The Alpena native has written “The Happily Ever After,” published by Page Publishing. She completed the book in late 2019, but was unable to have a launch party in 2020 because of the pandemic.

“My book is a fantasy adventure novel,” Leahy explained. “COVID kind of influenced the marketing/launch plans. But I’ve had people reading it over quarantine.”

An avid reader herself, Leahy has always been drawn to fantasy and folklore.

“I’ve always been a fantasy lover,” said Leahy, 38. “Even when I was a kid I would dive into the fantasy/folktale section in the Alpena library there. So really it’s not hard for me to be inspired at all. A lot of my inspiration comes from the books I’ve read or the stories and folktales. So it’s kind of all incubating in there.”

She’s been reading and writing since she was five or six years old. Creativity just flows through her veins onto the paper.

Leahy, whose maiden name is Welling, explained where she got her inspiration for “The Happily Ever After.”

“I’ve been writing all my life, and I’ve had a lot of stories just kind of sitting around, and I was actually on maternity leave with my first son, and I was looking through things that I had begun and not finished, and I just picked up a pen and started writing, and the rest of the story just kind of came about,” she said. “I was actually surprised I still had a novel in me. Because I wasn’t one of those lucky authors that can work full-time and write at night. I was just not able to do that, and so I hadn’t written in quite some time. So when I went on maternity leave, I had a lot of extra time on my hands, so it just kind of flowed.”

The story is a fairy tale with a twist. It starts where most other tales end — when the prince rescues the princess.

“Sometimes, things aren’t always what they seem. People aren’t what they seem. You aren’t happy just because you want to be. The story doesn’t end where you want it to end. It isn’t what you thought,” an excerpt from the book notes.

“You can kind of think of it as a whirlwind romance set against a backdrop of a dystopian fairytale,” Leahy explained. “My story starts where the traditional fairytales usually leave off, at the very end, when the prince rescues the princess, and they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. Only, that doesn’t happen in this case. The princess just seems to be constantly getting into trouble, and they don’t really know what’s going on.”

She said there are four main characters.

“Three out of the four of them are looking for their own ‘happily ever after’ and what that means to them,” Leahy said.

The main focus is the personal journey of Princess Butterfly.

“Butterfly’s character is really broken,” Leahy noted. “She doesn’t know where she belongs anymore and she feels guilty about everyone that’s been fighting and dying for her over the years. The story is mainly her journey as she tries to re-enter the world and figure out who she is and where she belongs, while they’re, at the same time, being continually attacked by dragons.”

If you like romance, fantasy and lots of dragons, you will love this book.

Leahy lives in Lakewood, near Denver, Colorado, with her husband and their son. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Colorado Christian University, and her associate’s degree from Alpena Community College. She is a 2001 graduate of Alpena High School.

She has many favorite books, but three authors in particular have inspired her.

“‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,’ by C.S. Lewis, first threw me into the world of fantasy, and will always hold a dear place in my heart,” Leahy said.

“‘Gone With the Wind,’ by Margaret Mitchell, still remains one of the best books I’ve ever read (in my opinion), not because of the romance, for me, but rather because it was a book about survival at heart, and depicted so well and so emotionally an entire world that vanished after the Civil War.

“Charles Dickens is one of my favorite authors, first, because he obviously believed in happy endings, second, because he had such a unique and engaging narrative voice, and third, because his characters were all so vibrant and distinct, they wrapped you right into the story.”

For more about Leahy, visit kristineleahy.online, where you can find links to purchase her book, available locally at Parallel 45 Books & Gifts in Alpena, and online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is available in paperback or Kindle.