Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Slush Pile Brigade by Samuel Marquis

★★★★½ The Slush Pile Brigade by Samuel Marquis

The Slush Pile Brigade, by Samuel Marquis, is a hilarious and exciting read filled with one crazy turn after another.

Nick Lassiter has just turned thirty and he’s in some serious trouble. His girlfriend has dumped him. He lost his job. He’s wanted by the police. And he discovers that his unpublished thriller has been stolen and turned into a blockbuster movie.

If that’s not bad enough, the author who stole his idea is Cameron Beckett, one of the biggest brand name authors.

Nick doesn’t want revenge. He wants a simple apology. When he and three friends show […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:26:59+02:00September 3rd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Action and Adventure Book Reviews, Humor, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: William the Conqueror vs King Harold by Jesse Lee Vint

★★★★½

William the Conqueror vs King Harold, by Jesse Lee Vint, according to the blurb is “The story that has never been told!”

In 1066, Halley’s Comet made an appearance. The same year, in England, three undefeated warrior kings who believed they had a legitimate claim to the crown clashed. Quitting wasn’t in their vocabulary so when events sent them on a collision course it made the perfect scenario for exciting history. Even though Normandy’s William and England’s Harold Godwinson, crowned King Harold II in January of 1066, were friends before the fateful events, the lure of being crowned […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:27:35+02:00September 3rd, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Drachen by Brendan Le Grange ★★★★

Drachen by Brendan Le Grange is a classic treasure hunting story, with all the thrills and adventure such a labeling entails. Sorry, Indie fans. There’s no Ark of the Covenant at the end of this ancient bread crumb trail, no treasure of the Free Mason’s buried beneath national monuments, and not a single person stumbling through modern day Mexico in search of El Dorado. In Le Grange’s novel, Brett Rivera seeks the fabled treasure of the lost Hanseatic warship Drachen.

When Brett finds the wreck of the Drachen on the ocean floor, the intervention of hired thugs and the […]

Dakota Kemp2019-01-22T15:08:52+02:00August 28th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Action and Adventure Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Silence in Center by Jody Studdard ★★★★

Silence in Center by Jody Studdard is a heartwarming addition to the Softball Star series.

Melody Gold is a fourteen-year-old fastpitch player who wants to advance from Little League to select ball. The problem is finding a team that will let her play. She’s talented, but Melody has a hearing impairment. She can hear with her hearing aids and she wears them during games, but many coaches say it just won’t work out. Melody’s not a quitter and she’s determined to prove that she can play at the highest level.

Young readers who love inspirational sports stories will like this […]

T B Markinson2015-09-16T07:32:51+02:00August 28th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Sports Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: How To Go From Couch Potato To English Teacher To Chinese Speaking Lawyer by Hastings Cavendish

★★★½

How To Go From Couch Potato To English Teacher To Chinese Speaking Lawyer is Hastings Cavendish’s tale of teaching English to Chinese people in the UK, and trying to learn to speak the demanding language of Mandarin. It’s at once an ode to the beauty of the Chinese language, food, and an exploration of the hardships and rewards of being an international English teacher.

Cavendish is a fun travel guide. He clearly loves language – learning it and teaching it. As he says, even boring small talk becomes interesting when you’re speaking another language. Cavendish immerses himself in all […]

Henry Baum2020-02-21T07:51:39+02:00August 28th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Social Science Book Reviews|

Review: Driving in Circles by Rita D’Orazio

★★★★½

Driving in Circles, by Rita D’Orazio, is an intriguing story that revolves around one family and their secrets.

Henry and Cynthia Jones are celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary by going on a ten-day cruise. They decide to bring along their three daughters and one son-in-law. What could go wrong? Plenty.

After two days, the youngest daughter leaves mysteriously. Jat thinks she knows why Joyce has left, but does she know the whole truth?

The older sister Skye is seen by her husband and Jat meeting with a handsome stranger. Why?

In the midst of all this drama is […]

T B Markinson2016-03-04T04:28:40+02:00August 24th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: With New Eyes by Heidi Siefkas ★★★★

With New Eyes is the moving sequel to Heidi Siefkas’s memoir When All Balls Drop, about Siefkas’s accident: taking out the trash one day in upstate New York, a thousand-pound tree branch fell on her from out of nowhere, breaking her neck. That wasn’t the only thing that broke: her marriage (already difficult) dissolved, and she lost her high-powered job in the travel industry. With New Eyes picks up where the first book left off: Siefkas is healed up, for the most part, but now has eyes on putting her life back together.

In clear and eloquent prose, Siefkas […]

Lysa Grant2015-12-04T09:42:15+02:00August 20th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: A Stalker’s Journey by John C. Lukegord ★★★

Content warning for violence, drug abuse, and sexual abuse, including that of minors.

In Iowa, 1983, when Curtis Ware is driven off the road while escaping from the scene of a drug theft, he is hospitalized for horrific injuries and charged for his crimes based on traumatized, rage-filled, drug-induced testimonies. Released after a single harrowing year in a correctional facility, he quickly grows an impressive rap sheet before moving east, to the quiet Riverside, Maine in 1990.

As the papers begin to report a surprising crime wave for the small town, first with robbery from an unmarked taxi, then with […]

James Grimsby2015-09-10T07:46:00+02:00August 18th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Thriller Book Reviews|