Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Wandering Pianist by Congyu Wang

The Wandering Pianist by Congyu Wang

Heartwrenching, humanistic, and beautifully told, The Wandering Pianist: From the Street to the Concert Hall by Congyu Wang is a humbly penned memoir that grips the imagination and offers renewed hope to artists and lost souls alike.

Swimming smoothly through time, the narrative weaves tales of Wang’s upbringing and childhood challenges with the humbling successes of his later life and moments of desperation along the way. From the humblest of beginnings to the grandest stages of Europe, Congyu demonstrates a remarkable belief in himself and a relentless determination to persevere. Despite facing doubt and derision from his family, as well […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-02-07T14:18:39+02:00February 6th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Music Book Reviews|

Review: Clans by Frederick Albert

Clans by Frederick Albert

Showing the rise and fall of beliefs in two men connected by loyalty and brotherhood, Clans by Frederick Albert is a modern-day musing on race relations and the gap of ideologies still fracturing America.

Jimmy Brett is doing all right for himself, enjoying the fruits of early internet success, including a fancy Jaguar and a sprawling house he can almost afford, but he’s still missing someone to share it with. When a blast from his romantic past reappears, it feels like the chance at happiness he’s always dreamed of, but the timing is awkward.

Jimmy has just come into possession […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-03-26T14:35:06+02:00February 5th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: A Summer of War by Lynn Mason

A Summer of War by Lynn Mason

A breathless tale of violence and love, A Summer of War by Lynn Mason is a gripping plunge into the jungles of Vietnam, told through an evocative and refreshing lens.

When a misogynistic military bureaucrat tells reporter Chris McKenna that the Mekong Delta is no place for a woman, she smells a story, so she bounds her way into the fiery battlefield of South Vietnam. In “a war gone awry,” being a female member of the press at a forward operating base is a hard row to hoe, but she has the essential support of Paul, her photo-snapping sidekick who […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-03-22T12:15:40+02:00January 31st, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews, War Book Reviews|

Review: Drakomunda by Guy Quartley

Drakomunda by Guy Quartley

Warlocks, demons, serpents, and shadows collide in Drakomunda by Guy Quartley, a riveting plunge into a fresh universe of magic, myth, and murder. Ambitious fantasy fans will quickly sink into the endless battles and betrayals, romances, tribal rebellions, and surreal scenes of dark magic that come alive through Quartley’s evocative prose.

The novel is broken up into various novellas and short stories set in the same fantasy realm, sometimes centuries or millennia apart, yet subtly intertwined with sinister talismans, legends, bloodlines, and sorcery. Murderous amulets, necromantic madmen, enslavement spells, sky demons, and witches’ curses blur into a kaleidoscope of fantasy […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-03-19T12:34:35+02:00January 23rd, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: The End of the World: Rise of the After Lord by H.S. Gilchrist

The End of the World: Rise of the After Lord by H.S. Gilchrist

Bitter enemies become unlikely allies and chart a new course for the shattered remnants of humanity in The End of the World: Rise of the After Lord by H.S. Gilchrist, a stunning work of genre-bending sci-fi.

Cut off from the mind-controlling force that has dominated her existence, a mechanized killing machine wanders the wasteland, reckoning with mortality and nearly forgotten sentience. A brother and sister, horrifically traumatized by their own dark secrets, encounter this enemy on the edge of death, and an unexpected peace is struck. When their mutual enemy comes to collect, however, their uncertain alliance is sealed in […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-01-26T15:24:53+02:00January 21st, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Archipelago by H R Hawkins

Archipelago by H R Hawkins

A character-driven leap through a gateway to the future, Archipelago by H R Hawkins is an immersive thrill for fans of cosmic drama and technological prophecy. When a splinter civilization on the edge of the galaxy reaches out with a bizarre message after fifty years, it pulls a long-lost son back into the chaos and beauty of liberated space, for a work of top-shelf sociological science fiction.

Assigned to a high-level delegation to the distant Archipelago cluster, Ren Markov represents multiple interests seeking to re-establish contact after a violent coup cut the “Arc” off from the rest of the galactic […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-03-13T15:09:51+02:00January 15th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Loves and Entanglements by Lewis Bogaty

Loves and Entanglements by Lewis Bogaty

An intense collection of characters in emotional tumult, Loves and Entanglements by Lewis Bogaty demonstrates the author’s sensitivity to the human condition, and the impossible choices we are so often forced to make.

These thirteen quick-moving vignettes vary in time period, subject matter, writing style, and tone, but are tied together by enticing human drama – desire, disappointment, heartbreak, and possibility. Some tales end with a sudden twist, others with a single powerful line that leaves the emotional weight hanging thick, without resolution, yet still somehow satisfying. Manipulating readers’ expectations and emotions with ease, this collection is a masterclass in […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-03-01T11:41:34+02:00January 11th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Little Boy, I Know Your Name by Mitchell Raff

Little Boy, I Know Your Name by Mitchell Raff

Gripping autobiographical reflections from a child of Holocaust survivors, Little Boy, I Know Your Name by Mitchell Raff is a visceral, heartrending, and timely work of history and memoir.

Growing up in a non-traditional Jewish family permanently scarred by concentration camps and gulags, young Mitchell also had to navigate split custody with his unpredictably violent mother, acting as guardian to his half-sister while having to endure familial abuse. When he is uprooted and moved to Israel, he doesn’t escape his mistreatment, which is compounded by a life of isolation and uncertainty about the future, without his beloved family members there […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-01-08T19:10:17+02:00January 8th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: History Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|