Lauren Willig

A confession: I am decades outside the age demographic for “chick lit,” don’t read romances and am not a huge fan of historical fiction. That said, I absolutely loved The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, which easily fits into any of those classifications. Secret is the first published novel by Lauren Willig, who has not yet celebrated her 30^th birthday and who can easily be labeled as an overachiever (see the profile below). I lent The Secret History of the Pink Carnation to several friends of various ages – and they all loved it, too. It’s a shame that genre can keep people from venturing into some really good reads. Another reason I recommend Lauren Willig’s books is different – and has to do with encouraging twenty-somethings who are reluctant readers to develop the reading habit. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation is just the book to do for them what the Harry Potter books did for even younger readers. So pick up a copy, read it and pass it along. At the very least, visit her website and read the first chapter and see if you aren’t hooked.

Books

A native of New York City, Lauren Willig has been writing romances ever since she got her hands on her first romance novel at the age of six. Three years later, she sent her first novel off to a publishing house—all three hundred hand-written pages. They sent it back. Undaunted, Lauren has continued to generate large piles of paper and walk in front of taxis while thinking about plot ideas.

After thirteen years at an all girls school (explains the romance novels, doesn’t it?), Lauren set off for Yale and co-education, where she read lots of Shakespeare, wrote sonnet sequences when she was supposed to be doing her science requirement, and lived in a Gothic fortress complete with leaded windows and gargoyles. After college, she decided she really hadn’t had enough school yet, and headed off to that crimson place in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a degree in English history. Like her modern heroine, she spent a year doing dissertation research in London, tramping back and forth between the British Library and the Public Records Office, reading lots of British chick lit, and eating far too many Sainsbury’s frozen dinners.

Lauren is currently enrolled at Harvard Law, where she tries to keep handsome rogues and heaving bosoms out of her legal memos.

Photo and profile from author's website. Used with permission.

Author website: www.laurenwillig.com