Top Ten Tuesday: Self-Published Books I Will Be Reviewing


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A closeup of a black ballpoint pen that has just finished writing the phrase “once upon a time” in black ink on a white unlined piece of paper. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the majority of the books I review are self-published because I believe in supporting other indie/self-published authors as much as I possibly can.

Writing is hard work, and I am always respectful of the effort other authors put into what they publish.

All eight of these reviews have already been written and scheduled. If they’re marked as tentative, that means that there is a possibility that particular review might be pushed back if another book fits better into that slot. When that happens, the original review will be published a few week to a month later on average instead.

I only have the time, energy, and space to review about four or five books each month here, and it can be hard for me to write effectively if a migraine flairs up unexpectedly. Therefore I like to have about a month of posts ready to go while leaving space to rearrange the order of things if, say, I find an excellent book about an upcoming holiday like Mother’s Day that I want to publish that week instead.

At the moment, I’ve surpassed that goal by quite a bit.  Planning ahead makes life so much easier when you can do it!

I’d love to hear how far in advance all of you write your posts and reviews on average. Do you prefer to have a cushion of work to fall back on or do you write everything right before it’s due to be published?

 

Book cover for MARiiMO by Tyrel Pinnegar. Image on cover shows a drawing of a grey robot with blobby arms and legs and a white head. The bottom portion of the head is filled with a blue liquid, an the rest of the head is white and blank.

MARiiMO by Tyrel Pinnegar

My Review Publication Date: April 6

Blurb: This is the journal of Tammy Maheswaran, a reclusive roboticist living with undiagnosed autism. It documents the creation of Mariimo, a developmental robotics platform through which Tammy subconsciously externalizes her issues with isolation, anxiety, and touch. Upon the machine’s activation, Tammy gradually begins to realize that in the act of constructing Mariimo, she’s been unknowingly deconstructing herself.

 

Book cover for The Sword and the Kestrel by Shawna Reppert. Image on cover is a photograph of a Kestrel being held by the gloved hand of their handler out in a forest where the leaves on the trees and bushes are just beginning to grow in spring.

The Sword and the Kestral by Shawna Reppert

My Review Publication Date: April 13

Blurb: Can a Renn-Faire falconer break an ancient family curse and make peace with the Lord of Forests?

 

Book cover for The Trip to Nowhere by Stephanie Shaw. Image on cover is a photograph of someone walking alone down an incredibly foggy road lined with trees at either dusk or dawn. Only weak light can filter through the dense fog, and everything looks blurry and out of focus because of how much fog there is. Even the trees are just bare outlines of trees due to it.

 

The Trip to Nowhere by Stephanie Shaw

My Review Publication Date: April 20

Blurb: A broken marriage,
A lost love,
And nothing to lose.
When his wife confesses that she’s pregnant for Cole’s business rival, the news throws him into a downward spiral. Unable to face his life, he decides to go on a road trip alone. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a missing woman, an unborn child and a shocking family secret. He realizes too late that sometimes the past needs to be left in the past.

 

Book cover for The Old Mountain Biker by Robert Adamson. Image on cover shows a bike rider sitting on their bike on the edge of a cliff at sunset. They are looking over the edge of the cliff at the ground far below them. There is a pine forest in the distance.

My Review Publication Date: April 27

Blurb: In this SciFi short story, an old mountain biker encounters aliens from another planet that rescue him after a fall. They cure his injuries but also restore his youth.Then they offer a similar gift to the entire planet, but with conditions.

 

 

Book cover for Building Beauty by Rachel Eliason. Image on cover shows a closeup of a human face carved out of wood. The eye of the statue is bright purple.

Building Beauty by Rachel Eliason

My Review Publication Date: May 4 (tentatively)

Blurb: In the waning days of World War One, Alejandro Faidosky is sent to serve the Tsar in a distant corner of the Russian Empire. In the industrial center of Chelyabinsk, deep in southern Siberia Alejandro discovers a factory producing “automatons”, clockwork robots. His job is to sculpt a robotic prostitute for the common soldier. “Of all the men in Mother Russia I must be the most ill equipped for this assignment” Alejandro moans to himself, but he must not let Major Dmitri know, and he must somehow build beauty.

Building Beauty is a coming out story set in Tsarist Russia and tinged with elements of science fiction. It is typical of Rachel Eliason’s writing; an evocative and imaginative blend of reality and fiction.

Book cover for Come in the Weater by K.C. Hastings. image on cover shows the sun setting over a lake. There is a pool of water on the beach and a portion of the sand that shows marks from something heavy being dragged into the water. In the distance, you can see something tentacle-like poking out of the water.

Come in the Water by K.C. Hastings

My Review Publication Date: May 11 (tentatively)

Blurb: There’s something in the lake, and I don’t mean the giant catfish.

 

Book cover for The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz by Andy Paine. Image on cover shows the title written in a font that’s orange on the left and gradually fades to yellow as you move further to the right of the page. This was all written against a black background.

The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz by Andy Paine

My Review Publication Date: May 18 (tentatively)

Blurb: An ageing rocker, a journalist, and a small, seemingly inconsequential object. This is the tale of the greatest musical theft in history.

Such a small, seemingly inconsequential object. Yet for ageing rocker Danny Diaz, journalist Henry Lapthorne, and indeed the entire population, it is an object that has aided in the greatest musical theft in history, forever altering the historical landscape of music as we know it.

After years of wilful deceit, Danny’s life has come full circle as he reaches out to the one man who forever doubted him, intent on telling his story, and finding peace with his past. For Henry, it is the story of a lifetime, an unbelievable tale of addiction, regret, and redemption. But can it possibly be true? Or is it just another ruse? Is this tale the fulfilment of Henry’s career, or yet another deception in the decades long animosity between two men who know each other so well, and yet not at all.

Book cover for Take Care of Your Body by Elton Gahr. Image on cover shows two mostly-leafless trees that have been trimmed to look like two faces looking at each other. A few leaves are flowing from one tree to the next against a cloudy winter sky.

 

Take Care of Your Body by Elton Gahr

My Review Publication Date: May 25 (tentatively)

Blurb: Frank is a new kind of personal trainer. The kind that switches bodies with the ultra rich so they can get the benefits of working out without the effort. But his new client has done the unthinkable, escaping with Frank’s body while leaving Frank to answer for his crimes.
Now Frank has to track down his own body and force his client to return it before the FBI can catch him.

 

 

44 Comments

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44 Responses to Top Ten Tuesday: Self-Published Books I Will Be Reviewing

  1. Ah, I’ve noticed most of your reviews appear to be for self-published books. I appreciate your commitment to helping those authors get more recognition. From the list, the top one sounds most interesting, but the robot one in World War 1 is also intriuging. I wonder if the author works in any connections to R.U.R., the first robot book. It was published in 1920, so around the same time this would be set. I’ll link the review in my name if you are interested. 🙂

  2. I love that you support authors like yourself. I read a ton of indie romances each year.

  3. Very interesting choices. I’ll be back to check out your reviews. Nice work!

  4. Anita@eriesbooklover

    Take care of your body sounds good!

  5. The Sword and the Kestrel sounds good!

  6. Several of these sound interesting! Off to add more to my TBR…

    Thanks for stopping by my Top Ten!

  7. The Trip to Nowhere sounds good.

  8. Wendy Williams

    Nice list. I read some self-published authors but not as many as I should.

  9. This is a great list! I do love reading your reviews; it’s one of the places I can find self-published books. Also, I have a cushion of blog posts waiting to go, too. I find that blogging stops being fun and starts being stressful if I try to write and publish posts on the same day.

    My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2023/04/04/top-ten-tuesday-top-10-indie-self-published-books/

  10. The Trip to Nowhere looks really interesting!

  11. Mariimo sounds like a really interesting read!

  12. I used to plan way out in advance but lately I more wing it. I much prefer the other way lol!

    Come in the Water sounds like it might be a tad spooky!

  13. Jo

    Ha ha I am not a planner at all, unless I am going away and specifically need to schedule posts in advance (like when I went to South Africa and scheduled in posts to cover the time I was gone), then I just write them up and publish them on the day (or whenever they’re done if it takes me more than one day to do it). I probably should have more of a schedule for my reviews, or it wouldn’t be April with me still having two 2022 reviews still to do and none of my 2023 reviews up yet, but alas, I do not!

  14. When I was making my list it was hard to find self-published authors in one place. I had to rack my brain and go through my TBR/READ books and try to remember who was who. Great list! I try to plan my posts a week in advance. It is hard to do sometimes.

  15. Exciting list!

    I picked up three to read this year:

    MARiiMO
    The Old Mountain Biker
    The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz

    Thank you for posting

  16. Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!

    So many intriguing books on your list this week. I look forward to reading your reviews.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
    https://readbakecreate.com/fewer-than-1000-ratings-recent-reads/

  17. I love this topic. Some of my favorite authors are indie authors.

  18. I love that you’re always highlighting indie books on your blog, and that they’re always such intriguing books! I haven’t heard of any of these, but they sound really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing the reviews for them!

  19. What a great mix you have here! I love the idea of having a collection of draft posts ready to go, but I’m not the best at executing it. I seem to be always working on my posts the day before or the day of. Ha! The only time I do tend to do better is right before Nanowrimo in November. I’m usually good at working ahead during October to have all my posts ready to go in November.

    • Thank you.

      I’m impressed that you do NaNoWriMo every year. That’s awesome. And, yeah, it would be hard to make word counts and write blog posts at the same time for that month.

  20. Great post, Lydia! I realise that I do read more indie/self-pub books than I expected but that’s mostly because I read a lot of romances (and I love it)! 😍 Unfortunately, I’m definitely not as organised as you are when it comes to scheduling in advance but I do feel very accomplished each time I have a cushion of several reviews to fall back on for the days I don’t have anything specific planned on my blog!

  21. Those sound so good and I like the different genre, I will be waiting for your review

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