Dee Ernst Books in Order

After her husband leaves, romance novelist Mona Berman questions the happy endings she has built her career around. Rewriting her fictional heroine’s life becomes entangled with family upheaval, publishing pressures, and her own unexpected romantic possibilities.

Rock musician Michael Carlucci believes he has found lasting love with Diane Matthews, a mother nearly twenty years his senior. Content with her independence, Diane must decide whether their attraction is worth risking the life she already enjoys.

Mona returns from Hollywood to face Ben’s marriage proposal and two sudden weddings within her family. Her doubts about remarriage and her daughter’s whirlwind engagement strain the relationship she hoped would become her happy ending.

Ellie Rocca loves the quiet of Mt. Abrams until a neighbor disappears and the woman’s husband is caught lying. With Mother’s Day approaching, Ellie and her friends follow clues suggesting the family’s life conceals dangerous secrets.

Widow Kate Everett downsizes her home and changes careers expecting a calmer new chapter. Instead, returning relatives, unemployment, a family wedding, and two possible romances force her to reconsider the future she thought she had organized.

Dee Ernst collects short essays drawn largely from her blogs, considering subjects such as yoga, social media, shopping, and family football viewing. Humor about ordinary life sits alongside more serious reflections on experiences including Hurricane Sandy.

Ellie and Sam attend a murder-mystery weekend at a Vermont inn with his law-school friends. A real death turns the gathering into an investigation, and their belief that police arrested the wrong person draws them back into danger.

A buried skeleton and a fresh corpse disrupt Mt. Abrams’ Founders’ Day celebrations. Ellie Rocca suspects the deaths are connected, despite Detective Sam Kinali’s efforts to keep her away from an investigation into the older remains.

A performer is murdered at Mt. Abrams’ Halloween scavenger hunt, and a friend of Ellie’s daughter becomes the main suspect. Having promised to stop investigating, Ellie recruits her friends to uncover the truth on her behalf.

Librarian Annie Reynolds joins friends for their annual Hamptons getaway, hoping for relaxation and perhaps romance. An encounter with an actor becomes an accidental kidnapping scandal, transforming their quiet holiday into an adventure pursued by the FBI.

A guest is strangled at the birthday party Ellie organizes for her mother. With her detective boyfriend unable to take the case, Ellie and the caterer who found the body investigate despite her promise to stop meddling.

A blizzard strands visiting author Beth Graves Riley and her assistant at Ellie Rocca’s home. When Beth is found dead, revelations about stolen stories and personal secrets convince Ellie that the murderer was among her dinner guests.

Jenna discovers that her late former husband left their home to a son she never knew existed. Sharing the house with widower Craig and his daughters brings unexpected attraction, complicated by grief and his plans to leave town.

Chris moves to Cape Edwards determined to take more chances, beginning with a house needing far more work than expected. Renovating with the McCann brothers brings possible romance, an old boyfriend, and a threatening land deal.

Teenage Carrie helps a mysterious French prince who disrupts a wedding, then involves her older sister Sara. His attraction to Sara and claims of a duty to fight evil draw both sisters into an unfamiliar and dangerous world.

Divorced mother Risa inherits an inn and farm from the family of the father she never knew. Settling there with her children introduces romance and a troubling legacy involving generations of women and the nearby graveyard.

Facing writer’s block and a looming deadline, novelist Maggie Bliss travels to Paris to finish her manuscript. Her ex-husband’s arrival and an unexpected encounter with a Frenchman disrupt the peaceful retreat she hoped would restore her creativity.

After scandal ruins her hotel-management career, Lucy Giannetti accepts a job restoring a neglected hotel in France. Rebuilding the business brings demanding work, new friendships, and an attraction that may help her rebuild her own life.

After losing her restaurant, boyfriend, and father, Sarafina Castellano starts again in a quiet Southern town. New relationships and a niece’s request for help draw her toward family reconciliation and the cooking passion she fears she has lost.