Category Archives: Desperately Ever After

I’m very excited to announce that Desperately Ever After has received the Finalist Award for Fiction – Chick Lit in this year’s Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest, which receives thousands of entries from over a dozen countries.

According to press materials, “Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the ‘Best Websites for Authors’ and ‘Honoring Excellence’ awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.”

Respectively, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals went to The Summer of New Beginnings, by USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby; Seeds of Intention, a 2018 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award winner, by Andrea Thome; and The Royal Treatment, by Melanie Summers.

For more information, visit https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/desperately-ever-after

Congratulations to all the winners!

Remember Oregon Trail? Kerri Strug’s ankle? The original Nintendo?

Check out my roundup of favorite things from the 80s and 90s today at Chick Lit Central. Also, scroll down for info on a pretty freaking awesome giveaway.

Thanks again to CLC for having me!

Right now, I am tossing a ball for my dog in the backyard where I grew up. The air feels like spring but smells like autumn, and the ground has a blanket of yellow and orange leaves. My brilliant but headstrong toddler is napping in what used to be my little brother’s room. The baby in my belly is starting to get antsy. I have no idea what to make for dinner when my husband comes home from work. And there are a still million things I need to do before I release my third book … before I officially say goodbye (at least in novel form) to the women I’ve considered friends since I first started molding them in my head almost twenty years ago.

The combination of all these things is creating one of those deeply introspective moments during which I can hardly believe how much has changed since I was a kid … since I was racing around this same swath of grass with my brothers and waiting for my mom to call us in for dinner.

It’s amazing how quickly life can move sometimes. In the past three years alone, I published my first two books, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, came to terms with two autoimmune diseases, moved to a new town, became pregnant again, and finished another novel. Needless to say, it’s been a mixture of amazing and bittersweet—and always, always memorable.

And now I stand on another precipice: the publication of the third and final book in my Desperately Ever After series. This, too, is bittersweet.

I realize it might sound silly to say I’ll miss the characters in my books—just as I once thought it silly when authors said they began a project with one plan but their characters eventually “took control” and steered it somewhere else entirely. I realize it might sound even sillier because my main characters were plucked from other people’s work. The original Cinderella story is not mine. Nor is Rapunzel’s. Or Belle’s. Or those belonging to Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or the princess who slept on the pea.

But the Rapunzel in my story is a flaming martini mixed in Samantha Jones’s favorite NYC nightclub. Cinderella is far more Lynette Scavo than Charles Perrault. Belle is a nod to every literary heroine who started out making female readers cringe but steadily grew into an example of feminine strength. I used the original tales to outline their backstories (which have nothing to do with Disney, by the way), but my imagination filled in … and questioned … and rewrote … all the rest.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that the women of Marestam are as much my children as are the bundle of insanity napping in my brother’s old room right now and the tiny ninja using my insides for target practice. They are my twenty- and thirty-something imaginary friends. Bringing their stories to a close was tough not because they didn’t give me direction, but because I really didn’t want to say goodbye.

Of course, there are opportunities for novellas. There are ideas for shorter stories featuring either the main characters or others in their world. There might be a holiday special here or there. But I’ll also be moving on. When the pre-order period for Skipping Midnight ends and the book goes live on November 16, it will signal the end of one era for me and the beginning of another. But for that moment, in my head I’ll be sitting on Rapunzel’s balcony, overlooking the towers of Carpale Castle alongside Belle, Cindy, Dawn, Snow, and Penny, raising my glass to friendship and to the many different ways in which we can find love.

Image: 123rf.com, christopher hall

Right now I’m sitting at my desk — dog at my feet, toddler slumbering directly above my head, purple water bottle by my keyboard — completely flabbergasted that the calendar on the wall keeps insisting it is July. I hope you’re all having a phenomenal, restful, one-for-the-memory books kind of summer.

Many of you have reached out in the past year to ask when (or, in some cases, whether!) I plan on revealing what happened to Belle, Cinderella, Dawn, Rapunzel, and everyone else in the Desperately Ever After series. For months, all I could do was explain that life (new baby, house search, health scares) has a way of knotting up even the best laid plans, but rest assured I’d been devoting every spare minute to Book 3 since before Book 2 even hit your Kindles.

But today … finally .. I can answer your questions with something new: Skipping Midnight, the concluding novel in the Desperately Ever After series, is complete!

NOW I’m off to the land of revisions, proofreading, copyediting, and formatting — all of which I plan (ah, there’s that word again!) to finish as quickly as possible without sacrificing one lick of the story. If all goes well, you’ll be reunited with the ladies of Marestam before summer officially sets and Ariel loses her human legs. (Can you tell I’ve been living with a toddler? I can’t even tell you how hard it is to write with the entire soundtrack from Frozen playing on a constant loop in my head!)

But I digress. Thank you all for your wonderful emails, comments, and reviews. You have truly been my coveted midnight oil over these many, many months. Keep checking laurakenyon.com for updates, sneak peaks, giveaways, and the date of Skipping Midnight’s big cover reveal next month.

And again … enjoy your summer!!!

The Desperately Ever After series is supposed to be witty, passionate, sarcastic, thought-provoking, and above all else: FUN! So when it came to creating a playlist, the songs I chose had to reflect that.

Some (especially Katy Perry’s Not Like the Movies) just screamed DESPERATELY EVER AFTER the moment I heard them. Others (Demons, Bloodstream, Holding on and Letting Go, Ocean Wide) reminded me of specific storylines or characters (no spoilers!) and even helped set the mood while I was writing Damsels in Distress.

Wires, All I Need, and Save Me just seemed to fit all the romantic dilemmas the characters face throughout the series. But when it came time to hit the town or party on top of Rapunzel’s penthouse, I couldn’t help but picture the ladies of Marestam dancing to Jessica Simpson’s A Public Affair—with lots of wine and sparkle!

In all honesty, this playlist could have been twice as long (and it still is on my laptop).

I hesitated to include a song as “played out” as Walk Away, but it and Dare You to Move fit Belle’s story so well. And while I initially chose Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me to introduce her beast of a husband, I figured The First Five Times and Let’s Get Highwere jokey enough. And I had to draw the line somewhere!

The best and easiest way to listen is through Spotify, which is totally free and can be accessed through this link:

DESPERATELY  EVER  AFTER  PLAYLIST

Option #2, which is way less high tech, is a list of the songs. When possible, I’ve linked the to YouTube videos, but your imagination will work better without them, and I couldn’t shake some of the advertisements.  Continue reading →

What’s on page 45 of Damsels in Distress, the second book in the series that’s 1 part Sex and the City, 2 parts Desperate Housewives, and 3 parts Brothers Grimm? Read on to find out!

When Dawn Tirion awoke from three centuries years of slumber, she was buried beneath an inch of dust, her childhood kingdom was an overgrown mess, and a strange man’s tongue was forcing its way into her mouth. The former crown princess was confused, scared, and unbelievably groggy. Not a great time for making life decisions.

Fast forward eleven years and the “sleeping beauty queen” has an updated wardrobe, two children, and a royal husband (Hunter) she barely knows. What’s more, having expended enough shuteye for three lifetimes, she’s physically incapable of sleeping and spends every night wandering the woods around her castle and imagining things were different. Dawn knows she’s supposed to be grateful to this modern world and her so-called “rescuer.” But secretly, she wishes she was back in the 18th century, racing around the castle with her friends, and imagining her future with a boy named Davin.

By this point in the book, we know Dawn believes Davin was her first love. We also believe he died during her kingdom’s 300-year-coma—a historical period now known as the Great Sleep. But he’s still the one she fantasizes about when free to be alone with her thoughts. That is, until a perilous misstep during her nocturnal wanderings lands her in the arms of someone new. Someone handsome, mysterious, inexplicably familiar, and dangerously REAL.

On page 45, she hasn’t actually met this stranger yet, but she’s watched him. She’s watched him many times in the moonlight, making up stories about who he is (hence the three names) and where he came from. That’s where she’s headed when her foot snags a rock and she tumbles to the edge of a cliff—forcing her to shout for help. Here’s a brief peek: Continue reading →

Surfed on over to Amazon yesterday to check the status of my 99-cent sale and saw this:

Yup, that’s #1 in women’s humor, #1 in women’s fantasy, #1 in paranormal fantasy, and #49 throughout the entire Kindle store!! Dare I pinch myself?!

It’s a Kindle Countdown sale, so the 99-cent price will go up to $1.99 early Friday morning (EST) and then back to its regular $3.99 on Monday. The clock is ticking ;)

Aside from securing a seven-figure book deal or winning a Pulitzer, the coolest thing I can imagine as an author is to one day watch my work come alive on the big screen. To see the jewel-toned spires of Carpale’s skyline. To hear Rapunzel’s rants against “true love.” To join in as others cheer Belle’s growing independence, laugh at Cinderella’s vengeful “masterpiece,” and roll their eyes at Penny’s helicopter mother-in-law.

Unfortunately, Hollywood hasn’t called just yet. But just in case, here is my Dream Cast* for the Desperately Ever After series. Hey, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared! ;)

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THE LADIES

“Emmy Rossum, 2011” by MingleMediaTVNetwork*

Belle (Beauty and the Beast): Emmy Rossum

During the course of the series, D.E.A.’s Belle goes from a sweet, naive, ingénue to a strong, independent, kick-ass woman. I’ve loved Emmy Rossum since she played innocent Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, but her performance as Fiona in Showtime’s Shameless really blew me away.

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“Kristen Bell” by pinguino k from North Hollywood, USA*

Cinderella: Kristen Bell

For D.E.A.’s Cinderella, I picture an actress who shines playing the super smart, responsible, sophisticated woman who tends to bite off way more than she can chew and gets crazy paranoid when the slightest things go wrong — but still remains cute and lovable the entire time. For those of you who’ve seen When in Rome, all I have to say is “fountain breakdown.” For those who haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for?

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