The LL Book Review
Self-publishing book review
Shadowed by Ken Hughes
A very well-written, edited and formatted book, which was what notably caught my eye when first viewing Shadowed. Crisp, clean and thorough, it was a pleasure to see considerable care had been taken to present a professional appearance.
The premise of the story itself, someone discovering abilities in themselves they cannot fathom or understand, which distances them from other humans is a more common theme it seems these days. Paul, the main character, struggles with his heightened awareness, making choices and decisions after secretly observing sometimes nefarious others while still trying to protect his family and find out what happened to change him in this way.
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Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever by Judith Marshall
After hearing Judith Marshall talk to a writer’s club I’m a member of, I bought and read her novel.
Many that read the title may assume that “Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever” is a story that does not focus on husbands and boyfriends, but it isn’t. It’s a story of lifelong friendships that includes lovers, former husbands, current boyfriends and husbands, etc.
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The Seven Gifts by John Mellor
A series of beautifully written tales that capture the mind, heart and spirit; Mellor has done a splendid job engrossing the reader’s attention in a unique an utterly irresistible novel.
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Becoming BGD: A Superhero Tail by Matthew Essex
We love heroes—loving them is part of American life. Yet, none of us see ourselves doing whist heroes do. Heroes are the other guys. Here we are in Quad City where Darrin Greer, eighteen years old discovers that he has superhuman abilities and he changes from a depressed and angry teen filled with social anxiety into a superman of a sort with great strength.
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Terror In Tinseltown – The Sequel to Devil Bat Diary by Peter Brothers
It is December of 1941, and in this, the thrilling sequel to “Devil Bat Diary,” the author takes his reader on a entertaining roller-coaster ride of suspenseful fantasy as the Chicago Daily Register’s resourcefully resilient reporter Johnny Layton and his picture-taking partner “One-Shot” McGuire travel to Hollywood to investigate a series of gruesome murders. Along the way they meet numerous luminaries and experience many one-of-a-kind adventures as well as unimaginable terrors in exotic locations, and Layton even reconnects with a lost love as he tries his best not becoming yet another grim victim himself!
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The Masada Solution by Jeffrey Fishman
I chose this book for review because I spent a couple of years of my life living in Israel, and consequently, have quite a history with and fondness for the country and its people, generally speaking. I once even got out of bed in Jerusalem at a most ungodly hour, in order to climb Masada under cover of darkness, to watch the sun come up!
Dirt by S. L. Dwyer
This is a good book. It is not Steinbeck or Hemingway, but it is reminiscent of some of their writing. It is not perfect, but its flaws can be forgiven. In the midst of “dust bowl America” a pre-teen boy awakes to find that his parents have hung themselves in the barn out of desperation for their inability to care for their son and daughter. The parents had intended for the boy and his younger sister to become wards of the state, but the boy does not react as his parents had expected. He and his sister try to survive on the farm abandoned to them by their parents in one of the toughest times in American history.
Fortune: Lost and Found edited by L.S. Murphy & Kate Jonez
Capital, cash, gold, lucre– money makes the world go round. But fortunes easily gained are often painfully lost. Since the very first king pressed his face onto the very first coin no single thing has led so many to ruin. Fortune, it seems, has a dark side and a wickedly evil sense of humor.
Beautiful Man and Other Stories by Jack Mauro
This is a superb collection of 12 stories set in Knoxville.
Mauro’s prose is absolutely beautiful; I found these stories a pleasure just to read, sentence by sentence, even apart from the characters and plots (which are both engaging). Also, Mauro’s ability to examine his characters’ motivations and attitudes — the submerged icebergs beneath their behaviors — is consistent and moving.
Price of Justice by Alan Brenham
It takes a certain kind of mystery or crime thriller to hold my complete attention. The cookie cutter plot lines of James Patterson make me laugh every time I see him hanging out on the New York Times Bestseller list. I enjoyed the occasional Mary Higgins Clark or John Grisham back in my high school days, but even they don’t do it for me today. Thomas Harris has always been a fav, but he’s written all of five books in three decades. These days author Gillian Flynn has me screeching like a vamp crazed teen girl every time a new book comes out, but again, three books in six years.