SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
How I Made $3,200,000 from My Hobby By Michael Bernhart
Don’t let the title fool you: this isn’t non-fiction, you won’t find any get rich quick schemes here. But it does speak to how Bernhart’s lead character, the regally-named Maxwell Smythe Brown IV, doesn’t take much of anything very seriously. A funny and engaging voice, Brown has a very good knack for getting himself into trouble. He’s a pretty dynamic guy: a professor, an Air Force pilot, married to a difficult but beautiful student. And then Brown’s life takes a turn for the fantastic: a collector of antiquarian maps, he learns the location of a treasure from the 17th century […]
Lucid Dreams and the Holy Spirit by Maria Isabel Pita is a fascinating account of one woman’s experiences with lucid dreaming over many years. Describing over 50 dreams, Pita explores the imagery of each dream and the ramifications for her life both personally and spiritually.
Juliet’s Journey by Kathy Gates is a delightful and comforting novella about traveling outside your country and your comfort zone. Juliet is a thirty-year-old graphic designer who decides to volunteer at an art school in the tiny village of Baiardo (a real place, the pictures of Baiardo are astounding). As sometimes can only happen in an exotic locale, Juliet learns to open up and be more comfortable with herself and her past.
The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown is a riveting psychological horror novel about a man in his sixties who loses his wife to cancer and then begins to see images of her in apparitions and nightmares. That’s not the scariest part though: she’s not appearing to terrify him, just come to warn him of something even more terrifying living right next door.
Emperor’s Shadow (Elite Book 1) by Yi Zhu is a very fine beginning to an exciting new fantasy series. The novel follows two orphans born into a strict caste system. To go up in class is a virtual impossibility in the Glorious Empire. Only those who graduate from the Academy are granted Highborn status. As with other unjust civilizations, revolution is not far behind…
Insanity by Increments by Alaric Cabling is a work of Gothic literary short fiction about people on the edge – isolated from other people, and from themselves.. No one acts predictably, nor does the world around them. It’s not just the characters who have dark impulses, the world they inhabit is just as sinister.
3volve by Josefina Gutierrez is the spirited and engaging New Adult novel about Cristal Escobedo, an almost-dysfunctional twenty-two-year-old who has to grow up very fast taking care of her two younger brothers. She’s also got this problem of falling for her best friend. Though 3volve is part of a series, it works well as a standalone novel.
Puzzle Trees by Thom Mark Shepard is an entertaining coming of age novel with a bit of horror thrown into the mix. Joe Sheffield is an awkward but thoughtful high school freshman whose best friends move away. Entering high school is hard enough without having to tackle it alone. Joe begins looking for the principal’s missing cats in the area of the “puzzle trees,” a forbidding forest where it’s thought to be the home of strange aggressive primates. Along with his equally-tormented brother, Joe sets out to find the missing cats and locate the mysterious denizens of the Puzzle Trees, […]