Tag Archives: Kathy Manos Penn

Top 10 Tuesday — Books That Made Me Google!

5 Mar

I confess that I use “the Google” when reading. Mostly it occurs when I read historical novels, but it can strike at any time if there is something I just have to know or see. In the past few months I have looked up recipes for food that was mentioned in a book, dresses by a a famous dress designer, buildings/landmarks that books are set in and around, and characters that lived in real life. Sometimes I can stray down rabbit trails, but I eventually return to the book until another Google-fancy hits me. This week I am featuring the last 10 books that caused me to Google. I hope one piques your interest.

For more Google-inspired lists, check out That Artsy Reader Girl.

These Books Made Me Google!

By Her Own Design by Piper Hugely (Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown)

Hope Beyond The Waves by Heidi Chiavaroli (treatment of leprosy)

The Juliet Code by Pepper Basham (sites in Venice, Italy)

A Lady’s Guide to Marvels And Misadventure by Angela Bell (food specialities of Amsterdam and Prague)

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (Grasse, France)

Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley (Marie-Louise Christophe)

The Rhythm of Fractured Grace by Amanda Wen (people who survived scalping)

A Shadow in Moscow by Katherine Reay (American’s who spied for the USSR)

The Warsaw Sisters by Amanda Barratt (pictures from the Warsaw Ghetto in WWII)

Whiskers, Wreaths, And Murder by Kathy Manos Penn (sites in the Cotswolds, UK)

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Top 10 Tuesday — New-To-Me Authors From 2023

30 Jan

Happy Tuesday! Whew! The inaugural Turning A New Page Book Festival is officially in the books 😉 . If comments from readers and authors alike can be trusted (and they can) it was a roaring success! Over 40 authors shared their books and writing journeys with 200+ attendees. The board members are all pooped, but eager to get on with the planning for 2025!

Today’s TTT topic is new-to-me authors in 2023. My list today features the writers I discovered while working on the book festival planning. I hope you find a new author to increase your TBR!

For more great new books and authors, check out That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top New-To-Me Authors in 2023

Valerie Burns — Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder

Brandy Heineman — Whispers in The Branches

Jennifer Q. Hunt — Through Thorny Ways

Rhonda McKnight — Something About Home

Kathy Manos Penn — Bells, Tails, And Murder

Randy Pierce — Missy

William Rawlings — Crypto

Vanessa Riley — Queen of Exiles

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If You Liked . . . Better Watch Out

30 Dec

I loved this month’s book club pick, Better Watch Out by Natalie Walters! It had all the things I could want in a Christmas-y romantic suspense — action and danger, sizzling romance, and all things Christmas. The NYC setting brought back great memories of a trip my husband and I took one December. Plus it added to my bucket list (IYKYK).

If you are a fan of Christmas cheer, mystery/suspense, and/or sweet romance, here’s some more reading recommendations:

Last to Know by Brandy Heineman

All she wants for Christmas . . . is an end to this terrible year.

Silver bells are ringing, but family drama and flaky finances have Nadine Notaro wrung out. The only bright spots this holiday season are her job at the Blissford Historical Society and her cheery, dependable co-worker, Chase Garren—until the City Council cuts their funding. The lost income will be bad enough, but what about Chase? Though quick to remind everyone they’re just friends, she can’t stomach losing him, too.

While packing up the Society’s record collections, Chase and Nadine discover a journalist’s cache of negatives pointing to a decades-old scandal and cover-up. Entanglements with the City’s biggest power players pull their strings, but every clue brings them closer to the truth—and each other—until Nadine finds evidence of a betrayal she never thought possible.

Casting light on the lies may ruin Christmas and their friendship, but it stands to cost them much more.

The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham

Will the magic of Christmas bring these two newlyweds closer together, or will the ghosts of the past lead them into a destructive discovery from which not even a Dickens’s Christmas can save them?

Mistletoe is beautiful and dangerous, much like the woman from Lord Frederick’s Percy’s past, so when he turns over a new leaf and arranges to marry for his estate, instead of his heart, he never expects the wrong bride to be the right choice. Gracelynn Ferguson never expected to take her elder sister’s place as a Christmas bride, but when she’s thrust into the choice, she will trust in her faithful novels and overactive imagination to help her not only win Frederick’s heart but also to solve the murder mystery of Havensbrook Hall before the ghosts from Frederick’s past ruin her fairytale future. 

Whiskers, Wreaths, And Murder by Kathy Manos Penn

If it were up to her, they’d be singing carols and baking cookies. Instead, they’re stockings-deep in a murder investigation…

Leta Parker is looking forward to her first holiday season in the Cotswolds. Prepping for the town’s tree-lighting ceremony, the village is enraged when the new American earl announces plans to develop his family’s estate into a resort. And when the brash successor is found dead in a ditch, it’s obvious this car crash was no accident.

Determined to unwrap the truth behind the tragedy, Leta enlists the help of the Little Old Ladies Detective Agency and her talking dog and cat. But with everyone in the charming hamlet a suspect, it’ll be tough to discover who’s not on Father Christmas’s naughty list.

Will Leta and friends deliver the gift of justice?

Whiskers, Wreaths & Murder is the third book in the delightful Dickens & Christie cozy mystery series. If you like clever senior women, deep friendships, and animals of the talking variety, then you’ll love Kathy Manos Penn’s yuletide whodunit

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Mini-Book Review — Whiskers, Wreaths, and Murder

13 Dec

Head to the Cotswolds this Christmas in Kathy Manos Penn’s cozy mystery, Whiskers, Wreaths, and Murder. The Christmas season is in full swing in the English countryside, despite the recent death of the Earl. His heir, an American with unpopular ideas for the manor house and estate, is killed in a suspicious car accident. Leta, a recent transplant from Atlanta, is on the case with other members of the Little Old Ladies (LOL) Detective Agency. I found this cozy mystery charming. With a wonderful eye to detail and the addition of cute cats and dogs (who Leta can communicate with, and prove to be invaluable to solving the crime), this book was the perfect addition to my Christmas reading. I found the characters entertaining and the mystery intriguing. And it was a quick read, perfect for the busy holidays. This book is the 3rd in the series, but I didn’t feel lost at any time. I look forward to more fun reading with the 10-book Christie and Dickens Mystery series.

Recommended.

Audience: Adults.

(I purchased this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

If it were up to her, they’d be singing carols and baking cookies. Instead, they’re stockings-deep in a murder investigation…

Leta Parker is looking forward to her first holiday season in the Cotswolds. Prepping for the town’s tree-lighting ceremony, the village is enraged when the new American earl announces plans to develop his family’s estate into a resort. And when the brash successor is found dead in a ditch, it’s obvious this car crash was no accident.

Determined to unwrap the truth behind the tragedy, Leta enlists the help of the Little Old Ladies Detective Agency and her talking dog and cat. But with everyone in the charming hamlet a suspect, it’ll be tough to discover who’s not on Father Christmas’s naughty list.

Will Leta and friends deliver the gift of justice?

Whiskers, Wreaths & Murder is the third book in the delightful Dickens & Christie cozy mystery series. If you like clever senior women, deep friendships, and animals of the talking variety, then you’ll love Kathy Manos Penn’s yuletide whodunit.

Kathy Manos Penn lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia with her husband and her four-legged office assistants. When she dreamed of retiring from corporate America, she envisioned indulging in her favorite pastimes—reading, traveling, and writing columns for her local paper. Taking her bucket list trip to England was a top priority.

A second career as an author was never part of the plan—until someone uttered the fateful words, “You should write a cozy mystery.”

Nine books later, readers can’t get enough of the Dickens & Christie mystery series. Kathy adheres to the adage to write what you know and populates her mysteries with well-read, witty senior women, a loyal dog, and a sassy cat.

Her two four-legged office assistants inspire the personalities of Dickens & Christie. Why is Dickens a fiend for belly rubs? Because Kathy’s real-life dog is. The same goes for Christie’s finicky eating habits and penchant for lolling on top of the desk or in the file drawer. She gets it from the calico cat who rules the roost.

How does Kathy describe her life? “I’m living a dream I never knew I had.”

Book I in the series, Bells, Tails & Murder, won a 2020 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award, and Pets, Pens & Murder, Book VII, garnered a 2023 Georgia Author of the Year nomination.

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Holiday Reading List

24 Nov

Are you a Black Friday shopper? Me, not so much. I prefer to snuggle in with a holiday-themed book from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. My list this year is filled with the authors who will be attending the Turning A New Page Book Festival in Perry, Georgia. Most are novella-length and perfect for reading between shopping, baking, parties, school and church events — you know you need a break! The list covers a variety of genres — romance, historical, suspense, mystery — so there should be something for you! Note: many are available through Kindle Unlimited. Look for KU after the author’s name.

Holiday Reading List

Candy Canes, Canines, And Crimes by Kathy Manos Penn (KU)

Destination Christmas by Pam Hillman (KU)

Last to Know by Brandy Heineman (KU)

Magnolia Mistletoe by Lindsey Brackett (KU)

One Winter Kiss by Lindi Peterson (KU)

Prevail by Linda Rodante (KU)

Snowbound with The Rodeo Star by Tanya Agler

The Unbroken Song by Jennifer Q. Hunt (KU)

You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Toni Shiloh

Whiskers, Wreaths, and Murder by Kathy Manos Penn (KU)

The Winter Reunion by Rhonda McKnight

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Author, Author — Kathy Manos Penn

4 Sep

Dogs, cats, and mystery, oh my! I love a cozy mystery. There is just something about quaint locales, quirky characters, and a smart whodunit that keeps me turning the pages. Kathy Manos Penn is the author of the multi-volume Dickens & Christie Mystery series set in England. Penn has written 10 books featuring widowed Leta Parker who leaves her corporate life in Atlanta to live out her dream of living in a small village in the Cotswolds.

My small town book festival, Turning A New Page, is delighted to welcome Penn in January 2024 as a panelist on our Coffee, Tea, And Mystery panel discussion. Find out all about her and the first installment of the series — Bells, Tails & Murder — below.

She crossed an ocean to start her life over. Can she nab a killer before her quaint village becomes a graveyard?

Recently widowed Leta Parker desperately needs a change of scenery. Pursuing her lifelong dream of retiring to the Cotswolds, she leaves her soulless corporate hustle in Atlanta and moves to England with her talking dog and cat companions—Dickens and Christie. But she’s barely begun making new friends when she stumbles across her housekeeper’s body …

With several villagers pegged for the crime, Leta teams up with a retired English teacher and her sharp-as-a-tack octogenarian mother to track the killer before the trail goes cold. As the not-so-friendly local policewoman elbows them out and scandalous rumors plague the tight-knit community, it’s left to the ladies and their pets to sleuth for the truth.

Can Leta, Dickens, and Christie sniff out the culprit before the cute little town loses more than its charm?

Bells, Tails & Murder is the delightful first book in the Dickens & Christie cozy mystery series. If you like spunky literary women, amusing animal sidekicks, and inviting cultural backdrops, then you’ll love Kathy Manos Penn’s engaging page-turner.

Other Books In The Series

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Kathy Manos Penn lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia with her husband and her four-legged office assistants. When she dreamed of retiring from corporate America, she envisioned indulging in her favorite pastimes—reading, traveling, and writing columns for her local paper. Taking her bucket list trip to England was a top priority.

A second career as an author was never part of the plan—until someone uttered the fateful words, “You should write a cozy mystery.”

Nine books later, readers can’t get enough of the Dickens & Christie mystery series. Kathy adheres to the adage to write what you know and populates her mysteries with well-read, witty senior women, a loyal dog, and a sassy cat.

Her two four-legged office assistants inspire the personalities of Dickens & Christie. Why is Dickens a fiend for belly rubs? Because Kathy’s real-life dog is. The same goes for Christie’s finicky eating habits and penchant for lolling on top of the desk or in the file drawer. She gets it from the calico cat who rules the roost.

How does Kathy describe her life? “I’m living a dream I never knew I had.”

Book I in the series, Bells, Tails & Murder, won a 2020 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award, and Pets, Pens & Murder, Book VII, garnered a 2023 Georgia Author of the Year nomination.

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