SPR’s book reviews of new self-published books
Melissa, a business woman who keeps her days filled and her love life empty, reconnects with an old friend who has grown distant. As she begins to allow her old friend back in her life, she’s stymied by his sudden vacillations between the friend she remembers and the […]
A Burning in the Darkness is riveting because the strength of its characters, primarily Michael Kieh. At times, he is dynamic to a fault, but his thoughtful interior life and his life story is what […]
Open Your Heart by Ruth Cherry is an uplifting work of fiction about embracing one’s life and purpose. Anne, a middle-aged psychotherapist, feels restless and unfulfilled. Desperate, she voices a prayer for help, and a spirit guide named Hannah, in the guise of a crusty crone, appears to help. Hannah introduces more spiritual advisors: Maggie inspires Anne’s artistic vision, while Theresa reminds her of the youthful happiness and passion she has long repressed.
The guides advise Anne to stop trying to control her life, to let go, to fly. Once Anne absorbs these messages she meets Alex, who blesses her […]
Poor David Tan. Things have not gone well for the harried protagonist of Chandra Shekhar’s novel Mock My Words. His position at Steinbeck University, one he thought of as a dream job, leaves him unfulfilled and struggling to connect with students who don’t take him seriously due to his accented English. His colleagues are brusque and cold. His wife, Laura, doesn’t give him enough attention or affection. Melissa, a brilliant student with whom he shares a cultural and emotional connection, suddenly ignores him as well.
Shekhar’s choice to write a novel about Chinese-American identity is interesting and not inherently […]
Turf wars and unlikely alliances are hardly novel concepts in fiction, but add gangs of vampires and a 2,000-year-old conspiracy to the mix and you’ve got yourself a well thought-out tale in Akeldama that goes far beyond your typical vampire fare.
Newly-appointed Hunter, Seth Gendrickson, works for the Catholic Church’s secretive Order of Mount Sion, a group of vampire hunters. His small team’s first assignment is to investigate a worrisome spike in vampire activity that’s left a few gruesome remains and troubling questions in its wake. Seth is young and eager to prove himself which leads to some horrible consequences […]
Ancient beliefs and modern madness converge in Before the Sun Goes Down, a military thriller from Clif Petty that touches on everything from Native American traditions to the looming threat of global war.
Reuben Axtell is an unassuming college student, fumbling his way through the world, when his life is suddenly swept into conspiracy and confusion following the death of his friend Rains. What begins as a localized murder mystery – albeit a strange one – soon becomes a broad and sweeping thriller that goes far deeper than old ghost stories told around the reservation campfire.
Clif Petty captures […]
Moriarty Meets His Match by Anna Castle is a mystery novel woven and detangled by Sherlock Holmes’ famous nemesis, James Moriarty, and his complicated love, Angelina Gould.
In this who-done-it, Professor James Moriarty wraps himself up in an investigation that revolves around burglary and murder, initially to save his own skin, but as he comes to know the beautiful and mysteriously complicated Angelina Gould, he may have bitten off more than he can chew.
Fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock may be surprised to find a kindhearted and heroic Moriarty at the heart of this first novel of Castle’s […]
Anna hates New York. She especially hates her new life, her new home, and her new stepfather, and if it weren’t for still being able to ski, Anna probably wouldn’t be able to handle it at all. When a chance encounter with another young skier leads fourteen-year-old Anna into another world – one of elves, sorcerers, monsters, and more – maybe New York isn’t so bad after all…
Winner of Gold medal for Juvenile Fiction E-Book in the 2012 Independent Publishers Book Awards, Print in the Snow is E.V. Svetova’s first published work, and it is a truly remarkable one. […]