Prerna Pickett Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Prerna Pickett is a young adult romance author best known for her debut novel “If You Only Knew” published in 2020. She loves to describe herself as a reader, wife, mom, and author. Pickett was born in India but her parents moved to the United States and settled in Northern Virginia, then to Hawaii which she found a paradise before moving back to the continental United States. Apart from reading and writing, she loves drawing, starry nights, foods, shoes, the beaches, and the ocean.

Pickett describes her debut novel “If You Only Knew” as a story of two teenagers Corey and Tessa that are on a quest for redemption while kissing. The inspiration for the story came from a dream she once had of a man that was attacking and holding down a boy while a girl wrestled to get him off of him. She could not find out why the man was beating up the boy but she thought that it would make for a great story. Since she had a habit of keeping a journal on her nightstand, she immediately wrote down the scene which formed the basis for her manuscript. Tessa is a kind and brave woman while Corey is best described as a loving loyal and self-sacrificing young man, which makes for quite a lethal combination. Unlike other authors, Pickett does not have much of a writing ritual such as listening to music and writing and editing is more of organized chaos. Since she has a four-year-old child, she writes whenever she can rather than at a set time or place. Most of the time she hides in her room while he watches cartoons or puts on some headphones and listens to some music to stimulate her creativity amid all the noise of the child playing. As such, how many words Pickett can get written depends on how much attention the kid needs on a given day.

Prerna Pickett’s “If You Only Knew” is written in the style of Katie McGarry novels as it features characters with dark pasts full of secrets. Corey has been to jail but is now out and forced to become a gang member given his circumstances. Despite being a reluctant gang member, he will do what is asked of him by his superiors to ensure that his family is safe. The gang makes the decision to punish the DA who had put him behind bars by destroying his car and home. The DA has a daughter named Tessa who had committed a crime and got away with it because her father had the connections. She has always felt guilty about getting away with the crime and tries to soothe the guilt by riding on her motorbike at night. After Corey destroys the DAs motorbike, he is caught by Tessa but she decides not to turn him in. He feels guilty for dealing so badly with the man that had recommended a light sentence given the gravity of his crimes. As such, he goes to him and confesses his crime though he does not rat out the other gang members for fear of retaliation on his family. Tessa thinks there is something in Corey and asks her father to forgive him and this action is the beginning of a friendship that soon turns into something more. But what he does not know is that she has her own dark past that she is keeping secret. The closer they become, the more she wants to come out and tell him about it but she can never find the courage to do it. But her ugly secret is what makes her see Corey as the good man she thinks he is or can be, rather than just another thug as most other people see him.