About this episode
Annabel Monaghan is a return guest on Elena Meets the Author, and for good reason. The internet has crowned her the queen of the summer romance, and as one fan put it, it’s not summer until Annabel Monaghan has come out with a book.
Her latest, Dolly All the Time, is a number one New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America book club pick. It’s the story of Dolly Brick, a single mum, a champion caretaker, the person on everyone’s emergency contact list, who goes home to a fictional town next door to Newport, Rhode Island, and ends up fake dating the town’s handsome heir. It’s funny, it’s warm, the setting is dreamy, and it snuck up on me and broke my heart a little.
In this episode Annabel tells the real story behind the name Dolly, a smiling fan she met on tour who later reconnected through Good Morning America. She explains why she loves the fake-dating trope for its forced intimacy and emotional honesty, and how she draws from her own life in this charming tale. We also get into Annabel’s unplotted drafting process, how her editor helped shape the humour, and why she was determined to rewrite the rescue narrative so Dolly is never a damsel.
Annabel is one of my favourite guests. She’s smart, funny, and self-deprecating, and her characters mirror those traits. The dialogue, the sensual summer settings, the big life questions she weaves through every book. And by the way, Annabel’s first book came out when she was 50, which should give every aspiring writer a lot of hope. Dolly All the Time has spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer author. If you’d like to hear more from Annabel, she’s also in episodes four and 24.