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- The Blonde Who Came In From The Cold
- Written by Ally Carter
- ISBN: 978-0063386976
- Avon (August 5, 2025)
Entanglements Abound
Have you ever worked with a stubborn person? Were drawn to her? Dated him? Married her? Defied him? Walked out on her?
Or are you the stubborn one, determined to have your own way because you know you’re right and no one is going to get in your way? Conflicts, chemistry, rivalry and romance propel Ally Carter’s latest rom-com meets mystery, The Blonde Who Came In From the Cold.
From the title forward readers know this will be filled with spy tropes. Alex and King, who meet in a bar before Alex’s training, are thrown together in a case involving a ring; Russia, Italy, Columbia, Scotland, and Las Vegas; narrow escapes and a hot and cold, spicy romance. Each of them is keeping a secret which only enhances the entanglements and actions.
While the plot moves rapidly, this is really a story about falling in love with your arch enemy. High energy, a magnetic attraction, and high stakes propel this story of CIA espionage forward.
Author Ally Carter, who’s YA titles put her on the New York Times Best Seller list, is the author of several other books involving spies and attraction.
This dashing romantic comedy could be set in the sixties, the nineties, or present day. It’s an entertaining romp with spicy and just enough secrecy, guilt, and inherited wealth to keep readers turning pages. It’s an easy and engaging read. Ally Carter knows how to spin a tale that keeps readers guessing.
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- Flash Fiction: Alive in the Flicker
- Written by Pamelyn Casto
- ISBN #: 978-1737774242
- OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L)/Buttonhook Press (September 28, 2022)
A Wonderful Resource for All Writers
“To write, to really write, requires that you become a pyromaniac. You must ignite the writing fire within you to thaw the frozen prisoners held in your mind’s icy hinterland by the Ice Medusa.” ~~Pamelyn Casto
Does that quotation from p. 92 of Pamelyn Casto’s updated version of Flash Fiction: Alive in the Flicker sound complex? It’s not because Casto breaks the process of creating flash fiction into bite-size chunks. She starts with an OVERVIEW which is especially useful for students and anyone who’s curious but doesn’t want to do the research involved in finding and listing collections. Her next four sections ON CRAFT, ON READING, ON WRITING, and ON REVISION provide the reader with clear, accessible tools that can apply to many forms of writing. The next section ON MARKETING YOUR WORK includes a section titled “Flash Fiction Markets and Contests.” Whatever curiosities and skills you bring to this book, you’ll find something here that will enhance your knowledge. The author clearly knows what makes writing work.
Two especially useful sections for writers are titled EXERCISES and PROMPTS. They’re brimming with ideas that will stimulate your thoughts and creativity whether you’re working on flash or crafting fiction or a memoir. Some that appealed to me include “Prompts on Parts of a House,” “Prompts on School World,” “Prompts on Relationships,” and “Write in the Interrogative or Imperative Mood.” That’s just me. I truly believe there’s something for everyone in Casto’s Flash Fiction. Even if you write articles, book reviews, and other nonfiction, the book will give you some creative ways to organize your thoughts. Tap into this first-rate resource today.
Author Pamelyn Casto, twice a Pushcart Prize nominee, has published feature-length articles on flash fiction in Writer’s Digest (and in their other publications), in Fiction Southeast, in Writing World, in OPEN: Journal of Arts and Letters (and elsewhere). Her essay on flash fiction and myth appears in Rose Metal Press’s Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips From Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field and her 8,000-word essay on flash fiction is included in Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading (4 volumes).
Whether you’re a writer or a reader who wants to learn more about how literature is created, this book won’t disappoint.
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- The Trouble with Fairy Tales
- Written by Plum Johnson
- ISBN #: 978-0735250727
- Viking, September 30, 2025
Humor and Introspection
Remember the fairy tales you heard in your childhood? Cinderella? The Pied Piper? And maybe even Blackbeard? Plum Johnson compares her real experiences with men, expectations, and daily life as she tells her stories of relationships in The Trouble with Fairy Tales. Simply put, the trouble with fairy tales is that they create false expectations. How and why create rich material which Johnson explores with thought smattered with hope, outrage, and more.
In The Trouble with Fairy Tales, the narrator observes herself sacrificing her independence for what she believes is love. Like so many women she was brought up to believe that after a conflict is resolved the heroine lives happily ever after. But life isn’t linear. Before we can be fulfilled in a relationship with anyone else, we must be happy in our own life and proud of what we’re doing with it.
To her credit, when expectations fail, she reinvents herself, replacing failure with hope and she shares her struggles and joys in scene after scene. Although she’s from Canada and I’m from California, the same expectations surrounded both of us, maybe because we’re about the same age. As girls we wanted approval. In our twenties and beyond we rebelled. Mothers craved careers and career girls wanted to raise a family. We wanted to explore the lives of those who seemed happier than we were. Many women discovered that other people’s lives didn’t fit. Those who turned inward often came to terms with dissatisfying relationships. Plum Johnson is one who chose to walk away. She found her success in art and writing.
She draws readers in with the right combination of humor and introspection. When something doesn’t work, she analyzes the reasons, and if there’s nothing she can do to fix whatever is wrong, she moves on.
Plum Johnson is also the author of They Left Us Everything, nominated for the RBC Taylor Prize. In 1983, she established her own company, Kid’s Canada Publishing, which published pieces about parenting. Later she launched Help’s Here!, a similar resource publication for seniors and caregivers. She’s a skilled writer whose story is likely to keep you flipping pages, especially if you’re a woman looking for clarity in your life. Both humorous and resonant, The Trouble with Fairy Tales is an inspiring memoir that will create new hope in women of all ages.
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- The Stranger in Room Six
- Written by Jane Corry
- ISBN # 978-0385702621
- Doubleday Canada (October 7, 2025)
What We Don’t Recognize in the Moment
Lives evolve. Accidents, perspective, and what we don’t know feed into the idea that life is what happens while you’re making other plans. Never is this more true than in Jane Corry’s The Stranger in Room Six, an eerie story of revenge and redemption that will keep readers guessing.
After fifteen years in prison following Belinda’s wrongful conviction for her husband’s death/murder, she’s ready for her life to begin again, and determined to find her husband’s girlfriend, the one who witnessed his death at her hands.
There aren’t many jobs available for a woman with a criminal record, Belinda’s daughters aren’t about to take her in, and she finds herself working at Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart. The owner, Mabel, has spent her life here, first as an evacuee during the Blitz in World War II and now as the care home’s oldest resident. The house holds many secrets, and Mabel knows most of them, but dementia has reared its ugly head. Or is that a blessing in disguise?
Of course history won’t stay hidden forever—not with the stranger in room six watching, listening, and strongly motivated to share facts with her boss.
With high stakes, increasing tension, unimagined revelations, and characters making some incredibly bad choices, this is a quick, engaging read that will make readers appreciate their own stories. It’s well-told, progressively more intriguing, and will make you wonder where fiction writers come up with their great ideas and how they fit them together.
Jane Correy is a prize-winning author and journalist (Daily Telegraph and women’s magazines) who worked for three years as the writer in residence of a high security male prison. She’s the author of Sunday Times Penguin bestsellers My Husband’s Wife, Blood Sisters, The Dead Ex and many more books. Many of her ideas strike during morning dog-jogs along the beach followed by a dip in the sea – no matter how cold it is.
Correy combines history and a murder mystery like she’s putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Just when you think you have it figured out, more will be revealed. Learn more about her work and sign up for her newsletter at https://www.janecorryauthor.com
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- One of Them
- Kitty Zeldis
- ISBN #: 9780063352841
- Harper (September 2025)
Friendship, Betrayal, and Discovery
Imagine it’s 1947, the year my older sister was born, or 1967 when I was a freshman at Vassar college. The world was different in 1947 than in 1967—vastly different. While I don’t remember antisemitic pressure in 1967, I know it’s become a part of our national conversation today and with its rise, Kitty Zeldis’s One of Them is a timely book as well as a fascinating story of two women, each coming to terms with her identity and her needs. Her newest book is a story about friendship, betrayal, and finding ways to make things right as well as a mirror of post-World War II America –at least for some.
In her sophomore year at Vassar College, Anne Bishop is the quiet one in a group of popular and privileged WASP friends. She’s made her life smoother by calling herself Anne instead of Miriam. Why not? It’s her middle name. It’s not that she’s denying her Jewish heritage. It just never comes up. Besides, pretending to be a Gentile keeps the snide remarks and polite cold shoulders away. She ignores the casual anti-Semitism that flourishes among some of her friends and classmates thinking it doesn’t apply to her.
One day she becomes intrigued by Delia Goldhush, who’s confident, more stylish than the Americans who surround her, and proud of her Jewish heritage. At first they meet at a café off campus, and Anne starts to think of herself in a new way, until her old friends force her to betray Delia, with unexpected consequences. Can she take back the mistake? Can they be friends again? Will Anne become comfortable with her own heritage?
So many issues are explored in this novel as each woman follows her path to maturity, making discoveries and adjustments that will alter the course of their lives.
Kitty Zeldis is the pen name of a Brooklyn based author of nine novels, numerous essays, articles and works of short fiction as well as forty books for children. Her prolific writing has turned her into a marvelously effective storyteller with a unique perspective on her characters. Her depictions of names and places at Vassar College were exactly right, although the college has changed since I graduated in 1971. Even then it had changed since 1947.
This is a book for anyone who’s betrayed a friend, had a crisis of conscience, or reevaluated her choices in life.
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- The Breaks
- Written by Ellen Barker
- ISBN 13: 978-1647428402
- She Writes Press
True Story of Place; Fictitious Story of People
How independent are you? What might change that? For Marianne, the protagonist in Ellen Barker’s The Breaks, a move to a non-corporate job, followed by a broken arm on a first date make it challenging to live alone.
Her opinionated septuagenarian next door neighbor can be a busybody, intruding on her peace but she also keeps the dog while Marianne works. Her neighbor across the back fence, Sister Collette, has a whole different agenda and asks for help boldly, but she also gives assistance freely. Sister Collette, who lives in the house behind hers. Sister Collette asks for a favor: Can she pick up a newly released prisoner, Stephanie, and on the way back the sister asks her to keep the young woman overnight. When Marianne asks Sister Collette what she’s to do with Stephanie, she says, “Just live.” The women throughout the book are all in some kind of transition. Aren’t we all in some way? Sister Collette halfway house without allows recently released women to pick up life skills they missed growing up.
Stephanie does whatever she’s asked, whether it’s walking the dog, cooking a meal (with instructions at first) or opening up about her own needs and fears, and Marianne learns to accept and appreciate the help. As Stephanie comes out of her shell, she gives Marianne perspective about “just living,” a skill they’re both refining at different levels as the days pass.
Marianne’s feistiness and independence are reshaped, and she develops far more commitment to the needs of others than she had while employed in the corporate world.
After losing a home in California, Marianne returned to her old East of Troost home in Kansas City. The neighborhood changed because of white flight and became mostly black. (True story.) She introduces her characters by what they say and do, and color seems coincidental to both the author and the narrator.
The story is about women about forging communities, improve lives, and becoming stronger with each challenge the narrator and her co-workers and neighbors tackle.
Ellen Barker has written a contemporary, literary novel that celebrates women as well as the neighborhood she grew up in. The plot is created because of what each character wants. I found it beautifully written and filled with explorations and hope. The author has followed the maxim, “Write what you know,” but she’s also taken some creative leaps.
Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to break out of our comfort zone. Marianne finds real friendships with the new women in her life. This is a wonderful story for women. Enlightened men will enjoy it too.
This review originally appeared on StoryCircle.org
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- The Strawberry Patch Pancake House
- Publisher: Harper Collins – 361 pages
- Publication Date: March 13, 2025
- ISBN: 10. 0008713340
- Written by Laurie Gilmore and Reviewed by Karin Cooper
The Newness of Parenting
“Wonderful. Just what he needed. Nosy, small-town folks butting into his business,when all he wanted to do was sort things out with his kid and then head back to Paris, to his kitchen, to his real life.” Laurie Gilmore
World-renowned chef Archer tries to find the right ingredients for fatherhood when the death of a former lover reveals he has a 5-year-old daughter he never knew existed. Moving to a small town to be near Olive, he takes a job cooking in a local diner and attempts to unlock the secret to the town’s favorite pancake recipe.
Iris needs stability—as a free spirit and local yoga teacher, her lifestyle doesn’t provide steady income or affordable living. Archer needs a nanny for Olive. When Iris literally runs into the handsome new chef with a tray of kale smoothies, neither realizes this collision will solve both their problems. Someone suggests Iris for the nanny position, and despite having no childcare experience and uncertainty about whether she even likes children, she accepts—the job offers both income and housing. They’re both hoping this new living situation will work out for all three of them.
With patience and humor, Iris breaks through Olive’s resistance and fear about her father and her new life. Though Iris remains aware that everything is temporary—including any breach of nanny-employer protocol—she finds herself growing attached. Meanwhile, Archer slowly integrates into the rhythm of his own household.
Archer notices Iris’s natural beauty and uniqueness, but like her, he doesn’t want to breach the protocol. Yet he’s discovering that he needs Iris as much as Olive does.
Together they share the newness of parenting—both its joys and anxieties. Archer remains determined to discover the secret ingredient the town craves in their pancakes. Their relationship simmers during nightly testing sessions in the kitchen. When Olive is away at a sleepover one night, they finally give in to temptation. Neither wants to disrupt Olive’s life if a relationship doesn’t work out, even though each knows they love each other and cherish the family bond they’ve created. Iris leaves—but she leaves with a secret.
The Strawberry Patch Pancake House is the 4th in Laurie Gilmore’s Dream Harbor Series.
Returning to the quaint New England town full of quirky characters and unlikely romantic matches, regular followers will like this new coupling, and new readers will enjoy it as a read alone. Gilmore’s romantic story follows the making of a family, children and a single father for the first time.
Gilmore has a solid reputation behind her series and writing. Rated among the top Tik-tok romance novels and a New York Times best seller, “On the All About Romance sensuality scale, which ranges from Kisses to Hot (1 -5), this book is rated #4 as “Hot -explicit sensuality.” Although the sensual content is more focused rather than scattered throughout as in her other novels.
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Karen Cooper has reviewed frequently for Writer Advice. http://www.writeradvice.com. Karin Cooper writes for the website Travelingladies.net and works as an educational specialist copywriter. After retiring from 25 years of teaching college composition, she’s honored to be published by Writer’s Advice.
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- The Last Days of Kira Mullan
- Written by Nicci French
- ISBN #: 978-0063298378
- William Morrow Paperbacks (March 2025
Gaslighting or Lingering Insanity?
Has anyone ever doubted your sanity or convinced you that you were crazy? If not, and I hope that’s the case, can you imagine what that kind of treatment might do to you, especially if you were dependent on the perpetrator? This is the case for Nancy North, who lost a restaurant, had a breakdown, and is treated as a woman too fragile to cope although the doctors have declard that she’s healthy again. Why would a man treat his partner this way? You’ll find theories and answers in Nicci French’s The Last Days of Kira Mullan.
Kira Mullan was found hanging in her apartment with a stool kicked to the side. Obviously, she killed herself. Ask any of the neighbors except Nancy North, a new tenant who suspects that healthy, happy Kira is the victim of foul play.
Why did her partner, Felix, force her to move as soon as she was released from the hospital? Are the neighbors in the basement as sleazy as they seem or is Nancy imagining things? And why aren’t women respected and treated as equals? That question is going to grab a lot of readers who’ll want to do everything in their power to help Nancy prove that she’s not crazy, she’s not the murderer, and there’s a murderer lurking nearby.
The story has an intriguing plot, complicated characters a sympathetic narrator facing a huge obstacle, and a detective with a streak of independence. It will keep readers glued to the book chapter after chapter.
Nicci French is the pseudonym of English husband-and-wife team Nicci Gerrard (born 10 June 1958) and Sean French (born 28 May 1959), who write psychological thrillers together.
This is a book for those intrigued by probability, nagging doubts and thinking outside the box.
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