Cover Reveal: Only in Fairy Tales — When the Fairy Tale Comes Later

I have a confession to make, although it probably won't be a surprise to any of you. I have always been rather fond of fairy tales. Castles. Ruins. Old stones. Forgotten stories. Places where the past seems to sit just beneath the surface of the present.

So perhaps it was inevitable that, sooner or later, I would write a romance that began in the ruins of a castle. But Only in Fairy Tales isn't quite the fairy tale you might expect.

Today, I'm very happy to reveal the cover of my new contemporary, later-in-life romance, set in Monmouth, Wales.

Meet Nia

Nia is fifty-three. She's divorced, quietly lonely, and has reached a conclusion that is both understandable and completely wrong. She believes she's invisible.

Her marriage taught her that lesson slowly. Her ex-husband loved her like an old habit—something familiar and comfortable, but not something he really noticed anymore.

Over the years, Nia absorbed that indifference. Eventually, she stopped waiting for anything else. She certainly stopped expecting romance, because romance, surely, belongs to other people. Younger people, more beautiful people, more interesting people. People who have something special about them.

Nia doesn't think she is one of those people. And then she meets Gareth.

Enter Gareth

Gareth is fifty-seven, a former museum curator, and a man who knows something about emotional absence. He spent eleven years being emotionally withheld from his marriage. At the time, he didn't fully understand what he was doing—or what it was costing his wife. Only after she left did he begin to understand.

Nine years have given him plenty of time to think about that failure. He doesn't want to repeat it. So when Gareth meets Nia, he pays attention. Not because she is trying to attract attention, quite the opposite. He notices the things she notices. The old stonework. The details everyone else overlooks. And the beauty hidden in places begin. Moreweathered by centuries.

He becomes fascinated by the way her mind works. More importantly, he doesn't keep that fascination to himself.

A romance about being seen

One of the things I wanted to explore in Only in Fairy Tales was what it means to be truly seen by another person. Not admired from a distance, or simply desired, but seen.

There is a particular kind of loneliness in being with someone who doesn't really notice you. It can be surprisingly difficult to explain, because from the outside everything may appear perfectly ordinary.

You have a home, a relationship, a life. But somewhere along the way, you have stopped feeling like a person who is being looked at with curiosity.

Nia has lived with that feeling for long enough that she has mistaken it for the truth about herself.

She thinks she is ordinary.

Gareth doesn't agree.

And that difference matters.

Why later-in-life romance?

There is something wonderful about writing characters who have already lived a little. Nia and Gareth aren't twenty-five. They don't have their entire adult lives stretching ahead of them with no idea what might happen. They have histories and lessons they learned the hard way. They know something about what they want and, perhaps more importantly, what they don't want.

That doesn't make love less exciting. If anything, I think it makes it more so. There is something incredibly romantic about two people meeting when they are old enough to understand the value of being genuinely present for one another.

There are no guarantees, there never are, but there is a choice. To pay attention and to listen; to be curious, and to say the thing that matters instead of assuming the other person already knows.

And sometimes, to allow yourself to believe that you might still be worth loving. Even when you've spent years believing otherwise.

And then there is Monmouth

Monmouth is a place with layers of history everywhere you look, and that made it a natural home for Nia and Gareth's story.

Their first meeting takes place in the ruins of Monmouth Castle—a place where fragments of the past remain standing even though the lives that once filled them are long gone. It seemed like the perfect place for two people who are also carrying pieces of their past with them. And perhaps for discovering that something new can still be built among the ruins.

Because that's another thing I love about old places, they remind us that surviving isn't the same thing as being finished. Sometimes what remains is enough to begin again.

So here it is...

Only in Fairy Tales - a contemporary, later-in-life romance about two people who have both learned what emotional absence can cost. A woman who believes she is invisible. A man who sees her. And a love story that begins in the ruins of Monmouth Castle.

Nia has always believed that the kind of love which truly sees a person belongs only in stories. Gareth is determined to prove her wrong, she just doesn't know it yet.

Sometimes the fairy tale comes later. Sometimes it finds you when you've stopped waiting for it. And sometimes, perhaps, the most magical thing isn't being rescued. It's finally being seen.

Only in Fairy Tales is coming soon.

Happy reading, and thank you for being part of this journey with me! 💙