After Happily Ever After: A Novel

by Leslie A. Rasmussen Narrated by Tiffany Phillips

Overview

After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family, the empty nest, aging parents, and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time.

Maggie Dolin is forty-five and isn't dealing with getting older very well. Seventeen years ago, she gave up her job in publishing to raise her daughter, Gia-but now her only child is about to leave for college, and Maggie isn't sure what her new purpose will be. She's been the caretaker and nurturer for so long that she can't even remember the last time someone took care of her. She wishes Jim, her husband of nineteen years, would take that role on-but he's been distracted and disconnected, and she's convinced he's hiding something from her. Her self-involved, judgmental mother and resentful brother, meanwhile, are certainly no help, and her father-the only person in her life who's always been there for her and asked nothing in return-is dealing with increasingly serious health issues, leaving Maggie without her rock.

As all these stressors pile on, a chance meeting with a younger man causes Maggie to act in a way that is completely out of character for her. As she gets deeper in, she's forced to make some big decisions about what she wants and deserves-decisions that could change her life forever.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

2022 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Honorable Mention in Commercial Fiction
2022 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite in Contemporary Novel
2022 Reader Views Literary Awards Silver Winner in General Fiction/Novel
2022 Reader Views Literary Awards Silver Award Winner in General Fiction/Novel
2022 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite in Contemporary Novel
One of Popsugar's Best Books of 2021
2021 Top Shelf Awards Runner Up in Fiction (Women’s)
2021 Literary Titan Book Awards Silver Winner
2021 Firebird Award Winner in multiple categories, including Contemporary Novel and Marriage
2021 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in Marriage
2021 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Women's Fiction
2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Realistic
2021 Hollywood Book Awards Honorable Mention in General Fiction
2021 NYC Big Book Awards Winner in Marriage
2021 NYC Big Book Awards Distinguished Favorite in New Fiction (First-time published)
2021 IAN Book of the Year Awards Finalist in Fiction: Women’s Fiction

“Rasmussen is a freelance journalist and former TV sitcom writer and the latter is evident in the novel’s sharp, funny dialogue and Maggie’s wry, observational narration.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Leslie A. Rasmussen has written a fiction story that most women can relate to in one way or another with compassion and love. After Happily Ever After is a wonderful read that will not disappoint. I highly recommend After Happily Ever After to women both young and old.”
—Readers' Favorite, five stars

“A Connecticut housewife traverses middle age with self-deprecating wit and aplomb in Leslie Rassmussen’s novel After Happily Ever After.”
—Foreword Reviews

“Leslie A. Rasmussen’s After Happily Ever After gives voice to many women in the ‘sandwich generation’—and the voice is a funny one.”
—Leslie Lehr, prize-winning author of A Boob’s Life and What a Mother Knows

“With warm tenderness, peppered with humor throughout, Leslie A. Rasmussen has written a novel of fresh, relatable characters, easy to root for and easy to know. Anyone juggling the lives of loved ones while navigating their own will recognize the protagonist as she struggles to find the missing parts of a so-called life that turns out to be…herself.”
—Sande Boritz Berger, author of Split Level and The Sweetness

“In Leslie A. Rasmussen’s debut novel, a woman finds herself reanalyzing her life and her marriage when her daughter is heading off to college. Smart and funny, After Happily Ever After is an exciting debut.”
—Laura Dave, international best-selling author of Eight Hundred Grapes

“After Happily Ever After is a road map for every empty nester whose marriage has lost its spark. You can’t help but see yourself on these pages.”
—Adrienne Barbeau, actress and author of There are Worse Things I Could Do and the Vampyres of Hollywood series

“This book takes a very real look at the complex lives of forty-something women who are torn between their duties to all family members while still trying to fulfill their own desires. The characters ring true, and although there are heavy themes, the book manages to be very funny at times and also a fast, easy, read. Many women will see a lot of themselves in Maggie and will enjoy seeing how her circumstances and decisions will play out.”
—Seattle Book Review

“Written with honesty and humor and grit, Leslie A. Rasmussen’s wonderful debut novel is filled with poignant and truth and so much clever. Yes, you will cry, and yes, you will laugh out loud and . . . fall in love with this book.” 
—Amy Ferris, best-selling author, screenwriter, and playwright 

“Author Leslie A. Rasmussen peppers the story with humor and sarcasm, making Maggie, the protagonist, likeable and easy to identify with. Her breezy writing style is entertaining, but there’s real meaning beneath her attitude. If you like women’s fiction, After Happily Ever After is worth your time.” 
—Story Circle Book Reviews 

Kirkus Reviews

2020-12-04
A middle-aged mother contemplates an affair in Rasmussen’s debut novel.

At age 45, suburban Connecticut mom Maggie Dolin finds herself at a crossroads. Her psychologist husband, Jim, seems both constantly stressed out and uninterested in the intimacies of marriage; her college-bound, 17-year-old daughter, Gia, has a new boyfriend whom Maggie doesn’t trust; and Maggie’s beloved father has moved to an assisted living facility, due to Parkinson’s disease. Formerly a successful book editor, Maggie left her job to stay home and raise Gia, but more than a decade later, she feels adrift as her best friend and former colleague, Ellen, continues to succeed. Maggie starts going to the gym and meets Michael, a handsome, 34-year-old freelance writer with a self-described penchant for younger women—except where Maggie is concerned. After Maggie’s father receives a new, life-altering diagnosis, her emotional connection with Michael deepens. Maggie doesn’t want to give up on her marriage or her daughter, but as her life becomes increasingly overwhelming, she seeks solace in this secret relationship. When everything seems to go wrong at once, she decides to change her circumstances, once and for all. Rasmussen is a freelance journalist and former TV sitcom writer and the latter is evident in the novel’s sharp, funny dialogue (“You need to finish getting dressed. The last time I checked, your school required pants”) and Maggie’s wry, observational narration; at one point, for instance, she describes clothes shopping with her teen as “like trying to tweeze a stray hair from your eyebrow, only to find it isn’t a hair, just a drop of mascara, and now you’re bleeding.” However, the book’s distinctive voice only partially spices up the storyline, which suffers from clichéd elements, such as a rebellious teen daughter and an emotionally distant husband. Also, sporadic chapters from Jim’s and Maggie’s father’s perspectives feel clumsy and unnecessary.

A novel whose bright dialogue only somewhat enlivens its familiar plot.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178028780
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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