Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Elvia and the Gift of Passion by Ruthy Ballard

Elvia and the Gift of Passion by Ruthy Ballard

Elvia and the Gift of Passion, the third installment of Ruthy Ballard’s Tales by Moons-Light series, is a magical middle grade fantasy that follows plucky Elvia as she travels from Oregon to Africa to the two-mooned planet Urth, where a beautiful purple-skinned, fashion-obsessed Uppie takes her on the trip of a lifetime.

Ten-year-old Elvia Hill’s passion for adventure is endlessly thwarted by her overly protective parents, who won’t even let her ride a bike, but that changes when her mother wins a trip to go on a safari in Tanzania. Although they rarely let their daughter out of their […]

Review: Family Matters by Lance Lee

Family Matters by Lance Lee

In a memoir that does double duty as a multi-generational history of dysfunction and the effort to define a life shaped by deceptions, Lance Lee unmasks the myths his parents clung to in Family Matters: dreams I couldn’t share and how a dysfunctional family became America’s Darling, The Addams Family.

Lee and his sister, Linda, endured a turbulent childhood controlled by their father David “Gar” Levy, a self-absorbed, generally distant, often emotionally abusive patriarch. A high-powered advertising and television network executive, Gar created the sitcom, “The Addams Family,” which Lee believes Gar infused with his own parents’ dysfunction and […]

SPR2022-10-07T15:00:03+02:00October 6th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Biography Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: The Garden Before Eden by Les J. Whitmore

The Garden Before Eden by Les J. Whitmore

A touching tale of true love, despite all odds, The Garden Before Eden by Les J. Whitmore is a clever new take on destiny and the unexpected fates that control it.

Keller is an unassuming IT specialist with little chance of landing a date with Ashley the super-agent, but his authenticity, wit, and oddball charm catch her eye. He is completely different than Jack, the brash man she represents, who seems determined to sweep her off her feet with all the grace of a charging linebacker. Meanwhile, in a heavenly waiting room called the Garden, Ashley’s future children are waiting […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-10T11:16:05+02:00October 4th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Religious Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: A Rebel’s Path (The Enchanted Isles Book 3) by I.L. Cruz

A Rebel's Path (The Enchanted Isles Book 3) by I.L. Cruz

Author I.L. Cruz summons another tense chapter of the Enchanted Isles YA series with A Rebel’s Path, her third electrifying installment. Between paternal revelations, impending royal nuptials, a resurgence of magic, and an urban legend come to life, the life of Inez Garza and the realm of Canto is as strange and exciting as ever.

Inez’s predestined fate of bringing magic back to the Enchanted Isles is a tall order, particularly since she has no idea how to achieve that seemingly impossible goal. Her powers have proven to be impressive, but difficult to predict and keep hidden, training in […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-03T17:33:55+02:00October 3rd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, YA Fantasy Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Review: The Kentucky Bicentennial by Dale E. Voelker

The Kentucky Bicentennial by Dale Voelker

A visual tour of Kentucky during its 200th birthday year, The Kentucky Bicentennial by Dale E. Voelker is a celebration of a state, its people, and the enduring spirit that populates every corner of the Bluegrass State. These pages hold images from events both big and small that occurred in 1992 across the state, finally brought to life thirty years later in this commemorative book.

The photos from “Hillbilly Days” are particularly evocative of the rustic, patriotic, and whimsical nature of the state, while the shots of the Kentucky Derby that year are both dynamic and intimate. The “Summer Festival […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-11-09T13:15:57+02:00October 2nd, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: History Book Reviews, Photography Book Reviews|

Review: Reclaiming the Sacred by Jeff Golden

Reclaiming the Sacred by Jeff Golden

With the masterful pen of a mystic scholar, Jeff Golden delivers a profound assessment of the modern world and a bold schematic for salvation in Reclaiming the Sacred: Healing Our Relationships with Ourselves and the World.

To explain the discipline of a book like this, it is perhaps easiest to use the author’s own words – “The science of happiness, abundance, and belonging.” Explaining the instability and corruptibility of today’s world, as well as the path that led us here, Golden attempts to redirect the course of society through positive adaptation and intentional shifts in our belief structures, artfully […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-31T18:37:08+02:00September 29th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Social Science Book Reviews|

Review: Invisible Threads by Margaret Carpenter Arnett

Invisible Threads by Margaret Carpenter Arnett

Margaret Carpenter Arnett’s heartfelt memoir, Invisible Threads, is the story of a woman, a mother, and an artist that unfolds in an intimate journalistic style, embedded with dreams, poems, paintings, Bible passages, and I Ching texts – the invisible threads that stitch the artist’s tales together.

Carpenter Arnett’s story begins in 1935 in Southwick, England where she was born, quickly followed by her brother and sisters. Their sheltered childhood in idyllic rural England was soon shaken by WWII, as Carpenter Arnett recalls hiding under the stairs while the Luftwaffe roared in the sky and bombs dropped all around her. […]

SPR2022-10-28T15:42:48+02:00September 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Art Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: Birdie Pesky Was Here by Andrew Augustine Connor

Birdie Pesky Was Here by Andrew Augustine Connor

A spiraling account of a fictional historical heist, Birdie Pesky Was Here: The Story of the Big Bad Buxom Blonde Boston Bank Boost by Andrew Augustine Connor is a rowdy and unpredictable thriller that teeters on the edge of believable from start to finish, making it easy to forget that this novel is a wildly creative piece of imagination.

Cash and Cary make for an unforgettable duo of safe crackers as they scheme their way around their debt to a dangerous don, with a dazzling balance of laissez-faire larceny and daring deeds. They are a delightfully odd couple, and genuinely […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2022-10-10T17:29:21+02:00September 28th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|