Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: Nightmares Unhinged: Twenty Tales of Terror Edited by Joshua Viola ★★★★★

Nightmares Unhinged: Twenty Tales of Terror by Joshua Viola and Steve TemNightmares Unhinged: Twenty Tales of Terror is a horror anthology put together with the collaboration of authors Joshua Viola and Steve Rasnic Tem along with a multitude of contributors, all with a central theme of bad dreams. As elaborated in the foreword, the essence of nightmare could almost be described as pleasant, whereas a night terror – or a “nightmare unhinged” – is a far more potent, deep fear that the collection hopes to evoke.

It must be said that, strikingly, the cover and overall book layout and presentation is darkly gorgeous, even down to the perfect new-gothic style fonts. […]

2015-11-23T05:47:38+02:00November 11th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: Katya: A Mystery and Romance by Jon Martell and Jamie McCormick ★★★★

KatyaKatya: A Mystery and Romance, by Jon Martell and Jamie McCormick, explores the depths of personal secrets.

A woman’s body is discovered inside a medieval tower in rural Germany. A detective unaccustomed to investigating suspicious deaths attempts to piece together the clues. He starts to wonder if the events leading to the death go back thirty years and takes place in Germany and America.

What happened in the tower? And are people in today’s world allowed to have secrets?

This mystery is a curious twist on the genre. Officer Max Forscher is a small town policeman and he’s perfectly content […]

2015-12-04T06:32:29+02:00November 11th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: Nine-Tenths of the Law by Glenn H. Mitchell ★★★★

Nine Tenths of the Law by Glenn H. MitchellNine Tenths of the Law by Glenn H. Mitchell is a pulse-pounding noir novel that takes a serious turn for the dark. The center of this tale is Detective Ben Ricci, a fair mess of a police detective with a drug-addled past and drug-addled wife. Continuously under suspicion for his bad behavior, Ricci becomes embroiled in solving a horrifying crime in which a young man has been disemboweled with supernatural underpinnings – taking him to investigate an immortal mannequin, a family of witches, a book on the occult, and the murderous spirit of a dead child. Part crime fiction, part […]

2020-12-23T05:52:26+02:00November 9th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: Cnut: Rise of a Viking Warrior by Kyle Miller ★★★★

Cnut: Rise of a Viking WarriorCnut: Rise of a Viking Warrior by Kyle Miller follows Cnut as he grows into a young man and trains to be a warrior in the British Isles after his mother Astrid, a shield maiden and the daughter of a jarl, leaves the Norselands to come to Wessex after falling pregnant. The storytelling is something like the style of Ken Follet – a lighter historical read that does not focus so much on true history and fact as the character’s journey. Detail of Cnut’s warrior training by his friend Rolf, and his foray into romance with Hild — and into […]

2015-11-02T05:46:43+02:00October 30th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: The Cats of Rekem by C. L. Francisco ★★★★

The Cats of RekemThe Cats of Rekem, by C. L. Francisco, is a thoughtful story about Jesus and his followers told from a feline perspective.

This is the third book in the Yeshua’s Cats series and it opens with the characters from A Cat Out of Egypt twenty-five years later. In the Nabataean city of Rekem there’s religious and political discord. Tikos, Zaidan, their daughter Hinat, and their faithful cats are placed in a dangerous situation when Yeshua and Mari appear before and after the Resurrection. Yeshua makes a request: help save Paul of Tarsus. Can they and what will the consequences […]

2015-12-17T08:27:01+02:00October 30th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Candlelight in a Storm by Naveen Sridhar

Candlelight in a Storm by Naveen Sridhar

Candlelight in a Storm by Naveen Sridhar is the historical biography of his wife. Born during World War II and fleeing the violence there, later fleeing communist regimes as a teenager, and traveling the world, meeting her husband in Berlin, her story is at once colorful and harrowing. John F. Kennedy came to Germany and said “Ich bin ein Berliner,” signifying that Germany did not need to be forever tarnished with the legacy of the Nazi party, and there was a generation of Germans looking to establish peace and freedom in the country. Candlelight in a Storm is the ode […]

2021-09-07T07:49:44+02:00October 29th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , , |

Review: D-Nine – Protectors Of The Crown by Magus Tor

★★★★½ D-Nine - Protectors Of The Crown

In this unusual fantasy offering, Magus Tor spins his magic by taking the fantasy genre a new and pertinent step further with this transgender-charged quest adventure. When Dr. James. a male medical professional gets a huge migraine-like headache he starts hallucinating Lord Of The Rings-style rooms in which he seems to be the protagonist – in the form of Princess Sarabeth, a teenage royal charged with the defense of her nation, but currently suffering amnesia and unable to remember her purpose – against a ticking clock of betrayal by a secret society known as the D-Nine, working underground […]

2016-03-04T03:54:27+02:00October 29th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: The New World: A Step Backward by Andy Skrzynski

★★★★½ The New World: A Step Backward by Andy Skrzynski

Sometimes the end of the world is just the beginning. In 2019, Easter Sunday, a spike in Internet chatter amongst Iranian, Chinese, and Russian users gives a swansong to the era of global nuclear peace as America’s capitals are wiped from the map. After the five years of devastating conflict – later dubbed the “World Annihilation” period – humanity lives on in its pockets; in secluded villages that escaped the crosshairs of the major powers that have long gone silent.

Over half a century passes, and a bastion of hope formerly called Riding Mountain National Park becomes home to […]

2016-03-04T03:54:58+02:00October 27th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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