Elise Bryant Books In Order

Publication Order of Happily Ever Afters Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Elise Bryant is a young adult romance author best known for her debut novel “Happily Ever Afters.” The author was born and brought up in California and in her teenage years, she went to California State University from where she graduated with a bachelor in Africana Studies. She then proceeded to Loyola Marymount University, from where she got her masters degree in special education. For several years, she worked in South Los Angeles as a special education teacher given that she got her certification as a teacher. She currently lives with her husband and children in Long Beach California. When she is not working as a teacher, she loves to spend her days writing, and reading. “Happily Ever Afters” her debut novel was released in 2021 and immediately became a bestselling title. It has drawn critical reviews from the likes of School Library Journal. It also made the most anticipated Young Adult releases by Buzzfeed which is very rare in the very competitive young adult market.

A lot of the content in Happily Ever Afters is inspired by the teenage experiences of Elise Bryant. She was a biracial black girl who had to live with anxiety and found an escape reading romance novels. She has said that she always longed to see someone like her represented in the swoony pink covered novels she read so religiously. As such, she tried to right this by writing short stories and fan fiction in which she inserted herself. Since Bryant was a creative person, she went to an arts high school as a teen. She loved writing and wrote every day before joining high school. But when she got there she froze and could not put down a single jot. She always felt that the romantic short stories and love songs she wrote did not measure up to the exquisite and serious works produced by her peers. She never thought she was good enough as an author and it was not until she was nearing thirty and teaching high school, that she took another stab at writing.

After graduating from college, Elise Bryant got a job teaching English to high school students. She loved her job but always had trouble finding books she thought were suitable for her students, who she thought could not relate to what was available. Most of the works focused on police violence or trauma but all she wanted was to present a character that looked like them. In her free time, she began writing A chapter or two instead of watching TV. She found it dreamy and fun but it was not long before she was done writing the manuscript for her swoony and fluffy young adult romance novel. She sent it out to agents for fun and was surprised when one emailed her back within an hour and soon after she was entertaining several offers. Bryant signed with Root Literary in March 2019 and after several rounds of revisions and editing, she got several offers from publishers forcing the book into auction. She sold the novel to Harper Collins and after a lot of success she decided to leave teaching and become a full time author. Getting published was something she never expected and she still does not believe she got her childhood dream and career she always wanted.

Elise Bryant has been very lucky in her journey towards authorship and believes it was cosmic timing. She was the right person at the right time and place to take advantage of the collision between commerce and creativity. Her debut was finished just as diverse voices in young adult fiction drove huge demand. Moreover, the literary world was letting in a ton of authors that were writing very different stories from the traditional. She went on to write the novel she always wanted to read as a teenager and something that her learners demanded. She is happy that young adult has been a pioneer in allowing the prosperity of diverse stories. As an aspiring author, Bryant grew up looking up to Sarah Dessen as her literary hero who wrote her favorites such as “Keeping the Moon,” “Someone Like You” and “This Lullaby.” She now shares an editor with her favorite childhood author and she has often been compared to the literary legend. Bryant has said that the fact that she is now an author who provides novels for diverse populations is still sinking in slowly. Nonetheless, she is happy that her learners and daughters will have novels with characters that look just like them as she intends to write even more. Since she has lived in long Beach for more than a decade, she sets most of her work in the city complete with landmarks.

Elise Bryant’s debut novel is the story of Tessa Johnson. The sixteen year old girl has never felt like she was in control of her life. She loves to read romance novels but has never felt that she was reflected in any of them. The only place she finds representation is in her fan fiction and short stories that she shares with her best friend Caroline who is just as voracious a reader as she is. When Tessa gets into a prestigious art school’s creative writing program, she is excited at the prospect of finally having her stories let out into the world. But she loses all the ideas and words she has always had when she attends her first workshop. Fortunately, her friend Caroline comes to her rescue. She tells her that she just needs to look into her real life experience to find inspiration. Her friend has a list of steps she believes will help her pen her novel. To help her on her journey is a brooding artist named Nico, who looks like he would have been excellent as Prince Charming in one of her stories. But then Tessa begins checking off the items in the list Caroline gave her and she thinks she is getting further away from who she is. She risks losing everything she cares about. She has also developed a relationship with a sweet boy named Sam and she thinks she may just lose him. She could be on the cusp of a love story but is not so sure if she wants it.