Party Planning Can Be Murder: A Party Planner Mystery (Party Planner Mysteries Book 1) by Kerry Schafer, Kerry Anne King 
Series: A Party Planner Mystery #1
Published by Self Published on March 11th 2025
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 353
Format: eBook
Source: Author
I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Wish List: pick up my pills from the pharmacy, plan my party, be there when I die…
Despite a few harrowing incidents with nervy Bridezillas, Addy Winters’ small town party planning business has been murder free – until now. But then, she’s never before been hired to throw a star-studded after-death party for a client who has their death scheduled on their calendar.
When Leno Masterson—former classmate, now legendary rocker with a flair for drama—turns up dead four days earlier than he’d planned, Addy suspects that someone helped him along. Sure, he left a melodramatic goodbye letter and his right-to-die paperwork is all in order, but even when the coroner rules natural causes, Addy isn’t buying it.
Addy’s family and friends – and Leno’s smolderingly hot brother Owen – warn her that she’s diving in over her head, and they’re right. She’s woefully unprepared for either the media onslaught or the secrets the people she thought she knew are hiding. But nothing is going to stop her from getting justice for Leno – and throwing a killer party while she’s at it.
If you love your mysteries with humor, heart, and a side of romance, this is your next must-read. Perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan and The Thursday Murder Club!
I love this cast of misfit characters solving crimes.
Thirty-one year old Addison Winters is the go-to party planner in Fox Valley. Okay, she is pretty much the only party planner in this tiny town of Fox Valley which almost explains why big time musician Leno Masterson of Leno and the Lonely contacts Addy when he wants to plan a party. I mean, he hasn’t spoken to Addy since he started his band back in High School, even if they were friends since Middle School, but whatever.
Leno overheard Addy stand up to her family at her grandmother’s funeral and stating that Geneva wanted a big party at the park celebrating life, not a somber affair at a funeral home. Leno has returned to Fox Valley because he is dying of cancer and he has petitioned the court under the dying with dignity laws to end his life on his own terms. Now, he wants Addy to plan a huge black-tie, Hollywood-type blow out celebration after he dies to celebrate his rockstar life. He wants everyone discussing his life and his success and not to focus on the wreck his body has become due to the cancer. …And if she wouldn’t mind picking up his prescription and staying with him when he takes the drugs prescribed by the doctor so he won’t die alone, that would be great too.
Addy refuses to be manipulated by Leno and tells him flat out that she isn’t interested in his crazy party no matter how much money he tosses at her and she won’t be helping with his end of life plans. Leno wants to meet up again the next day, in another attempt to talk her into his party planning, soft-hearted Addy agrees to at least hear him out.
But when Addy hears that Leno has died, she decides she wants to give him this last wish. But Addy also realizes that there are too many questions surrounding Leno’s death: such as the fact that they were supposed to meet that morning for coffee, and he kept asking her to pick up his prescription from the pharmacy…which she didn’t want to do…so if he didn’t pick up his pills, why is everyone saying Leno committed suicide? Obviously Addy wasn’t with Leno, so who called in the 911 call? And why didn’t they stick around?
Addy is not only determined to give Leno the big rockstar send off he wanted so badly, but Addy is also determined to figure out who “helped” Leno before his planned termination date and was it suicide or murder?
THOUGHTS:
What a fun group! Addison “Addy” Winters is our main character and tries to solve this mystery with the help of her twin brother, Vic, and her long time BFF Britt. In this story, she was also working with Leno’s brother Owen (although we weren’t certain if he was involved or not).
I imagine it is hard to commit murder in this tiny town of Fox Valley since everyone knows everyone but it also allows Addy to do what she does best and ask nosy questions and no one questions it because everyone knows Addy.
As this was the first story of the series, there was a lot of time setting up the characters and the relationships, such as her estranged Dad and an awkward relationship with her mom, as well as being introduced to the town. Things should definitely pick up with the next story. I think this series will be a lot of fun.
Favorite Scene:
Bridezilla gets her revenge…
“Her hair is so fine,” Margie says. “Something short and layered, maybe, for more body.”
“Short doesn’t work on me,” I protest. “The curls go crazy. I end up with a carrot-colored afro sort of thing.”
“Good to know,” Lisa says, with a dangerous edge to her voice. The comb catches viciously on a tangle. When I gasp, she smiles at me in the mirror and says, too brightly, “I forgot the detangler, didn’t I?”
But she doesn’t reach for the detangler; she just continues raking that comb ruthlessly through my hair. She’s got that half-crazed smile pasted on her face, and she looks more bridezilla now than she did the last time I saw her. Lisa, in this mood, will not pair well with scissors.
Time to go.
“Oh my God,” I say. “I just remembered. I don’t know how I could be so stupid, but I have this urgent thing. I’m going to have to go right now, or I’ll be late.”
“Nonsense. You’ve got all of those media people in town. You need to make a real impression.” Lisa’s fist tightens around a hank of hair, and our gazes lock in the mirror. The smile is gone, replaced by an expression of outright malice.
She drops the comb with a clatter and picks up the scissors, one hand twisting my hair so tightly that tears spring to my eyes. I glance at Margie for help, but her face, too, has gone hard. There are no other customers in the shop. Lisa opens and closes the scissors, snick snick, snick snick, still staring at me in the mirror.
“I heard Leno left his fancy car to you for some reason,” Margie says.
Lisa tugs harder. The scissors snick. A long lock of still tangled hair falls, in slow motion, onto my plastic, cape-covered lap.
Snick. Another lock, leaving a patch of hair just behind my temple that is only a couple of inches long.
“What are you doing?” I screech, trying to pull away, but her hand twists tighter in my hair.
“We agreed on a shorter, more stylish cut,” she says. Snick.
“I didn’t agree to anything. Let me go, Lisa. You’re hurting me.”
“You can’t leave now. You can’t walk around like this, not with all the people staring at you because you’re driving Leno’s Maserati. Not to mention all of those reporters. And influencers.”
Every emphasized word comes with another snick. Another fallen lock of hair.
The bell over the door jangles, signaling a new customer, and I suck in a breath, thinking this will mean a reprieve. And then Aunt Rachel appears it the mirror behind me.
“Addison,” she says. “I might have expected I’d find you here.” From her tone, you’d think she’d found me in a crack house or a brothel.
“Where should I be?” I ask, and even Lisa, scissors positioned to make another devastating cut, pauses for the answer.
“Comforting your poor, dear mother. Honestly, first, you skipped the funeral–“
“The burial. I skipped the burial. I was at the funeral, as I think you’ll remember.”
“And now here you are, indulging your own vanity–“
A hysterical laugh bursts out of me. “Does this look like vanity to you?”
She cocks her head. “I never did understand modern hair styles. I this one of those shaved on one side and long on the other dos?”
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