Abby Jimenez Books in Order

Abby Jimenez was born in Washington, D.C., lived in Virginia until she was seven, and then grew up in California. She was the oldest of three daughters, and by her own account school was not always a smooth fit, though creative writing stayed with her. Before books and bakery fame, she worked the kind of jobs many people know well, retail, restaurants, long hours, and whatever helped keep things moving.

Work came early for her.

In 2007, while pregnant with her third child and after losing her job as a retail manager, she took a few cake-decorating classes and started baking out of her home kitchen in Palmdale, California. That small start became Nadia Cakes. The bakery grew fast, won Food Network's Cupcake Wars, and later moved with her family to Minnesota, where new shops opened in Maple Grove and Woodbury.

Writing took a little longer to become the other half of her life. During a Boundary Waters camping trip, she told her daughters a story that turned into a young adult manuscript. That book never became the one readers know, but it proved something important, she could build a story all the way through. From there she turned toward romance, a genre she had loved for years, and started writing whenever she could grab a spare minute.

A lot of that writing happened on her phone, in the middle of regular life.

Readers first met her through The Friend Zone, a debut that mixed sharp jokes with infertility, friendship, and a love story that hurts a little on the way to the happy ending. The Happy Ever After Playlist and Life's Too Short followed with the same signature blend, funny banter, lovable pets, and heavier subjects like grief, illness, and the fear of running out of time.

Her next run of books, Part of Your World, Yours Truly, and Just for the Summer, pushed that style even further. These novels are full of small-town warmth, hospital chaos, and people who are very good at taking care of others but not always themselves. Readers tend to come for the chemistry and stay for the emotional honesty, especially around anxiety, family pressure, class differences, burnout, and chosen family.

Then came Say You'll Remember Me, which opens up a newer corner of her fictional world while keeping the same mix of wit and real-life weight. Across her books, certain things show up again and again, Minnesota settings, food, dogs, kind men, guarded women, and characters who use humor to get through hard days. Even when the setup sounds light, Jimenez usually has something deeper on her mind.

She has the kind of career that makes more sense when you know she built both halves of it herself. She is a Minnesota Book Award winner for Life's Too Short, and her books have also landed major bestseller attention, including a Good Morning America book club pick for Just for the Summer. She now lives near Minneapolis with her husband, Carlos, their three daughters, and a pack of very internet-famous dogs. That busy, funny, slightly chaotic energy runs straight through her work, and it is a big part of why her romances feel so easy to sink into.