personas?

The e-book revolution has spurred many to pen their memoirs. This boon […]

T B Markinson2016-05-27T09:32:34+02:00May 27th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir, Non-Fiction|

Review: The Perfect Tear by Connie Lansberg

★★★★★

In a world of technology and magic far beyond our understanding, the balance between the forces of nature has been shifted. The songs that bring peace to the world have halted, and their young singer Eleanor – an orphan with little to say about herself – is left to discover why. As a great darkness descends upon the world in the form of a suffocating mist, Eleanor travels the world in search of her songs, a fabled crystal, and her destiny in order to save a dying world in The Perfect Tear by Connie Lansberg.

The Perfect Tear is, […]

James Grimsby2016-05-20T09:22:23+02:00May 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy|