ONCE UPON A TIME IN DOLLYWOOD

Ashley Jordan (she/her) is a millennial from Atlanta by way of Brooklyn. She attended Spelman College, obtaining a degree in Psychology and a lifelong love and appreciation for women’s stories. While she currently works in public health, she has embraced writing as a hobby since penning her first short story in second grade. When Ashley isn’t at the day job or writing, she is either at a Beyoncé concert, rewatching Mad Men, or arguing about basketball with anyone who will listen. In 2023, she became a Reese’s Book Club LitUp Fellow.

“Once Upon a Time in Dollywood is a moving, captivating, beautiful debut! Ashley Jordan is a star in the making. This book and these characters will stick in your head for a long time. I can’t wait for the whole world to read it.” —Jasmine Guillory, New York Timesbestselling author of Flirting Lessons

“Amusing one minute and heart-wrenching the next, Ashley Jordan’s deeply emotional debut is a lesson in learning to forgive, heal, and love. It is, in a word, breathtaking.” —Farrah Rochon, New York Times bestselling author of Pugs & Kisses

“[A] masterfully wrought and tender romance about rediscovering joy after heartache.” —Noué Kirwan, author of Frequent Fliers and Long Past Summer

“Tender and sexy all at once, Once Upon a Time in Dollywood is a beautiful story about learning how to face who we truly are and what we truly want. A heartfelt, emotional journey, and one I would take over and over again.” —Ashley Herring Blake, USA Todaybestselling author of Dream On, Ramona Riley

“Ashley Jordan’s debut is a richly emotional romance between two people with guarded hearts who find solace in each other. Once Upon a Time in Dollywood is the perfect reminder that sometimes new beginnings require a change of perspective and the courage to let someone in.” —Regina Black, author of The Art of Scandal

RGC Discussion Questions for Once Upon a Time in Dollywood

1. In an interview, the author, Ashley Jordan, says: “Because we live in a world that demands perfection from women, expecting us to hold everything together, without complaint, while carrying the weight of everyone else’s needs, I wanted to create someone who eschews those expectations, and still gets to be seen, chosen, and loved.” How do you see Eve navigating societal expectations of perfection, particularly as a woman? Does her relationship to those expectations evolve throughout the story?

2. The book’s dedication includes the line: “To all the Black girls and women mistaken for difficult when they just needed to be seen.” How does Eve’s experience as a Black woman intersect with the societal pressures to be “perfect” or “acceptable”? What moments in the novel reveal the weight she carries? What helps her begin to let go of some of that weight?

3. Throughout the novel, there is an ongoing conversation about the tension between doing what you should do and what you want to do. Both Eve and Jamie feel bound by responsibilities to others that often conflict with their own desires. How do they each navigate and eventually balance these competing forces? What do you think the author is inviting the reader to reflect on through this theme?

4. Eve’s friendship with Maya provides something distinct from her romantic and familial relationships. What does this friendship offer her that her other relationships do not? Why do you think friendship becomes a safer, more nurturing space for growth? Does Jamie’s relationship with his brother serve a similar purpose?

5. Jamie’s relationship with his ex, Lucy, and his concern for his son are a painful part of his past and present that deeply effect his relationship with Eve. Were you surprised by the conversation he and Lucy were able to have at the end of the book in their empty house? What did you make of her self-awareness and acknowledgement of the pain she caused?

6. Therapy is portrayed in the novel not only as a tool for healing, but also as something characters initially resist. Were you surprised by Eve’s or others’ hesitation around therapy? What societal or personal factors contribute to this resistance?

7. The book opens with a quote from Audre Lorde: “Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it.” How do both Eve and Jamie relate to the concept of pain? In what ways does pain shape their personal growth? Do you think their love story could exist without the pain they each experienced?

8. Eve processes her experiences and pain through her writing. What role does her creative process play in her healing? Were there any artistic choices she made that surprised you? Did she make any sacrifices for her art that surprised you? What inspired you about her journey as a writer?

9. The chapters alternate between Eve and Jamie’s points of view, and text messaging is used as an epistolary form of communication. How did the dual perspective shape your understanding of their inner lives and motivations? What might have been lost or gained if the novel had been told solely from Eve’s point of view? What did the text exchanges additionally reveal about Jamie and Eve’s communication styles and the evolution of their relationship? Have you read other books that use either of these structural choices? Did these formats enhance or detract from your reading experience?

10. Near the end of the book, Jamie quotes Audre Lorde: “Once we recognize what it is we’re feeling, once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy.” Eve recognizes the quote. How does this moment bring the novel full circle from its opening epigraph? In what ways have both Eve and Jamie transformed in order to be able to “demand joy” in their lives?

A note from the author, via Reese’s Book Club

Dear Reader,

We are better than we think, and not quite what we want to be. – Nikki Giovanni

I think about this quote from the late and indisputably great Nikki Giovanni often. In context, she said this in 2007 at the memorial service for Virginia Tech, speaking about triumphing in the face of tragedy. But I think it applies to all of us, every day, in our extra, ordinary lives. And I bring it up now because that’s where this novel lives.

I wrote this book thinking a lot about that dance we all do between the best and the worst parts of life. The space between heartbreak and healing where we seem to spend most of our time. Because yes, it’s about the HEA, but it’s also about the excitement and uncertainty of the beginning, and the messy, beautiful, complicated middle. (Even though I hate writing the messy, beautiful, complicated middle.)

I like to believe readers connect most deeply with characters who are flawed and trying anyway, because they’re the closest thing we have to avatars of ourselves. We mess up and we make amends. We feel like too much and not enough, but somehow, never adequate. Most of us are carrying something heavy, and still, we get up, we keep going, we (hopefully) choose softness when the world wants us to harden.

At the heart of this novel are two people doing the same: a woman who’s trying to outrun her past, and a man who’s been forced to reassess his future. They unexpectedly collide in this tiny mountain town of Gatlinburg, TN, and what unfolds isn’t just a love story, but a story about the courage to be vulnerable, to be hopeful, and yes, to be messy.

I was especially deliberate in my rendering of my heroine, Eve, an accomplished Black woman who’s still so far from having it all figured out. She falls apart, she shuts down, she often says the wrong things—if she says anything at all. Because we live in a world that demands perfection from women, expecting us to hold everything together, without complaint, while carrying the weight of everyone else’s needs, I wanted to create someone who eschews those expectations, and still gets to be seen, chosen, and loved. Because women don’t need to be tidy or easy to deserve grace. None of us have to fit into anyone’s box to deserve joy.

So, with that in mind, I hope you’ll root for these characters as much as I did. I hope they make you laugh, cry, cringe, and swoon. And above all, I hope you leave this story reminded that you’re better than you think, even if you’re not quite where you want to be.

Thank you for taking a chance on a debut author. You are now part of my dreams coming true!

-Ashley