SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
Devon’s Blade by Ken McConnell
Devon’s Blade by Ken McConnell is a short novel companion to McConnell’s Starforgers series. Commander Devon Ardel is sent to a planet that’s mainly comprised of water to head a struggling starfighter squadron. The squadron is no match for their much better equipped adversary, especially since they are utilizing a newer and deadlier fighter. Devon has to rally the troops and adapt new inventive strategies if her squadron isn’t going to be wiped off the map.
The interesting conceit in this novel is just how much it veers away from science fiction to a present day story about fighter pilots […]
Midnight Heat by J.L. White, the second book in the Firework Girls series, focuses on Chloe and her romance with the handsome Grayson. Basically left at the altar, Chloe has a passionate hookup with Grayson on what would be the night of her wedding. It’s all too much, given she’s on the rebound, so she flees the turmoil, regretting every moment, because her connection with Grayson is far more than sexual. So she wants him back in her life, only to find 9 months later that the love of her life is now hooked up with her best friend.
Golden Notes by Samuel Joeckel is a love letter to music. Starting in 1981, it follows the life of young Cali Sky, a musical prodigy on the piano, and then guitar, which she discovers in her bedroom closet, unleashing an odyssey of musical exploration. The child of hippie parents, Cali Sky branches out to the punk movement of the moment – first covering Agent Orange, and moving on from there. Through her broadening horizons on the musical front, she begins to explore deeply her friendship with her musical cohort, Brodie, and further understand her parents’ past.
Quiescence Terminated by Allan Greenbrier is a harrowing terrorist thriller, following the life of Sam, desperate to make his mark on the world to free himself from a life of desperation, leading to a chilling culmination of his distorted beliefs.
Mays Landing by J.C. Mercer is a dark but hopeful novel about a series of difficult subjects: suicide, mental illness, and life on the streets. The novel begins with Parkhill Mays laying in a Bellevue hospital bed, having attempted suicide. He soon meets T-Bone, a resourceful homeless man who gets by as a “human lab rat,” selling body parts and participating in clinical trials, and he teaches Mays to do the same. Together they live under the streets of New York City, as Mays tries to reconcile his new underground life with the world above ground, and the mental illness […]
Candor Candy: Global Poems by Helene Pilibosian is a full-bodied collection exploring the space between humanity and nature, and the sadness and beauty therein, from the Amazon to the Thames to China and back to the US, where the poet resides, an Armenian-American, already by nature an international and globally-aware writer.
Reaper: A Lucky Dey Thriller by Doug Richardson takes place in a scorching Los Angeles summer, in which South Central murders are on the rise. Sheriff’s deputy Lucky Dey has something of a checkered past, skirting the line between good and bad guy, and wants to clean up a part of the city that’s been left to disintegrate.
The Dark Ones (Black Werewolves Book 1) by Gaja J. Kos is a richly detailed and exciting werewolf novel in which a pack of Black werewolves attempt to uncover who or what is murdering White werewolves. Rose, the leader of the Black werewolves, enlists the help of Veles, lord of the Underworld, and finds herself falling for him. To win the war, the Black werewolves must become The Dark Ones – the brutal, violent pack of their ancestors – or risk having all werewolves wiped out forever.