Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week – Page 13

Book Reviews, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week, Uncategorized, weekly self published book review

Tuesday Book Review: “The Secret of Bald Rock Island”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

secret of bald rock island charles salter

readers' favorite book award winner

The Secret of Bald Rock Island

by Charles A. Salter

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781478770848

Synopsis*:

Can Kelcie solve the island’s TWO mysteries in time?

Ten-year-old Kelcie Oglethorpe’s fisherman father disappeared at sea years ago. Since then, Kelcie has befriended Bald Rock Island’s beloved Mr. Bartleby, a kindly man devoted to the village and its children. He often warns of a mysterious creature he once saw on the island’s bald dome which towers a hundred feet above the sea, yet is hollow inside and connected to sea life by underground channels. Kelcie decides to help Mr. Bartleby solve the island’s two enduring mysteries-what happened to her father, and what the sea creature might be. She learns that Mr. Bartleby was her father’s lifelong best friend. During that terrible storm off the coast of Maine, Mr. Bartleby risked his own life to do everything possible to save Kelcie’s dad, but no sign was ever found.

Kelcie criss-crosses the island in search of clues and thinks she knows where she can find the ultimate answers. She resolves to explore the forbidden area of the island, and as she puts the final pieces of the puzzle together, a new storm arises. Can she solve the mysteries and return to safety before the new storm claims her as the previous one did her father? And what will she do when she finally confronts the mysterious creature face to face?

* courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Review

The Secret of Bald Rock Island (Kare Kids Adventure #1) by Charles A. Salter is an exciting children’s adventure about a young girl determined to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. Ten-year-old Kelcie Oglethorpe has always been curious and ready for adventure. Mr. Bartelby, the town’s well-known and much-loved writer, is always willing to tell the children a story. When Mr. Bartelby tells the children of a mysterious creature that inhabits Bald Rock, Kelcie decides that it is time to solve the peculiar puzzle concerning her father’s disappearance and discover if Mr. Bartelby’s extraordinary story holds truth. Doing some research, Kelcie finds little to help her solve her dad’s disappearance until she reads an article written by Mr. Bartelby. As things start to come together in Kelcie’s head, she realizes what she must do. Only, she has been warned that it could be too dangerous. Can Kelcie solve the mystery of the strange creature and find her father? Will her determination prove to be deadly?

The Secret of Bald Rock Island (Kare Kids Adventure #1) by Charles A. Salter is a children’s mystery story taking place on a small Maine island. I enjoyed reading this story and, although it is short, it is well thought out. The characters are entertaining, and the storyline isn’t overly complicated. With a good portion of the inhabitants being of Scottish descent, this book is also educational. I believe that this book is perfect for the child just beginning to read chapter books as it isn’t too long, and contains easily understood concepts. It is a well-rounded mystery with intriguing characters and a fascinating monster. Being the first story in a series, it will be interesting to see what other mysteries happen on Bald Rock Island in the next story. I would recommend this book to children aged eight to ten.

– reviewed by Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite

Other Reviews

The Secret of Bald Rock Island by Charles A. Salter begins with a lilting mystery that begs to be read aloud by children around a camp-fire while the sun goes down. The voice is clear and pleasingly individual, with turns of phrase that perfectly fit the telling of monsters, dangers and more. But the story has a dark side too, as a little girl mourns her father, lost at sea.

The language in this children’s book is simple but beautifully descriptive. The mystery is haunting and sadly plausible. And the determined little protagonist is sweetly honest and true. It’s nice to read a new story for children where foolish choices are resolved by the wise, and not all the wisdom comes from guardian adults. Bald Rock Island is a story that inspires bravery, common sense, and a pleasing recognition of human emotion. It’s a fun tale, a captivating read, and a good story to share with a middle-grade reader.

Disclosure: The author was interviewed on my blog and I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read his book.

– Amazon reviewer Sheila Deeth

What a fun read. This book is short but it reads like a full length novel. I found both Kelcie and Mr. Bartleby enjoyable characters. They were kindred souls. After hearing Mr. Bartleby’s story of the monster of Bald Rock Island, I like Kelcie was very intrigued to solve the mystery of what happened to her father and just what type of monster did Mr. Bartleby see that day. I am so glad that Kelcie did not let her age stop her from taking charge and solving the mysterious disappearance of her father. Plus, she did meet the monster and if I had come face to face with it like she did I would have screamed too. Yet she showed compassion as well. I would say that Mr. Salter accomplished his goals with this book by teaching children to be caring and fearless. I thought that the book was well written and easy to follow along so that my nephews or other young readers could read this book by themselves with no struggles. I want to read the second book in this series. A great series for children.

– Amazon reviewer Cheryl

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Book Reviews, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week, Uncategorized, weekly self published book review

Tuesday Book Review: “Jacaranda: Tails Before Bed”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

Jacaranda Tails Before Bed by E W Bosworth/ Edward Lewis

readers' favorite book award winner

Jacaranda: Tails Before Bed

by E.W. Bosworth

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781478715863

Synopsis*:

In Jacaranda: Tails Before Bed, E. W. Bosworth shares personal dilemmas nevertheless common to us all. The scope of his engagement with life’s contradictions, including his subtle evocation of the great antinomies – thought and feeling, sound and silence, comfort and unrest – is evident from one page to the next, one stanza to the next, and frequently within the precarious balance of a single line. This is Bosworth’s individual response to the uniformity of post-post-modernism in contrast to which he offers a unique voice indicative of what he names “postmodern formalism”.

Asked in an interview of May, 2012, to clarify that term, he responded: “Since about 1970 American poetry has become increasingly dedicated to evincing a psychology of deconstructive theory in which the persona, the proffered speaker, is determined above all to avoid direct statement (logocentrism) with the result that indirection has become, repeatedly, the “new” direction in putative service of a transcendental subjectivity. But the human ego is not so easily dismissed, nor will its individual goals submit to categorical erasure. The poetic method of group-theory is programmatic to the extent that in the typical journal it is difficult to distinguish originality from consent. From an aesthetic perspective, there could be no more telling evidence of logocentricity than that. A postmodern formalism must embody, must demonstrate, must enact the contradictions inherent in a systematic denial of history.”

* courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Review

“Jacaranda: Tails Before Bed” is a 127-page book of poetry by E. W. Bosworth. It is divided into six chapters of random poems that deal with love and life. Bosworth is a new poet and, according to him, his writing is a reaction to the uniformity of post-post-modernism. He calls this unique voice postmodern formalism, which embodies, demonstrates and enacts the contradictions that he believes are inherent in a “systematic denial of history.” Each chapter in the book starts with black and white images that seem to hold meanings too. Reading his poems is like listening to a new voice in poetry that is waiting to be heard.

It is simply difficult to ignore Bosworth’s poems as they draw us into his varied experiences. In ‘Craft’, he says: “A poet wrote that walls don’t have to be confining, nothing to make a body “fret”. “He came up with that while wandering around the mountain with a sonnet in his head.” I guess this sums up pretty well the author’s creative process, and the simplicity in his choice of words makes his poems quite charming. Much of Bosworth’s poetry is inspired by the people and the events that surround him but there are also flowers, birds, snow, philosophy, history, and the human struggle that soars above us all. His poems are full of images and, as a reader, I try to find out his meaning to determine where he is bringing us. Through his experiences in life, just what is this poet trying to say? In the first lines of his poem ‘Parole’, he writes: “Looking into the Jacaranda is looking into your life no wonder there’s so much simile on top of simile.” Indeed, his poems leave me to determine, for myself, which features of his reference point he is trying to predicate. This is an enjoyable and insightful book of poetry.

– reviewed by Maria Beltran for Readers’ Favorite

Other Reviews

E.W. Bosworth is a new poet to me. Opening Jacaranda was like opening Ed Dorn’s Collected Poems. Ed Dorn as mentored by Charles Olson. Bosworth’s inventiveness and brilliance are never in doubt here. This is American Poetry for Americans. Americans who read poetry. Read the poem “Carolina.” Often there is a brio in the line that pushes the poem to unforgettableness. If you ask me, buy the book. Even the illustrations, unfortunately in black and white, are worth it.

– Amazon reviewer Robert Bense

All Bosworth’s tight knits are re-versed with pearls, crossing his needles out and back, in a postmodern twist of creating while casting off, dropping stitches and rows . With form held in ‘bolts of iron’ , the breaks come amidst the words, sometimes within a word. Sleep…wake….break- if you don’t get it, don’t worry about it!

– Amazon reviewer Keep

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Tuesday Book Review: “Guardians”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

guardians brad anderson

readers' favorite book award finalist

Guardians

by Brad Anderson

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781432793357

Synopsis*:

Peace Has Existed Between Humans and Vampires for Centuries …

But Everything Comes to an End.

For hundreds of years, Los Guardianes de la Paz – the Guardians of Peace – have enforced an uneasy truce between humans and vampires. When vampires kill two Mexicans on the Rio Grande, everything changes. The vampires must now find a new place to live – and a reliable, clean food supply. Meanwhile, former DEA agent Robert Mackie is on a simple – but dangerous – mission: ferret out the turncoat who had blown his cover as a dedicated employee of a notorious East Coast drug lord.

Through a twist of fate, however, his quest for justice ends up putting his niece and nephew in grave danger. Suddenly, the children are thrown into the mix of an enormous vampire family in the higher reaches of the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. One of the children there, 13-year-old Greg Pike, is about to find himself the star attraction in the vampires’ version of a fox hunt – unless he can escape first. Now Carlos Santiago, the eldest of the Guardians, must find the help he needs to put an end to the violence and set things right with the world again. But nothing is as it seems, and death lurks around every corner. Combining elements of the thriller, mystery, and the occult, Guardians is a fast-paced and thoughtful look at a collision of cultures both human and otherwise.

* courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Review

I chose to review this book because the story sounded so interesting. In fact, this book is so gripping that I couldn’t put it down. The story jumps out and grabs the reader from the word “Go.” The book begins innocuously enough, with several story threads seemingly unrelated. But wait … gradually those threads intertwine to create a tightly-paced, thrilling chase to the death. Brad Anderson has a practical approach to the paranormal, making his vampires utterly believable and thereby creating a solid, credible plot. He mixes up genres to create a fascinating blend of thriller, mystery, and paranormal. The plot is fascinating, and unlike anything I’ve ever read. Although adults take the spotlight every now and again, it is the character of young Greg Pike that rises above the others. The author isn’t afraid to delve into the grittier realities of life when dealing with his characters’ situations and dilemmas. I found the ending unresolved, but there are definite hints at more to come in this genre. If you are looking for something to keep you riveted, read this book. Highly recommended.

– reviewed by Fiona Ingram for Readers’ Favorite

Other Reviews

At last a book where people are really intelligent and not just sheeples! This is a great story of humans against vampires and for once the people actually have a chance. I love the reluctant hero, Robert Mackie. He is just minding his own business as an undercover agent and his cover gets blown and he gets catapulted into the world of run a muck vampires that just happen to snatch his niece and nephew. He enlists the aid of Carlos Santiago to help him recover them. While they are hunting for the children, the children are giving the vampires a run for their money! This is a great tale of mystery and adventure. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a book they just can’t put down!

– Amazon reviewer Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo

This is one of those books that once you start reading, you hope you have nothing else planned for your day! The mysterious plot line keeps you entertained as the activities of the characters become more and more entwined all the way through the storyline. I never thought I would really care to read a “Vampire” book, however I am ready to read and enjoy Guardians II!

– Amazon reviewer Lorrie Kloss

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Tuesday Book Review: “When A Woman Is In Love With God”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

When A Woman Is In Love With God danielle wilson

When A Woman Is In Love With God

by Darnelle Wilson

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781478778691

Synopsis*:

When a woman loves God, she tries to please Him and do His will through daily studies of the Bible. When times are difficult, she stands on His Word and promises. Her love for Him gives her the strength to weather the storms of life. She has a safe place in the Word of God. When a woman loves God, her position in Him is anointed and appointed by God. She is bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. She is neither proud nor envious in her position, and pleases God as she walks in humility. God has placed her in a position to love others, even her enemies. He has given her everything she needs.

Are YOU a woman who loves God?

In times of trials and tribulations, when even friends and relatives have turned on you, your love for Him will sustain you. This inspirational book will encourage you to give God your unconditional love so that He will love you right into His Kingdom. Dr. Wilson share her studies on When a woman loves God she pursues to please God and His will through daily studies in the Bible. When times are difficult she stands on His word and promises. Her love for Him gives her the strength to weather the storms of life. When troubles come His love causes her to pursue and not retreat in difficult times. His love has her to remember in the Word of God we’ve got a hiding place. When a woman loves God her position in Him is anointed and appointed by God. She realizes she is bought with a price the precious blood of Jesus Christ. She is neither proud nor envious in her position. She pleases God as she walks in humility with God. God has placed her in position to love others even her enemies. Competition is not a thing for her, because she knows God has given her everything she needs.

* courtesy of Amazon.com

This is a well written book for all genders to read. I recommend this book to the world to read.

– Amazon reviewer Shirley

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Tuesday Book Review: “Let There Be Spring”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

let there be spring lofty basta

Let There Be Spring

by Lofty Basta

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781478768777

Synopsis*:

What happened to the “Arab Spring”? Was its derailment inevitable? What is the likelihood that Egypt will recover from her recent travails? Dr. Lofty Basta, now an American citizen, was born and raised in Egypt. Keen on keeping up with current events in his native country, Dr. Basta began documenting his reflections on Egypt’s uprising and political turmoil in 2011, in the form of over fifty articles which he shared with opinion makers in America, Canada, Europe, Egypt, and many others connected to social media. He also conveyed them to Egyptian political leaders, heads of political parties, and ministers in government. Let There Be Spring is a compilation of these articles in their original form, representing the author’s reactions and interpretations of events as they took place. Understandably, Egypt’s citizens are anxious to see the fruits of their uprising, but a new chapter is being written and the story is by no means complete.

* courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Review

Let There Be Spring: Trump is Not the Future of Egypt by Dr. Lofty Basta is a compilation of essays and articles that provide critical insight into the “Arab Spring” revolution in Egypt. It contains the unique observations of a native Egyptian, now an American citizen, with a very keen intellect. These letters follow every major event in the Egyptian people’s struggle for a government that represents their interests and rights. As a member of an Egyptian minority himself, he addresses the need to protect the rights of all people, especially minorities. Dr. Basta clearly illustrates what has happened in Egypt and what the ramifications are for each major event. He presents these in the order that they happened and in a way that everyone can clearly understand.

Dr. Lofty Basta’s Let There Be Spring is a fascinating analysis of the ongoing Egyptian revolution. He has vividly described the reality that nation building is neither a fast nor an easy process. He also cautions the world to be patient and reminds us of the rough road the United States had to traverse on its way to the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Let There Be Spring was written by a true patriot who knows and loves Egypt and its people. He also has faith that a nation, that has been for thousands of years the heart and soul of what we now know as the Arab world, will develop into the model for universal human rights. Anyone wanting to clearly understand Egypt and the Arab Spring needs to read this book!

The book shows how t he so-called “Arab Spring” turned into a nightmare for the Egyptians, particularly the Christians among them. They saw their homes and churches burned. This caused great numbers. of Christians to flee the country.

Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brother, who became President of Egypt, appointed his cronies to all the important positions in the country, changed the constitution to an Islamic one, and was taking the country into the darkness of hatefulness and regressing all aspects of life.

This book is easy to read, The author has depicted the events accurately and faithfully. Excellent job!

– Amazon reviewer Amazon Customer

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Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

* courtesy of Amazon.com

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Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

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Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

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Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

* courtesy of Amazon.com

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Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

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