After Happily Ever After: A Novel

Leslie A. Rasmussen

Eph 2021 · Kuthengiswe ngu-Simon and Schuster

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“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.

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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.