Success Across Genres

Laura Kamoie at a book signing event

Laura Kamoie '92 makes another stop on the book tour for 'America's First Daughter.'

Laura Kamoie ’92 hits the bestseller list again, this time with a historical fiction novel

by Tony Moore

The author of more than 25 romance novels, Laura Kamoie ’92 (history) is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, and her books have been translated into French, Polish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Japanese, German, Portuguese and Spanish (so far). With her latest book, America’s First Daughter, Kamoie has stepped away from her Laura Kaye pen name, and her subject matter is a change of pace as well.

Success, though, is a constant.

Debuting on The New York Times bestseller list at No. 7 in e-books and No. 17 in combined paperback/e-book and on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list at No. 10 in fiction paperbacks, America’s First Daughter, which Kamoie co-wrote with Stephanie Dray, is a historical novel exploring the life of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Patsy. For Kamoie, writing the book wasn’t so much a departure from her usual genre as an extension of her love of writing.

“Bringing together my love of storytelling with my lifetime of historical study was a truly rewarding experience,” says the former U.S. Naval Academy professor. “It was a whole new writing and research challenge, and I learned a lot about writing history through the experience.”

The work is based on research into Thomas Jefferson's 18,000 digitized letters, and Kamoie was happy to dig into America’s past.

“The research and the scope of the book were challenging,” she says, “but it was certainly great fun to return to my love of history.”

And it won’t be the last time Kamoie and Dray go back in time to write a book together, as the pair is currently working on My Dear Hamilton (forthcoming from William Morrow), which delves into the life of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, an American founding father and subject of the hit Broadway musical.

“Incredibly, Eliza's life might've been even more interesting than Patsy's,” Kamoie says.

Kamoie’s 26th Laura Kaye novel, Hard to Serve, releases June 28, so the month of June holds a little something for all her fans.

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Published July 1, 2016