When Happily Ever After Fails

"A witty, well-paced, and original story—gimme all the Courtney Deane books with a big glass of rosé, please!” —Lizzy Dent, author of The Summer Job and The Sweetest Revenge

Twentysomething Abigail Gardner’s life is circling the drain. Her parents are dead, her “like a brother” is in love with her, and her nascent career as an art teacher was fully squashed by an unfortunate viral incident involving sophomores and Spanx.

But just as that whirlpool feels poised to suck her down completely, she’s granted a second chance: she lands a teaching job at Excelsior Primm, one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most prestigious preparatory academies. Only problem is, instead of teaching art she’ll be stuck teaching her least favorite subject—literature—and her least favorite theme: tragedy.

Tired of being stuck in her own tragic tale, Abigail starts rewriting every sad ending she can get her hands on, in and out of the classroom. To her surprise, her life soon starts to resemble the fairy tales she adores—great job, hot guy, a career gaining recognition. But when an unexpected plot twist threatens to derail her happy ending, Abigail begins to realize why these conclusions are so hard to come by.

Courtney Deane has been a writer and pursuer of happily-ever-afters since she can remember. As a full-time freelance writer, her days are spent working for print, digital, and broadcast entities, as well as a variety of PR and marketing clients. She continues her craft by dedicating some space each day to work on her fiction books. After both of her parents died, she worked to turn those tragedies into something beautiful—an effort that inspired her debut novel, When Happily Ever After Fails. She holds bachelor’s degrees in English and sociology from UC Irvine and a master’s in journalism from USC. Deane lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog—her very own happily-ever-after. Find out more about Courtney at www.courtneydeane.com.