The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay is already the author of two memoirs, and now she’s expanding her bibliography with her first foray into fiction.
The Bravo star, 51, will release her new novel, Eternal Glow, on October 6, and Us Weekly has an exclusive first look at the cover.
According to the book’s description, Eternal Glow follows Celeste, a Mormon wife and mom, who’s invited to participate in “ultra exclusive beta testing” for a “mysterious” beauty procedure. At first, the procedure — called the Eternal Glow — improves Celeste’s complexion as well as her life, but then “gruesome side effects begin to deform her face, and soon Celeste suspects a shadowy figure of stalking her every move.”
As Celeste “clings to the last vestiges of her dream life,” she realizes that “her ‘quick fix’ comes at an unholy cost.”
“I’ve spent years telling my real story, so stepping into fiction feels like opening the door to a whole new world,” Gay tells Us of her new book, described as a blend of “campy body horror and satire” ideal for fans of The Substance and Big Little Lies. “It’s been incredibly freeing to create characters and explore the kinds of stories I’ve always loved — full of complicated people, big emotions and the secrets we keep. I can’t wait to share it.”
Gay became an author in 2023 when she published her first memoir, Bad Mormon. One year later, she published the 2024 sequel, Good Time Girl. Both books explored her upbringing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her subsequent decision to leave the religion.
Speaking to Us last year for a RHOSLC cover story, Gay explained that she wanted to try her hand at fiction because it allows her to write without inhibition — and share a peek behind the curtain at what goes on in the beauty industry.
“I’ve learned to think with kind of the mantle of perfectionism and reputation and veneer with my Mormon brain,” the Bravo personality said. “So fiction lets me strip that off and really tell stories without any filter and be unflinchingly honest about both the beauty industry, which HIPAA laws prevent you from speaking of openly, and my own creative brain. I think having it be fictionalized is giving me opportunities to just really go big and broad and dark. And I love it.”
From Love Island USA’s Vanna Einerson to The Real Housewives of Mormon Wives’ Layla Taylor, a number of Utah stars have been candid about getting plastic surgery at young ages. Take Demi Engemann, for example, who told Page Six in 2024 that “Utah’s known for having very minimal procedures done to where we still look […]
Gay cofounded the medspa Beauty Lab + Laser several years before RHOSLC premiered on Bravo.
“Beauty Lab was something I crafted out of thin air and never thought it’d be successful,” she told Us last year. “I had no medical background. I’d been an entrepreneur, like, by the skin of my teeth, just a side hustler, and so to have it become — dare I say, an empire. I mean, it’s a multimillion-dollar business. We have two locations. We employ 30 people and our Google reviews are through the roof, and our customer base is so loyal and so happy that it’s just really as far-reaching in my life, and it was transformative in my life.”
Eternal Glow hits shelves on October 6 and is available for preorder now.