Hello everyone. I’m back state-side. My vacation was perfect, but I came home to a very difficult and unfortunate situation, which is why there was no activity on this site last week. For the past 15 years, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of having a little black cat as my constant shadow. I lost her last Tuesday, and I’ve been trying to find my way ever since. Suffice it to say I haven’t really felt motivated to do much of anything (other than eat ice cream). I promise to post the photographs of the St. Bartholomew Festival soon. Until then, I wanted to leave y’all with my most recent indie review. I read “Run” by Becky Johnson during one of my quiet afternoons in Mallorca.

Run
Written by Becky Johnson
4 out of 5 Stars

“Run” by Becky Johnson is a fast-paced, heart-pounding, visceral journey that takes the reader from distant observer to unwilling prey in a harrowing 126 pages. The first thing I should note is that I don’t normally enjoy first-person narrative and my genre preference very rarely leads me outside of the fantasy or paranormal realms, but neither predisposition (usually deal breakers for me) were an issue with this book. The first-person narrative was not only enjoyable but imperative to the experience, and the storyline was so gripping that I quickly lost track of my usual need for something otherworldly.

The book opens with our narrator and main protagonist, Charlotte Marshall, struggling to find her muse. Under contract for her third book, with looming deadlines and only a blank page to show for it, Charlotte suddenly recalls a news story from 20 years before. This seemingly innocent recollection leads Charlotte, and the reader, down the proverbial ‘rabbit hole’, setting off a 26-day chain of events that will change Charlotte’s life forever.

As a reader, I really enjoy being pleasantly surprised. “Run” did that and more. I had no idea what to expect when I began reading, but once I started I couldn’t put it down. The narrative drew me in completely, and I was determined to see it through as fast as I could. What I loved most about the journey was Charlotte’s quick thinking (lord knows that with those odds, I wouldn’t have been able to put two coherent thoughts together) and the book’s ending. As someone who spent several years as a prosecutor, I really appreciated the way Becky Johnson chose to end her story. In fiction as well as real life, we often forget about the scars left behind after a story ends.

You can try a free sample of Run on Amazon
You can follow Becky Johnson’s blog “A Word at a Time” here.