Meet Kristel

Ecuadorian writer of romance novels and avid reader of this literary genre, Kristel Ralston is passionate about stories set in European castles and palaces. Even though she really liked her profession as a journalist, she decided to give a new twist to her career and travelled to the old continent to obtain her master’s degree in Public Relations. During her stay in Europe, she read several romantic novels, which enthralled her and inspired her to write her first manuscript. Since then, neither her multifarious personal library nor her weekly agenda have ever lacked books of this literary genre.

In 2014, Kristel gave up her 9-to-5 office job at a major Ecuadorian company, where she worked as director of communication and public relations, and decided to devote herself entirely to writing. Since then she has published nineteen books, a number that only promises to keep growing. This Ecuadorian author not only works independently on the Amazon KDP platform, she also entered into contracts with publishers such as Grupo Editorial Planeta (Spain and Ecuador), HarperCollins Ibérica (with its romantic label HQÑ), and Nova Casa Editorial.

The author was one of the five finalist in the 2nd Literary Contest for Indie Authors (2015) sponsored by Amazon, El Mundo, Audible and Esfera de Libros. This contest received more than 1200 manuscripts of different literary genres from 37 countries with Spanish-speaking population. Kristel was the only Latin-American writer and moreover, the only romantic novelist among the finalists. The author was also on the shortlist for the romance novel contest Leer y Leer 2013, organized by the Vestales publishing house from Argentina and the literary blog Escribe Romántica.

Kristel Ralston has published several novels, such as Antes de medianoche (Before midnight), El precio del pasado (The price of the past), Estaba escrito en las estrellas, Entre las arenas del tiempo, Brillo de luna, Mientras no estabas, Punto de quiebre, La venganza equivocada, Un acuerdo inconveniente, Lazos de cristal, Bajo tus condiciones, El último riesgo, Regresar a ti, Un capricho del destino, Desafiando al corazón, Más allá del ocaso, among others. Many of her novels have also been translated into English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.

The author was nominated by a renowned Ecuadorian magazine, Revista Hogar, as one of the Women of the Year 2015 for her outstanding literary work. In the same year, she participated in the International Book Fair of Guadalajara, in the Amazon stand, as one of the platform’s best-selling romantic novelists and as a finalist of the Second Indie Literary Prize Contest. She repeated this experience in March 2016, sharing her testimony as a successful Spanish-speaking Amazon KDP writer, touring several universities of Mexico City and Monterrey.

Kristel is the first Ecuadorian romantic novelist to gain both national and international recognition. She has set her temporary residence in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and firmly believes that dreams do come true. The author enjoys travelling around the world and writing novels that invite readers not to stop dreaming about happy endings.