After Happily Ever After: A Novel

Leslie A. Rasmussen

She Writes Press, Apr 6, 2021 - Fiction - 272 pages

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

Maggie Dolan finds herself at forty-five at a crossroads in her life. Once an executive at a top publishing house, she’s chosen to be a stay-at-home mom for the last seventeen years. But now with her daughter, Gia, soon leaving for college, and her husband, Jim, distracted and disconnected and with secrets he hasn’t shared, Maggie decides it’s time to get back into the world to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. As she steps out into this exciting and sometimes scary journey of discovering who she is now, she has to deal with a narcissistic mother, a brother who doesn’t like her, and most damaging of all, the news that her father, the one man who’s been her rock all her life, is deteriorating both physically and mentally. When all these things get on top of her, Maggie is led in a direction that could destroy what she’s built and makes her question the choices she’s made. She’s torn between the life she’s always known and something more exciting that she never expected.

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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - fredreeca - LibraryThing

Maggie’s life is changing. She is not sure where she goes from here. She gave up her job in publishing years ago to take care of her daughter, Gia. Well, Gia is flying the coop. This leaves Maggie ...

User Review -

“After Happily Ever After,” by Leslie A. Rasmussen, is an engaging, inspiring novel about finding yourself again in the face of an empty nest. This story centers on a woman in her mid-forties, Maggie Dolin, who doesn’t necessarily want to grow old gracefully. She’s always placed her daughter Gia first, actually traded in her career in publishing to bring her up, but what’s she going to do with the rest of her life when her daughter goes away to college? Maggie needs a new purpose. She needs to learn how to put herself first for a change. Her husband isn’t as involved as she needs, and he may be keeping secrets. She would turn to her mother, father, and brother, but they have issues of their own. So, this leaves Maggie floundering. Without support systems, she finds solace in a younger man, and this isn’t like her. As this new relationship develops, she finds herself at a crossroads, facing choices she thought she’d never have to make.
I really like the balance the author shows in this novel—the balance between entertainment and social issues. Because as much as I adore the plot, the underlying problems are so very real to most people in Maggie’s situation. Even though you will be entertained, with some laughter and tears, you will also gain insight into what it would and does feel like at the empty nest stage of life. I like the honest way the author has Maggie sorting this out–with stress, confusion, uncertainty, loneliness–all in an intimate first-person POV. She leaves no emotional stone unturned.
This is a book for all generations, in my opinion, not just middle age. We can all learn something from Maggie’s story, about how to cope with stress, emotional abandonment, heavy responsibility, and life-altering decisions. As a general reader looking for a well-executed story, and former social worker, I highly recommend “After Happily Ever After,” by Leslie A. Rasmussen. 

About the author

Leslie A. Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a bachelor’s in communications from UCLA and went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, and Ralph Macchio, as well as The Wild Thornberrys and Sweet Valley High. Later, she earned a master’s degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Most recently, Leslie has written personal essays for online magazines such as Huffington Post, Maria Shriver, and SheKnows. She loves dogs and besides having two adorable Labradors, she volunteers at the Burbank Animal Shelter in Burbank, California. Leslie lives in Los Angeles and has two sons, and a husband she’s been with since college. This is her debut novel.

Bibliographic information

• Title: After Happily Ever After: A Novel
• Author: Leslie A. Rasmussen
• Publisher: She Writes Press, 2021
• ISBN: 1647420156, 9781647420154
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce; Fiction / Romance / Contemporary; Fiction / Romance / Later in Life; Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy; Fiction / Women