Jessica Kate Books in Order

Jessica Kate is an Australian writer of contemporary inspirational romantic comedies. Her stories make room for sharp banter, messy family situations, faith, and the awkward fact that the person getting on your nerves may also be the person who understands you best.

Romantic conflict is clearly part of the fun for her. Kate has described herself as a fan of love-hate rom-coms, and that interest runs through her books in rivals, exes, stubborn coworkers, and neighbors who would rather argue than admit there is a spark.

She likes a good clash of personalities.

Kate’s path as a writer has run alongside regular working life. Earlier on, she worked in a boarding house at a school, and she has also worked designing corporate training. It’s a useful background for a romance writer: workplaces, group dynamics, and the strange little pressures of everyday responsibility all give people plenty to disagree about.

Away from the page, she has co-hosted the StoryNerds podcast with Hannah Davis, talking about fiction, movies, and television. She has also shared an affection for garlic bread, science fiction, superhero stories, and The X-Files. Those pop-culture interests show up in the lively, conversational feel of her work.

Her first full-length novel, Love and Other Mistakes, arrived in 2019.

The book follows Natalie Groves and her former fiancé, Jeremy Walters, after he returns to Charlottesville seven years after leaving her. Natalie needs work, Jeremy needs help with his baby and teenage niece, and neither has escaped the hurt that broke them apart. It is a second-chance romance, but it also spends time with illness, family strain, forgiveness, and the slow work of rebuilding trust.

In A Girl’s Guide to the Outback, Kate moves from Virginia to rural Australia. Youth pastor Samuel Payton leaves his ministry to help his sister save the family farm, while startup expert Kimberly Foster follows with a practical proposal and a great deal of frustration. Their workplace friction becomes a fish-out-of-water story about family, belonging, and whether either of them can let go of old fears.

Her later Amity Creek stories take that same fondness for friction into a Washington small town. Drive You Crazy pairs newspaper editor Ashley Anderson with her guarded neighbor, Justin Hastings, after a car problem forces them to share rides. The short follow-up, The Frenemy Kiss, returns to teachers Harry Latu and Maisie Hastings, whose long-running rivalry gets more complicated when they are cast as bride and groom in a town play.

Kate’s romances are built for readers who enjoy humor but do not want the characters’ problems brushed aside. Her couples may trade zingers, but they also deal with grief, family expectations, self-doubt, faith, and the challenge of learning to be honest. The result is warm contemporary romance with plenty of conflict before the connection.