Cece Laramie Books in Order

The Cece Laramie novels are two linked domestic-suspense stories about a woman whose drive to preserve a polished family life pulls her into messier, riskier territory. The books follow Cecelia, or Cece, Laramie, a wife and mother living among status-conscious neighbors, where gossip and appearances can be as threatening as open conflict.

In Pretty Dolls and Hand Grenades, Cece is coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder and an unusual doll collection while trying to meet the expectations of her affluent social circle. When she learns her husband has been unfaithful, anger turns into a plan for revenge. A fellow housewife becomes involved, and what begins as a deeply personal score-settling effort moves toward choices with real consequences.

This is not a story where payback stays simple.

Reinard keeps the tension rooted in the things Cece has most to lose: her children, her marriage, her reputation, and her freedom. The first book has a darkly comic edge at times, but the pressure steadily grows as Cece has to decide how much she is willing to do, and whether she can still trust the people who say they are helping her.

Last Doll Standing picks up three years later, when Cece is trying to rebuild her life. Her seventeen-year-old daughter, Josie, disappears just as a major New York ballet performance approaches, and the family is sure she has not simply run off. Then Katelyn, the woman tied to the earlier crisis, resurfaces with demands of her own. Cece is forced back toward the past she hoped was over.

The second novel broadens the stakes from a troubled marriage to a missing-child case and the unfinished business of an old crime. Police suspicion, a mystery boyfriend, and Katelyn's bid to clear her name leave Cece with competing loyalties and no easy way out. The series asks what happens after a reckless decision, when consequences take years to arrive.

These books work best in order. Start with Pretty Dolls and Hand Grenades for Cece's first crisis, then continue with Last Doll Standing to see how its fallout shapes the danger facing her family. Expect suburban drama, escalating trouble, and a heroine who is often in over her head but refuses to look away.