March 2026 Indie Book Reviews

Valentine's Day by Josie Jaffrey

Terminally Ill Rogue Vampire Seeks Cure
An Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
4 Stars

This installment in hard-living vampire detective extraordinaire, Jack Valentine’s adventures fighting crimes then committing them & her romances fooled me from the start.  So eponymously titled, I figured this was the final chapter where she & Drake expose bad actors in the Solis Invicti, save the Primus & vow to love no one else.  The end?  Nope.  Wrong, exorbitantly so… but now, happily enough, we can look forward to at least another book & its applicable holiday in this snarky series.

Selected highlights:  Oh, the mistakes Jack makes while hiding from the Solis Invicti could fill two XXL employee personnel files.  Catching that tricky-to-explain but enjoyable (or frustrating if you prefer) grey area of scientific research that both guarantees success, surely by tomorrow or the next day at the latest, and then retrospectively downplays any lack of solutions, citing only how the experiments didn’t pan out or lacked the very samples previously deemed unnecessary.  The classic “getting the gang back together” motif.  Gullible Mikey describing the diabolical epoxy resin & his glorious glitter wins an honorable mention.  Lastly, the most memorable feature of Valentine’s Day was a perfectly written Primus Solomon, from steepled fingers & ambiguous deeds to confessing his lack of omniscience.  Certainly, the eldest vampire has secrets!

The Walled City by L.L. Stephens

Military Conflicts, Myths Proven & an Unknown Riddle
An Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
5 Stars

The crux of this fabulous installment in L.L. Stephens’ adventurous epic series, The Triempery Revelations, maybe was more logic puzzle (if A then B) than riddle but, suffice it to say, Dorillian solved it (or at least clearly demonstrated its contrapositive).  That little miracle he did under the radar, however our highborn hierarch committed worthy feats on a snowy battlefield beheld by friends, strangers & enemies, greatly imperiling himself doing that which no other could.  As overawed witnesses gawked at this legend incarnate, his myth became fact, vanquishing a hellish demonic mutant & then challenging the impenetrable Wall.

Poor Aubrey bungled into the enemy’s clutches.  With ambivalence, I nonetheless faulted her for such utter devotion to their cause of liberation & preparing to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (by not absconding).  Inadvertently she listened to a waylaid friend vocalize his dilemma & then (correctly) believed her intervention would solve a logistical snag.  Those minor lapses & blunders (or, conversely, her successes, resolving a series of jurisdictional & pragmatic issues, one after the other) accumulated rapidly, setting the stage for genuine problems.  She’d been warned.  Readers will see the trap a mile away, yet Aubrey’s constellation of gifts excuse her for pressing her luck, seeking those opportunities which must be strived for, for they aren’t easily within reach.  That’s exactly how she met Dorillian.  The risks facing her culminate in a Game Over ordeal of life or death.

Selected highlights:  When straight-shooting Levyathan (who cannot lie) answered the blundering delegates so truthfully with a friendly phrased question!  If they gave Olympic gold medals for names, “Albin Metagoras” deserves at least one.  Hebron’s chilling perspective: “I hold Lacenedon but by vigilance & the cold arm of winter.”  As though disinterested, the astute Sinon endured the Seven Houses’ corrupt, tedious legalese by patiently cracking & chomping nuts until, like a crafty chess master who’s foreseen ten moves ahead, swooping in blindside for checkmate.  Just wonderful characters being authentic like Hans boldly trusting himself, steadfast Robdan listening, Nalf restraining his battle fury & the diabolical Nammuor, who “still wore human flesh,” taking a bite out of his brother-in-law.  Exuding profundity, the often simple & beautiful sentences herein painted artistic scenes, drew lively characters, suggested intentions & evoked events’ repercussions so conducive to this magnificently envisioned realm.  Please indulge me three examples:  “A scandal from the very first vow.”  “…clouds still canopied above with an insincere threat of snow.”  “Dorillian had never beheld an emptier chair.”