Rainbow Rowell

Author Rainbow Rowell has been writing for most of her adult life. But the former journalist and ad writer burst onto the fiction scene in a big way when her 2013 novel "Eleanor & Park" was heaped with unanimous critical praise and mountains of awards, and landed her an army of loyal fans that include the kind of disenfranchised teens she covered so sensitively and realistically in her breakout hit. Unbelievably, Rowell, 42, has released three books since, including "Landline," "Fangirl," and her latest, "Carry On." All her books—including the first, "Attachments"—have shared the same uncanny ability to reach out and grab the reader by the heart and squeeze. But that’s where the similarities end. Rowell’s books are rarely aimed at the same audience, cover the same topic, or adhere to any formulaic genre tropes that dog so many stories that are equally popular with teens.

Her latest novel, "Carry On," is the biggest stretch yet. It’s a lush fantasy based on a fictional Harry Potter–esque book series, "Simon Snow," that featured prominently in Rowell’s best-selling "Fangirl." The titular fan girl of that book wrote hugely popular fan fiction, "Carry On, Simon," based on a love story between Simon (our Harry Potter proxy) and Baz (a vampire with shades of Draco Malfoy). Rowell took her meta-textual interaction with the popular J.K. Rowling series one step further in "Carry On," where Baz, Simon, and their friends Agatha and Penelope take control of the narrative.