About Jen
Jen Dodrill, retired Navy wife and homeschool mom, is living out her dreams on the pages of her books, bringing readers compelling stories of inspiration and hope for good times and bad.
Her family-focused novels depict her values of cooperation, connection, compassion, and community, demonstrating the importance of helping one another brave the waves of the world together.
As a mother of five, family life and travels have left her with decades of stories to tell, and she cherishes the time she has now to tell them, in between her honored role as Grandma, her passion for reading, and her adoration of all things coffee.
Mission Verse:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
**This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Birds Alive! An Empty-nesters Cozy Mystery, Book #1
Peg—widow, mom blogger, and empty nester—desperate for a new hobby, forms the Empty Nesters Birding Group. On their first outing overlooking beautiful Pensacola Bay, a birder dies from an allergic reaction to peanuts in the birdseed. Seed that should be peanut-free.
It all comes back to the bird!
Where’s the Quetzal? An Empty-nesters Cozy Mystery, Book #2
Peg Howard has planned the perfect baby shower for her oldest daughter. But the return of Estelle and Roger Keaton disrupts her peace, reigniting old mysteries.
How bad can a birder be?
No Egrets! An Empty-nesters Cozy Mystery, Book #3
Peg finds herself searching for missing birds and coming up with a nest of secrets – including neighborhood scandal, wonky business deals, and, of course, a dead body (or two)!
Will she be saved by a birder?
Trinity Sands Beach Club
What do a widow, a newly divorced woman, and a retired professor of art history have in common?
They all came to Trinity Sands Island to find a simple life without any entanglements. But instead, they are each confronted with a mystery and another chance at romance. Will they be brave enough to face the possible dangers of solving a mystery and losing their hearts?
Keep an eye out for Bedlam at Bridal Falls coming Oct. 2026!
Finding Ginny
A heartwarming multigenerational drama about addiction, forgiveness, and a grandmother’s fight for custody.
Kat Johnson is a widowed elementary school teacher living a quiet life in Virginia Beach—until her estranged daughter returns after eight years, leaves behind a six-year-old granddaughter Kat never knew existed, and disappears.
When Becky vanishes, and Ginny is taken across state lines, Kat must fight for custody of the child who has become her world. Facing a failing heart, a painful family history, and impossible legal odds, Kat turns to her faith, her friends, and a strength she never knew she had.
A human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift. By focusing on springtime and summer, we have turned the natural process of life into a process of loss rather than a process of celebration and appreciation.
Life is neither linear nor stagnant.
It is movement from mystery to mystery.
Just as a year includes autumn and winter, life includes death, not as an opposite but as an integral part of the way life is made.
— Rachel Remen
