Effie Kammenou believes it’s never too late to chase your dreams, follow your heart, or change your career. She is proof of that. At one time, long ago, she’d dreamed that by now, she would have had an Oscar in her hand after a successful career as an actor. Instead, she worked in the optical field for over forty years while raising her two daughters.
In 2015, three years after her mother died from pancreatic cancer, she published her debut novel, Evanthia’s Gift, the first book in a women’s fiction, multigenerational love story and family saga inspired by her mother and her Greek heritage. Kammenou continued to pick her father’s brain for stories of his family’s life in Lesvos, Greece, and their journey to America until his recent death in November 2022 at 100. Her interview with him was published in the nationally circulated magazine Reminisce.
Evanthia’s Gift: Book One in The Gift Saga was a 2016 finalist in the Readers Favorite Book Awards. Book two, Waiting for Aegina, was awarded finalist status in the 2019 International Book Awards. Chasing Petalouthes, the last book in the trilogy, also placed in the Readers Favorite Book Awards for the 2018 contest.
Love is Worth Fighting For won silver, second place for contemporary romance in The Readers Favorite Book Awards, and most recently won first place in the BookFest Awards.
Kammenou’s latest series is The Meraki Series. Love is What You Bake of it, Love by Design, and Love is Worth Fighting For are available in print and Kindle. Book four, Love in Plain Sight, will finish the series. Each book focuses on a sibling and their quest for love and professional success despite a sometimes stifling and meddling family. A mystery shadowed by a historical event in recent Greek history is slowly uncovered throughout the series.
As a bonus, each book contains the traditional Greek recipes featured throughout the novels, many of which were passed down from her Athenian mother.
Effie Kammenou is a first-generation Greek-American who lives on Long Island. When she’s not writing or posting recipes on her food blog, you can find her entertaining family and friends or traveling for ‘research.’ She recently returned to her theatrical roots by occasionally working as a background actor in film and television productions.
She’s a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Women Fiction Writers Association and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theater Arts from Hofstra University.

www.effiekammenou.com