When Annabel Monaghan’s publisher texted her last September and casually suggested they “jump on a quick Zoom call,” the former Rye resident, Rye Record columnist, and author didn’t expect the news that she was about to receive.
“There is my entire publishing team, screaming into the laptop that I was the ‘GMA’ pick,” Monaghan recalled. That’s how she learned her newest book, “Dolly All the Time,” was selected as the “Good Morning America” recommended read for June.
“You find out really early, but you can’t tell anyone,” she said. “And you can’t keep a secret for that long. So, I basically put it out of my head and forgot about it until May when I thought, ‘Oh right — we’re gonna do this this month!’”
And what a month-and-a-half it has been.
“Dolly All the Time,” Monaghan’s fifth romance novel, has emerged as one of the summer’s biggest publishing successes. In addition to the GMA recognition, “Dolly” has spent five weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller list. Monaghan has gone on both national and international book tours, where she has been greeted by crowds of fans (almost all of them women) waiting in long lines to have her sign their books. “Dolly” went back to press three times in the first month after its release on May 26.
Tara Singh Carlson, vice president and executive editor at Putnam Books, said watching readers embrace the novel has been especially gratifying.
“Annabel is a dream to work with: kind, creative, and so dang funny,” said Singh Carlson. “It is incredible to see readers falling in love with her writing and her stories as we have. This success couldn’t have found a more deserving person!”
For Monaghan, who lived in Rye for 22 years before relocating to Greenwich, Conn., and St. Petersburg, Fla., the breakthrough has been years in the making. She published four previous romance novels, but none has taken off like “Dolly,” which earned an Amazon “Sarah Selects” designation, a Book of the Month add-on edition with its own cover, and the voice of acclaimed audiobook narrator Julia Whelan for the audiobook.
“That was a huge thing,” Monaghan said. “She’s just the best in the business.”
Almost as exciting was learning there would be a Target-exclusive printing of her book.
“I’ve always dreamed of writing a book,” Monaghan shared on Instagram. “And once that happened, I got a little greedy, and then my only dream was to have an exclusive Target edition with the foil accents and bonus content and all the bells and whistles. … Can you believe it?”
Before the book was even released, Monaghan received another boost from one of romance’s biggest names: bestselling author Carley Fortune, who included “Dolly” among her top summer reads in a “The Today Show” appearance.
“It’s a fake dating trope about a single mom who becomes the fake girlfriend of the town’s wealthy scion,” Fortune said. “But what I love about Annabel’s books is the writing is so beautiful and heartfelt, and they’re really about family and what it means to live a good life.”
Monaghan has always been a favorite among her Rye friends and neighbors; but now the crowds she is getting as far away as London are like the loving crowds that greet her at her annual Wainwright House book launch party.
And she finds her readers to be lovely and generous. At book events from Rye to Los Angeles, Monaghan has repeatedly encountered three generations of one family waiting in line together.
“It’s so cute — it makes me cry every time it happens, like when the youngest one got tickets to my event for her mother and her grandmother. It’s happened like 30 times,” she said, adding that the age range of readers — from 18 to 80 — continually surprises her.
“You would think really young women don’t want to read about the single mom who’s unloading her dishwasher, you know, while she’s thinking about her boyfriend,” she said.
But she’s grateful to all of them.
“A big toast to everyone who’s reading, recommending, hand-selling, library requesting, and reviewing!” she said in a recent Instagram post. “I can’t thank you enough for the energy and enthusiasm you’ve shown this book.”
Her elevation to bestselling author still stuns Monaghan, who described her GMA appearance as unexpectedly warm and surreal, from a publisher-arranged overnight stay in New York City to early morning hair and makeup before going live on air.
“It was just the most not-my-life kind of morning,” she said. “They were leaning into me and making me laugh so I wouldn’t be nervous. … By the time the camera was on, I was like, ‘Oh, these are my friends.’ It was so kind.”
The television appearance also reconnected Monaghan with the woman who inspired her novel’s title character.
She first met Dolly at a previous book signing.
“I looked up and saw this radiant smile and just knew I would name my next main character after her,” Monaghan recalled. That Dolly, a Tampa, Fla., resident, is now scheduled to appear at a reading on July 23 at Northport Books in Northport, N.Y.
Singh Carlson, Monaghan’s editor, said, “I actually listened to the audio edition of ‘Dolly All the Time’ in June — just as a fan — and cried actual tears on what must have been my eighth read. What joy!”
Monaghan believes romance readers are looking for something specific.
“In general, romance is something people turn to when life is chaotic, and we just want a place where we’re 100 percent sure we’re going to get a happy ending,” she said. “It’s really fun to meet readers on tour because everybody in the room is there for that.”
Monaghan has tens of thousands of followers across Instagram, Goodreads, Facebook, and TikTok, amassing thousands more social media followers in the last several weeks alone.
She makes video “reels” a few times a week “in a wrinkled shirt,” she said. “I’m not trying to fool anyone into thinking I have my act together.”
She said she follows no schedule and posts “whatever I feel like.” And she responds personally to readers on social media, which has become one of the most meaningful parts of her career.
“It’s just been so fun,” she said. “I feel like I know a lot of them online. And people go to so much trouble, like they don’t just read your book and say something about it. They read your book, and they post a picture of themselves with it, so it’s just a big deal for me to be able to say thank you.”
Monaghan said she is shocked when followers give her gifts like the vase she received from Ammie Williams, 35, a ceramic artist from Atlanta.
“She painted it as an exact replica of “Dolly All the Time,” and she gave it to me. Now, it’s on my bookcase with flowers in it.”
Ceramic artist Ammie Williams with her book cover vase.
“When our local bookstore announced she was coming, I bought the ticket immediately and knew I had to fit making her a vase into my schedule,” Williams said. “It took about 10 hours of painting, and then you glaze it so it’s shiny and waterproof. Then it fires for about 24 hours.”
By the time Williams reached the front of the bookstore line, nerves took over.
“I was so nervous I completely blacked out,” she laughed. “I don’t remember what I said to her.”
At a recent signing at a Barnes & Noble in Paramus, N.J., a group of women from Jersey Shore Knitters surprised Monaghan with Dolly-themed knitted gifts.
“People are so thoughtful,” Monaghan said.
The whirlwind has been exhilarating, but Monaghan says she’s also looking forward to life returning to normal.
“It’s just been pretty incredible,” she said. “Tomorrow is July, so it’s kind of the end of a big month for me. And that’s OK too. I’m looking forward to talking about other things, just getting back to, like, ‘What are we making for dinner?'”
