Happily Never After: Do Fairy Tales Really NEED to come true?

I've always been a "fairy tale" kind of girl. Anything by the brothers Grimm captivated me as a child, especially if it involved castles or darkened woods, kind-hearted maidens, fantastic adventures and loyal companions. As I grew, so did my reading range, my imagination expanding to devour the fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Mary Stewart and Anne McCaffrey. Most fantasy novels usually seemed to involve some type of historical setting, whether real or imagined, which led me to an abiding love for historical fiction of all types. Georgette Heyer's THE BLACK MOTH and DEVIL'S CUB then led me to discover historical romance novels, where I really hit "fairy tale" pay dirt! I devoured tale after tale of fair maidens both stolen and rescued by manly warriors who found strength in weakness, brought to their knees by the power of true love. It was a fantasy, but as with any good fairy tale, it was a fantasy that I wanted to be a part of. I needed to believe that if good and evil both must exist, evil could sometimes be vanquished and good could sometimes win. Sometimes in life, everything comes together just the way it should, and you get to finish that last chapter with a happy sigh, knowing that "they all lived happily ever after".

Sometimes.

In the real world, sometimes things don't work out. Sometimes you fall in love with someone who lets you down, or doesn't love you back. Sometimes a person isn't who you thought they were, or maybe you weren't exactly what they were looking for, either. Sometimes... well, sometimes, there's someone else, someone you can't forget.

This is the premise behind my latest novel, HAPPILY NEVER AFTER, Book #5 in the Nicki Styx paranormal mystery series. For the first four books in this series, Nicki has been head over heels in love with one man, but there is another man who haunts her dreams, someone who walks a fine line between a fallen angel and a devious devil. Nicki wants to live happily ever after, but is she strong enough to shun the Darkness and live in the Light, knowing how easily the dangerously devilish Sammy Divine can turn her dreams into nightmares?

I hope you read it and find out,

Terri

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A Southern girl with an overactive imagination, Terri Garey writes award-winning and critically-acclaimed urban fantasy. Her novels have been described as "smoldering" by Publishers Weekly, and "sultry and upbeat" by Library Journal. Even though she's a big scaredy-cat who can't watch horror movies or visit haunted houses, she loves moonlit graveyards, moss-covered headstones and the idea that life goes on even after it's over. You can visit her on the web, friend her on Facebook and occasionally find her on Twitter.