The first book, Ever After, is scheduled for publication in July 2023 followed by a second as-yet-untitled work. Eberlen makes the move from Mantle, which published her most recent book Only You in 2020 and won a seven-way auction for Miss You in 2015. I’m now living in London. I love everything about this city – the buzz, the diversity, the culture, the parks, the sparkling River Thames – and this is also reflected in ONLY YOU. Kate Eberlen has gone beyond the initial star crossed romance of Tess and Gus to explore the lasting nature of relationships with her characteristic sensitivity, perception and humour in this inspirational book’ Martha Kearney

When Tess and Gus meet on a beautiful morning in Florence, they are strangers. However, they soon discover that their lives have overlapped many times over the last sixteen years. Attending the same events, the same university, holidaying in the same places. Fairy tales are stitched into the fabric of our psyches from the earliest age. The stereotypes of women can be baleful or even damaging, and yet the narratives of plight, heroism and redemption are imprinted on our minds as indelibly as our familial relationships. I think this is what makes closet romantics of even the most cynical among us. The completion of a narrative with a happy or even a tragic ending leaves us with a profound sense of satisfaction. Though I resist the idea that the female characters are idealised versions of how women should be, there is something about the purity of romance expressed in ballet that touches the soul. A captivating story about love…at times heartbreaking and at others uplifting… and an ending that is as poignant as it is perfect. I really loved it’ Clare Swatman A captivating story about love...at times heartbreaking and at others uplifting... and an ending that is as poignant as it is perfect. I really loved it' Clare Swatman

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As they explore Italy together, they grow closer, despite their differences. Tess is something of a dreamer, Gus is a doctor and a professional. They are determined to stay together when they return to real life in London. They are facing so many challenges. Tess and Gus’s after is the story, and it’s a heartbreaking one. Despite all that goes wrong and the novel’s poignant portrayal of illness, family issues and class differences, there is such a clear love between the characters. However, it is Gus that has to face the biggest loss, and at times the reader is not sure that he is going to make it through. It really seems as though they can make this work, and then tragedy touches their lives. The couple have to deal with grief and loss, and serious illness, along with maintaining their daily lives. Gus struggles and Tess becomes much more than a lover, she’s the person who is there constantly, despite his moods, his unexpected behaviour and his change in personality. I’ve always loved dancing, from ballet classes as a little girl, to ballroom classes in recent years. Dance is a major theme in my new novel ONLY YOU, which will be published in the UK on April 30th by Pan Macmillan. For me, the giddy exhilaration of a Viennese waltz feels a lot like falling in love and I wanted to see if I could recreate that unique joy in a novel.

Such a beautiful book. I so loved the concept of it - that the writer didn’t focus on the lead up to the happily ever after, as a normal romance novel would. Obviously the expectation would be that the story would follow all of Tess and Gus’s missed chances for years, which in itself is gripping, but the fact that the author starts right when they finally meet properly, and instead only briefly references all those twists of fate throughout, is fascinating. Because Tess’s mum and auntie are correct - falling in love is just the beginning, and it’s what comes after that’s important. Alternating between the perspectives of Tess and Gus, the novel explores the conflicts and challenges of new love and old loyalties, passion and duty, logic and belief, with readers racing to find out if the couple can or can’t be together. In Ever After, Kate Eberlen re-introduces her characters Tess and Gus who we first met in her 2016 novel ‘Miss You’. Publisher Sam Eades signed the two-book deal for world English rights with Mark Lucas at The Soho Agency. Lucas is also handling translation and screen rights and US rights are being handled by Jessica Purdue at Orion Books.

My son has always loved dancing too. As a child, he trained with the Royal Ballet School and competed in the ballroom and Latin team at university. The first thing he did, after we’d told a few close friends and family my news, was book ourselves into a tea dance at the Floral Hall in Covent Garden. Dancing is good for you. Like any physical exercise, it gets your muscles working and heart rate up, but it’s also stimulating for your mind. The former prima ballerina and Strictly judge, Darcey Bussell, recently made a television programme highlighting the therapeutic effects of dancing on mental health. There’s something about the coordination of movement, music and expression that makes human beings feel better when they do it. When my cancer treatment made me too weak to dance myself, I found life-enhancing pleasure in watching others trip the light fantastic. Storytelling always helps us through times of crisis. It’s a way of processing our feelings and finding comfort in the universality of human emotions. As a storyteller myself, I find blissful relaxation in absorbing narrative told wordlessly through dance and music – whether these are profound explorations of the human spirit, such as Kenneth Macmillan’s Manon, Cathy Marston’s recent new work The Cellist, or the iconic fairy stories of classical ballet. Ever After is described by the publisher as the compelling story of two strangers falling head-over-heels in love on holiday in Italy and what happens after they return to the reality of their day-to-day lives in London.

I admire the dancers’ almost superhuman physical skills, the precision, the bravery, the technique, but it is the artistry of combining these with music and storytelling, that transports me to a place where I feel emotions more strongly and see beauty more clearly. For me, watching ballet is like getting a shot of pure happiness. Fourteen months ago, long before anyone had heard of coronavirus, dancing became a lifeline for me. I went to hospital for what I thought was a routine test, and came away with a diagnosis of cancer. The day I consented to aggressive chemotherapy, where the consultant had scrawled ‘death’ as a possible side effect, became one of the best days of my life. After emerging dazed from the oncologist appointment, I dashed across London to get to the opening night of Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House. It is the sunniest of productions and my two favourite principal dancers, Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov, were performing. They were simply sensational and the whole company was on terrific form. This was my idea of heaven.

Six weeks ago, after chemotherapy, radiotherapy, major abdominal surgery and more chemotherapy, my oncologist informed me that my latest scan results were good enough for me not to need further treatment for the time being. My son immediately booked us a tea dance at the Floral Hall. Unfortunately, that same afternoon, I got a text from the government saying that, as a vulnerable person, I'm not allowed to go out for at least twelve weeks.