FacebookXInstagramPinterestTumblrLinkedInRss

Lead Story

Lead stories from SPR’s ever-growing independent book portal

Review: Let There Be Linda by Rich Leder

★★★★½ Let There Be Linda by Rich Leder

Let There Be Linda by Rich Leder begins with a poodle being thrown out of a window on an L.A. freeway. Brothers Mike and Dan Miller, one an almost-respectable accountant and one a completely crooked talent agent get embroiled in a caper with many angles: a missing $75,000, a brutal loan shark swarf and his much bigger sidekick, a coke-addled dentist, and other denizens of the sweat-infused San Fernando Valley. Add to that a girl who can raise the dead and you have a novel that’s part crime fiction, part satire, and the strangest supernatural story you’ve ever read. […]

2020-12-23T05:49:41+02:00July 5th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |
Read More

Review: Connected by Kat Stiles

★★★★ Connected by Kat Stiles

Connected by Kat Stiles is an entertaining paranormal escape for young adult readers.

Emily is a high school student who doesn’t feel like she fits in. To make matters worse, Em discovers she has a special power. Fortunately, she isn’t alone and her best friend Roz has her own gift. Tommy, the boy Em likes, seems to be different as well. When people in their town start to die, Em, Roz, and Tommy join forces to find a murderer.

The theme in Connected is intriguing and inspirational for younger readers in a world that is becoming increasingly more disconnected. […]

2016-06-27T09:24:02+02:00June 24th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |
Read More

Review: Wyrd, TX by David Shawn

★★★★½ Wyrd TX

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 […]

2019-01-22T05:46:01+02:00June 17th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |
Read More

Review: The Voice of Divine Love by Arlene Dayrit

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 […]

2019-02-11T09:44:23+02:00June 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |
Read More

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

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

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 […]

2016-06-16T03:15:56+02:00June 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |
Read More

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

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 […]

2019-02-11T09:28:49+02:00June 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , , |
Read More

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

★★★★ Children of Swan 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 […]

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

Review: Brown Sugar in Minnesota by Joe Field

★★★★ 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 […]

2016-06-16T04:54:58+02:00June 2nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |
Read More
This site uses cookies. Read our Privacy Policy. ACCEPT
Go to Top