John Staughton, Senior Reviewer | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Looking for Tennessee Williams by George Sanchez

Author George Sanchez crafts an epic tale of romance, history, and New Orleans in Looking for Tennessee Williams. In this richly envisioned and expansive novel, a cast of collegiate actors make their way to the Big Easy for a theatre festival in the early 1960s, navigating the politically charged landscape of the South, as well as their own internal dramas, betrayals, and desires.

Told in exceptional detail, this novel roughly spans a month in the autumn of 1963, though the majority takes place over only a week – the same infamous week when an assassin in Dallas changed the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-06-07T02:45:40+02:00April 5th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Cessation by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas

Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas dissects the perils of business, friendship, romance, failure, and America’s hollow dream in his thought-provoking novel, Cessation.

A gripping and emotional confession, this novel is also an artful vivisection of modern life, analyzing both the glitches in the matrix and the existential crises brought on by capitalism. The narrator, Aaron, is both in the machine and a self-aware critic of the system, trapped between the need for survival and the search for meaning. After his lowest point, with his business on the brink of collapse, he forms an inexplicable connection with Walker, a wanderer disconnected from the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-04-01T10:30:39+02:00April 1st, 2021|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Self Investment 101 by Johnathan Goldsoul

Author Johnathan Goldsoul reveals the essential nature of expanding your own knowledge and skillset to excel in a post-pandemic world in Self Investment 101: How to Bank on Yourself to Become a Valuable Asset and Profit Generating Machine. Approaching this critical concept from both experiential, academic, and anecdotal angles, the author details the benefits of investing wisely in your own future potential, and seeing yourself as an asset. From offering tools for honest self-analysis and measuring your personal ROI, to redefining your concept of profit and reimagining your personal inventory, this book is original and comprehensive in its strategic […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-04-01T07:31:56+02:00April 1st, 2021|Categories: Editorial Reviews|

Review: Once A Man Indulges by Tony Kelsey

Wartime loyalty, dangerous dames, and mountain mobsters collide in Once a Man Indulges, a PI thriller from the meticulous pen of author Tony Kelsey.

This neo-noir tale is set in post-war 1949, when ongoing survival was far from promised, and the soldiers who had come back were often scarred in ways too complex to explain. An unexpected reunion with a past military mentor sends Harry Thorpe, rough-around-the-edges private detective, spiraling into the dark depths of Denver’s seediest realms, in this gritty blend of mystery and history.

Harry Thorpe is both original and familiar – a scarred protagonist with a […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-06-02T08:54:36+02:00April 1st, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Detective Fiction Book Reviews, Noir Book Reviews|

Destiny Control by David Garrahan

Evidence that truth is often more incredible than fiction, Destiny Control by David Garrahan is the spectacular memoir of a dauntless, determined, and extraordinary life.

Spanning eight decades, and capturing the atmosphere and energy of generations past, Garrahan vulnerably reveals the riveting details of his challenging childhood on the streets of New York, an identity-forging adolescence, and a truly exceptional adulthood. From the colloquial buzz of Brooklyn to the ring of Russian curses in the Pennsylvania countryside, Garrahan’s tumultuous life is anything but predictable. Chapter breaks peppered with old photographs give readers an even better sense of the author – […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-04-01T05:21:17+02:00March 31st, 2021|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: The Dragon’s Zenith by Jason F. Boggs

Strap in for a nonstop cosmic ride in The Dragon’s Zenith, the final book in the Dragon Trilogy by author Jason F. Boggs. Wrapping up a galaxy’s worth of loose ends in style, this novel delivers an ultimate showdown loyal readers may not be expecting, as well as unexpected new allies, strange alien worlds, and that engaging blend of fantasy and sci-fi that this series has done so well from the start.

With the world-building basics and character exposition out of the way, this third and final novel dives right into the action, as well as the personal entanglements. Alene […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-05-04T03:37:42+02:00March 30th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: Reality by DC Wince

Near-future fiction at its finest, Reality by DC Wince is a thrilling and unpredictable leap into fight or flight mode. In bits and pieces, readers are submerged in a strange carnival of limitless power, the desperate search for truth, and the raw potential of humanity’s survival instinct.

Charlie, Dale, Blaze, and Ernst make for an odd quartet of protagonists, particularly because they spend a decent amount of this novel hunting one another in a winner-take-all death race in the desert. However, the backstory passages of their lives, and the strange events leading up to their Lord of the Flies face-off […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-03-30T07:03:42+02:00March 30th, 2021|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

The Morbid Museum by James Pack

Readers are lured into a gallery of gore and an exhibition of evil in The Morbid Museum by James Pack, a collection of stories that circles themes of death, loss, and darkness like a vulture. Whether exploring the psychotic logic of a serial killer or the inherent violence of humans towards those deemed lesser, these sinister stories are often disturbing, but always thought-provoking. Bouncing between genres and storytelling formats, there is a broad range in the writing, yet every story maintains an ominous edge. Some of the prose feels rushed, or inconsistently edited, particularly when it comes to syntax variation […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-03-29T04:08:26+02:00March 29th, 2021|Categories: Editorial Reviews|