Erin Sterling is the pen name of Rachel Hawkins, a prolific author born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. Rachel has been writing since Kindergarten when her first book, a tense thriller involving a unicorn, a witch, and a princess, was praised as "very imaginative" by her teacher and "a searing work of genius" by her mother.

Since then, she has written over a dozen books for children and adults and been published in more than twenty countries. As Rachel Hawkins, she wrote the New York Times bestselling The Wife Upstairs, a Southern Gothic twist on Jane Eyre that the Southern Review of Books called "a thrill ride," and Entertainment Weekly dubbed "a gothic thriller laced with arsenic." Her latest thriller, Reckless Girls, also debuted on the New York Times list with Kirkus calling it "a soapy, claustrophobic page-turner."

When not writing modern Gothic thrillers as Rachel Hawkins, she pens paranormal romantic comedies under the name Erin Sterling. Her debut romance, The Ex Hex, was a Book of the Month pick as well as a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

Rachel currently lives in Auburn, Alabama with her husband, son, and five cats. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and picking up an assortment of creative hobbies she often gives up on after a week or two.