The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review
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. […]
These are rich quick-paced stories where not a lot happens, but still manages to be page-turning because of Marcopolos’ […]
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 […]
★★★★½ 
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 […]
Brothers 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 […]
Alfred 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 […]
Without scaring off genre readers, Everything I Know could be classified as a literary novel. Williams is an expert with dialect and the inner city setting. Leticia is a fully-realized protagonist, both mature […]
A Better World, by Belangela G. Tarazona, is a difficult, but uplifting, read about three women who have to endure harsh realities.
This is a collection of three novellas. In the first, Saja, flees from Sri Lanka, which is in the midst of a civil war. Most of her family and her husband are lost, leaving her alone when she seeks asylum in Denmark.
The second story focuses on Yonna, a Venezuelan. Her entire family has been murdered by a rival clan and she is captured and raped repeatedly, until the rapists grow tired of her and toss her […]