Review

Play From Your Heart by Scott Martin and Coryanne Hicks is a memoir about survival, disability, grief, family, and soccer, but more than anything, it is a book about identity: what happens when the life you built, the body you trusted, and the future you assumed were yours are violently interrupted. The book begins with Martin at the height of his physical and professional confidence, driving toward a Nike regional soccer camp in 1993, convinced his coaching career is moving exactly where it should. Within days, that momentum collapses into a medical catastrophe: toxic shock syndrome, necrotizing fasciitis, a month-long coma, multiple organ failure, and the amputation of both hands and parts of both feet.

What makes the memoir so compelling is its refusal to make resilience look neat. Martin’s recovery is not presented as a glossy motivational arc where determination magically solves everything. Instead, the book gives us the brutal daily mechanics of rebuilding a life: learning to sit up, stand, walk, use prosthetic hooks and later myoelectric hands, feed himself, drive again, coach again, and endure the emotional fog that follows trauma. Some of the strongest sections are not the most dramatic medical moments, but the quieter ones; the frustration of eating spaghetti with hooks, the humiliation of being stared at, the panic attacks, the guilt of watching family suffer, and the slow recognition that physical disability can become an emotional one when grief is left unprocessed.

The heart of the book, however, lies in its relationships. Martin’s mother is unforgettable: fierce, unsentimental, and almost mythic in her refusal to let him surrender. His friends, teammates, medical team, and later his young soccer players all become part of the larger story of how a person is held together by community when willpower alone is not enough. I especially appreciated how the memoir keeps returning to soccer not merely as a profession, but as a language of life. The “beautiful game” becomes Martin’s way of understanding discipline, improvisation, dignity, loss, teaching, and joy. By the end, when he tells young players that they do not need expensive cleats or constant instruction, only “a ball and a wall,” the title lands with real emotional force: to play from your heart is not a slogan here; it is a philosophy earned through pain.

Overall, Play From Your Heart is a moving and candid memoir about catastrophic illness, disability, adaptation, coaching, and the stubborn work of reclaiming joy. It is painful in places, but never self-pitying; inspiring, but never simplistic. Most importantly, it understands that resilience is not the absence of grief, it is the process of learning how to live alongside it.

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In this spicy dark Romantasy Series, you will find
– Magic, mystery, and mayhem
– Crime & Intrigue
– Sword & Sorcery with a modern twist
– A fascinating cast of characters who are as skilled at secrecy as they are at combat.

Review

Inconclusive Volume 1 by Alexandra Devane, the first book in The Shards of Sansatia Series, is a dark, dense, high-stakes fantasy that throws the reader into a world already heavy with war, trauma, magical threat, military hierarchy, criminal networks, and moral ambiguity. From the opening chapters, the book establishes a brutal conflict between Andrivalians and Noxvaleres, while centring its emotional tension around cadets like Acteo Venand, Inferi Ward, Kayla Deyrin, and the dangerous, wounded, fascinating Reyna Ward.

What stands out most is the sheer ambition of the worldbuilding. This is not a light fantasy that eases the reader in gently. Author Devane builds an elaborate system of strikers, Inconclusives, Street Strikers, Casters, By-product, Spirit Glass, Jourvalerin weapons, and political-criminal power structures. The mythology is layered and often compelling, especially in the way the book treats “Inconclusives” — people at risk of converting into Noxvaleres — not simply as magical anomalies, but as socially feared, politically controlled bodies. Reyna’s history with the Street Strikers, her connection to Tereus Orsin, and her eventual relocation into Inoton Academy give the novel its sharpest emotional and narrative charge.

The character work is where the book is most interesting. Acteo is not just a gifted soldier; he is grief-struck, guilt-ridden, morally unstable in places, and deeply shaped by the loss of General Sable. Inferi is perhaps even more intriguing because of the tension between who he appears to be at the Academy and what his past still ties him to. Kayla and Ali’s relationship adds another layer of emotional realism, especially through Kayla’s grief, dependency, and self-sabotage. But for me, Reyna is the book’s gravitational force: damaged, deadly, sharp-edged, and constantly negotiating survival in systems that have used, trained, and branded her. Her scenes often carry the strongest psychological intensity.

That said, this is also a demanding read. The book’s complexity is both its strength and its weakness. There are moments when the terminology, factions, backstory, emotional subplots, and political mechanics arrive in such abundance that the pacing becomes heavy. Readers who enjoy immersive, lore-rich fantasy will likely appreciate this density, but those who prefer cleaner exposition and faster narrative movement may find the opening stretch especially challenging. The prose is emotionally charged and often vivid, though occasionally the intensity of the writing makes the narrative feel overpacked.

Still, Inconclusive Volume 1 has a distinct identity. It blends military fantasy, dark academia, crime syndicate intrigue, trauma psychology, and morally grey romance-adjacent tension into something ambitious and unusual. By the end, with Reyna entering the guarded world of Inoton Academy and Volume 2 clearly positioned to deepen the conflict, the book feels like the opening movement of a much larger, darker saga.

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