It’s time for you to switch it up, slow down, and read something unique. C.J. Merwild’s The Nichan Smile tells a haunting yet hopeful story of two young boys and the friendship they develop over many years and against the odds. It is beautiful and terrible and will definitely stand out among your TBR, though…
Bite-sized gothic tales are appropriate for light summer reading lists, as long as you like things dark and twisty all year round as I do. Before you jump into warmer water, dip your toe in the cold lake and mystery surrounding Lacrimore by S.J. Costello. A medium named Sivre travels across the lake to a…
Today I am diving into the increasingly popular The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M.L. Wang. This self-published, Japanese culture-inspired novel has been making larger and larger waves in the fantasy genre over the past few years and is held in quite high regard. I finally managed to find a moment to…
I am going to level with you right off the bat, I did not like The Atlas Six. Olivie Blake’s self-published hit has littered my TikTok feed for months and I feel I was peer pressured into trying the book out. The book has recently been picked up by a major publisher and they were…
Before I start, I need to point out something about how I read books in order for this review to make sense. I’m not a very visual reader, I see words and they echo in my head. Sometimes pictures come if I concentrate hard enough, but that slows down my ability to read. Intricate descriptions…
Self-published books are a really interesting conundrum. On one hand, they represent some of the best finds and recommendations a reviewer can make due to their unknown nature. On the other hand, while there are some very good self-published books, there are a lot of really bad ones. What is particularly exciting is when other…
Continue reading ➞ We Ride The Storm – All Prosed Up And Nowhere To Go
Alright, let’s reveal a fun, embarrassing, personal fact. Ever since I was a young boy I have usually used the same moniker when playing videogames. As you might imagine, being a boy of about seven when I first came up with it, I was not particularly creative. I went with “Darkstar” because I thought it…
Continue reading ➞ The Flight Of The Darkstar Dragon – Flight Of Fancy
I’ve never had the inclination to read self-published titles. I’m always worried I’ll read into it too deeply or be overly critical, because I can so rarely turn off that portion of my brain. So when Luke Matthews reached out to me and requested an honest review of his self-published book Construct, I was a…
Continue reading ➞ Construct – The Foundations Have Been Laid
Self-published books are a huge mixed bag of quality, but occasionally you can strike gold. Kings of Paradise, by Richard Nell, is one of those books. An epic fantasy novel about a tropical empire, this book has the makings of a modern classic. If you are involved in the self-published fantasy scene, you have probably…
