The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Amazon Top 500 Reviewer Weighs in on Fiction by Lantin

Title: Come Here...and I'll Show You
Kindle Edition
By Derek Lantin,
Author's blog: http://dereklantin.booksabuzz.com/
Publisher: Bangkok Books

http://www.bangkokbooks.com/php/product/product.php?product_id=001009

Reviewed by Citizen John, Top 500 Reviewer for Amazon


This is Lantin's first published book and what a story! Edwards is a former Secret War soldier and expatriate who gets enticed into returning to the lands along the Mekong River where he reconnects with former comrades to resolve an inheritance matter. This guy has no sense of political correctness which improbably makes him a magnet for dangerous women.

A lot of the action takes place in some of the countries along the Mekong including Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. We get to know places where Lantin spent some of his formative post-RAF years such as Sihanoukville (literally, city of sandalwood), a port city of Cambodia and Vientiane, the capital of Laos as well as jungle highlands where remnants of the Hmong people are in hiding to this day. These are some of the places where belligerents of the Vietnam War operated in an unofficial proxy war fueled by the Cold War powers.

Edwards, like many expats, enjoys a "coupla beers" whenever the situation allows, which is quite often. He is single and has a kind of zest for life that one often finds in those that have seen their share of war like Hemingway, Dieter Dengler (Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War) and Zorba the Greek (Zorba the Greek). In short, he doesn't pass up an opportunity with beautiful local women. However, this novel is neither graphic nor filled with profanity. I found Edward's uninhibited style disarming and a great vehicle to lose myself in escapism, an experience that has become darn hard to find.

Having finished reading Come Here...and I'll Show You, I felt inspired to check out some famous scenes from Clint Eastwood movies on `Y-Tube.' I had forgotten how politically incorrect Eastwood's characters were. However, I was reminded of the magnetism they created. Such characters are far from amoral. They get into scrapes because they stand for something. That maybe why it's believable that women are attracted to them and what allows them to live in a way we can only imagine.

I couldn't easily put the book down. It's filled with information that would be helpful for one trying to survive in a jungle, in places like Laos or in cash-economy environments. Mainly it's great escapist entertainment.


~To connect with the author an Facebook go to FaceBook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Come-Here-and-Ill-Show-You/111874615543613

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Perfect Little Gift for Writers on Your List

The Great First Impression Book Proposal
Subtitle: Everything You Need To Know To Impress a Publisher in Twenty Minutes or Less
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/great_first_impression_book_proposal.htm
A booklet in the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers
$6.95
Available on Amazon: www.budurl.com/BookProposals


Reviewed by Jennifer Akers, reviewer and editor for MyShelf

If you’re interested in writing a book, then I’ve found a great resource for you. Written by PR guru, award-winning writer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, The Great First Impression Book Proposal guides you through every step you need to know to impress a publisher.


Do you know the differences between fiction and nonfiction writers trying to sell their books? The former writes their book first and then sends a query letter, including a specific number of chapters (requested by the publisher or agent). Their book must be ready to go because the publisher may want to contract their work.

Nonfiction writers send proposals, in which they need to impress the publisher on the idea of their work. The book isn’t written. Before that sounds like the easier path of the two, it isn’t. A book proposal is well researched and formatted; the process is similar to writing a book and can be complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing.

To the rescue, The Great First Impression Book Proposal! In six chapters, you’ll learn how to get past gatekeepers, entice jaded gatekeepers, get an open invitation, and keep those doors open. You’ll also have a checklist to make sure your proposal is at its best. The resource section includes a basic query letter sample, suggested studies, and resources for editing, grammar, book promotion, publishing and more.

A book proposal is a mysterious beast. It’s not something you can bypass; it’s a necessary “evil” of the publishing world. To do it correctly, you need to know the guidelines. In essence, you’re proposing a business deal, but your letter shouldn’t be too formal. It needs to be friendly with eye-attracting titles without being too cozy or using over-the-top language like “amazing”. It’s a fine balance; one you’ll need to learn to be successful.

You’ll learn about the publishing industry; the correct way to research, write, and format your letter; and the steps to make yours a winning proposal. This is a jammed-packed resource, with the tag line “Everything You Need To Know To Impress A Publisher in Twenty Minutes or Less”. A quick read with everything to write a winning proposal.

Howard-Johnson writes with the experience of a professional and the candor of a best friend who doesn’t want you to fall on your face. With humor and friendliness, she offers solid, practical tips. She is one of my favorite authors, and her books always top my must-have list. This one is no exception. It’ll stay on my resource shelf.

If you’ve ever thought about being an author, you need The Great First Impression Book Proposal in your resources.

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 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Humor and Romance Mix Pleases Happily Ever After Reviewer

Title: Confessions of a Liberal Lover

Author: E.M. Muller
Author's Website: http://emmuller.com/
Publisher: Red Rose Publishing
Genre: Mainstream Fiction: Contemporary, Chick Lit, Comedy

Reviewed by Kylie for Happily Ever After Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5 Tea Cups

E.M. Muller's Confessions of a Liberal Lover is poignantly funny from start to finish. Not just a story of finding the right guy, but of finding oneself.
After failing to live up to expectations one too many times, Maud leaves home at 19. She is thrust into the world of full time work, part time school, and one disastrous relationship after another. Which includes such enjoyable calamities as receiving a rifle instead of a ring, a delightfully disastrous wedding, and the most perfectly comical divorce. Along for the ride is Maud's pet gargoyle, who dispenses wisdom, advice, and wit, all rolled into one. Maud's gargoyle steadfastly refuses to let her give up on herself or settle for less than she deserves. Forget the fairy godmothers, ladies; what we all really need is a gargoyle.
Maud's sexual encounters run the gambit from Young Republicans, mishaps with the missionary position, to riding cowboys, and much more. From faking orgasms to fellatio, nothing is taboo. While never explicit, Muller's frank honesty and witty portrayal of sex will have you laughing with delight and cringing in understanding.
With a sassy and smart heroine, and a gargoyle that's part fairy godmother and part Jiminy Cricket, Confessions of a Liberal Lover is the perfect book for any girl who ever felt overshadowed by a sibling, misunderstood by a parent, or turned herself inside out for a guy.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Movie-Optioned Book Reviewed by Wendy Thomas

Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever
By Judith Marshall

Author's Web site: http://www.judithmarshall.net/
Women’s Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-9825046-0-4



Reviewed By Wendy Thomas Of Bookpleasures.com

In an updated and timely story reminiscent of The Big Chill, this touching and poignant narration of mature women, friends since high school, who come together over the death of one of their group will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page.
Six young very different girls met in high school and at one birthday party decided to form a pact of “no secrets” between them. They remained friends throughout adulthood weathering the storms of divorces, abuse, financial instability, and ultimate success always with brutal honesty and love toward each other.
Liz, the narrator of the story is in turmoil. Her perfect boyfriend has taken a job and asked her to move with him from California to New York. Unwilling to leave her job in corporate Human Resources, as well as her friends, the decision of whether to commit to Sam is made even more complicated when after years of service she is laid off after her company acquires another company making her job redundant. With grown children who have left the house, Liz finds herself, for the first time in her life, anchorless and adrift with no definite destination in site.
The accidental death of Karen, the adventurous risk taker of the group takes them all by surprise as they begin to question their lives, mortality, and what is really important in life.
Skillfully written, this story moves at a steady pace slowly unfolding to give us more and more insight into these convincing and highly likeable characters. The dialog is well done and the characters utterly believable from Gidge the gum-snapping smart aleck who uses her humor as a barrier to others to Jo who through the help and support of her friends found the confidence to escape an abusive marriage.
A touching and realistic story that presents strong characters as credible, thoughtful, and at times frustrated women, this book is spot on. Anyone who has married, had children, or who has struggled with a relationship will be able to relate.
Intelligently crafted, Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever is one of those books you just want to sit down with a glass of wine and have a conversation about it with your friends.
The book was recently optioned for the big screen.


~Reviewer Wendy Thomas lives in Southern New Hampshire with her husband and six children, ages 9-17 She has been published in various regional magazines and newspapers. She writes a weekly column, Simple Thrift for the Nashua Telegraph.
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Medical Satire Available in All Formats

Title: Postmodern Medicine

Author: Trevor Price
Genre: Literature/Satire
ISBN:9781452425979
Publisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
http://untreedreads.com/
Publication Date: 17/08/2010
Available at Amazon.com and Borders.com in all formats.

Reviewer's Rating: Three Stars



Reviewed by Debra Martin, http://martinandsmall.com/,  for Two Ends of the Pen


This quirky story opens with Yusuf duping his Turkish cousin, Mr. Mardin, into traveling to England to take a position with a fledgling company, FromBirth Ltd. Yusuf is sketchy with the details about what exactly the position will be, the pay, the accommodations and this avoidance of details sets the stage for the rest of the book.

FromBirth Ltd harvests human organs, which is not a new idea, but FromBirth Ltd takes it one step further. With the introduction of new immuno-suppressants from a partner company, they can now literally use
every part of the donor body.

Mardin is delegated to be the PR guy although he has no PR experience, and he must make a promotional video about a recent donor, Ayeshia Smith, on a shoestring budget. In fact, everything about the company
seems to be on a tight budget. Mardin finds this out first-hand when his living arrangements turn out to be a cot in his office.
Author Trevor Price speeds us along from one crazy situation to another mostly involving interviews with the recipients of the donor organs to a trip out to the Glynnebourne Organic Farm, a new “green” company.

The author has a flair for dialogue and I found myself chuckling at some of these interviews. The story is filled with an interesting cast of characters including the kind of creepy, Dr. Groome who harvests the body parts, Mr. Stewart Wymer, the business partner who makes decisions on the fly no matter what the consequences, Yusuf, the cousin who isn’t exactly helpful to Mardin, and Debbi, the overworked, moody receptionist.


Mr. Price presents us with a satirical commentary with this story, but it made me think about the state of modern medicine and perhaps that was his purpose all along or maybe it's just a dark urban fantasy after all.

Dislaimer: The reviewer received a digital copy of the book from the publisher for this review
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Friday, December 3, 2010

Support an Indie Author This Holiday Season and Win Something, Too!


Darcia Helle, an online friend of mine, is offering a selection of books in a kind of online holiday catalog and fun holiday party (with prizes!) for giving this season. Some are paperback and some e-books. E-books are a neat way to save on postage and still remember your special friends. Here is the link to the main event page:

http://www.quietfurybooks.com/holidayevent.html

Darcia says, “We have forty-seven authors participating and hundreds of print and e-books to give away. The event launches on December 1.


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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Spell Kissed
 by Kari Thomas
Publisher: Black Lyon Publishing, www.blacklyonpublishing.com
Date published: July 2010
ISBN: 978-1-934912-28-7
Paranormal Romance
PRINT and E-book

Reviewed by Valerie for LoverRomanceandMore blog

Awarded Five Roses


Brianna Adair is a witch who is the keeper of The Sphere. Trouble is, her spells go awry when she’s in a highly emotional state. When she accidentally burns her house down, her friend, Cynthia offers her a place for the time being. Cynthia has two sons, both with the police force, Sloan and his brother, Hunter. Hunter has been asked to take some leave as he is practically on burn out and Sloan has asked him to come home and help him with a strange case. When Brianna and Hunter meet, the sexual attraction is strong. Soon, Hunter and Sloan are helping Brianna retrieve The Sphere that has been taken from her. They are fighting demons and are believing that there is more out there than the eye can see. All the while, Brianna and Hunter are discovering feelings that threaten Brianna’s spells to go completely crazy.
Kari Thomas gives her readers a wonderful story with some compelling and exciting characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I love stories with witches and Brianna is a witch, although she often gets her spells wrong. This causes no end of trouble and some comical moments. Her hero, Hunter is all macho, protective, jealous, stubborn and he has sure met his match in Brianna. They are wonderful together as Brianna turns the world as he knows it upside down, and Hunter causes Brianna’s emotions to almost run out of control. Ms Thomas keeps the sexual tension on boiling point almost throughout the whole story and the reader will be simmering along right with them both. So, when they finally do the deed, the characters are not the only ones to experience the relief. There is a good, solid conflict that will keep you turning the pages to find out what will happen next and to see if everyone survives. Towards the end, there was a moment where I had to almost shed a tear…that always puts a book on my keeper shelf. If you haven’t yet tried a story by this author, I can highly recommend her and know that when you read one, you’ll be scrambling for her backlist!

~Kari Thomas is an asward-winning author. Learn more about her at http://www.authorkari.com/.




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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :