Between Black Panthers and Blood Stripe, I have been fortunate to receive excellent reviews. OK, except for the guy who did not get why we needed another book on the 761st Tank Battalion. (Answer: 1. Few still know about the unit and 2. No one has written an accurate history returning to the primary sources. Take THAT, Mr. Reviewer.)

Otherwise, the reviews have been great. Do they write bad reviews anymore? Are reviews on par with every kid is a winner — just read the bumper stickers? Don’t know, but a third-party endorsement can only help the stature of the book a well as its author.

With Blood Stripe, we have had a couple of reviewers share a little too much info. But, I will take any published review I can get. Even a bad review (still not sure if they exists) gets your name out there and exposes your book. Good press, bad press — take what you can get. It is when they stop writing/talking you have a problem. Here it is:

… brilliant thriller, a challenging and courageous novel …

The struggle for equality between men and women in the armed forces continues with only minor improvements in the dilution of sexism that has plagued the military for years. In what is likely to become one of the most controversial novels of the year Gina Maria DiNicolo explores this landmine infested region with her newest book BLOOD STRIPE – The Susanna Marcasi Chronicles. DiNicolo, a former Marine, writer, editor and historian who has written for a number of military-oriented publications, has turned events witnessed and observed into a fictional story that allows the reader to probe with her the dysfunctional struggle between good and evil. Her ‘created’ character Susanna Marcasi is an exiled Marine who must battle dark forces through a maze of intrigue and deceit in her quest for redemption. A tale of extreme abuse and the aftermath, DiNicolo has placed Marcasi as an example for all the things military that are wrong and obscured from the public eye and in doing so pleads a case for change far stronger than media reportage. A brilliant thriller, a challenging and courageous novel, this is one book that is headed for awards.