A best-selling author, Royce is renowned for her thrillers that examine puzzles of identity. Reef Road, a national bestseller, was named one of the best books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews and an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist, and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America. 

The Ocean House Author Series—a salon-style conversation that Royce hosts in partnership with Bank Square Books—brings world-class authors to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. It has featured a wide range of fiction and non-fiction writers, including Chris Bohjalian, Katie Couric, Zibby Owens, and Emma Straub.

Royce writes a quarterly column for Hey Rhody Magazine, sharing her book recommendations and news with the Ocean State. She began as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time.

She and her husband have worked together to restore the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut; the 100-year-old Deer Mountain Inn in Tannersville, New York; Martin House Books in Westerly, Rhode Island; and other main street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills. They have also led preservation projects such as the Mountain Top Library and Fromer’s Farm in Tannersville, New York; the restoration of Westerly’s Ocean House, a Victorian-era wooden seaside resort hotel built in the 1860s that reopened in 2010. Also in Westerly, they led the restoration of the United Theatre, which was completed in 2022. It has become a cultural center bringing together various forms of art, music, and dance.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in modern foreign languages and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Lake Erie College.