Rachel Hawkins Books

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Rachel Hawkins is an American author that writes paranormal romance novels. She published her first novel in 2010. A native of Dothan in Alabama, Hawkins was initially determined to teach, and she did so for a while.

However, the author’s career began to unravel because she did not have a teaching certificate. Hawkins had acquired a BA in English. She was able to teach for a time because she had an alternate certificate.

However, the alternate certificate only permitted her to teach for three years. Once this period elapsed, the author’s place of employment told her that she had to get a teaching certificate to keep her job.

While Hawkins eventually decided to leave teaching because of the toxicity she associated with the career, it took her a while to reach that conclusion. Initially, the author attempted to secure her teaching certificate.

She was desperate to keep her job. But her school kept throwing obstacles in her way. She was on the verge of graduating when the institution suddenly told her that she had several extra classes she was expected to complete before her educational journey could end.

Even though she had spent three years teaching, she was also expected to spend a semester working as a student-teacher without pay. Hawkins was frustrated. This was in 2007. Back in 2004, Hawkins attempted to write her first novel. She produced over a hundred pages of the manuscript before she got a teaching job in high school.

It was around this period that she also started grad school. Hawkins was certain that she would return to the novel within a year’s time. She was wrong. She became so busy that the manuscript fell to the wayside.

It did not help matters that she fell pregnant soon after. Once her teaching career started to crumble in 2007, she was forced to revisit her publishing goals. At the time, the author’s place of employment had a decent principal that was doing what he could to protect her job.

He eventually found a way to keep her on as a permanent substitute of sorts. However, this did little to calm Hawkins who couldn’t ignore the fact that her career stood on a knife’s age. The author’s decision to abandon teaching can be imputed to a riot that happened at her school.

The situation escalated to a point where the police were summoned. Several children had to be tackled and maced. Following these traumatic events, the author’s husband, who also worked as a teacher, quit his job and then encouraged her to do the same. Considering how unhappy and frustrated she had been for so long, Hawkins agreed. She saw the rationale of staying home to write her novel.

She started the manuscript that eventually became ‘Demonglass’ but she couldn’t finish it. Ideas for new novels kept tempting her away. After attempting and failing to complete various novels, she eventually went back to ‘Demonglass’ in 2008.

Because of her naivety, Hawkins queried an agent even before her novel was done. But to her surprise, despite some hiccups, she found a friendly ear in Holly Root who offered to represent her, giving Hawkins the platform she needed to succeed as an author.

Best Rachel Hawkins Books

Hawkins doesn’t get her inspiration from any particular medium. Her ideas come from various sources, and they come in pieces. It takes her weeks and months to turn them into fully formed concepts for novels. Some of Hawkins’ best books include:

Hex Hall: Sophie Mercer was still quite young when she learned that she was a witch. Her mother, a human, was supportive. But she couldn’t prepare Sophie for her prom night during which a spell wong and Sophie drew all the wrong attention.

Now her father, a European Warlock, has sent her off to Hex Hall, a reform school where her peers are just as magically gifted and even more dangerous.

Demonglass: Sophie Mercer thought that her identity as a witch was the only secret her family was keeping from her. But then she went to Hex Hall and learned that she was actually a demon, one of only two on the mortal plane.

When Sophie went to London, she expected a procedure called the Removal to destroy her powers. She did not expect to meet other demons.

When Does The Next Rachel Hawkins book come out?

Rachel Hawkins doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is The Heiress and was released on January, 9th 2024.

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