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Diana Gardin Books in Order

Browse Diana Gardin books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy where-to-start tips for her romance, suspense, and new adult novels.

Last updated: July 5, 2026

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18 books

Out of the Ashes

by Diana Gardin

2013

After a fire destroys her family, Paige Hill starts over with college, work, and her best friend at her side. Falling for campus golden boy Clay Forbes feels impossible enough, before his obsessive ex turns dangerous.

Settling Ashes

by Diana Gardin

2014

Paige wants a fresh start after heartbreak sends her running from the town she tried to call home. But Clay, an unresolved death, and the wreckage of their breakup keep pulling her back toward pain and unfinished love.

Wanting Forever

by Diana Gardin

2014

Sam Waters goes on the run after one explosive night meant to protect the girl he left behind. On Nelson Island, feelings for heiress Aston Hopewell force him to choose between his past, his guilt, and a future he never expected.

Ever Always

by Diana Gardin

2015

Hunter Waters has loved Ever Allen for years, and she happens to be his brother's girl. When circumstances push them together, old loyalties and buried feelings collide in a messy, emotional choice no one escapes cleanly.

Falling Deep

by Diana Gardin

2015

Reed Hopewell is Charleston's hottest rocker, but Hope Dawson only cares that he may be the one person who can help her. As trouble at home worsens, their attraction grows into a romance built on trust and rescue.

Last True Hero

by Diana Gardin

2015

Army Ranger Dare Conners is supposed to use his time off to rest, not fall hard for Berkeley, an admiral's daughter with her future already mapped out. Their summer romance is intense, complicated, and shadowed by secrets.

Ashes Adrift

by Diana Gardin

2016

Drew Garrick never planned to fall for Gillian Ambrose. But when Gillian's brother is released from prison and old danger floods back into their lives, friendship and attraction turn into something far harder to walk away from.

Man of Honor

by Diana Gardin

2016

After his mother's funeral, ex-Army Ranger Drake Sullivan runs straight into Mea Jones, the woman he never forgot. Their chemistry is instant, but both are carrying damage that makes getting close feel dangerous.

Saved By The SEAL

by Diana Gardin

2016

Grisham Abbot dives in to save Greta Owen from drowning and is blindsided by how much she gets under his skin. As he struggles with his own scars, a stalking threat makes their growing connection even riskier.

Mine to Save

by Diana Gardin

2017

Bennett Blacke never expected his first Rescue Ops assignment to be guarding hacker Sayward Diaz. When her father's hidden cartel ties put her in danger, sparks fly between them and every choice becomes more complicated.

Promise To Defend

by Diana Gardin

2017

Ronin has lived with grief and guilt since his wife's murder, until Olive Alexander unsettles the life he has kept carefully numb. When Olive is threatened and her home is ransacked, protecting her becomes the one mission he cannot fail.

Sworn to Protect

by Diana Gardin

2017

When Rayne Alexander returns after nine years away, the man she left behind can tell she is hiding something dangerous. Old feelings flare as he tries to protect Rayne, uncover her secrets, and stop the threat shadowing her.

The Lilac Sky

by Diana Gardin

2017

Sent away from a dying Earth, Isla crash-lands on the planet Troma and falls in with the wary warrior Rygen. Survival quickly becomes something larger as politics, rebellion, and Isla's own dormant power begin to close in.

Just Like Breathing

by Diana Gardin

2018

Arden is shattered by devastating loss, and Flash is rebuilding after losing his sight. Their chance connection in Savannah becomes a tender, hard-won romance about grief, recovery, and the possibility of wanting life again.

Lawson

by Diana Gardin

2018

Lawson and Indigo Stone go undercover as car thieves and fake lovers on his first Night Eagle op. The job is dangerous enough, but when the chemistry turns real, one wrong move could wreck both the mission and their hearts.

Ryder

by Diana Gardin

2019

Ryder's latest Night Eagle assignment turns personal fast, protect Frannie from the criminal ex-husband she barely escaped. But Frannie is hiding a major secret, and the closer they get, the harder it is to separate love from betrayal.

Just Like Home

by Diana Gardin

2020

Brantley Hughes has kept the biggest truth of her life locked down for years. When Axel, a grounded former F-16 pilot and her best friend's brother-in-law, becomes the one man she must trust, desire and danger arrive together.

Handsome Devil

by Diana Gardin

2021

This standalone opens the Hellfire Liquor, Inc. world with adult romance, sharp chemistry, and the kind of emotional complications that turn attraction into real trouble. It feels like the start of a connected story world with plenty of room to grow.

Where should I start?

If you want romantic suspense first: Sworn to ProtectPromise To DefendMine to Save
If you like wounded military heroes: Last True HeroSaved By The SEALMan of Honor
If you want her most emotional new adult drama: Out of the AshesSettling AshesAshes Adrift
If you prefer coastal romance with family drama: Wanting ForeverEver AlwaysFalling Deep
If you want newer fast-paced SEAL stories: LawsonRyder

Author bio

Diana Gardin grew up along the coast of southeastern Virginia, and that beachside start still feels close to her work. She has said that writing was always one of her first loves, even before publication was a realistic plan. In college, though, she took a different path first, earning an undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies and a master's in elementary education.

For eight years, she taught elementary school in both Virginia and South Carolina. She spent those years in the classroom with young students, including second and third graders, learning the kind of patience and flexibility that probably helps any novelist sooner or later.

Then life shifted.

After the birth of her first child, Gardin left teaching and stayed home, and that change gave writing room to move from longtime interest to real daily work. What started as making space for family also became the moment she gave herself permission to finish a book of her own.

Her debut novel, Out of the Ashes, was published in 2013. It also introduced a pattern that shows up again and again in her fiction, characters who have been burned by grief, trauma, danger, or their own past choices, and who have to rebuild while learning how to trust someone else.

That thread runs through a lot of her best-known books. In Wanting Forever, Last True Hero, Sworn to Protect, Promise To Defend, and Just Like Breathing, she returns to wounded heroes, women carrying their own heavy histories, and relationships that have to be earned under pressure. Some of her stories lean more contemporary, some are romantic suspense, and some sit in the new adult space, but the emotional center is usually the same. She likes people who are trying to start over.

She also likes places that feel lived in.

Coastal South Carolina, beaches, college towns, bars, ranches, security teams, and tight-knit friend groups all show up in her books. They are not just scenery. In a Diana Gardin novel, setting usually presses on the characters a little. It shapes the mood, the class dynamics, the risks they take, and the versions of themselves they are trying to leave behind.

Even when the plot gets high stakes, a SEAL on protection duty, a heroine on the run, a survivor picking up the pieces, Gardin stays close to emotion first. Readers who click with her work tend to come back for that mix of chemistry, hurt, loyalty, and recovery. The romance matters, but so does the process of getting two damaged people to believe they might still deserve something good.

She has not stayed in one lane, either. Alongside her military and suspense-heavy books, she wrote the coastal romances of Nelson Island, the angsty Ashes series, and The Lilac Sky, a young adult story that sends its heroine from a dying Earth to the alien world of Troma. The genres shift, but the pull toward resilience, connection, and chosen family stays recognizable.

Today, Gardin lives in South Carolina with her family and is a mom of two. She has described writing as her second full-time job, and she has also shared a few small personal details over the years, including a love of steak, sugar cookies, Coke, and reading by the beach.

The beach still shows up. So does the hope that even badly shaken people can build a life that feels steady again.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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