Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Ordinary Miracles by Krissi Marie McVickers

Some women get pregnant with little effort. Others, however, struggle with infertility issues and need an outlet for both their educational needs and to bond with others in a similar situation. Author Krissi Marie McVicker never imagined that in her 20s she would have trouble conceiving, especially because her twin sister did not. She connected with an online infertility message board for help and was guided toward in vitro fertilization (IVF).

McVicker soon learned that IVF, while offering hope, is no picnic, but a “terrifying, anxiety-ridden, alternate reality.” It involved complicated dosing schedules, numerous drug interventions, blood draws, and painful […]

BlueInk Review2020-02-21T05:36:34+02:00September 11th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|

Review: The Sylvan Song by Phin Scardaw

In The Sylvan Song, Phin Scardaw has created a magical world of truth seekers and those who wish to keep the truth hidden. Symna lives in the township of Galn, in Naulemn. Naulemn is one of the Nine Realms of the Rión, which were created by and remain magically connected by the now-vanished Sylphs. All are part of the imperial Olymphin.

Symna marries Valcomn after a dream told her Valcomn’s brother, Jono, was not her future. Jono disappears even before Valcomn and Symna fall in love, and years later returns with a music box made by the Mystics, and […]

Elaine L. Orr2014-05-09T21:54:23+02:00September 10th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Review: The Rogue Navigator by E. Steven Newby

E. Steven Newby’s The Rogue Navigator is an exemplar of a genre I’ve never encountered before. I guess you might call it YA Fantasy Space Opera. When one thinks of YA these days, naturally books like the Harry Potter series, the Twilight books, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy come to mind. And of course the Chronicles of Narnia are always hovering nearby. These are all fantasy of one form or another. When one thinks of Space Opera, works like Ian M. Banks’ Culture novels and Verner Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep (as well as less literary works like […]

John Sundman2014-05-09T21:55:40+02:00August 20th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: Small by Melissa Brown Levine

Small begins with A Portrait of Abuse, a marvelously written prologue that doubles as both a series of detached observations about the physical scars, called incidents, covering Ansar’s body and an intimate description of Ansar’s appearance. It’s one of my favorite prologues of all time mainly because it does a great job introducing Ansar, the self-destructive main character caught in the crosshairs of his parents’ battles, and the story’s abstract, sometimes poetic, tone.

Riana and Hoil, Ansar’s parents, have a very volatile and disruptive relationship. Their fights really are more like a never-ending series of battles. In spite of how […]

Tiffany Cole2014-05-09T22:01:10+02:00August 16th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Women's Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Forbidden by Tony Williams

As I started reading this book, I was struck by two things. One, this book has the look and feel of a James A. Michener novel; broad, sweeping, long, intricate, descriptive and not intended to be gobbled up in a few days. The second was the feeling of Roots in in its themes and content. I was taken back in time to before the black man was taken from Africa as slaves to a new land, through the process of slavery and adaptation and then to the present time. But this is no Roots, because this is not America.[…]

Boudica Foster2014-05-09T22:02:09+02:00July 13th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: International Fiction Book Reviews|

The Home Front by Alan J. Summers

This well-crafted British war novel set during the London Blitz of 1940-1941 resurrects elements that have enlivened the genre for seven decades. Alan J. Summers gives us derring-do aloft: his hero is a dashing, 19-year-old Spitfire pilot named Mark Brabham, downed over the Channel in the act of destroying two German aircraft in a fiery smashup. There’s plenty of Stiff Upper Lip on the ground, too: a plucky and beautiful Welsh “land girl,” Elizabeth Fforest (yes, two “fs”), moves on from her milk-hauling duties on a remote farm to become an Allied spy in occupied Paris — but not before […]

BlueInk Review2020-02-21T05:36:07+02:00July 12th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|

Review: Only the Impassioned by H.C. Turk

Literary fiction, like poetry, is a quixotic and lovely thing. It’s never been an easy sell because the genre is an anti-genre. It’s “This doesn’t fit into another category, so we’ll call it literary.” In some cases, perhaps many, it means it’s a tough read. In other cases, it just means it doesn’t have a typical dramatic story structure, but there’s structure and much to love.

Only the Impassioned by H.C. Turk is all these things. It’s often beautiful, it’s impassioned, and it’s tough to follow. The story revolves around twenty-two-year-old Andrew Bower, a draftee in Germany at the end […]

Christopher Meeks2014-05-09T22:03:12+02:00July 11th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Feast or Famine by Augustus Cileone

As a child, Michael Accordo longs for a balanced diet. As a young man, he seeks to balance mixed signals from his parents, his religion, and his culture in general.

The novel is structured as though we are reading a transcript of reflective conversations recorded in 1987 between an adult Michael and Ambrosia, a close friend. While Ambrosia is a psychiatric professional, she is not officially his therapist. This softens the story a bit so it doesn’t devolve into self-help pseudo-memoir territory.

Michael begins his reflections in the 1950s with a focus on food as it relates to his family […]

Lela Michael2012-07-03T17:15:40+02:00July 3rd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|