John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

About John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Providing exceptional writing, editing and publishing services to hundreds of international clients, ranging from nutritional copywriting and long-form ghostwriting to substantive editing, assessment/analysis of academic texts and structural/content editing for bestselling novels.

Review: Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler

Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler

A brief yet beautifully detailed journey through Delaware’s past, and the colonial history of America itself, Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler is a revelatory peek into an oft-overlooked state, reading like a love letter to one of America’s first and most forgotten colonies. Topping out at just under 100 pages, this is an easy afternoon read for residents of Delaware, those interested in colonial lore, or fans of historical photography.

Despite having moved to Delaware only a dozen years ago, Tabler writes with the familiarity and affection of a lifelong native; his state-spanning explorations and historical tracking certainly […]

Hold Circulation by Syntell Smith

Hold Circulation by Syntell SmithA character-driven drama that spotlights the beauty of banality, and the shushed secrets that form the foundation of life, Hold Circulation by Syntell Smith is the third installment of his compelling Call Numbers series.

A story of redemption and personal revelation, bouncing around the stacks of a surprisingly drama-filled library, this novel peers into the pages of a dozen or so interconnected lives, revealing Janelle Smith’s plunge into parenthood, Gerry’s questionably criminal life choices, Angie’s late-night DJ dabbling, Heywood’s spiritual crises, and much more. Stretching far beyond the shelves of the 58th Street Branch, these are richly tangled tales from […]

2023-03-16T14:31:18+02:00March 16th, 2023|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Review: What Happened to Annabell? A Monday Night Anthology

What Happened to Annabell? A Monday Night Anthology

Ten talented writers contribute a creative storm of stories in response to a single question in the macabre and compelling collection, What Happened to Annabell? With a fascinating hook for these tales – an original writing prompt that is both straightforward and inherently intriguing – it is easy to be pulled into this entertaining and expertly curated collection.

After seeing a headstone from more than a century ago, bearing a female name that lacked a death date, a curious writing prompt was composed, imagining the fate of such a woman. The variety of clever and dark takes on the concept […]

2023-04-06T16:37:49+02:00March 14th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: The 14 Concrete (But Not So Hard!) Steps to Private Practice by Bonnie McKeegan

The 14 Concrete (But Not So Hard!) Steps to Private Practice by Bonnie McKeegan

For both veteran practitioners and new providers embarking on starting their own practice, author and practitioner Bonnie McKeegan delivers a wealth of valuable advice in The 14 Concrete (But Not So Hard!) Steps to Private Practice: A Guide for Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Licensed Marriage Family Therapists.

As McKeegan lays out, without the guidance and established procedures of a larger medical organization, launching into your own safe and effective practice can be a daunting and overwhelming prospect. Whether you are deciding on charting methods or choosing an insurance carrier, there are countless missteps that should be avoided, and […]

2023-04-06T07:51:17+02:00March 14th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

A Cult of One by CH Morgan

A Cult of One by CH Morgan

A gritty, hard-nosed, and expertly written thriller, A Cult of One by CH Morgan is the fractured family portrait of an investigator hunting monsters – in the shadows and in her own mind. Haunted by the past and driven by a fiery resolve, Genevieve Capa is trying to get through her probationary period as a police officer, but her house-arrested brother has a dangerous scheme to catapult her career to the next level, single-handedly capture a cannibalistic killer on the loose in Montreal. Combining a sinister police procedural with complex character drama and sharply captured dialogue, this is a fast, […]

2023-03-14T11:36:18+02:00March 14th, 2023|Categories: Editorial Reviews|

Hostile Contact by Nick Snape

Hostile Contact by Nick Snape

When militarily advanced aliens make planetfall on Earth for the first time, the world has no choice but to respond with force in Nick Snape’s compelling new work of military sci-fi, Hostile Contact. The planet’s first visitors are far from pacifistic green men, but Snape still finds some philosophical nuance in this near-future war of the worlds. There tends to be heavy reliance on internal monologue – a workaround by the author to tell, rather than show – but the terse military dialogue balances well with informal personal interactions, allowing Snape’s characters to breathe on the page as fully-formed, […]

2023-03-09T12:21:45+02:00March 9th, 2023|Categories: Editorial Reviews|

As Day Alights by Emma Mnaya-Buzy

As Day Alights by Emma Mnaya-Buzy Sagely addressing spiritual, societal, personal, and hopeful themes, Emma Mnaya-Buzy delivers a multifaceted and empowering work in her sophomore collection of poetry, As Day Alights.

Peppered with profoundly unique and powerful poems, such as the ominous and surreal “Quivering Light,” and the mystical “Kumbikumbi,” this collection defies classification and comparison. Mnaya-Buzy is boldly unafraid of slant rhymes, and cleverly blends rhyme patterns to create an unpredictable yet elegant rhythm in many of these pieces.

“Let Verse Pretend” is a particularly striking piece, with each stanza deserving deeper inspection, though the final hits hardest. There is no telling where […]

2023-03-08T12:19:00+02:00March 7th, 2023|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Post-Pandemic Financial Guide by Steve Amoia

Post-Pandemic Financial Guide by Steve Amoia

Charting a safe course through the uncertain economy, author Steve Amoia offers a valuable handbook of modern advice in his Post-Pandemic Financial Guide. While some of the knowledge in the first section may be familiar to financial professionals or those savvy to the dynamism of the stock market, the second section regarding retirement planning is imbued with new ideas shaped by recent world events. A timely, well-informed, and easy-to-understand refresher on details that have changed since the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic, this guide is uniquely and effectively focused on financial planning based on contemporary challenges, for a timely and […]

2023-03-07T16:02:37+02:00March 6th, 2023|Categories: Editorial Reviews|
Go to Top