Cece Monroe Mystery Books in Order

The Cece Monroe Mystery series begins with a woman leaving one life behind just as a murder pulls her into another. Cece Monroe, formerly Sister Mary Cecilia, is an ex-nun trying to find her place outside the convent when she accidentally overhears a senator's incriminating confession.

Minutes later, he is dead.

Cece believes the confidence belongs in the confessional, even though the authorities see her as the closest thing they have to a witness. Her determination to protect that boundary frustrates the investigators and makes her a problem for Ace Jackson, an Army Ranger turned detective assigned to keep her safe.

Ace has a difficult job. Cece is smart, caring, curious, and entirely too willing to investigate danger for herself. She is also new to life beyond the convent and is trying to work out what she wants her future to look like. Their partnership develops in the middle of a murder case, with each of them testing the other’s patience.

The first novel, Harmful Habits, was previously published as Kicking The Habit. It has the energy of a romantic mystery, mixing danger, confessional secrecy, family complications, and a heroine who refuses to let the police do all the work. Cece's sister, grandmother, and Ace's colleagues add humor and emotional stakes to the investigation.

The tone is lighter than a hard-edged thriller, but the threat is not a joke. Someone wants Cece silent, and the closer she gets to the truth, the more she needs to decide whether trusting Ace is safer than trying to manage alone.

Cece has good intentions and a knack for landing in impossible situations.

Start with Harmful Habits. It establishes Cece's break from religious life, her first encounter with Ace, and the murder case that gives the series its mix of romance, suspense, and fish-out-of-water comedy.