Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Cold Beer and a Hot Dart by Brandon Wolfe

★★★★½ Cold Beer and a Hot Dart by Brandon Wolfe

Cold Beer and a Hot Dart is the inspirational memoir by Brandon Wolfe as he travels from his comfortable home in Washington to the wilds of Australia, Polynesia and beyond, battling disease, cannibals, prostitutes, drug use, and other nefarious problems, as well as having the time of his life. A restless soul at heart, Brandon Wolfe is also a spirited storyteller, making Cold Beer at once a page turner and a moving meditation on finding your place in life.

Wolfe’s own summary of the novel is a very good indication of what you’ll find in the book:

Over a

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Review: Bully by Emme Dun

★★★★★

Bully, by Emme Dun is an intelligent and aptly-timed legal thriller.

Based on true events, Bully kicks off during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The discrimination and hysteria surrounding gay parents resulted in many being treated as second class citizens. By 2008, Joanna Crawford, now an elected family court judge wants to atone for her treatment of her own father, a gay man. Lisa White, a lesbian mother, finds herself in Crawford’s court and their children become political pawns.

First-time author, Emme Dun, has penned an important and fascinating legal thriller that will captivate […]

T B Markinson2019-01-22T15:38:03+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Legal Thriller Book Reviews, LGBTQI+ Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Noble Warrior by Becca Ketelsleger ★★★★

Noble Warrior, by Becca Ketelsleger, presents a different take on the legend of the Knights of the Round Table.

When Aceline Grosipan’s father is arrested, the young woman masquerades as a knight in order to set her father free. Against all odds, she enters the masculine world and finds a new home serving the king who imprisoned her father. Over the years, she goes to war, experiences loss and heartbreak. She also discovers what it means to be brave and noble.

The author loosely bases her story around the legendary Knights of the Round Table. Fans of the old-fashioned […]

T B Markinson2015-10-27T09:01:18+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Novel Life of Coral Ambrose by Bonnie Ballou

★★★★½ Novel Life of Coral Ambrose

The Novel Life of Coral Ambrose, by Bonnie Ballou, is a fun and imaginative magical realism story that will delight book lovers.

Coral Ambrose is a personal trainer by day and a voracious reader by night. On the surface, she seems content. But a five-year gap in her memories has spurred Coral to record every aspect of her life and to save every single book she’s ever read. Her apartment is filled to the max with books and journals. During a visit to a used bookstore, the owner gives Coral a messenger bag he claims will give her […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:20:33+02:00October 6th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: L.A.’s Lost Soul by Dominic Ryan

L.A.’s Lost Soul is the engaging and spirited story about Dominic Ryan’s stay in Los Angeles from the U.K., while he spends seven months learning the ropes at an acting school. It’s an entertaining fish-out-of-water story exploring what it’s like to land in Hollywood with relatively little money, no contacts, and without even a place to live. It’s a pretty harrowing prospect, but Ryan faces it all with cheerfulness and optimism.

First, the title is a bit of a misnomer. “Lost Soul” suggests someone forsaken and unhappy, but that’s absolutely not the case for Ryan. He had his share of […]

Henry Baum2019-02-11T09:54:59+02:00October 5th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Travel Book Reviews|

Review: The New Lease by John Stryder

★★★★½ The New Lease by John Stryder

The New Lease by John Stryder is a riveting conspiracy thriller following Fae Cunningham, who is being shadowed by a mysterious benefactor who rescued her many years before. Suffering from a history of mental illness, she follows her benefactor to the Middle East, only to find his control extends far beyond her own life. He has the power to bend minds at will.

Traveling from the halls of academia to the Persian Gulf, India, and other locales, this is a true globetrotting novel with enough cultural detail to give the novel increased depth and realism. Stryder seems to know […]

Henry Baum2016-03-04T04:23:03+02:00October 2nd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Insane-O-Tron by Nick Alverson

★★★★½

Insane-O-Tron by Nick Alverson is a collection of stories that lives up to its title: Insane. Here we find a universe where the most absurd television show imaginable becomes a number one hit (in which a man has affections for a bed of mashed potatoes), the most sterling haircut in history becomes sentient and leads an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt, an earwig named Ernie, and other wildly ridiculous tales. It’s a page turner by virtue that you’ll be wondering just what Alverson comes up with next. There’s no possible way to guess what’s going to happen, you’ll just have […]

Henry Baum2016-03-04T04:23:30+02:00October 2nd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Humor, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Fusion (Tesla Evolution Book 4) by Mark Lingane

★★★★½ Fusion (Tesla Evolution Book 4) by Mark Lingane

The world ended, but that was just a new beginning. Sebastian is no longer the boy whose mother was taken from him, or the wide-eyed student of the Academy. Cyborg armies, zombie plagues, magnetic magicians, and insane warlords are all just par for the course at this point, and fate proved too powerful for even death. Finally, scores are to be settled, and the growing darkness to be faced in Fusion, Book 4 and the finale of the Tesla Evolution series by Mark Lingane.

This sci-fi mash-up has been a favorite of mine for a long time, but […]

James Grimsby2022-04-28T07:33:12+02:00September 30th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Apocalyptic Fiction Book Reviews|