Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Black Orchestra by JJ Toner ★★★★

black orchestraThe Black Orchestra, by JJ Toner, is a mesmerizing spy thriller set in Nazi Germany during World War II.

Kurt Muller, an Abwehr signalman, shows up to work and finds that his coworker is dead at his radio receiver. The police barely investigate the death and quickly determine it was a suicide. Kurt doesn’t agree. He begins his own investigation, but not many want him to. Kurt’s inquiry leads him to a German resistance group. Kurt has to choose between his conscience and duty.

Historical fiction thrillers have a lot of moving parts that need to be grounded with […]

2015-02-02T09:43:15+02:00January 21st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Skeletal by Katherine Hayton ★★★★★

SkeletalThis book contains brief scenes of rape and physical abuse.

Set in New Zealand’s gateway to the South, Christchurch, this New Adult Urban Horror is a brilliantly sinister and completely original story of despair, darkness and the horrors of teenage life in a broken home.

You won’t read anything like Skeletal anywhere. Forget Carrie, and her weird religious-driven telekinetics, or Christine, and her firestarting habits. Forget Gone Girl’s Amy and her psychotics.  Compared to Skeletal, these unbridled female psyches would seem like a picnic to Daina Harrow, our protagonist.  Daina’s life is at its absolute limits of stress, and not […]

2016-02-21T06:48:31+02:00January 21st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , , |

Review: Sex, Drugs & Islam by Dari Ghaznavi ★★★★

sex drugs and islamSex, Drugs & Islam is the provocative and controversial memoir by Pakistani author, Dari Ghaznavi. In a conversational style, Ghaznavi tells tale of his time in the military, running drugs and other criminal activity, traveling the world, and, especially, chasing women. Despite its dark topics, the narration is breezy and spirited. Dari Ghaznavi really has lived a life like no other.

The title alone suggests that Ghaznavi is a man who takes chances and fears no one. Again and again, Ghaznavi puts himself in situations that would kill most people, or at least end up in an extended prison stay. […]

2015-02-02T09:35:13+02:00January 20th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Infinite Ending: Ten Stories by Frank Marcopolos ★★★★

Infinite EndingInfinite Ending: Ten Stories by Frank Marcopolos is the resulting book of a challenge to write a story a month over ten months. The ten stories follow two hikers on a long journey, a college baseball player assessing his prospects, erotica writers ruminating about the publishing business, a wounded soldier, and other tales where characters assess their present and future condition. By his own declaration in the foreword, these are “postmodern literary fiction,” not stories with high-concept premises or tidy endings.

These are rich quick-paced stories where not a lot happens, but still manages to be page-turning because of Marcopolos’ […]

2015-02-02T09:58:11+02:00January 20th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Dobyns Chronicles by Shirley McLain ★★★★

Dobyns Chronicles by Shirley McLainEvery life is a story in itself. The author, Shirley McLain, proves this with her historical fiction novel Dobyns Chronicles.

Charley Dobyns began his life in northeast Texas, on the Red River. His cowboy father and his Cherokee mother worked hard to provide for Charley and his two younger siblings, David and Viola. In 1888 tragedy struck. Both of his parents died from yellow fever. At the age of sixteen, Charley was the head of the family. His brother was only ten and his sister four. He moved the family to the Chickasaw Territory to stay with friends of […]

2023-02-28T08:02:00+02:00January 19th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Between Midnight and Morning by Beverly Mitchell Dodd

★★★★½ between midnight and morning

Between Midnight and Morning, by Beverly Mitchell Dodd, is a hard-hitting women’s fiction novel that explores the dichotomy between personal freedom and family obligations and traditions.

When Lena turns eighteen, she leaves her home, her father and sister, and their church and religious beliefs. In her new life she meets Cos, she marries young, and has her son, Nathan, soon after. However, she can’t escape her painful past. Years pass and then something terrible happens. Lena and Nathan move back home, and she feels trapped in the past and present. Will she be able to pull herself out […]

2016-03-04T04:35:00+02:00January 17th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Brothers in Arms by Jack O’Riley ★★★

brothers in armsBrothers in Arms by Jack O’Riley follows a group of friends who spend a lot of time drinking (and drinking and drinking) who takes their antics too far and end up violently beating up a husband and wife with a pious vanity plate. The victims of the crime are then pegged as snobs as the small band of misfits then become a major phenomenon in the Twin Cities, and the city is plunged into a debate about the nature of crime and punishment.

There’s a distinct Raymond Carver feeling to O’Riley’s narrative, especially in the lack of quotes for dialog […]

2019-01-22T15:50:55+02:00January 15th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: The Immigrant by Alfred Woollacott ★★★★

The ImmigrantAlfred Woollacott didn’t have to look too far from home for an idea about a novel. He turned to his own family tree to find inspiration. While The Immigrant: One from My Four Legged Stool is historical fiction, it’s about his ancestors during the 1600s. His imagined account not only seems plausible, but is a wonderful and enthralling read.

John Law, a Scotsman, is captured by Lord Cromwell’s forces in the seventeenth century during the Battle of Dunbar. Law survives the march to Durham, England. During his imprisonment in England, he is sold as an indentured servant and Law will […]

2015-02-02T10:02:35+02:00January 13th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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