Paulette Kennedy Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Paulette Kennedy
Paulette Kennedy is originally from the Missouri Ozarks, a place where people put gravy on everything and drink sweet tea. She lives with her family and their menagerie of pets in a quiet suburb somewhere in Los Angeles.

Daphne Du Maurier is Paulette’s idol, so all of Daphne’s work is influential over Paulette’s own, with “My Cousin Rachel” being her favorite out of anything Daphne wrote.

During her free time, Paulette enjoys finding unique vintage treasures at flea markets and thrift stores, tending to her garden, and knitting. She also collects antique books, and hardcovers that have an heirloom feel to them.

Paulette has worn a lot of hats and worked so many different jobs through the years. She has been a dancer/dance instructor, a professional photographer, and a hairstylist. But being a writer is her dream career, something she is glad she can dedicate her time to doing full time.

When Paulette was in the third grade, she concocted this elaborate lie that she owned fifty horses. Due to the amount of detail that she described these horses, her classmates believed her. That’s about when she first realized that she could tell a story and enjoyed doing it.

As a history lover, she can get lost in her research for days, learning all that she can about the places in her stories and what her characters may have experienced in the past. Her dedication to research infuses her world building with realistic detail, and it creates an immersive, cinematic experience for the reader.

Paulette writes historical fiction for the romantic-at-heart reader that craves page-turning twists and a dash of the supernatural, and infuses her stories with realistic details.

Genres of choice include quiet Gothic horror and dark historical fiction. Within the Gothic genre, she finds the aesthetics and atmosphere, the subject matter, and themes very appealing. All of it seems like such a limitless playground. From when she was a young girl, she was always drawn to cemeteries, old houses, dark stories, paranormal subject matter, and questioning the nature of spirituality and the mysteries surrounding what happens once we die.

Gothic fiction allows readers the chance to explore just some of these wider themes, and it is also some good fun. As there is also a great deal of “camp” within Gothic romance particularly, and Paulette’s not afraid to embrace some of those heightened emotions and drama. She enjoys providing these derivative and traditional elements but also subverting select tropes to appeal to more of a modern audience.

When she begins crafting a story, she will often get inspired by a documentary that she has seen or a nonfiction book she is reading. She will create a rough outline that is focused on her main character’s arc, and then begins writing. Her first drafts are usually spare, with a ton of bracketed notes to remind herself to research things in her next pass. The major research is done during the revision process.

She does a deep dive, using the internet, and checks out books from the library. She finds that the more research she does, the more she ends up wanting to do. Since she was a history minor in college, and it can become a distraction, and the reasons why she will write the bones of her story first before going to deep down the rabbit hole.

Ideas are very easy for Paulette to have, since she has far too many. It can get problematic if she doesn’t choose to focus. Drafting is not all that easy for her, however. This is why she doesn’t put too much pressure on herself to make her rough drafts perfect. Getting the thing written down is her main goal, and then revision is where she soars.

Paulette loves her journal to scribble down some ideas into and working the plot out. After she brainstorms with paper and pen, she will move to her computer to revise and draft.

While writing Eliza in “Parting the Veil”, Paulette poured so much of her own struggles with recovering from codependency and surviving abusive relationships into her characterization, and made her a woman that refuses to go down without putting up a fight.

“Parting the Veil” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2021. Some houses hold secrets that are supposed to be kept forever.

Eliza Sullivan inherits an estate from a newly deceased aunt, she leaves behind a guilt-ridden and grievous past back in New Orleans for rural England and a new beginning. She arrives at her new home and quickly finds herself falling for Malcolm Winfield, the mysterious lord of Havenwood. Eliza, despite all the sinister rumors surrounding him, is drawn to the man’s melancholy charm and his once-beautiful, crumbling mansion. She believes that with enough love both manor and man could be fixed.

Eliza, not long into their marriage, fears that she really should’ve listened to the locals. There is something horribly wrong at Havenwood Manor: Ghostly whispers in the shadows, forbidden rooms, oddly guarded servants. And Malcolm’s threatening moods, which are just as changeable as day and night.

While she dives deeper into his troubling history, the dark secrets that she unearths gain a frightening power. Did she marry a man or a monster? For Eliza, revealing the truth is either going to save her, or destroy her.

This is a Gothic romance filled with sly and sometimes shocking turns and twists, and Paulette spares no mercy for a bucolic English village that teems with forbidden desires, lies, and murder. The novel brims with a dark atmosphere, tragic family secrets, and ghosts, and one Gothic debut masterpiece that had some readers holding their breath until the very last page.

This is a dazzling debut which hearkens to the best of the classic Gothic tradition but with a sensibility that’ll appeal to modern readers. Paulette writes with attention to detail, compassion, and the confident prose of a seasoned writer. This is a passionate, deliciously eerie, and suspenseful read and is an emotional roller coaster which keeps you turning the pages long into the night.