The Stanton Falls Mysteries – Promotion to Peril
Susan Reed-Flores’s The Stanton Falls Mysteries: Promotion to Peril explores the destructive forces of greed and envy, which drive the chilling crimes in the small town of Stanton Falls. As newly appointed Police Chief Dan Ross, along with Detective Scalari and rookie Detective Reed, navigate the murky waters of corruption and injustice, they find themselves embroiled in a deeply personal and dangerous investigation. The team embarks on a thrilling journey as they piece together clues, unravel crimes, and bring wrongdoers to justice. The discovery of corruption within their own ranks adds a compelling twist to their mission, emphasizing the importance of integrity in their pursuit to protect Stanton Falls. Despite the dangers, their unwavering commitment to justice shines through, making for an engaging and suspenseful read.
The writing is engaging and accessible, with Reed-Flores’s clear narrative style allowing the story to flow smoothly. The pacing is well-handled, especially as each short story builds upon the last, creating a cohesive and satisfying reading experience. However, I found that while the plot twists were compelling, some of the dialogue could have used a bit more polish to make the characters’ interactions feel more natural. For instance, certain conversations between Ross and his fellow detectives felt a bit stiff, which slightly detracted from the immersion. One of the strengths of this book is its ability to balance the tension of the crime-solving aspects with the personal lives of the characters. Reed-Flores does an excellent job of weaving in moments of vulnerability, particularly in the scenes involving Ross and his family, which add emotional depth to the narrative. The interplay between the professional and personal stakes keeps the reader invested in both the outcomes of the cases and the well-being of the characters. The structure of the book, with its three interconnected short stories, allows for a variety of cases and character developments, which keeps the reader engaged. The mysteries themselves are well-crafted, with clues that are thoughtfully placed and pay off in satisfying resolutions. The final story, which ties together elements from the previous ones, is particularly strong and serves as a fitting conclusion to the trilogy’s middle entry. That said, some of the secondary characters could have been developed further, as they sometimes felt like they were there more to serve the plot than to add richness to the story’s world.
The Stanton Falls Mysteries: Promotion to Peril is an enjoyable read, particularly for fans of cozy mysteries who appreciate a blend of suspense and character-driven storytelling. Reed-Flores’s ability to create a sense of place and community within Stanton Falls makes the town feel like a character in its own right, adding to the overall charm of the book. I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for a light yet engaging mystery that delves into both the personal and professional lives of its characters, with just the right amount of intrigue to keep you turning the pages.
Pages: 209 | ASIN : B0DH2QKQBC
Bad Day for Justice (Warren & Carmichael Legal Thrillers – Book 2)
Bad Day for Justice follows two Seattle lawyers, Sydney Warren and Duncan Carmichael, as they get pulled into the fallout from a brutal year in 1983. A Navy pilot vanishes in a stolen EA-6B Prowler, a huge public power project implodes, and a financial advisor named Harold Dawson dies under very suspicious circumstances. Decades later, the grown children of the supposed killer and the victim, along with the Ortez family from the missing-jet scandal, stumble into a fresh blackmail scheme tied to a lost jewel called the Tsarina’s Spider, and everyone has to decide what “justice” looks like when the truth arrives forty years late.
I really enjoyed how the authors handle the nuts-and-bolts stuff. The legal and military pieces feel grounded, yet the story still moves. The opening sequence with the stolen Prowler has real punch, and the later courtroom work around the Dawson death goes down smooth, even when the arguments get technical. The book hops between Navy bases, Seattle law offices, British Columbia ferries, and a Cascade trailhead, and each place feels authentic. I liked spending time with older versions of Sydney and Duncan. They are competent, stubborn, a little tired, and still fully in the fight. The large cast can feel crowded at first, yet by the time Allison rides that little Aquabus with a fake jewel in her lap, I had a decent handle on who mattered and why.
The core question of justice delayed sits over everything, and the forty-year gap makes that question sting. The children of Dawson and Nowak carry scars from choices they never made, and their scenes together have a quiet ache that lingers. I liked the way the story refuses a clean hero-villain split. Dawson’s suicide, Nowak’s ruined life, Danny Ortez’s desperate choices in the past and his weary acceptance in the present, all of that pushes the book into interesting moral gray. The backstory around the WPPSS bond debacle and the art-heist angle with the Tsarina’s Spider feels like a lot of moving parts, and once or twice, I had to pause and mentally sort out who owed what to whom. Still, the emotional throughline kept pulling me back.
By the end, the big deck gathering at the Carmichaels’ house gave me that mix of relief and unease that I like in a legal thriller. The good guys get some wins, old lies get aired out, reputations get patched, yet there is no magic fix for lost decades or wrecked careers. It feels honest. I would recommend Bad Day for Justice to readers who enjoy character-driven legal thrillers, people interested in the Pacific Northwest and real-world financial messes, and anyone who likes seeing older protagonists treated as full-on leads instead of background mentors. If you want a smart, steady, slightly twisty story about family, accountability, and what “justice” costs once the dust finally settles, this one is worth your time.
Pages: 397 | ASIN : B0GGL6WRDT
From Misfit to Mastery
Shamaness: The Silent Seer follows a young girl born mute but also psychic, who, despite a childhood filled with cruelty, grows into a powerful shamaness. What was the first image or moment that sparked this story for you?
I literally dreamed the story of Kreya, the psychic but mute girl whose destiny takes her on a journey from misfit to mastery. Start to finish, including the main characters and events! It’s the only time that’s happened to me, and it took years after that dream to craft the story.
The shamanic teachings unfold slowly, almost as if the reader is being trained alongside Kreya. Was that intentional?
Yes. In high school when my classmates were exploring psychedelics, I was hunkered down on the floor of the dusty stacks at the local library, reading about ancient cultures and healing traditions. I wanted to share those traditions and beliefs in a way that makes sense for today’s readers. As a corollary, I also teach yoga:).
Kreya’s grandmother’s “rainbow voice” is a striking image. How do symbols like that function in your storytelling?
As a clinician working with individuals of all ages and brain-based conditions, I came to appreciate the role of multisensory experience and understanding. I perceive people in five senses! For me, sounds can inspire colors, just as sights can inspire physiological responses smells inspire memories. Amma’s presence seemed to me like a rainbow, so her speech carries that aspect.
You frame the novel between Kreya’s childhood and her sixtieth summer. Why was it important to tell the story from both ends of her life?
I rewrote the story three times, experimenting with different beginnings/endings and timelines. My wonderful critique partner read the second one and told me to “shred this and start over.” It was the best advice! I realized that the reader needed to know from the beginning that Kreya would not be defeated, that her future was solid.
Author Links: Facebook | Website
The Sinister Nature of Power
The Bent Nail follows a man born into filth and neglect who becomes both a victim and an instrument of a shadowy organization bent on reshaping the world through brutality. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for The Bent Nail, or its predecessor, Nails, came from a sole source. The initial story structure stemmed from a challenge made by a close friend to see if I could develop multiple, separate plot lines and weave them together into a single, coherent, exciting story line. Challenge accepted.
What came from that challenge was the original Nails, a story that introduced the reader to three truly flawed individuals: Tau, Gideon, and Simon; three individuals who erroneously thought they were the uncontested wielders of power in their respective worlds. In effect, they thought they were the hammers of society; individuals who could pound on others and rule with impunity, only to discover their power was an illusion. They were merely nails just like anyone else.
The inspiration for the main character, Tau, is personal experience. I had the opportunity to work closely with an organization whose cause was helping the hopeless. That effort brought me elbow to elbow with people society had cast out into the streets because that was easier than looking for productive alternatives. These people were the products of an unforgiving world, chemical abuse, mental instability, or just bad luck. That was where Tau came from. Tau represents those in our society who are forgotten, lost, and disposed of, but he refuses to be dismissed. He resorts to violence because it’s the advantage he possesses. We fear him because he has nothing to lose. His character hits us hard, not just because he’s a repugnant and vicious individual, but also because he’s so damaged and we see his potential for good.
The story is motivated by what we experience contemporarily. We are bombarded by streams of questionable, repetitive soundbites intended to manipulate, separate, and control. What we end up with is a powerless people subjugated to the will of others. I wanted to portray the sinister nature of power and those individuals who use this to their advantage. Some readers consider The Bent Nail as a warning of the future, others, a reflection of today.
The violence in the book is raw and sometimes difficult to endure. What role does discomfort play in your storytelling?
I wrestled with this. You use the term raw, and it is. And that is very intentional. The violence was necessary to drive home the idea that the world we know is not the comfortable place we believe it to be. A veil of civility might cover up the violent, self-serving nature of man, but that rawness still exists. We see violence, greed, and the desire to control in almost all aspects of society when we look close enough. The Bent Nail challenges us to check ourselves so as not to be seduced by power and wealth.
For me, storytelling requires emotional engagement. Comfort rarely seems to fit with that concept. That’s not to say that my stories are all violent or even troubling. I would suspect many would suggest my Countenance of Man, a touching story of man rediscovering his father through the eyes of others, is emotionally wrenching, but hardly troublesome. The Bent Nail deals with power and corruption; it would be unfair to treat this kindly.
The book challenges the idea of freedom itself. Do you believe freedom is real, conditional, or illusory?
Superb question. Certainly, The Bent Nail would suggest that freedom is illusory, something we think we possess even when the evidence would suggest otherwise. Do I believe that? Not really. In our western society, freedom is absolutely real, not just an abstract concept; however, it is continuously under attack. The struggle is that freedom is not an immutable idea. We have become too comfortable with the notion that freedom never changes, something that once we have it, it will always be there. It’s not. The Bent Nail throws that reality in our face. It challenges us to continuously fight for it even when the consequences might be frightening. In this story, I hope the reader grasps that however frightening it might be to stand up for one’s rights, the alternative is far worse. If not, The Bent Nail becomes something more than a novel; it becomes prophecy.
To quote Benjamin Franklin, “Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
If The Bent Nail leaves readers unsettled long after they close it, what do you hope they do with that feeling?
I hope it leaves the reader unsettled. We live in an unsettled world filled with warring factions fighting for power. The Bent Nail surfaces that and it should bother us all. It illustrates how easy it is for those in authority to manipulate us, be it through engendering class envy, spoon feeding us with blatant misinformation, seducing us with the promise of power, or imposing their will through coercion. Our challenge is to understand who is behind the manipulation and to stand up to them.
The second point I want to leave with the reader is the need to be objective in assessing the world. Not everything is as it seems; adopting the beliefs of friends and neighbors merely because it seems easy and comfortable is dangerous. Of course, if one desires to be nothing but a nail, hammered into acquiescence, in a world similar to one I’ve invented, just keep capitulating to those who desire to control us through power.
Lastly, speaking of power, it is insanely seductive – for all of us. It can overwhelm the desire to do what we know to be right. People might look at these comments in light of what is going on in our society today and assume that The Bent Nail is either right wing or left wing. That’s a perspective thing and would be a tremendous mistake. Neither political side has a monopoly on being correct. Don’t let others tell you what to believe.
M.D. reintroduces the three flawed characters you hated in Nails: Simon, a journalist without a conscience; Gedeon, a murderer without a heart; and Tau, a man without hope. In this masterful sequel, their lives collide as they each struggle to avoid becoming nothing more than hammered nails underpinning a centuries-old, secretive family committed to world dominance. Through deceit, mass murder and economic control the Family seeks to establish a new and lasting world order under their direct and unquestioned authority. Corruption and the seductive nature of power provide the backdrop as Tau, Simon, and Gedeon wrestle with their personal demons as they seek to survive.
Although The Bent Nail is a story that will disturb and frighten even the boldest of readers, it is one that will pull you in and capture you from the first page, a story you won’t be able to put down… and one that you will remember forever.
Nether Land: High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and Murder
Nether Land follows the tangled rise and tragic end of Ed Netherland, a boy from Murfreesboro who grows into a bold, brilliant, often reckless man whose life eventually spirals into money schemes, fraud, and a mysterious death on St. John Island. The story begins with his funeral and jumps back to the author’s childhood, tracing decades of shifting friendships, grudges, ambition, and uneasy admiration. The book pairs coming-of-age moments with a slow, unsettling unraveling of Ed’s world, and by the time the narrative returns to that final day in 2014, the path feels both inevitable and deeply strange.
While reading it, I felt pulled into a long conversation with the author, one that wandered through memory in a way that felt warm, irritated, tender, and suspicious all at once. His writing is simple on the surface, yet tight with tension underneath. I liked how he captured the awkward cliques and rivalries of Central High. I also felt his lingering resentment toward Ed slip through, even when he tried to be neutral. That honesty made the book feel more vivid. The chapters about UT football, fraternity life, and early adulthood had a friendly, nostalgic tone. Then the tone shifted. The deeper the book went into Ed’s business dealings, the more the storytelling tightened. I could feel the author wrestling with disbelief. The emotional through-line held steady even when the pacing slowed because he kept circling the same question that I found myself asking, too. How does a smart kid from a decent home end up in a storm of lies, lawsuits, and danger.
I kept thinking about the author’s mix of curiosity and frustration. He wrote with affection for the people who shaped him, although not always affection for Ed. Even so, he treated Ed as a real person and not a tabloid headline. I liked that balance. Sometimes I felt the narrative turning slightly dreamy as he drifted back into old school hallways or late-night parking lots. Other times, the writing snapped into something harder when he described the financial tricks, the false promises, and that chilling stretch before the murder. I found myself reacting in quick swings. I laughed at small teenage moments. I felt annoyed at Ed’s constant posturing. I felt sad when the story reached the island and stayed there. The emotional unpredictability made the book gripping, and I never drifted away from the author’s voice.
I would recommend Nether Land to readers who enjoy true crime that leans more toward reflection than sensationalism and to people who like memoirs about Southern towns, complicated friendships, and the strange ways ambition can bend a life. If you enjoy true crime with heart, you’ll enjoy Nether Land.
Pages: 246 | ASIN : B0FZWPXJ9R
The Great Dick: And the Dysfunctional Demon
Barry Maher’s The Great Dick and the Dysfunctional Demon starts with a Harvard professor in the late sixties riffing on Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby and tossing off the idea of a modern version called “The Great Dick.” The story then jumps to 1982 and to Steve Witowski, a thirty-something screwup on the run from a botched drug deal who stumbles into a brutal assault near an old church on the California coast. He tries to help, kills the attacker in chaotic self-defense, and meets Victoria Fairchild, a luminous stranger with secrets of her own. From there, the book slides into a mix of road novel, noir, and supernatural thriller as Steve gets dragged deeper into a tangle of murder, occult relics, demons that may or may not be real, and his own talent for bad decisions.
Steve opens by flat-out calling himself an asshole, and the narration never lets him off the hook. His inner monologue is sharp, petty, funny, horny, scared, sometimes all in the same beat. The writing leans hard into sensory detail and low-level absurdity, like the reek of the Checker cab or the way cheap weed and an old song drift through the scene right before the attack. The fight on the embankment is brutal and weirdly intimate. Keys in his fist, Latin muttered at the worst possible moment, a truck roaring closer. I could feel the panic in my throat. When the book slows down afterward and lets Steve and Victoria talk, that same energy hums under the dialogue. The tone stays casual and foul-mouthed, yet there is a careful rhythm in the sentences. It feels tossed off in the way really worked-over prose often does. I found myself rereading lines just to enjoy how a joke landed or how an image curved at the end.
The book plays with failure and faith in a way that was thought-provoking. Steve keeps trying to patch his life with lies, quick exits, and a little dope, then suddenly he is neck deep in something that smells like capital E Evil. The dagger with the names of Jehovah, Ahura Mazda, Huitzilopochtli, and Asmodeus etched into the handle is such a great symbol for the book’s spiritual chaos. It pulls Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Aztec gods into the same creepy object and then hands it to a loser who just wanted to dodge a prison sentence. I liked how the story keeps asking what counts as sin, what counts as choice, and where simple cowardice shades into something darker. At the same time, it never reads like a lecture. It feels like a wild story that happens to drag big questions in behind it.
The book is full of sex, violence, and black humor, yet there are small, quiet moves that give it an unexpected emotional weight, little flashes of shame or tenderness or sheer exhausted relief. The setting, work around coastal California, and the abandoned church give the more supernatural turns a solid, grimy base to grow out of, which I really liked, and the whole thing runs on a kind of nervous, late-night momentum.
I would recommend The Great Dick and the Dysfunctional Demon to readers who enjoy flawed, talkative narrators, morally messy thrillers, and horror that leans into both jokes and genuine unease. If you like work in the vein of Carl Hiaasen or early Stephen King but wish it had more occult weirdness and a bit more sex, this will probably hit the spot. For anyone up for a fast, foul-mouthed, slightly unhinged ride that still has something on its mind, I think this book is absolutely worth the trip.
Pages: 464 | ASIN : B0FKWK2K7C
Who I Was And Who I Am Now
Quantum Queen challenges the culture of endless healing by showing readers how to shift from overthinking and overfunctioning into embodied certainty, identity-led action, and self-authorized leadership. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Because it is the book I needed the most when I got stuck in the same loop, while trying to leave the victim mindset loop. Quantum Queen is a line in the sand between who I was and who I am now. I lived it, and I see so many women living through the same without realizing that it is a problem to begin with. I didn’t see anyone in the industry draw that line in the sand. I only saw extremes that swung back and forth between having to be 100% healed, and the other side discouraging healing, and therapy, to send a message that the viewer isn’t broken.
There is a time and place for healing, and the finish line to being fully awakened doesn’t exist. It’s about using your awareness to start orbiting a new timeline without passive, watered down, repetitive manifestation advice that has lost its meaning.
The concept of the “overfunctioning woman” is interesting. What patterns did you notice most often in women who resonated with this archetype?
– She is an absolute boss at analysing her patterns, and taking full responsibility for her part to the point where she starts drowning in overproving, overdelivering and never feeling enough in the inner work she has done.
– She distrusts ease, because she is used to being put in a position of having to control the situation, and take care of everyone else. Her nervous system is unfamiliar with ease.
– Difficulty resting: She feels restless when she is off work or on a vacation. Making her struggle to believe that she can just let her hair down, be supported, taken care of and loved.
– Coaching the trigger away instead of moving through it: She knows TOO MUCH about trigger work, and all the tools that exist like EFT Tapping. That can be a form of avoidance to not fully sit through the discomfort, and the pattern stays alive within her so she continues to coach herself through it while feeling angsty for still experiencing it.
If a reader takes one embodied practice from Quantum Queen and commits to it, which do you believe has the greatest power to shift their baseline?
Chapter 13’s activity: It moves the reader from understanding the concepts and the theory intellectually to allowing it to land in the body at a cellular level, while bypassing all the mental loops through body-based embodiment. Continually practicing that regulates the reader back into the state through shifting the physiology in real-time and making certainty the baseline default. The frequency of certainty is the frequency that creates self-belief in being worthy, successful, chosen and empowered.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I am working on a NEW VOLUME of QUANTUM QUEEN for entrepreneurs on mastering the sold out frequency to have the energetic backing behind the strategy, and lovingly release the identities blocking that frequency from landing (e.g.: Imposter syndrome, fear of exposure). I choose to write when I am in the embodied state, so every single word is ACTIVATING the icon within you. Therefore, a date for the new volume has not been established yet.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
by Rozana Manifests
Manifestation through a Law of Assumption lens, focused on identity shifting. Manifestation isn’t about micromanaging thoughts or chasing “signs.” It’s about who you are BEING as a whole: the identity you live from, the energy you anchor, the reality you decide is yours.
In Quantum Queen, Rozana Manifests invites you into a radical, embodied redefinition of manifestation: one that dismantles outdated healing narratives, collapses the “waiting” timeline, and brings your biggest desires into your now.
This book is for the women who’ve done the work (who’ve journaled, affirmed, meditated, processed, visualized), and still feel stuck in the loop of becoming. It’s for the leaders, healers, creators, and visionaries who are tired of checking their frequency and are ready to be the frequency.
Through unapologetic chapters blending science, psychology, identity theory, and energetic mastery, you’ll learn how to:
• Shift your identity on a quantum level so your reality bends around who you’ve decided to be
• Collapse timelines by exiting the nervous system’s addiction to pain, healing, and proving
• Regulate your body to receive massive love, wealth, and visibility without burning out
• Lead, sell, and love from overflow while dropping fear, and perfectionism
• Recode your default self-concept into your desired reality, permanently
This book doesn’t ask you to do more. It asks you to remember the version of you who was never separate from what she wanted.
You’ll discover a unique framework that helps you lead movements, build legacy, and magnetize your desires by anchoring into certainty, not hustle.
The truth is: your manifestation results have never been about your affirmations. They’ve always been about your identity.
This is your initiation into becoming the one who naturally receives what others chase for months and years.
Read Quantum Queen and step into the embodiment of a woman whose success, love, wealth, and impact are inevitable.
Book of Me
Book of Me felt like sitting across from Kevin in a diner while he talked me through his life, one wild episode at a time. This nonfiction autobiography-memoir traces his journey from a rough-and-tumble childhood over a butcher shop in Queens to the cookie-cutter dream of Levittown, through hippie days and garage bands, brushes with rock legends, marriages and divorce, a Christian conversion, big wins in real estate, brutal losses, bipolar disorder, cancer, and a late-life run at politics and entrepreneurship. The book is broken into short, titled episodes that move mostly in order, each one another story about how this ordinary guy kept stumbling into extraordinary situations, learning to laugh, get back up, and lean hard on his faith.
The writing keeps the feel of spoken storytelling, which makes sense since Kevin originally told these stories on camera. You can hear him in the run-on excitement of a good memory and the quick punch of a painful one. The style is loose and conversational, sometimes a little meandering, but it feels honest rather than messy, like listening to a friend who has a lot of life to cover and is trying not to leave out the good parts. As a memoir, it reads less like a polished literary project and more like a long, vivid conversation, helped along by the pencil sketches and the playful chapter titles that keep you turning pages to see what ridiculous thing happens next. At times, I wanted a bit more trimming or reflection between the anecdotes, but the energy and humor kept pulling me back in.
I also appreciated the choices he makes about what to show and how vulnerable he is willing to be. Kevin leans hard on self-deprecating humor, especially when he is talking about getting into trouble as a kid, crashing on the ice, or starting one more half-baked business, and that humor softens you up before he walks you into heavier territory. When he writes about his Christian conversion, his mental breakdown and bipolar diagnosis, or facing cancer, the tone shifts in a way that feels earned. He does not pretend to have it all together. Instead, he keeps circling back to this idea that life is about the journey, about falling, learning, and getting back up with God, family, and a few loyal friends at your side. In a genre that can sometimes feel like a highlight reel, it was refreshing to see him include so many moments where he did not look good, or did not win, or just barely survived.
By the end, I felt like I had been on a long road trip with someone who talks a lot, laughs loudly, prays openly, and is deeply aware that he has been both reckless and blessed. This is an autobiography for readers who enjoy true, larger-than-life stories more than careful literary craft, who like faith-driven narratives, and who do not mind a little chaos mixed in with their inspiration.
Pages: 494 | ASIN : B0FJWKDKZR
LITERARY TITAN 