By 6:35 on the night of May 26, the parking lot of Wainwright House was filled and people arriving for the 7 p.m. program were being directed to park at Coveleigh Club across the street. Women streamed into the Wainwright yard as the sun dipped over Milton Harbor.
Taylor Swift has her “Swifties,” but former Rye resident Annabel Monaghan, you might say, has her “Monnies,” fans that turned out in droves for what has become an annual event — her sold-out book release party.
Monaghan’s fifth novel, “Dolly All the Time,” was named earlier in the day as a “Good Morning America Book Club” selection, and as far as her fans in the audience were concerned, it was well deserved.
“People love her in this town,” said friend Kim Mehrara, who was with her daughter. “Her books resonate with so many people.”
“She’s witty and she’s also so grounding as a person and a writer,” said Amy Fowle, who has been following Monaghan since she was a columnist for The Rye Record. “But it’s also just fun to see people we know be successful.”
Monaghan is humble about the success, but there’s no denying that the mother of three who is also the author of two young adult books and a collection of essays, is reaching new heights. Of the Good Morning America recognition, she said, “You’re going to be seeing me on TV a lot. I’ve known about this for months, and I had all the time in the world to get a face lift — but I didn’t do it. So. I’m picturing you watching me on your 80-inch TV screen, and it’s a little strange.”
As laughter rippled through the crowd, Monaghan settled in and summarized the plot of her latest romance novel, which takes place in Newport, R.I., and involves Dolly, a problem-solving character of humble means and Stewart Whitfield, the scion of a Newport family.
Using the “fake-date trope,” which Monaghan called the “dumbest trope in literature,” (“Have any of you ever hired someone to go to a family wedding with you?”) the book follows Dolly and Stewart as they go from a “pretend” relationship to one that turns very real. She described the book as part Cinderella and part “Pretty Woman,” “without the creepy stuff.”
Monaghan said she had always wanted to set a book in Newport and spent time there with her husband, Tom, touring mansions, walking the cliff walk, and wondering what it was like for those families when their wealth began to disappear. At one point on their trip, she and Tom went for a stroll, and Monaghan found herself stuck on a rock as waves crashed around her. Tom, she said, came back to get her.
“I wanted to write about that kind of man,” she said, as Tom stood off to the side of the Wainwright tent, acting as bartender for the night.
Dolly, on the other hand, is a control freak who takes care of everything. Monaghan said she was a keen observer of caretakers, that her mother was one, and that she has many friends who are as well.
“And I’ve wondered, if you’re that person, who are you turning to take care of you?” The book is dedicated to caretakers, the ones who signed up to take care of others and the ones who had not.
Monaghan then took questions from the audience, many of which focused on her process and career.
She credited The Rye Record with giving her one of the most positive experiences of her life, because it helped her develop her writer’s voice.
Publisher Emeritus “Robin Jovanovich let me write whatever I wanted. It was like getting a master’s degree in finding my voice,” she said.
Monaghan is at work on her next book, which she said is about a woman who falls in love with “the one man on earth she can’t have.” She declined to say more, noting that it might spoil the plot.
“I still have to figure out how to talk about this one,” she said.
At 9:15 p.m., the line of Rye fans snaked around the perimeter of the tent as hundreds of “Monnies” waited for their hometown hero to autograph their fresh copies of her newest book.
