Life is no fairytale, as Benison O'Reilly found when her comfortable world was shattered - by Linda Morris

True to the title of her first fiction work Happily Ever After?, Benison O'Reilly writes her heroine a happy ending. Of sorts.  The likeable but flawed Ellie Parkes carries fanciful illusions of marriage when she weds a man Mother Nature managed to get just right, and as their marriage unravels, O'Reilly's heroine declares with a one of world-weariness: "Ultimately, my story fails as a fairytale."

Nobody knows better than O'Reilly the crooked course life can take and the potential for disappointment.

Read a review of Happily Ever After? , by Barbara Sungaila at Australian Women Online here.

Happily Ever After? has also been reviewed by Chicklit Club.

Grazia magazine May 24, 2010  says 'An irreverent and painfully honest take on the fairytale of wedded bliss. O'Reilly is a wickedly funny, naughty, new Australian voice.'

The West Australian newspaper June 1st, 2010 lists Happily Ever After? as one of its Recommended Winter Reads.

Madison magazine, July 2010 issue, says 'This book will inevitably be lumped with far inferior chick-lit fare - but it deserves better, because it will prompt you to reevaluate your own ideas of forgiveness, unfaithfulness and when to walk away.'

Woman's Day August 16 2010, calls Happily Ever After? 'a clever, sexy story for the reader who's outgrown chick-lit.'

Happily Ever After? was officially launched at the Exchange Hotel, Balmain on May 11th 2010. Ian Rogerson, from Jono & Dano radio show fame,  launched the book in front of a bumper crowd.  The photograph shows me (centre) with Ian Rogerson and Jane Curry, my publisher.

On October 7 2010 I was a special guest at the Sydney University Faculty of Pharmacy 10th Anniversary Dinner. I spoke about my transition from pharmacist to writer. Great to catch up with some old friends. P.S. Photo behind is me at my graduation ceremony, aged 21!