Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: Sometimes Ya Gotta Laugh by Timothe Davis

A key ingredient to a successful movie is a fabulous soundtrack.  Not many people want to sit in a theater and listen to horrible songs no matter how great the actors.  But are soundtracks exclusive to movies?  Timothe Davis’ novel Sometimes Ya Gotta Laugh challenges this question.  His story about three best friends is set to music.

Jordan Spencer is the heart of the trio.  Jordan, who was orphaned at a young age, has difficulties forming lasting relationships.  None of his relationships have made it past six months.  However, he is close with his two friends Gabby and Chris.  They […]

2014-05-19T21:29:09+02:00May 21st, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: A Searcher Summoned by Perrin Pring

A Searcher Summoned by Perrin Pring“The universe, as we know it, was created as a result of an exercise of thought.  In another dimension, far away from here…”

Do you feel like escaping into a new world?  Perrin Pring’s world in A Searcher Summoned (The Ryo Myths) is filled with lossals, ringers, zombies, dream searchers, Eoans, Afortiori, and the Chozen.

Before the universe was created, the Eoans and the Afortiori were one.  They were not human, but clouds of raw elements.   They constructed the universe as a challenge.  The introduction of free will drastically changed the fate of the universe.  Some of the Eoans developed […]

2019-01-23T13:04:19+02:00May 18th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: The Shadows Touch by R. Scott VanKirk

The Shadows Touch, by R. Scott VanKirk, is the sequel to the fantasy novel, The Dryad’s KissThe opening pages of The Shadows Touch picks up right where the first novel left off.

I had the privilege of reviewing the first novel and I enjoyed it immensely so with great anticipation I opened to the first page of the sequel.  Ian Finn Mortgenstern’s, the hero in the first novel, life has not improved much since we last saw him in The Dryad’s Kiss.  His father is residing in the mental institution, Shady Oaks, and so is his best friend’s […]

2012-05-15T12:57:57+02:00May 15th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: The Dryad’s Kiss by R. Scott VanKirk

They built the mound layer by layer, with each layer accepting more of the bones of the fallen. Finally, on top, facing the south and east, they interred the remains of Wahkoceethee the Eagle and Sheshepukwa the Cougar. They buried the fallen warriors with ceremonies of respect and thanks along with their totems. When Anakthepeuke the Rattlesnake died, he would be buried facing the west and the strongest of them all, Mactequeta Bear, in turn would be buried facing the terrible north.  They would take their totems with them so their spirits could tap the power of their totems in

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2012-05-10T12:56:12+02:00May 10th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kollenborn

Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kollenborn is an ambitious book about complex subjects.  The Yoshimura and Hamaguchi families of Bainbridge Island, off the coast of Washington, endure the bigotry of the 1940s and are forced into the Manzanar Internment Camp, but their stories transcend any location.

Eyes Behind Belligerence is essentially a story of families and how they come to terms with loss — whether of people, life as they knew it, or the ability to make their own choices.  Americans whose ancestry is not Japanese may look at Japanese-American families and see homogeneity.  The book shows that the cultures […]

2014-05-19T21:35:33+02:00May 3rd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

The God Within by Martine Racine

Author Martine Racine is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ordained minister. In The God Within, she describes how the divine lives in all of us.

Racine posits that our center of power, creativity, and morality doesn’t come from extrinsic sources. Rather, they reside in our being and are tapped into when we feel from our hearts. All of the destruction in the world, according to Racine, comes from the unhealthy imbalance of putting too much emphasis on the mind. The mind is a tool that should be used only through the guidance of heart because our heart is what is […]

2020-02-21T05:41:08+02:00April 29th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|

Review: Murder Takes Time by Giacomo Giammatteo

What would you do if you thought one of your two best friends from childhood was wanted for murder and you were the cop in charge of the investigation?  Would you be able to put your feelings aside and do your job?  In Giacomo Giammatteo’s debut novel, Murder Takes Time, he explores the power of friendship and honor.

Right from the start, the reader is thrown into the bloody world of mobsters.  The opening pages depict a horrific killing.  The murder scene is not for the faint-hearted.  At first I was uncomfortable.  But fear not, this is not a novel […]

2014-05-19T21:37:42+02:00April 26th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Cephrael’s Hand by Melissa McPhail

Fans of epic high fantasy are a resilient bunch, having decided long ago to reply to detractors of the genre with, “You read in your world, I’ll read in mine.”

Cephrael’s Hand is Book One in a series called A Pattern of Shadow & Light and is the first novel by Melissa McPhail. Our story is set in the mythical realm of Alorin, three centuries after a massive war which almost wiped out an entire race called the Adepts. A three-continent map of Alorin is included, as are a Glossary of Terms and Dramatis Personae.

I consulted the front matter […]

2014-05-19T21:40:20+02:00April 25th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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