book review

BondingBladeCover

An independent review The Bonding Blade by M.L. Doyle The premise is fun: the ancient Sumerian goddess of love, sex, war love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice and power, Inanna (also known as Ishtar) becomes embodied in former U.S. soldier who lives in Minneapolis. Of course, where there’s Inanna, there has to be her […]

Khirro’s Journey: An outstanding novel by a novelist with chops

An independent novel review By Bruce Blake Bruce Blake is a professional fantasy writer after my own heart. I have already reviewed his first novel, On Unfaithful Wings, giving it a full five stars. Khirro’s Journey, Book One: Blood of the King is the first book in the traditional fantasy trilogy, and this one is […]

Undrastormur: An independent book review

The best children’s books are those that also appeal to adults, and they do that by presenting characters with elements that readers of all ages can recognize in themselves. Undrastormur: A Viking Tale of Troublesome Trolls by Roger Eschbacher is one of those books. It continues the author’s oeuvre of middle-grade books based on ancient […]

Friday Nights Don’t Last Forever: Independent book review

Caleb Pirtle III has proven that he’s an original writer. His books do not follow the usual tropes and stereotypical genre tales, whether he’s writing mysteries, sports stories or anything else. He’s not a genre writer — he’s writing modern American literature disguised as genre books. Friday Nights Don’t Last Forever, his latest release, is an […]

Independent book review: 5* for Ghost Star

Ghost Star is a rollicking good space opera for young readers. Anyone from reading age to mid-teens will enjoy it. Plot Nolo Bray, a member of the Ruam race from the planet Tac, is the most elusive smuggler the galaxy. The book opens as his ship, the Ghost Star is finally caught and boarded by the Lingering Death, […]

Seb Kirby, master of the unreliable narrator: An independent novel review

Here the Truth Lies review Seb Kirby has once again hit it out of the park. Seb Kirby has proven he’s a master of the unreliable narrator. In his 2016 novel, Sugar for Sugar, Kirby presented Issy Cunningham, a woman who wakes up with no memory, but is implicated in a murder. Kirby managed a […]

Independent book review: Still Life with Memories

By Uvi Poznansky I have recently discovered the books of Uvi Poznansky, and she has written a remarkable series of books. Together, they tell one unified story, but from multiple points of view. The author does a remarkable job of capturing each individual voice Still Life with Memories is about Lenny and Natasha Kaminsky, and […]

Independent novel review: The Jossing Affair

By J.L. Oakley This is an amazingly good book. The Jossing Affair reminds me of Dr. Zhivago: it’s a story that helps us understand a world-changing, vicious conflict through a close focus on a few people caught in it. At its heart, it’s actually a realistic love story. Janet Oakley is an author I admire. […]