Kelley McNeil Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Kelley McNeil is a literary fiction author from South Florida best known for her debut novel “A Day Like This.”
She has said that writing has always been something she has done and in fact she wrote about her life in a dozen journals ever since she was seven years old. During this time, she used to read every novel she could find in her mother’s bookshelf when school broke for the summer.

While she loved the idea of writing, she never considered becoming a professional author until she was in her thirties. As an adult, she had gravitated towards a career in entertainment marketing and concert promotions and worked for DiCesare Engler Productions for several years.

During the 2000s, she worked several roles in the industry and was Civic Arena’s marketing director before she moved to upstate New York. Still, she never lost her desire of becoming an author and now living in the quieter lands of New York, she thought she had a chance to do it.

McNeil believes that working in entertainment primed her for a later career as an author. As a promoter of theatrical events and concert tours, she had to manage complicated events and keep everything organized, which is very similar to writing a novel.

Even more importantly, working in promotions requires one to be quite the storyteller. One needs to sell the promise of an experience and capture the emotion of a concert to an audience that will drive them to purchase tickets.

A good presentation of a night at the theater or concert thus evokes some brilliant escapism much like what an excellent storyline would.

When she moved to Catskills in New York, she had to take her daughter to school every day and this is when inspiration for her debut novel struck.

Kelley McNeil went on to develop her idea in her debut novel “A Day Like This” that she published in 2021. Annie Beyers is the lead character who has to deal with allegations that her daughter never existed after they are involved in a car accident.

The Amazon bestselling title was just the breakthrough she needed to launch her career. She has asserted that she wanted to write a novel about a mother longing for different aspects of her life and her intuition. The novel is an exploration of the dynamic between the facts presented to a mother and what she believes she knows.

According to the author, writing the novel turned her attention to the research of alternate theories on illness and mental health which are all over the story that she writes so eloquently. The lead character has strong feelings on mental health but McNeil handles it in a respectful way so that it is not off putting.

Before she wrote “A Day Like This” McNeil had written another manuscript even though her agent did not believe that it was good enough to publish. It was then that she decided to take a different direction and started writing the manuscript that would become her debut.

Kelley now makes her home in South Florida even though she can sometimes be found in London. When she is not writing her novels, she can be found listening to good music or taking a walk with her daughters.

“A Day Like This” by Kelley McNeil is a novel that asks what if everything you have ever believed, known and loved just disappeared. The lead in the novel is Annie Beyers, a woman who has everything she ever needed. She has an adorable daughter, loving husband and beautiful house that anyone would like to have.
One ordinary day she decides to take her daughter to the pediatrician and hours later wakes up to learn that she had been in a car accident. When she asks that her daughter be brought to her, they tell her she has no daughter.

In fact, everything in her life is the same to what she remembers and five years of her life seem to have been a figment of her imagination.

Her marriage is about to end and she finds herself living the life of a successful artist rather than a housewife in an upstate farmhouse. Instead of an estranged sister, she has a best friend and her dog, which she believed was dead is alive and kicking.

Over time, the unfamiliar present and the memories from her past begin to blur as she is haunted by a knowledge and vision of things she’s unable to explain. Could everyone be lying to her and will she ever be able to discover the truth of the life he now has to live?

3 Responses to “Kelley McNeil”

1. Carroll Adams: 2 years ago

   A Day Like This had me captivated all day. I couldn’t read the pages fast enough. I wanted to know which Annie was the Real Annie! I felt like I was right there with her struggling to make people believe her. Then traveling trying to get answers, then resolving for the life she really didn’t want, without Hannah. I won’t put any spoilers here but I Loved the end, it also made me want more, I didn’t want it to end! I am waiting for another novel, I just can’t say patiently. Kelley McNeil has a #1 fan and that’s Me!!

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2. Don Kern: 2 years ago

   After reading “A day Like This”, I have become a fan. Can’t wait for her next novel.

   Reply
3. Caroljo McClain: 2 years ago

   I loved A DAY LIKE THIS and thought I had the plot figured out until the final twist.
   Instead of 5 stars, I give a 10!

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