Jess—aka Reviews by Jess—is a sassy, top-ranked Goodreads reviewer who reads a little of everything. From steamy romance to dark fantasy, plus stories featuring mental health, hidden disabilities, and LGBTQ+ rep, she brings bold, unfiltered reviews readers can trust. Expect sass, sparkle, and a TBR that’s about to explode.

Reviews by Jess- Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Unforgettable Reviews.

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Review: Spicy Little Curses

Spicy Little Curses Spicy Little Curses by J.T. Geissinger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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From a Song Blitz

 




Music Fiction

Date Published: 09-30-2025

Publisher: Covfefe Press


 


 For anyone who's ever said, "They're playing my song!"


 
On Halloween Eve, 1961, in his dingy Bronx walkup apartment, seventeen-year-old Jimmy Welton hears the opening notes of a song in his head. Jimmy’s still mourning his firefighter father, who taught him to play the guitar but recently died in a house fire, leaving his family destitute. Jimmy takes this song, about all he misses from his life now, to the New York amusement park where he works after school. There, he meets Mark Morgan, a rebellious teen with his own band, who eventually invites Jimmy to join them. And the rest is rock'n roll history...
The GooseBumps become a worldwide phenomenon, and the songs they write and sing together become the backbone of rock musical history. And the song Jimmy first heard on Halloween, "Wrapped in Gauze", becomes the song that not only comforts him in that terrible time but also comforts others: Victoria, recently divorced and dealing with an unthinkable family tragedy; Carolyn, whose final flippant words to someone in pain can't be taken back; and Jack, battling back from unimaginable loss with the help of his cheeky therapist and a song he thinks he hates.


 
SCENES FROM A SONG is the story of a song that makes us smile, that breaks our hearts, that stays with us forever, and the very special band that started it all.


About the Author

 


 SUSAN SLOATE is the author or co-author of more than 25 published books. This includes 3 editions of Forward to Camelot, a time-travel thriller about the JFK assassination that became a #6 Amazon bestseller, was honored in 3 literary competitions and was optioned by a Hollywood company for film production. She also wrote the autobiographical Broadway novel Stealing Fire, which became a #2 Amazon bestseller and Hot New Release, and Realizing You (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre: the self-help novel.


Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including the children’s biography Ray Charles: Find Another Way, which won the silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Awards. Mysteries Unwrapped: The Secrets of Alcatraz led to her 2009 appearance on the TV series MysteryQuest for The History Channel. She has also been a sportswriter and a screenwriter, edited the popular Kyle & Corey young-adult book series, managed two political campaigns and founded an author’s festival to promote student literacy in her hometown outside Charleston, SC. She has appeared in multiple volumes of WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA, WHO’S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT and WHO’S WHO AMONG AMERICAN WOMEN.


Contact Links
Twitter: @Susan_Sloate
 






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Review: The Forgotten Child

The Forgotten Child The Forgotten Child by Melissa Erin Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Hot for Slayer

Hot for Slayer Hot for Slayer by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Eden Blitz

 




Dystopian Novel

Date Published: May 2, 2025



In 4029, Homo convertibilis has replaced Homo sapiens and their scientists study the "Pierre de Vent," a collection of political, historical, and ancient sacred texts written by the "founding father," who is the reference of the new society.

2054, to combat the chronic anemia of the sedentary population, who live cloistered and under government tutelage, the pharmaceutical company Orson and Orson, of which Nucleus is the main shareholder, developed a regenerative pill called Jouvence. Everyone is clamoring for it. "Unfortunately," the side effects of the miracle product affect the libido of the consumers, causing them to literally die of pleasure.

Nucleus manipulates governments to gradually rid the planet of the surplus humans who no longer have a place in a society where finance has supplanted mass consumerism. His hope is to turn Earth into a true Eden for his people who are, in his eyes, the only humans worthy of survival. However, a persistent infertility crisis amongst his kind, casts a dark shadow over his once-promising vision of a utopian future. Meanwhile, in the Metropolis, some Sedentaries, including Winston, manage to escape the systematic and inevitable extermination set in motion by Nucleus.

Will they be able to survive the persecution of the army of liberty and the reactivation of the GMO seeds of hyper-accumulating hyacinths that has covered the entire planet?

Gripping, provocative, and chillingly prescient, Eden: The Final Solution is a dystopian tour de force that challenges the limits of progress, morality and reimagine the Orwellian dystopia, shaped by the excesses and anxieties of our time. Fans of Brave New World and 1984 will find themselves enthralled—and terrified—by this haunting vision of the future.


About the Author


Pascal Bouquillard is a jack-of-all-trades. After graduating from the “Baccalauréat économique et social” in France, he pursued classical music studies at the “École Normale de Musique de Paris”, taught for almost 30 years, acted on American stages in South Carolina and published acoustic versions of his favorite songs on the YouTube channel, “pascalsguitar”.

At the end of the ’80s, he spent several years touring Europe and French-speaking countries with the “Trio Français de Guitare”, which he co-founded and which specialized in transcriptions of works by early 20th-century composers. Unfortunately, focal dystonia prevents him from pursuing a career as a classical guitarist. He then obtained a scholarship to the “Maitrise de Musique Baroque de Versailles”, where he played tenor and was introduced to conducting.

In the ’90s, he co-founded the progressive rock band Saens, in which he was composer, singer, bassist and acoustic guitarist, and with whom he released three albums: Les Regrets d’Isidore D, Escaping From The Hands Of God and Prophet In A Statistical World.

In 1997, he conducted Benjamin Britten’s opera “Noah’s Ark” at the Cathédrale Saint Louis in Versailles, the Église Saint Augustin in Paris and the Théâtre de Poissy. That same year, he was invited to conduct a group of musicians from the Orchestre National de France at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, on the occasion of Mstislav Rostropovich’s 70th birthday.

He then moved to the USA to find the woman he was to marry. Interested by the turn the world economy is taking, he returns to his original political passions.

After more than 5 years of research and reflection as part of a virtual focused group of French citizens, and driven by the anxieties provoked by his discoveries, he launched into the writing of “Eden” and the “Practical Guide toward an Atomic Democracy”.

 

Contact Links

Website

BookBuzz

 

Purchase Link

Amazon


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