SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
Mays Landing by J.C. Mercer
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.
The Improbable Rise of Paco Jones by Dominic Carrillo is about the awkwardness of teenage years through the eyes of Bi-racial Paco Jones. Paco transfers to a rich high school from a poor neighborhood. It doesn’t help matters in his new environment that he’s fairly odd-looking, with an unsightly birthmark on his neck, pigeon toes, and overly-hairy arms, so he’s teased mercilessly by his classmates. He then falls for the most popular girl in class, who has a boyfriend, and is tasked as an eighth-grade Cyrano by her boyfriend. Soon Paco finds himself at the center of a whole lot […]
Daydream and Shadow: A Collection of Poetic Images by Nicholas Nossaman is a collection of poems and photographs about subjects large and small – from appreciating a meal to the scourge of war – using subtle, but evocative imagery.
A Million Different Ways by P. Dangelico is a steamy, character-driven romance novel with an international flair. Albanian Immigrant, Vera Sava is desperately traveling through Europe looking for work. Though eminently qualified as a medical student, she takes a job as a housekeeper working for the gruff Sebastian Horne, heir to a banking dynasty, who regards Vera with indifference. Vera comes to learn that Sebastian’s gruff demeanor has a reason: he has secrets of his own, and someone wants him dead. A romance blooms and their collective secrets have the potential to upend both their lives, as well as Sebastian’s […]
Béla’s Letters by Jeff Ingber is a work of historical fiction so closely tied to history that it reads more like a moving non-fiction account. Inspired by Ingber’s family history, the novel spans eight generations, beginning with Béla who endures the horrors of the Holocaust, and the terrible aftermath where survivors feel guilt, sorrow and immeasurable pain trying to put their lives back together. Woven through the novel are letters to Béla from his family, which serve as a tragic historical window of the period, as horrifying events unfold in real time.