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Kathleen’s Year In Books

Kathleen’s 2025 Year in Books

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Kathleen Mary O'Brien

Goodreads Author

Born

in Milwaukee, The United States

January 20

Genre

Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Member Since

August 2017

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"What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers." ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "All Trivia," Afterthoughts, 1931

Stories have whispered in my soul since I was a child, it just took me a very long time to bring them into the world. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the baby boom era. After that, I led a nomad like existence when my family moved from town to town, state to state—thirteen times in my first eighteen years. Needless to say, I was shy, and constantly searched for a place where I felt grounded. To find that ‘safe place’ I often withdrew into books.

Sometime in my pre-teenage years, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I remember the moment, just not the age. I had tucked myself in the corner of the room, on my b "What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers." ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "All Trivia," Afterthoughts, 1931

Stories have whispered in my soul since I was a child, it just took me a very long time to bring them into the world. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the baby boom era. After that, I led a nomad like existence when my family moved from town to town, state to state—thirteen times in my first eighteen years. Needless to say, I was shy, and constantly searched for a place where I felt grounded. To find that ‘safe place’ I often withdrew into books.

Sometime in my pre-teenage years, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I remember the moment, just not the age. I had tucked myself in the corner of the room, on my bed with my nose pressed into a book. My existence at that moment had traveled far from my reality. I was either an apprentice to Nancy Drew or planning on how to keep Old Yeller alive. I do know at that moment, I looked up at my younger sister who’d been talking to me and said “I’m going to write books.”

From then on, I stole moments to write down my thoughts, visions, and those whispers. I wrote stories for fun in Junior High and High School, but it wasn’t until far into adulthood that I tried to make sense of twenty years of rambling, musing, reflecting.

Eventually some of those whispers made it into a published novel, so now I am a novelist. Go figure. Also, I’m a columnist, freelancer and write short stories. I’m past president and founder of the Peninsula Writers’ Association and past director and creator of the Gig Harbor Writers’ Conference.

Studying my craft has always been paramount to me, whether in critique groups, reading books on writing or attending workshops. Over the years, I’ve been to a few including the prestigious Napa Valley Writers’ Conference where I attended Ron Carlson’s workshop; at Centrum I worked with Bret Lott. In addition, I applied for and was granted a residency at Jacquelyn Mitchard’s One Writers’ Place. There in nine days of solitude I let the whispers flow and a few months later, I finished. A Light in the Heart. In 2018 I started a series of romance novels set in magical places around the world. In October 2018, I released the first in the series World of Love with the novel set in France--Where We've Been and in 2022 with the release of The Moment We Shared set in Barcelona.

I live on an island in the Pacific Northwest Washington with my two dogs. ...more

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Kathleen Mary O'Brien’s books

Average rating: 4.5 · 18 ratings · 7 reviews · 2 distinct works

	Where We've Been (World of Love, Book 1) 4.45 avg rating — 11 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Light in the Heart 4.57 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Kathleen is Currently Reading

Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading

Where the Sea Lavender Grows

by Kitty Johnson (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 09, 2026 10:06PM

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The White Lady

by Jacqueline Winspear (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 02, 2026 11:15PM

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Theo of Golden

by Allen Levi (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 05, 2026 08:35AM

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Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading Where the Sea Lavender Grows by Kitty Johnson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 09, 2026 10:06PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Where the Sea Lavender Grows by Kitty Johnson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Where the Sea Lavender Grows by Kitty Johnson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 02, 2026 11:15PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 05, 2026 08:35AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Theo of Golden by Allen Levi <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 02, 2026 08:33AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Kathleen O'Brien rated a book really liked it My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Kathleen O'Brien rated a book really liked it Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading The Antidote by Karen Russell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Kathleen O'Brien is currently reading The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee in Readers' Favorite Nonfiction	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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