Karen Witemeyer was voted #1 Reader’s Favorite Christian Historical Author of 2023 by FamilyFiction magazine, bestselling and Carol Award and Christy Award–winning author Karen offers warmhearted historical romance with a flair for humor, feisty heroines, and swoon-worthy Texas heroes. She and her husband make their home in Abilene, Texas.
In this interview, Karen shares some of her thoughts regarding her latest book, Cloaked in Beauty.
FF: Cloaked in Beauty is book three in your Texas Ever After Series of fairy-tale retellings with a Texas twist. Can you share a little bit about where this series started, and where we are now with book three?
This has been such a fun series to write. Since the time I was a little girl, I have adored fairy tales and the happy endings they provide. I grew up with classic Disney movies and storybooks and thought it would be fun to take these beloved stories and give them a cowboy makeover. The first romantic Disney fairy-tale feature films included Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, so as I started imagining my Texas-based stories, those were the inspirations that first came to mind, and what I decided to focus on for my series.
FF: This book is not just a retelling of one fairy tale but a mash-up of two—Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. What led you to combine these two stories for this novel when your previous books focused on only one fairy tale each?
When I started brainstorming a Sleeping Beauty story, the biggest challenge was to give my heroine a reason to be raised in a secluded place away from her family for most of her life. I just couldn’t imagine a loving mother sending her daughter away with anyone she didn’t trust implicitly to keep her child safe and raise her with the same set of values and faith that she herself held. What about a grandmother—the woman who raised the heroine’s mother? So instead of three fairies, our heroine is raised in a secluded forest by her grandmother. A scene oddly reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood. In Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Aurora had woodland creatures as friends, so why not give my heroine a wolf pup to raise and a red hooded cloak to wear? The ideas took off from there. I modeled my heroine mostly after Red Riding Hood, but gave her the backstory and plot of Sleeping Beauty.
FF: Can you give us a brief introduction to the characters of Letty Hood and Philip Carmichael? What should readers know about these two?
Scarlett Radcliffe (a.k.a. Letty Hood) has been living in seclusion with her grandmother for fifteen years to protect her from the uncle who wants to claim her inheritance for himself by doing away with his competition. Isolated from the outside world, Letty has led an incredibly sheltered life, yet her faith and heart are strong, and when circumstances force her to accept the protective escort of an unknown man, she strikes out on the journey with boldness…and the company of her pet wolf.
Philip Carmichael is a Pinkerton detective on a nearly impossible mission: find the Radcliffe heiress and bring her home to her mother…alive. He has little patience for spoiled rich girls and expects the journey to Houston to be torture, but the woman he encounters is courageous, spunky, and unafraid to pull her own weight. In fact, she ends up pulling his weight, too, for part of the journey, earning his respect and cracking open a corner of his heart in the process.
FF: What has been your favorite fairy tale to revamp so far? Or is the best yet to come?
I’ve had a great time with all of these stories, and I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite. I am planning a fourth story in the series that is based on my favorite fairy tale of all time, though— “Beauty and the Beast.” Who doesn’t love a bookish heroine who teaches a wounded hero how to love? My Beauty and the Beast story will be an epilogue of sorts to the Texas Ever After Series. It will be a short novel published independently in June 2025.
FF: What fun elements did this book concept present while writing?
I had a lot of fun playing with the wolf and dragon imagery from the combined stories. The wolf came to symbolize nobility, loyalty, and heroism, where the dragon symbolized malevolence, greed, and a hunger for power. These images took many shapes and forms throughout the story, some more easily recognizable than others. It was a fun way to pay homage to the original fairy tales while transforming them to fit the current story.
FF: What lessons can we learn still learn from fairy tales today and, specifically, from Cloaked in Beauty?
Fairy tales carry timeless messages filled with hope. The hope that good will triumph over evil. The hope that true love exists and can be found. The hope that love will last forever. In Cloaked in Beauty, Letty faces deadly threats and emotional unknowns. She barely remembers her mother and longs to reconnect with her yet fears the relationship might be too neglected to repair. She must trust people she’s never met and find the courage to be vulnerable. It is her hope and faith that see her through both the physical and emotional journeys she faces.
FF: What are you most excited for readers to experience as they pick up this entertaining story?
Philip and Letty go on an adventurous journey fraught with danger, struggles, and near-death experiences, yet it is the emotional journey they face that tugs hardest on the heartstrings. I hope readers find both journeys exhilarating and enriching.
FF: What aspect of this story did you enjoy writing the most?
I’ve never written a wolf before. I had a lot of fun bringing Rusty to life and making him an integral piece of the story. He definitely has personality, and his loyalty to Letty makes him truly heroic. And I loved making him a rival of sorts for the hero, at least until Philip wins him over.
FF: Can you share with us what you’re working on next?
I just started a new series that has the working title The Secret Society of Spinsters. Book one features a temperance reformer determined to rid her town of the evils of liquor and a deputy under pressure by the voting male populace to keep the annoying spitfire under control. There will be lots of headbutting, erroneous assumption making, and even an arrest or two for these two on the bumpy road to love.
Cloaked in Beauty
Texas Ever After Series #3
Karen Witemeyer
Bethany House
Genres: Historical Romance
Release Date: December 17, 2024
ISBN-10: 0764240439
ISBN-13: 978-0764240430
Book Summary:
In the heart of a pine forest in Texas, Letty Hood has spent the last fifteen years of her life hidden away with her grandmother to escape the deadly schemes of an uncle who wants her dead. Now, with her twenty-first birthday on the horizon, she is forced to accept the escort of a stranger and return to Houston in secret so she can claim a birthright that will make her one of the wealthiest women in Texas. If she lives long enough to inherit.
Pinkerton agent Philip Carmichael has one duty: get the Radcliffe heiress home alive. Expecting a spoiled girl, Philip is surprised to encounter a woman of rare strength with a kind soul and keen wit. As they journey together, Letty’s resilience wins his admiration, breaking through his hardened cynicism. Yet the threat to Letty grows more menacing with every mile, and Philip fears that keeping her out of harm’s way may be just as impossible as keeping her out of his heart.
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