Reviewed by Heather Curran for Reader Views (11/08/2025)
“Growing up in southern Germany, I frequently saw nuns when my family and I visited local churches and cathedrals. In my trips to Rome, when I toured the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, nuns were likewise admiring the artwork or praying. Each time I noticed them, I was impressed by their selfless austerity and commitment to service. Elizabeth Upton’s book Secrets of a Nun: My Own Story both echoed my original perceptions while giving me a glimpse into a very nuanced life.
Secrets of a Nun spans the decades Upton lived and served as a nun. From an early age, she was called into service, entering the convent before her twenties. During her time in the ministry, she worked within different localities, striving to improve the quality of life while combating societal and political ills.
Secrets of a Nun humanizes women called into service. In poignant scenes, Upton narrates her experiences at university alongside other nuns. As they spent time together, they recognized their value and significance as intelligent, educated women. Too often, unfair stereotypes are identified and then dismissed; it’s easy to pigeonhole women in religious orders and service as emotionless, one-dimensional, and almost unfeeling. Upton turns that notion on its head and gives the reader a private, intimate understanding of the emotional and intellectual complexity that characterizes her and her religious sisters.
Upton’s beautiful writing leads the reader through her experiences. Conversations leap from the page and show the difficulties that Upton navigated as she entered neighborhoods that, at times, resented her presence. With care and an observant eye, she recognizes the politics within any religious organization and how, sadly, these political wranglings can negatively affect even the most devout and compassionate groups.
Elizabeth Upton’s Secrets of a Nun will appeal to memoir readers who want to learn about complex subjects and people undergoing a psychological and personal journey. Upton’s book is reminiscent of Memoirs of a Geisha in how it explores a woman’s emotional and intellectual growth within a society that frequently tries to diminish her, as it shares her powerful, intimate story of faith, identity, and resilience, revealing the emotional depth behind a life of devotion and quiet rebellion.
I highly recommend this book to all young women…
“Secrets Of A Nun: My Own Story” Is Available From Amazon
“Secrets of a Nun is a revealing, uncompromisingly honest, and deeply moving look into one woman’s soul. Now Celebrating 2025, the 40th Anniversary of this publication ‘Secrets of a Nun’…
“Love all mysteries by Kim Carter! The characters are well developed. Iris and Clara become more fun and outspoken with each book. Really enjoy the Clara and Iris relationship. The mysteries are full of twists and turns to keep you intrigued to the very end. Can’t wait for the next case for Clara and Iris!”
THE WAIT IS OVER!
For Immediate Release:
The author’s new book receives a warm literary welcome.
Readers’ Favorite announces the review of the Fiction – Mystery – Murder book “Time Did Not Forget” by Kim Carter, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FX3DF82C.
Readers’ Favorite is one of the most extensive book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins. They have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.
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“Reviewed By Alma Boucher for Readers’ Favorite
Time Did Not Forget by Kim Carter is the fourth book in the Clara and Iris Mystery series. Widows Clara Samples and Iris Hadley, both in their mid-seventies, are private investigators based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their latest case takes them to Biloxi, where they agree to help their friend Charnell find her long-lost nephew, Cobie, who was kidnapped years earlier from a daycare playground. Despite the ransom being paid, Cobie was never returned, and the kidnapper vanished without a trace.
The case had gone cold, and no investigator wanted to reopen it. When Charnell takes an ancestry test that reveals she has a living nephew, she becomes convinced that Cobie is still alive. Not long after, Clara and Iris receive a mysterious newspaper clipping about a house fire in Fairburn, Ohio, from fourteen years ago, in which a local couple perished. Could this long-forgotten tragedy be tied to Cobie’s kidnapping all those years ago?
Time Did Not Forget by Kim Carter is a complex and captivating mystery that kept me hooked from beginning to end. The story moves at a rapid pace and is packed with action and unexpected twists that make it impossible to put down. The engaging writing style drew me deep into the investigation, leaving me constantly wondering what would happen next. Several plotlines seamlessly merged without detracting from each other.
The characters were realistic and relatable. I enjoyed Clara and Iris’s banter during their investigation, but Iris was my favorite character. Iris was frank and expressed her opinions, regardless of their appropriateness. The book was excellently written, and the events were so descriptive that I could not turn the pages fast enough.”
You can learn more about Kim Carter and “Time Did Not Forget” at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/time-did-not-forget where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their social media pages.
Readers’ Favorite LLC Media Relations Louisville, KY 40202
Having grown up in Fairburn, Kim Carter moved to Newnan with her husband, Julius,seven years ago.
Her writing room is adorned with signed photographs and movie memorabilia from Angela Lansbury and actor Ari Lehman, the original young Jason from “Friday the 13th,” among the multitude of macabre decor. A life-size Michael Myers mannequin leers at Carter from one corner of the room while One-Eyed Willie, the skeleton from the Goonies, sits on an opposite wall, keeping an eye on her writing.
“This is something that my husband had done before he passed away, and I know it’s probably rather creepy to the average person, but there’s a lot of really cool stuff in here. I don’t write horror – I’m not a Stephen King or a Dean Koontz,” she explains. “I just love to collect all the cool things. I have a sound machine, and I’ll cut the lights off, and it’s really inspiring.”
“I think writers are very eclectic, we’re weird people,” she adds. “We write because it’s who we are. It’s what leads us to start fifteen projects at once, even though they may not ever get completed, or even see the light of day.” Carter started writing in 1999. “It was when an illness left me homebound that I turned to writing as a form of therapy,” she says. What started with a sentence, a paragraph, and then a couple of pages turned into a book. “It was my story; it was the beginning of finding myself and retrieving my health,” says Carter.
Friends and neighbors read her first manuscript, which came to them rolled up and held together with rubber bands, and became fully invested in the story and characters. This encouraged her to keep writing. “We all have a story in us. We’re actually living one every day,” she explains.
For her second book, Carter says, “My faithful group came through again and read the book in small sections, rolled up with rubber bands. I had garnered more support by then, especially from my husband, Julius, who was convinced they needed to be published. I’d love to flippantly say, ‘That’s when we were off to the races. But nothing goes as planned. That is one thing of which I’m certain.”
Four books and two publishers later, Carter says her writing career stagnated. “The people who read them seemed to like them, but I wasn’t within reach of a broad audience.”
Losing confidence, writing for deadlines and not for fun, Carter also began experiencing more health problems. “I left several projects incomplete, turned the computer off, and closed my office door. It was no longer therapeutic but too challenging. I was done with writing.” Slipping into depression, Carter says she received a wakeup call from her best friend, Kelly Keylon. Says Carter, “Kelly says, ‘You’re too good, you’re not going to quit – if I have to get these books out there myself, I’ll do it.’ And he did!”
They revisited her older novels and updated them. Re-inspired, Carter says her hands were soon tap-dancing across the keys once again. “My publicist, Catherine Lyon, worked day and night for meager wages, and we secured the talented Keith Saunders as a cover designer,” she says.
Her seventh release, “Dark Secrets of the Bayou,” was released in late November 2020, with over 160+ Amazon reviews. Kim Carter says her eighth book, ” The Root Of All Evil, ” was released as part of the ‘Clara and Iris’ trilogy titled “The Root Of All Evil,” released on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2024. Carter’s new release in the ‘Clara and Iris ‘ trilogy will be available from Amazon on November 1st, 2025, making it a total of nine novel releases to her literary credit.
“Every month, my girl Cat (Townsend-Lyon) calls to tell me where my books have been sold, reaching places I’ve never even visited, the U.K., Canada, Australia, and even Japan and Spain, while also being featured in ‘The New Post!” Carter, who has always loved murder mysteries, goes back to her high school days when she watched “Murder She Wrote” with her family. Reading various mystery authors helped her develop her own writing style.
Previous educator and close friend Juli Simpson has also been instrumental in helping Carter with her writing and ideas. “So many times I will paint myself into a corner and then I’m like, how am I feasibly going to get out of this where it’s believable?”
Kim Carter never knows what will inspire her with an idea for a book.
“It may be a place that’s both beautiful and creepy, or it may be just something that a person says that triggers me,” she says. “I’ve been to the morgue, the medical examiner’s office, cemeteries in the middle of the night, just all kinds of places that inspire me.
Actor Woody Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson, and I became extraordinary pen pals when he was in a supermax (prison) in Florence, Colorado.” She also reaches out to people at the GBI, the Atlanta police department, and various homicide departments, which may inspire a new storyline.
Kim Carter advises up-and-coming writers: “I think the key is having your own place to write, surrounded by things that inspire you. Having your own space to write, where you can close it off, is truly instrumental.”
(Interview/image courtesy of writer Jennifer Dziedzic of of the AJC & Newnan-Cowets Magazine) ********************
ABOUT THE NOVELISTKIM CARTER
Novelist Kim Carter is a multi-award-winning author and critically acclaimed writer of gripping suspense, chilling thrillers, and haunting historical mysteries.
Ms. Carter is widely recognized for her vibrant characters in her ‘A Clara and Iris Mystery’ series, which features two overly curious widows who become private investigators. These humorous women are inspired by Kim’s mother and her mother’s best friend. The series now includes books one through four. Book two of this series, Murder Among The Tombstones, was chosen as a Finalist for the 2018 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and a recipient of the 2017 TCK Publishers’ Readers’ Choice Award.
Her Mysteries and literary works include Sweet Dreams, Baby Belle, When Dawn Never Comes, Deadly Odds (chosen Editor’s Pick in Books Shelf Magazine in 2022), No Second Chances, ‘And The Forecast Called For Rain,’ and ‘Dark Secrets of the Bayou, ‘The Root Of All Evil, in 2024, and her newest ‘A Clara and Iris’ mystery’ Time Did Not Forget’ in Nov. 2025.
“Dark Secrets of The Bayou” has been awarded a Reader’s Favorite Editorial 5-Star Review, also chosen #1 Finalist for Best Historical Mystery from Reader’s Favorite 2021 book awards, and was awarded a 2021 Killer Nashville Finalist for The Silver Falchion Awards. In 2022, “Bayou” was chosen by The Author Shout book awards as a ‘Recommended Read.’
Kim’s writing career started after she suffered an illness that made her housebound for a couple of years. An avid reader of mystery novels herself, she embarked on writing to fill her time. Kim’s health struggles and successes have been chronicled on Lifetime Television in early 2000, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Women’s Day Magazine, and Guidepost.
Now, with nine thrilling mystery titles to her credit, Kim worked in many different capacities in county government. Still, her job as a correctional officer ultimately offered her opportunities to talk and interact with a diverse group of people. Her experience runs the gamut from inspiring success stories to tragic endings as she writes within her mysteries.
Kim began networking and connected with numerous homicide detectives, medical examiners, and prison officials. Her research has taken her to many places, including morgues, death row, and the occasional midnight visit to cemeteries to gain material for her novels. She is a Saint Leo University college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.
When she is not writing, she enjoys gardening, is an avid reader, and is a proud mother of four beautiful grown children; she resides and shares her time in Biloxi and Atlanta.
The Definitive Guide to Amazon Keyword Research for Books (Courtesy of Lakshmi Padmanaban )
As an author, nothing is more important than getting your book discovered by readers. While a well-written story and polished production values are table stakes, they only take you so far if potential buyers can’t easily find your book. This is where optimizing your book’s ranking on Amazon becomes crucial.
In this blog, let’s look at specific strategies that can boost your book’s visibility — from leveraging search suggestions to analyzing top competitors in your genre.
Whether you’re a debut indie author or a seasoned pro, the keyword tactics outlined here can help you understand how Amazon’s algorithms work and give your book the best chance to rank. By the end, you’ll have an action plan to start implementing immediate improvements. So let’s start taking your Amazon book ranking to the next level through data-driven keyword optimization.
5 Keyword Research Strategies to Boost Your Amazon Ranking
1. Select High-Volume Keywords
When optimizing your book on Amazon, focus on selecting high-volume keywords that have a substantial search volume. This will help increase your book’s visibility and potential for sales. To identify these keywords, utilize keyword research tools created specifically for Amazon, like Ahrefs Amazon Keyword Tool, Sellesta or Sellzone. These platforms will provide you with data on search volume and related keywords to better inform your decisions. Experiment with different platforms and identify the tools that work best for your needs. Remember to regularly update your research and stay informed about trends and changes in keyword performance — and, most importantly, to monitor your keywords’ performance and adjust your selections.
2. Long-Tail vs. Short-Tail Keywords
There are two types of keywords to consider when optimizing your book on Amazon: long-tail and short-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords consist of one or two more generalized words with higher search volumes. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer phrases with more specific intent and lower search volumes.
While it’s tempting to focus solely on short-tail keywords, balancing both long-tail and short-tail keywords is essential. This combination will help you reach both a larger audience as well as a more niche demographic. Incorporate both types of keywords into your Amazon book listing to achieve the best results for discoverability and sales.
3. Analyze Top-Selling Competitors
One of the best places to start keyword research is by analyzing your top-selling competitors. Look at the keywords in their product titles, descriptions, and bullet points. List the most frequently used keywords by successful competitors in your niche. These are likely to be highly searched terms that can drive sales.
When choosing keywords from competitors, look for long-tail keywords that are more specific than just generic brand or product terms. Long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volumes but are easier to rank for. You’ll want a mix of both high and low search volume keywords. Also, consider keywords related to your unique selling points that competitors may not be targeting.
Once you have a list, plug the keywords into the Amazon search bar to check the search volume and the number of related products listed. Focus on mid-range keywords that have monthly searches in the hundreds or low thousands. Highly competitive keywords with tens of thousands of searches may be too challenging to rank for initially.
4. Use the “Customers Also Searched For” Section
When viewing a book detail page on Amazon, a “Customers Also Searched For” section lists related keywords. These suggestions are based on the search patterns of customers who viewed that product. Add these related keywords to your list, as they are queries Amazon has identified as relevant.
For added context on search volume and competition, you can analyze these keywords like those from competitors. The “Customers Also Searched For” section on top-selling listings provides a wealth of relevant keyword ideas already validated by Amazon search data.
5. Research Questions in Your Book Category
Another source of potential keywords is to brainstorm common questions customers may ask about your book category. For example, in the gardening niche, you could come up with queries like “how to grow tomatoes” or “best fertilizer for roses.”
To validate these question-style keywords, enter them into the Amazon search bar preceded by “how to” or “what is” to see if auto-complete suggestions populate. If so, those queries indicate actual customer searches. You can then check search volume and competition. Question keywords tend to be longer-tail but can perform well if you have comprehensive answers in your listing.
How to Enhance Your Book’s Visibility With the Right Keywords?
Since Amazon has tons of books available at the click of a button, it’s crucial for authors to optimize their book descriptions, categories, and keywords for better visibility. Let’s focus on the best ways to enhance your book’s visibility through the effective use of keywords.
Incorporating Keywords in Book Titles
When choosing your book’s title and subtitle, consider relevant keywords that readers might use to search for your book. Including these keywords in your title and/or subtitle can help improve your book’s discoverability on Amazon. For example, if your book is about vegan cooking, you might choose a title like “The Vegan Kitchen: Quick, Easy, and Delicious Plant-based Recipes.”
Similarly, add your best keywords in the title, but at the same time, make sure that it’s utterly relevant to your book topic. Keep the title keywords very specific and close to the book title — preferably something that’s descriptive and gives a teeny-tiny insight into what your book is. Otherwise, your keyword inclusion will look forced and can actually drive readers away.
Incorporating Keywords in Book Description
After you’ve included the best and title-closest keywords to the book title, the next place to include them is in your book description. This is one of the places that Amazon considers when ranking your book. So from the list of keywords you’ve obtained from one of the keyword research tools, choose a few best ones that are very specific to what your book is about — and the keywords your target audience will use to search for books like yours.
Sprinkle those keywords all around your book description, making them sound natural and an organic part of the description instead of being forced. Add as many keywords as possible and repeat the primary keywords more than once. This is one of the best ways to get your book noticed by the Amazon search engine and increase its visibility in the search results.
Optimizing Author Pages with Keywords
Your Amazon Author Central page is another crucial place to include relevant keywords. By incorporating keywords into your author bio, book descriptions, and editorial review sections, you can boost your page’s SEO.
For instance, mentioning specific book genres you write in (‘romance’ or ‘crime thriller’) and adding a few writing-related qualifications with keywords like ‘award-winning author’ or ‘writing workshops’ can improve your Amazon Author Central page’s search visibility.
Wrapping Up
Implementing a comprehensive keyword strategy is one of the most impactful ways for authors to boost their book’s visibility and sales on Amazon. By thoroughly researching high-volume keywords, analyzing top competitors, and leveraging Amazon’s own search data suggestions, you can identify the most effective keywords to target. However, it’s important to regularly evaluate keyword performance and be willing to adjust your approach over time as search trends and algorithms change.
The techniques covered here, such as balancing long-tail and short-tail keywords, optimizing your book description and author page, and understanding the differences between Amazon and Google optimization, can help increase your book’s discoverability by more readers if implemented strategically. While ranking highly takes ongoing effort, focusing your efforts on keywords that are relevant, descriptive, and specific to your book topic and genre will give your book the best chance to succeed on Amazon.
With data-driven keyword research and optimization, you can start taking control of your book’s Amazon performance. Use the actionable tactics discussed in this post to analyze your book’s discoverability gaps and prioritize improvements. By leveraging the power of keywords, you’ll be able to enhance your book’s visibility, outshine competitors, and connect with more of the readers looking for your exact book. The time invested in optimizing keywords will pay off in increased readership and sales on Amazon for many books to come.
“All the time I wondered who Secora James was, and how we could possibly find, let alone help, a mythical creature.“
“Wakinyan Tanka, the Great Thunderbird contacted me in a dream while I was in the hospital healing from a lightning strike. She was perched atop a misty cliff and stood at least eight feet tall as far as I could tell. Her stare had a primitive fierceness that made me feel paralyzed, unable to move or speak. She was aware, and telepathically said, “All life is tenacious. You have survived what most men would not. My kind has survived what many of the large ones from a cooler time did not. She marked the statement by raising a Mohawk of crimson-tipped feathers that ran from the crest of her head partway down the back of her gray-black neck. I am Wakinyan Tanka. Long ago, humans relied on the grace of my people to lift their prayers by the wind of our wings to the Great Mystery of which we are all a part of. To those who sought our aid all over the earth, we were the embodiment of effortless grace, the Winged Power who protected and destroyed.”
If you’re a reader or a movie enthusiast who loves the “Indiana Jones” saga and enjoys mystery, action, and adventure, you’ll love reading all seven books in the thrilling and gripping “Rising Wind” novel series.
CAT is excited to share a cover reveal as our writer Elizabeth Upton is currently working on her next non-fiction book, which will be released in mid-spring and will be titled:
BECOME YOUR OWN HERO BE EMPOWERED TO MOVE FORWARD WITH RESILIENCE, STRENGTH, AND COURAGE.
Here is a small excerpt from one of the ending chapters for you to enjoy!
Only you can lift yourself out of grief, loneliness, depression from loss, and all the manners of suffering that you will experience throughout your life be it great or be it small. This is your human condition and what it means to be a human- being. Life is what you make of it and not always what you think you deserve. Our human existence is sometimes easy and sometimes hard. And your daily challenge is not to lay down and give up, but to lift yourself out and up no matter what is going on in your life.
We carry emotional wounds from our past into our evolving lives. Sometimes, such wounds are healed, but the scars remain. We are called to move forward and upward, no matter how difficult our life journey becomes. There comes a time when you will appreciate how wonderfully brave you have been by overcoming your life’s challenges. This realization increases your resilience by encouraging you to keep moving forward no matter what.
Even earth’s creatures know when and how to give and receive comfort. The great elephants move in closer to each other, rubbing their trunks around their suffering companions. They know how to mourn and go to graveyards caressing the bones of their once-upon friends in slow reflective movements. And one by one they move on.
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NEW BOOK COVER REVEAL
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WE ARE GLORIOUS WOMEN
STRONG AND FEARLESS AS THE SEA
UNTOUCHABLE BY FEAR
FOR WE LIVE WILD AMONG THE MOUNTAINS AND THE TREES
PROTECTED BY EARTH’S CREATURES BE THEM LARGE OR SMALL
WE ARE GLORIOUS WOMEN WITH OUR HAIR
LIFTING HIGH WITH THE SUNSHINES
COME SING WITH US
COME SHOUT WITH US
WE ARE GLORIOUS WOMEN BRAVE AND STRONG
COME LAUGH WITH US LOVING OUR LAND
AND LOVING ALL PEOPLES
REACHING OUT TO YOUR HANDS
IT’S TIME TO SING AND DANCE WITHUS
WE ARE GLORIOUS WOMEN
FOREVER THAT’S WHO WE ARE . . .
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Upton is an award-winning author and influential writer of gripping romantic thrillers and inspiring self-help nonfiction books.
Her best-selling books, ‘Secrets of a Nun: My Own Story,’ ‘The Silver Woman of Fire’ and ‘The Healing Swords of Love and Innocence’ helped set her firmly within the world’s literary map. With many novels to her credit, her newest fiction book, released in June 2022, titled ‘Lovers’ Secrets and Revenge,’ a gripping romantic thriller, while her new non-fiction release titled ‘You Are a Sovereign Woman of Strength, Love, and Grace: Embrace Your Journey.’
Elizabeth’s favorite book she enjoyed writing was ‘The Shaman and The Mafia,’ she shares, “The creation of this story has been an exciting journey. If possible, I would love to meet all of the characters in this book in real life.” Elizabeth’s nonfiction books and novels are available on Amazon and Amazon Kindle and are featured on fine literary book sites and magazines.
Elizabeth was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA., until the age of sixteen, when she entered a New York State Convent and became a nun for twenty years, but she yearned for a more authentic spiritual life. Elizabeth left the convent and chose to attend and receive her B.A. from Syracuse University.
Returning to her native state of California, she attended and received her M.A. in psychology from Chapman University. The Author began working for over thirty years in family counseling as a social worker and probation officer working with troubled teens and abused children. She is a speaker, spiritual mentor, and advisor.
Elizabeth is happily married and enjoys writing books for all her readers and fans worldwide. When the Author is not writing, she works out with a personal trainer to stay fit and healthy; she loves long walks on the beach with her husband and dog. She enjoys reading good books by some of her favorite authors like Geraldine Brooks, Hanh, Jerry Archer, Joseph Murphy, and Michael Connelly.
Elizabeth and her husband reside in Santa Barbara, California.
"CAT'S BOOK LIBRARY 4 READERS" 