Ann Wertz Garvin Books In Order

Publication Order of Ann Wertz Garvin Standalone Novels

Ann Wertz Garvin
Ann Wertz Garvin PhD is a professor, a nurse, and a USA Today Bestselling Author. She believes everything is funny and just a bit sad. She writes stories about women that have a good sense of humor that do too much in a world that asks much too much from them.

Ann believed that writing a novel would land her a beach house. She hasn’t gotten one yet, however she has bought sunglasses, so she is ready.

She created the Tall Poppies because she loves readers, writers, and helping women out to get their voices heard.

Ann teaches writing at Drexel University Masters of Fine Arts program and at the University of Wisconsin Continuing education. She’s also held positions at Southern New Hampshire and Miami University in their Masters of Fine Arts programs.

Ann is also a highly sought-after speaker on leadership, health, and writing and has taught extensively in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as at festivals all over the country.

Ann’s debut novel, called “On Maggie’s Watch”, was released in the year 2010.

“On Maggie’s Watch” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2010. Maggie Finley has returned from the big city with her husband to her hometown in Wisconsin, where she reunites with her best friend and waits for the any-minute-now birth of her child. She is determined to make a safe haven for them on Hemlock Road, which is a neighborhood that’s always mean community, security, and love. One possible way to do that is to resurrect the now defunct Neighborhood Watch program.

Mostly The Watch folks are mainly concerned with litterbugs and dog poop. However Maggie’s done a bit of digging and found a possible threat that lives right around the corner. One threat that has to be eradicated. And the more she attempts to take control, the more out of control she becomes.

This is a poignant yet hilarious read. Maggie’s antics have you laughing however the driving force behind them gets you teary eyed.

“The Dog Year” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2014. Dr. Lucy Peterman wasn’t built to have a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her fierce support, compassion, and warmth, she has always worked hard and put her trust in the system. She isn’t the type of person that ends up in a twelve step program after getting caught stealing supplies from her hospital.

However that was Lucy before her accident. Before her unborn child and husband were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like it was a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act which kept her demons at bay, she is faced with a decision: get help or have her medical license taken away.

Now she is sharing her deepest fears with a group of strangers, pinning her hopes on her husband’s final gift, avoiding her loneliness by befriending this one troubled girl, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her own past. It is only when she gets adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group out to the dog park that she starts truly bonding with the ragtag dog loving addicts. And she finds that an unplanned and chaotic life may be the sweetest of all.

Lucy is a fantastic character who is quirky, incredibly troubled, whip-smart, and sympathetic. Every member of the cast is rather memorable and some found themselves missing them ever since they finished reading the novel.

“I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 2016. Psychologist Tig Monahan’s life is completely falling apart in every way possible. Her mom’s dementia is tiring her out, her sister vanishes inexplicably and leaves her newborn behind, and her boyfriend just heads off to Hawaii without her.

When a session goes terribly wrong, she finds she is unemployed and a part of the sandwich generation attempting to take care of everybody and failing badly. Right when she believes she is able to redefine herself on the radio, playing an arbiter of fairness, she learns of a family secret which nobody saw coming.

It is going to take all she has, plus a sense of humor to see her way clear to having a better life, however none of this is going to happen if she is unable to let go of her past.

It isn’t enough that Ann is hilarious, then she has to go on and be compassionate and wise about the hopeful car wreck that makes up a lot of humanity.

“I Thought You Said This Would Work” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in the year 2021. A road trip is liable to drive anybody right over the edge, particularly a couple of ex-best friends in this novel about messy histories, broken bonds, and the power of forgiveness.

Widowed Samantha Arias has not spoken to Holly Dunfee in quite a while. Which is for the best. Samantha prefers to avoid conflict. Holly, who is blisteringly honest, craves it. What they’ve still got in common puts them right back on speed dial: a mutual love for their best friend of twenty-five years, named Katie that is hospitalized right now with cancer and needing a small errand from her former college roommates.

It is simple: travel across the country together, steal her awful ex-husband’s VW camper, locate Katie’s diabetic Great Pyrenees at the Utah rescue, and take him back home to Wisconsin. If this will make Katie happy, then no favor is too daunting (two thousand miles), too large (a hundred pounds), or too illegal (ish), even once a boho D-list celeb hitches a ride and pushes the trip in fresh new directions.

Holly and Samantha are following each new turn, toward unexpected romance, second chances, and self-discovery, and at last blowing off the dust on the secret that ruined their friendship. Out on the open road, they are going to attempt to put it back together. For themselves, and particularly for the love of Katie.