Cover of Akrad's Children

The first book in the Akrad’s Legacy series, Akrad’s Children follows siblings Dinnis, who always believed his father would return to save him, and Ista, who embraced the teachings of the cruel sorcerer who held them prisoner. Caught up in their story is Mannok, the siblings’ half-brother, crown prince of Tamra and heir to the throne of Akrad’s enemies.

While I’m not generally a fan of stories about young adults struggling to find their place in the world, this tale is so beautifully written and the characters so adeptly portrayed that I found myself really enjoying their story. I would even go as far as to say that Akrad’s Children is a classic in the making.

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Cover of Dirty Deeds by Armand Rosamilia

Today on the author blog, Leland Lydecker reviews Armand Rosamilia’s Dirty Deeds.

I get paid to erase problems.

Did your extramarital affair produce an unwanted complication? Family problems? Just want to enjoy your midlife crisis by yourself?

That’s where I come in. For a fee I’ll take care of it. A big fee.

Dirty Deeds is a crime novel with a twist– and not the kind you’d expect. The protagonist is an aging hitman with a big secret: he spirits away the children he’s been paid to kill, setting them up with an adoption agency that places them with loving new families. Or at least, so he thinks.

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Quote from Sam Sykes on Twitter

I stumbled across this tweet the other day and found myself wondering, why shouldn’t I sneer at books that soared to popularity by appealing to the lowest common denominator? Why would I care what makes them tick?

If you’re the kind of author who doesn’t care about the quality of their work nearly as much as becoming famous, you may be thinking “I agree with this tweet! What’s the magic formula that makes inexplicably popular books so successful? And how can I apply it to my own writing?!” In that case, here’s the breakdown.

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Cover of Shadowfest by D.J. Reid

Welcome to the Holy City at Summer’s End. The border with the Otherworld is razor thin. Shadowfest is coming. Malevolent spirits and monsters roam. Dark forces are plotting to seize power. The past has come back to haunt Brona the Apothecary and Aurelian the Investigator. Revenge can be a double-edged sword, as Morven the Mage once discovered. And Death may be the least of their worries…

In Shadowfest, author D.J. Reid spins a clever murder mystery out of Celtic and Greco-Roman myth and folklore. It’s a delightfully complex tale, with endearingly well-rounded characters, hidden motives, eldritch magic, and mythical creatures galore.

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