A FATAL RECEPTION: Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her Duke are at long last headed for the altar…but they’ll have to handle a murder, a shipwreck, a questionable Polish prince, and any number of other complications on the way. Continuing the highly-praised series featuring a Lower East Side orphan who found fame and fortune as a singer of male soprano roles, the latest installment follows Ella and her surprisingly diverse cast of family and friends through mystery and misadventure…and into the greatest challenge of all for an independent-minded woman and her Victorian swain: matrimony!

Preorder:  A Fatal Reception: An Ella Shane Mystery – Kindle edition by Kalb, Kathleen Marple. Romance Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Kathleen Marple Kalb describes herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she writes short stories and novels including A Fatal Reception and the Old Stuff series, both from Level Best Books. As Nikki Knight, she writes the Grace the Hit Mom and Vermont Radio mysteries. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and others, and been short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. She’s currently the Vice President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and a co-VP of the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat.

Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleen-Marple-Kalb-1082949845220373/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KalbMarple

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenmarplekalb/

Threads: @kathleenmarplekalb

Bluesky: @mysterymarple.bsky.social   

Birthdays: Antonio Frasconi (1919), Harper Lee (1926), Lois Duncan (1934), Diane Johnson (1934), Alice Waters (1944), Kit Williams (1946), Christian Jacq (1947), Terry Pratchett (1948), Carolyn Forché (1950), Amy Hest (1950), Roberto Bolano (1953), Ian Rankin (1960)

Antonio Frasconi won Caldecott Honors for his artwork.

Harper Lee won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Literature for her book “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Quote: “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” – Terry Pratchett

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Tip: If you’re writing a series, set up a consistency spreadsheet with character names, attributes, cars, house, etc., settings, anything that you might need to keep straight. Do this with your first book and all following ones so you know who’s who and what’s what.

Jumpstart: Today is your character’s birthday. What’s the best gift they’ve gotten? The worst? From whom? Why was it the best or worst?

HEAD OVER HEELS by Andrew Grey

Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Gay, Novella (90 pages)

4****

Blurb: It took a family loss to draw artist Leddy Finster away from his retreat in the woods of rural Wisconsin back to the family home in Carlisle. Originally intending to help clean out his father’s condo and return to the peace and quiet his work requires, he doesn’t expect old feelings for his brother’s best friend to bloom again after all this time. Nor could he ever have expected his father’s obsession with shoes… lots of shoes. Professional hockey player Johan Weiss spends his summers in Carlisle, where he grew up. As a favor, he agrees to help Leddy clean out his father’s condo and get it ready to be sold. Working together, they list the hundreds of pairs of shoes for sale, getting reacquainted while their mutual teenage crushes renew into full-on attraction that they each try to resist. Johan’s life is busy between his home in Carlisle and his place in Philadelphia with the hockey team, while Leddy believes he needs quiet and solitude to work at his best. Their needs seem incompatible with each other, but Johan demonstrates that he’s able to make room for Leddy as well as provide inspiration Leddy never expected. All Leddy has to do is decide if home is the woods or where his heart is.

Thoughts: This was a standard Andrew Grey gay romance. It’s a short, quick read that will entertain. Leddy is an artist who has secluded himself in a cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. He’s comfortable there. Safe from the noise of the world. Then the worst happens, and his father dies, and he’s forced to go back home where he not only has to deal with grief, but his brother’s jealousy. His brother’s best friend, Johan (a professional hockey player in Philly), comes to his rescue. The men discover they’ve had crushes on each other for years, but Leddy isn’t sure he can handle being back in a city, or even a town. The two have a lot to deal with including their increased attraction while dealing with the death of Leddy’s father and all that entails. But there is a HEA that satisfies.

Recommended for those looking for a short, somewhat hot, M/M romance.

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Birthdays: Anthony Trollope (1815), Carl Spitteler (1845), Elizabeth Goudge (1900), Robert Penn Warren (1905), George Oppen (1908), William Goyen (1915), Doris Burn (1923), Clement Freud (1924), Shirley MacLaine (1934), Brian Garfield (1929), Sue Grafton (1940), David Morrell (1943), Karan Mahajan (1984)

Carl Spitteler is a Swiss poet who won the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Robert Penn Warren won Pulitzers in both literature and poetry.

George Oppen won the 1969 Pulitzer for Poetry

Quote: “As much as I like it when a book I’m writing speeds along, the downside can be that an author becomes too eager to finish and rushes the end. The end is even more important than the first page, and rushing can damage it.” – David Morrell

Tip: Try not to use colons, semicolons, or parentheses in fiction writing. They clutter things up, especially in ebooks. Stick with the basics of periods, commas, question marks, etc.

Jumpstart: You are at a family reunion. Your great-aunt Bertie pulls you aside and whispers in your ear. What she says is so shocking, you can barely handle the news and you have to pretend like nothing happened so others don’t get curious. What did she say to you? Why did she tell you?

NOT THAT KIND OF CALL GIRL by Nova Garcia

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Latino

4****

Blurb: JULIA NAVARRO, a plucky newspaper call center manager, juggles like a pro—not tennis balls but quirky employees, cranky customers, and a sleazy boss. Pregnant and short on time to complete her “get ready for baby checklist,” Julia rushes to fill a job vacancy by hiring Carmen Cooper, a shy, inexperienced college student. When Julia finds out Carmen never made it to work, she and a newsroom pal go undercover to find out why. Their shocking discovery leads them to cook up a half-baked plan to save Carmen from a Hollywood legend turned hermit, a man she calls “Papa.” Will the gamble pay off or pave a path to disaster?

Thoughts: This was an engaging story with a mix of mystery/suspense and humor that melded well. The main character, Julia, has to find employees to hire for the call center of the newspaper where she works. Her boss is someone I wanted to slap, and then call out for what he does to her. While I understand the author’s reasoning for the character not to go to HR, it still made me cringe. But things like this do happen, even today. I loved that Julia was a list-maker. And that part of Carmen’s story is told through her diary. And how having a baby is not easy – before, during, and after. I liked that Julia and her best friend, Jerry, go on a hunt for the truth about Carmen and her life.

The story includes issues about abuse and intimidation as well as human marketing which can be a trigger for some. But these are also things that happen in our world which makes the story realistic and current.

Recommendation: Recommended

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Birthdays: Henry Fielding (1707), Immanuel Kant (1724), Germaine de Stael (1817), Ellen Glasgow (1874), James Norman Hall (1887), Kurt Wiese (1887), Vladimir Nabokov (1899), Paula Fox (1923), Janet Evanovich (1943), Louise Gluck (1943), John Waters (1946), Paul Davies (1946), Wendy Mass (1967), Eileen Christelow (1943), Andrew Hudgins (1951), Chuck Wendig (1976), Marie Phillips (1976),

Kurt Wiese won the Newbery Award for “Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze”

Paula Fox won the 1974 Newbery Award for “The Slave Dancer”

Louise Gluck was the US Poet Laureat from 2003-2004 and won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Quote: “One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.” ― Immanuel Kant

“Stories need conflict across the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual spectra. Accidents, betrayals, cataclysm, desperation, excess – these are the letters in the alphabet of conflict.” – Chuck Wendig

Tip: Use of I, me, myself: Most people know to say the other person’s name first when it happens at the beginning of a sentence along with “I” (Mark and I saw the CEO), but when it happens in the middle or end, they get confused. (The CEO met with Mark and me). In this case, you can figure it out if you take Mark out of the picture. You wouldn’t say: The CEO met with I. “Me” is needed.” As for “myself” use it only if saying “I” or “me” doesn’t work: I kept the secret to myself.

Jumpstart: You come home late at night after a long, tiring weekend at a conference. All you want is a hot shower, decent food, and your own bed. You pull into your garage and go into the kitchen—to find lights blazing, cameras rolling, and strangers smiling at you. Your friends got together and had your house “remade” for you. It is totally NOT your style. What do you do?

Birthdays: Charlotte Brontë (1816), Alistair MacLean (1922), Elaine May (1932), James Dobson (1936), Helene Prejean (1939), Thomas McMahon (1943), Kole Omotoso (1943), Patrick Rambaud (1946), Barbara Park (1947), Jeannette Walls (1960)

Helen Prejean was a Roman Catholic sister who wrote “Dead Man Walking”

Quote: “I am not a novelist, I’m a storyteller.” – Alistair MacLean

Tip: When punctuating dialogue, remember to use a comma or question mark (or exclamation point) with a verbalized tag and lower case the word following if it’s not a proper noun. Use a period and upper case with non-verbal tags: “I can’t do that,” she said. “Can I do that?” she asked. “No, you can’t.” He shook his head.

Jumpstart: You’re in a museum, browsing around ancient artifacts. Someone pushes you and you stumble, breaking a case and an ancient sealed vase. A strange vapor escapes. What happens next?

Birthdays: Edward L. Beach Jr. (1918), Peter S. Beagle (1939), Ian Wilson (1943), Philip Margolin (1944), Mary Hoffman (1945), Sebastian Faulks (1953), Robert Crais (1953), John van de Ruit (1975), Rebecca Makkai (1978),

Edward Beach Jr. was an American submarine officer known for his novel “Run Silent, Run Deep”

Peter Beagle was known for his book “The Last Unicorn” adapted into an animated film.

Quote: “I run the writing as a business, with one overworked and overstretched employee – me! But she has a very understanding boss so that if I as worker ask me as employer for a day off the answer is always yes.” – Mary Hoffman

Tip: “That” is often a throw away word. If you can read your sentence without “that” and the sentence makes sense, you can probably delete “that”.

Jumpstart: You’ve found an unlocked cell phone on the sidewalk. While checking for an owner, you look at the contacts list and find your own name and number. But there’s no one else on the list you recognize, and you’ve never seen this number before. Who owns the phone and why do they have your name and number?