I really loved this book!  I purchased Volta in paperback several months ago by recommendation from a friend.  It unfortunately sat far too long in my TBR stack.  Admittedly, it was skipped in line more than once, and I’m not sure why, but I wish I had not let that happen. Volta had me completely gripped from the first page.   The eerie descriptions of the crime scenes, and the heart that poured out from each character’s troublesome situations was amazing and kept the plot moving in a steady fashion.   I found t he characters to be perfectly flawed.   SJ’s life was riddled with secrets, and it fascinated me that his current case seemed to mirror his own past situation as well as force him to face the demons he’d buried for good.   His “will they/won’t they” relationship with Mari was the perfect catalyst to balance the troublesome issues.  While Briony was an interesting victim turned burden, she was also a bit frightening to imagine.   About a third of the way into the book, I was abl

Let’s talk about Amazon ads.   I see a lot of mixed information on the dos and don’ts of running ads on Amazon.   More often than anything I see people saying they haven’t had much luck with the ads.   In my research I found that most of the people who haven’t done well with ads attribute that performance to the fact that they don’t understand how the Amazon algorithm works.   Well, that makes two of us.   However, I’ve still managed to get the ads to work for me—at least a little bit.   Okay, maybe my success depends on the angle you’re looking at it. For anyone who doesn’t know what Amazon ads are, it’s basically a pay per click promotional tool offered by Amazon.   On your ads dashboard, you can monitor your ads exposure, it’s spending, and how many people are actually clicking on your ads.   Whether or not your ad is displayed is set up in an auction kind of arena.   You can set your bid limit per keyword (words that potential buyers use to search for a product).   You can populate

What a twisted story of deceit, sibling rivalry, and double-crossing.  There is so much to unpack in this story, I’m not sure exactly where to begin.  Morton Leader is a fantastically creative writer.  The characters were all presented so perfectly.  Leader chose to write from multiple points of view, and because of this I felt like I was able to really get to know the characters and understand their, at times, dark ambitions, and how greed controlled each of their lives.  They each kept striving for something they wanted, but somehow still lost sight of the prize.  In more ways than one, they did each become their own worst enemy.   The plot rode the edge of being comical, and tragic.  The actions the characters each took was like watching a train-wreck and hoping for a fender bender.  I could not look away from their desperate decisions and I just had to keep reading.  I had to know which one of their schemes was actually going to pan out.  The ending was kind of sad, but at the same

If you’re looking for a mystery thriller with building suspense that’s also a fairly short read, look no further than Renee Marski’s, Shadows.  I found Shadows to be written in a fast-paced form of writing—a lot of events happen in a short number of pages, and the dialogue is short but to the point.  For me, this style of writing tends to have its up sides, and down sides in other books, but the style seemed to work well for Shadows. The main character, Carson, is very determined and focus minded when it comes to figuring out who murdered the love of his life, Ophelia.   As the body count rises, Carson goes over and above, sometimes crossing some lines, trying to sort out what happened, and at the same time trying to protect the people he cares for from a lunatic hellbent on making his life miserable.   My only fuss with this book would be that the police presence in the book seemed to just sit back while Carson tracked down the killer.   Maybe there were things going on behind the s

The blurb for this book drew me in almost instantly, and I was looking for a good short mystery read at the time, so I gave it a shot.   However, I failed to pay attention to the subtitle, and realize that this book is actually second in a series.   *palm on face  It's right there on the cover.   I was a few chapters in, wondering why the character development seemed a little shy before I realized I had clearly missed something which apparently happened in book one.    That aside, Without Remorse was an intense thrill ride strapped into a buddy cop sequel kind of story.   Dakota Steele is a likable character who has demons she is struggling with, not to mention whatever it was that happened in book one.   The banter between her and her partner was great to not only move the plot forward, but also bring a shade of humor to such a dark story.   My favorite character though was antagonist.   He was portrayed very maniacal but believable in the that he concocted reason for everything h

Someone very important is reading, The Gouge! It’s Alisha, my wife!  She snatched up one of the proof copies of The Gouge from my shelf and decided to dive into it.  You might be wondering: “Dude, that book has been out for like two years and your wife is just now reading it?  What gives?”  To be fair, though this is the first time she is sitting down and reading the book, Alisha is the one I bounce a lot of my ideas off of.  When we go on walks, I’ll occasionally bother her with my current plot ideas to see what she thinks.  She has been my most supportive friend when it comes to my writing ventures.  She already knows the plots of my books before I write them.  Now, I think she’s just given it enough time that she’s some of the details I shared with her have become foggy or swamped over by the details of my current work in progress, and has decided read The Gouge and get the full effect.  Anyway, I think she’s really enjoying it.  She’s told me so, and I know she’s sincere.  She’s ev