New Releases | Self-Publishing Review

Juliet’s Journey by Kathy Gates

Juliet’s Journey by Kathy Gates is a delightful and comforting novella about traveling outside your country and your comfort zone. Juliet is a thirty-year-old graphic designer who decides to volunteer at an art school in the tiny village of Baiardo (a real place, the pictures of Baiardo are astounding). As sometimes can only happen in an exotic locale, Juliet learns to open up and be more comfortable with herself and her past.

The journey is one for the reader as well. Some books are beach reads because they’re page turners that quickly pass the time. Juliet’s Journey is like a […]

Lysa Grant2015-07-23T08:51:28+02:00July 23rd, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Romance Book Reviews, Women's Fiction Book Reviews|

The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown

The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown is a riveting psychological horror novel about a man in his sixties who loses his wife to cancer and then begins to see images of her in apparitions and nightmares. That’s not the scariest part though: she’s not appearing to terrify him, just come to warn him of something even more terrifying living right next door.

On the surface, The Dark Side of the Window is a fairly straight-forward ghost story. However, the premise of the novel is the springboard for a richly character-driven suspense novel. The book is written in […]

Henry Baum2015-07-14T03:57:43+02:00July 14th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Horror Book Reviews|

Emperor’s Shadow (Elite Book 1) by Yi Zhu

Emperor’s Shadow (Elite Book 1) by Yi Zhu is a very fine beginning to an exciting new fantasy series. The novel follows two orphans born into a strict caste system. To go up in class is a virtual impossibility in the Glorious Empire. Only those who graduate from the Academy are granted Highborn status. As with other unjust civilizations, revolution is not far behind…

Unlike other fantasy books, which work in their own self-contained fantasy universe, Emperor’s Shadow seems like a contemporary fantasy, a reflection of our current times, as well as past dynasties. This makes the book seem more […]

Henry Baum2015-07-09T11:30:36+02:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Insanity By Increments by Alaric Cabiling

Insanity By Increments by Alaric Cabiling Insanity by Increments by Alaric Cabling is a work of Gothic literary short fiction about people on the edge – isolated from other people, and from themselves.. No one acts predictably, nor does the world around them. It’s not just the characters who have dark impulses, the world they inhabit is just as sinister.

The collection is moody, cerebral, and ultimately very affecting. In each of the stories, men grapple with isolation and abandonment. Some of their lives are mundane and ordinary, while some are truly outcasts, but they all share a similar sense of alienation. The collection could have […]

Henry Baum2015-07-09T07:46:34+02:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

3volve by Josefina Gutierrez

3volve by Josefina Gutierrez 3volve by Josefina Gutierrez is the spirited and engaging New Adult novel about Cristal Escobedo, an almost-dysfunctional twenty-two-year-old who has to grow up very fast taking care of her two younger brothers. She’s also got this problem of falling for her best friend. Though 3volve is part of a series, it works well as a standalone novel.

A self-described “mess,” Cristal is a highly entertaining character. Her voice is at once loose and driven, and brazen in her opinions about herself, and everyone else around her. She’s vulnerable without being weak, and never pathetic. She doesn’t magically become adept overnight […]

Lysa Grant2015-07-09T05:10:25+02:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, New Adult Book Reviews, Romance Book Reviews|

Puzzle Trees by Thom Mark Shepard

Puzzle Trees by Thom Mark Shepard is an entertaining coming of age novel with a bit of horror thrown into the mix. Joe Sheffield is an awkward but thoughtful high school freshman whose best friends move away. Entering high school is hard enough without having to tackle it alone. Joe begins looking for the principal’s missing cats in the area of the “puzzle trees,” a forbidding forest where it’s thought to be the home of strange aggressive primates. Along with his equally-tormented brother, Joe sets out to find the missing cats and locate the mysterious denizens of the Puzzle Trees, […]

Henry Baum2019-01-22T11:01:34+02:00July 2nd, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Middle Grade Fiction Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews|

Heart Break by MF Moskwik

Heart Break by MF Moskwik Heart Break by MK Moskwik is a fun and spirited tech-driven mystery with a likable central character, Isabel Swift, an engaging protagonist for a new series. Swift is an up and coming police officer and human lie detector who dreams of making detective. Her mentor, Ben, dies mysteriously and Swift learns there may be a connection with his death and her latest case about stolen technology. She’s paired with a surly data scientist who’s making her job more difficult. When other cops are found murdered, Swift has only 48 hours to connect the dots, solve her mentor’s death, and make […]

Lysa Grant2015-06-30T07:15:54+02:00June 30th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Mystery Book Reviews|

Apple of My I: The Four Practices of Self-Love by Yudit Maros

Apple of My I: The Four Practices of Self-Love Apple of My I: The Four Practices of Self-Love: Tools for Authentic Living in a Chaotic World is a self-help book to help people live a healthier life, both mentally and physically. The latter is the most important part of the book’s premise, as Maros’ emphasis is on looking to the body’s signals to understand the workings of the mind. If you hate yourself, your body will suffer. If you hate your body, the reverse will happen. Only when the two facets of a person are in alignment will a person fully realize their potential.