After Happily Ever After: A Novel

Leslie A. Rasmussen

Apr 2021 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

“Smart and funny, After Happily Ever After is an exciting debut.” —Laura Dave, international best-selling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

What if you had the chance to relinquish the life you’ve built and begin again?

At the age of forty-five, Maggie Dolin is grappling with the realities of aging. Nearly two decades ago, she made the decision to leave her career in publishing to devote herself to raising her daughter, Gia—but now that Gia is about to leave for college, Maggie is confronted with uncertainty about her own identity and purpose. Having spent so many years caring for others, she struggles to remember the last time someone cared for her.

Meanwhile, Maggie’s husband of nineteen years, Jim, seems distant and preoccupied, leading her to suspect that he is keeping secrets from her; her mother is self-absorbed and judgmental; and her brother harbors resentment toward her. And to compound matters, the one constant in Maggie's life, her father, is facing serious health challenges, leaving her feeling adrift without his unwavering support.

As Maggie embarks on a daunting journey of self-discovery, she finds herself drawn toward decisions that challenge the life she has always known. After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family dynamics, the empty nest, aging parents, and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time.

Ratings and reviews

This is the story of Maggie. Maggie's daughter Gia is heading to college soon and for the first time Maggie isn't sure of her place in the world. She left a publishing job to raise Gia, and she misses the work and deadlines and having someone notice her for more than grocery shopping and laundry. On top of this, she's also dealing with a husband who seems to have lost interest in her, parents whose health is falling apart, and loneliness she can't seem to fill. Enter Michael from the gym. Young Michael. Attentive Michael. Michael with the abs. As always happens, Michael gives her the attention she craves. But at what cost? To find that out go pick up a copy. Seriously. This is a good read that deals with a real life issue women all face. Who are we outside of mothers? For a debut novel this is a well written easy read. Some parts felt rushed and I did feel the ending was too abrupt. Its also on the shorter side for book length so adding more wouldn't have been overkill. Definitely a good debut however. Solid four stars. Thank you to.NetGalley, She Writes Press, and Leslie Rasmussen for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Maggie was unhappy. There was simply no way around it. Her husband was distant and uninterested, her father was in an assisted living facility, her mother was as unsupportive as ever, and the daughter that she had given up her career for couldn’t wait to move away for college. It all left Maggie wondering where her place in the world was, as she tried to deal with the looming inevitably of change that waited on the horizon. It took a chance encounter that she would never have expected to ignite the chain reaction that brought everything crashing down in a way that helped her to finally begin putting together the pieces. In After Happily Ever After, the first book from Leslie Rasmussen, we meet Maggie as she’s in the midst of a full blown mid-life crisis. Having been a stay at home mom for nearly 20 years, being faced with an empty nest is just one of the many things life has decided to throw at her suddenly. Marital problems, the inevitable loss of her father, other family drama, frustrations and uncertainty about re-entering the workforce, and unexpected attention from a handsome stranger- Maggie wonders daily if she can withstand the pressure. Over the course of the book, Rasmussen writes a story that is without frills and presents every day just as it happens, which is precisely its biggest strength. Maggie is most women at some point in their lives, in at least one aspect of her struggles. That very relatability makes her easy to sympathize with and become invested in. Her husband, Jim, and daughter, Gia, are never fleshed out enough as characters to create more than a surface impression, but that just stands to further illustrate the point that this book is about Maggie. In that vein, this book explores the idea of identity. While it’s easy to read it as a simple story of a woman dealing with the stress of life, the first crisis Maggie encounters, and the one that continues as an undercurrent throughout, is the question of who she is once her primary role is no longer a mom. What does that make her, where does that leave her? As most people are defined by their roles inside and outside the home, Maggie faces the fact that with Gia gone, she fills a purpose in neither. The lack of availability from those she should be able to seek for support only snowballs everything into a larger problem. I found myself completely invested in Maggie’s future and unable to put the book down. After Happily Ever After is an emotionally resonant story following a compelling character through a crisis that is relatable, grounded and engaging. This is definitely a book I would highly recommend!

About the author

Leslie A. Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA. She went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, and Drew Carey, as well as The Wild Thornberrys and Sweet Valley High. After leaving the business to raise her boys, she obtained a master’s degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Recently, she’s written over twenty essays for Huffington Post and spoken on panels discussing empowering women in midlife. Leslie is a member of The Writers Guild of America, as well as Women In Film and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. After Happily Ever After is her debut novel and has won over fifteen awards. Her next novel, The Stories We Cannot Tell, will be released next year. In her free time, Leslie loves to read, exercise, and hang out with friends. Married with two sons, she lives in Los Angeles.