Rose McKittrick

Rose's first novel, Not the End, will be published in Spring 2026.

Widowed historian Cariad Baker is trying to keep her life small: two grieving children, one half-finished book about the dark ages, and absolutely no romantic complications.

Then Adam King moves in next door.

Adam is a tattooed ex-NHL goalie, now coaching the Nottingham Outlaws, and apparently raising a teenager who technically isn’t his son. He is charming, infuriating, far too attractive, and exactly the sort of man Cari does not trust. 

Their first impressions are terrible. Cari judges him before she understands him; Adam clocks it instantly and decides she is exactly as uptight as she looks. Their children immediately make everything worse. Soon the two households are tangled together through teen drama, escaped guinea pigs, broken fences, family disasters, Christmas chaos and Cari’s secret attempt to write a romance novel inspired by the man next door she is definitely not falling for.

But wanting someone new is complicated when everyone still sees you as a grieving wife, but you’re not sure you ever were one. And Adam has his own damage: a fractured family, a daughter he failed to raise, and a lifelong terror of becoming the sort of father he survived.

Not the End is a laugh-out-loud funny contemporary romance about midlife desire, messy families, second chances, and the people who arrive in your life when you thought the story was already over.