SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
The Tale of Miss Berta London by Jihan Latimer
In The Tale of Miss Berta London: “Recollections of Accomplishments,” readers experience the turmoils of the eponymous character as she overcomes adversity with shocking resolve, and demonstrates an ability to roll expertly with life’s many punches in her role as a fashion editor for the international E-Fashion Magazine and then onto becoming a nanny for the Williamson children.
As a character, Berta is compelling and interesting to read, but she is theatrically so , and the book is written in a journalistic style. The writing is also highly declarative, as Berta reminisces on her working life in a diary […]
Woodiss is Willing, edited by George Dalrymple, is a fictionalized account of the life of Henry Woodiss, who gained notoriety in the 1920s in England due to his high-profile affair with the wife of Sir Coningsby Coningsby-Clarke, Lady Edith. Penned by Woodiss himself in a manuscript supposedly finished in the 1960s, he presents his story as comical fiction at the expense of both himself and the myriad figures involved in the debacle.
The Assyrian Girl by Thomas W. Devine is a terrorist thriller following Matt Couper, a security contractor who’s stationed in Iraq in 2003. There he saves the life of Tara Nasrim, an Assyrian teenager, a memory which haunts him years later. When she shows up in New Zealand five years later, their lives become as complicated as war-torn Iraq – thrust into a struggle with a Islamic terrorism. It’s a book about the power of faith versus the seductive pull for many of fundamentalist dogma, and how to maintain love in this increasingly complicated and dangerous world.
In Blanket of Hearts, poet Robert A. Cozzi explores themes of love and memory and the bittersweet nexus of the two when a union ends. He captures the pain of seeing an old lover with their new flame, the chances not taken and still remembered years later, and the all-too-human desire to “hit the rewind button.” In other poems, he recalls the ecstasy of new love, “when everything tasted of ice cream” and desire is like an all-consuming riptide, pulling him toward oblivion. He charmingly describes the beloved’s voice as “the cinnamon in my hot chocolate.” The final poem […]
Jayne is on the run – from the law, from her past, from herself. Unlikely events conspire to face Jayne with everything she’s tried to put behind her, for better or for worse. Making unlikely friends with a former victim of her crimes, Jayne only has one compass to lead her forward: her heart. She drives north, perhaps to face the family to which she once belonged, or to another life entirely…
Sean Goes To Barcelona by Tanya Preminger is a book aimed at middle-grade readers about a mom and son’s visit to Barcelona to see the Barca soccer team play, explore the city, and maybe meet the boy’s hero, Messi. Expertly illustrated by Elettra Cudignotto, it’s a spirited adventure through a foreign city, and an ode to the world’s most popular sport.
Murder rocks the sleepy town of Pleasant, Arizona, and ex-reporter Eli Quinn is on the case. Fresh off his uncertain vacation from his job with the Arizona Republic to track down his wife’s killer, he returns with the perp behind bars, yet he can’t bring himself to slip back into his old life behind a desk. With the encouragement of his close companions, he moves into the seedy world of private investigation, and a shocking murder hits home at the right time for Eli to test his mettle.
I Remember: A Story of Self-Healing by Cassandra Whitfield is a story of love and self-love; the story of a healer learning to heal herself. Cassandra Whitfield didn’t have the easiest life – from a tumultuous childhood, a rollercoaster love life, and a colorful career working with the criminally insane. Her inner strength begins to fade, and she doesn’t know why. This is the story of a woman under the weight of the world, who must put aside all those she holds above herself in order to dig into her own soul and become whole once again.