Happy January, readers! I hope you had a blessed Christmas!

What’s in this Edition:

• Meet the Author – Get to know Kelsey Gietl
• The Results are In! – Learn how you’re making my books better
• Writing Update – The latest on Astonished
• Recent Reads I Recommend – My favorite reads from last month.
• A Little Non-Bookish Delight – My beautiful new Last Supper painting

Get to know Kelsey Gietl

Happy New Year! There were many new subscribers in 2025 (welcome again!), so it’s time to do another “Meet the Author.” Here are just a few facts about me. What else would you like to know?

The Results are In!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2025 Reader Preferences Survey! With so many options available to readers, it’s important to pinpoint what brings you back to my individual stories and newsletter time and again. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Here are the highlights:

General Information:

• Top reasons for choosing a book – being recommended by a friend, an intriguing description and/or title, eye-catching cover art, no explicit sexual content, minimal profanity, and including Christian themes. Surprisingly, price was one of the least considered factors.
• Top Read Genres – Historical Fiction/Historical Romance, Contemporary Romance, and Mystery/Suspense.
• Most readers (73.9%) prefer series novels to standalone with 43.5% preferring a connected series (all books read in order).
• 57% of readers prefer reading physical books over ebooks.
• Top book-specific sites – Goodreads (70%), BookBub, JustRead Tours, and NetGalley.

Pricing:

• Readers’ preferred price points remain at $14.99 for paperbacks and $4.99 for ebooks.
• Over 70% of readers are not part of an ebook subscription plan. 26% use Kindle Unlimited.
• Most readers (82.6%) have not purchased a book from my online store. Most of you said you would like to support authors directly, but ultimately choose sites with free shipping. (I completely understand this. I wish I could offer free shipping without raising product cost.)
• Related to the possibility of a book box offering, interest was pretty evenly split. I’m going to give this more thought.

Email Newsletter:

• Almost all of you (98%) continue to prefer the current frequency of 2x per month at the current length.
• Top 5 Topics Read – Get to Know the Author, Sales/Giveaways, Background of my Books, Writing Updates, and Recommendations.
• Most of you (78%) preferred to know what I’m personally reading over any other kind of recommendation. 90% combined were also interested in monthly new releases and author interviews/giveaways. Going forward, my personal recommendations will be in the main newsletter with other authors’ new releases in the Extra Edition newsletter. Interviews/giveaways will be intermittent.

While the survey timeframe has ended, feedback is always appreciated. Please send any questions or comments as a reply to this email or via my contact page.

Writing Update

Good news! I’m about halfway done drafting Astonished and have made good progress on the remaining half. These characters are taking me for a wild ride, but don’t they always? Speaking of demanding characters, the book I’m planning for after Astonished also barged its way in and demanded some of my time. I’ve got a decent start on an outline with one of Astonished‘s side characters returning as the lead.

For those of you who have read my Over the Atlantic and/or War Across Waters series, I hope you’ll be pleased with the character cameo scene I just finished writing for Astonished. I was really happy to have an excuse to bring back one of my favorite British journalists. Any guesses who it is?

New to the newsletter? Learn more about Astonished.

Recent Reads I Recommend

Need another book for your TBR? Of course you do. Here are the books I’ve recently read and loved. (Note: I receive no compensation for featuring the books below.)

“Death is not a period – it’s a comma. A breath, a waiting, a symbol of more to come. God’s work continues.” Christy-Award-finalist The Way Back by Heidi Chiavoroli is a dual-timeline story deep in complicated family dynamics, overcoming trauma and grief, and discovering the power of forgiveness and moving forward…all with God’s help. These characters were richly portrayed and deeply relatable. We may not all have experienced exactly what they did, but their emotions are universal to the human experience. Just like death, what we go through in life only stops us from living if we leave God out of the equation. With Him, all of life’s challenges are just commas, not the end of the sentence. This was my first Heidi Chiavoroli book and won’t be the last.

While I’ve read and enjoyed all of Hannah Hood Lucero’s books, Battle Charged was my favorite to date. Set in Colorado, there are many twists and turns to this military romantic suspense with the constant question of which characters can be trusted. In the author’s notes, Hannah says this book was the hardest for her to connect with, but to me, it reads with a lot of vulnerability and heart. Plus, it’s a standalone so it makes the perfect book to start with if you’re new to Hannah’s work.

(Note: While I was paid to design the cover for this book, I was not required to leave a positive review or feature in any way.)

Did you know reviews help both readers and authors? Even one sentence is enough, and every word greatly appreciated. Consider leaving a rating on Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and/or your favorite retailer!

Want to know what I’m reading as I’m reading it? Follow me on GoodReads.

A Little Non-Bookish Delight

Last but not least, here’s something non-bookish that I’m loving. Last week, my family added curtains to our kitchen transom window which left the wall beneath feeling too bare. Cue a trip to Hobby Lobby. My daughter and I found a beautiful painting of the Last Supper that fits the space perfectly, although the photo doesn’t do the colors justice. What I like most is that it breaks from the usual mold of DaVinci’s Last Supper while still remaining reverent. This now hangs right behind our kitchen table, a constant reminder of the meal we share in the Eucharist at Mass.

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Until next month, happy reading!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Kelsey

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