T. Elizabeth Bell, author of the new Martha’s Vineyard novel Sheepish, never intended to write a novel. Now she has three on the shelves: Goats in the Time of Love, Counting Chickens and Sheepish.

Nearly 10 years ago, Ms. Bell began writing as a summer hobby, working with the concept of goat scaping and romance. Next thing she knew, she had a book-length story that became Goats in the Time of Love, published in 2019.

“My motivation after I wrote Goats in the Time of Love to get it into the hands of more readers was to give everybody what I call a virtual vacation to Martha’s Vineyard and make them feel like they have actually been here,” she said.

After positive reactions to her first novel, she went on to publish Counting Chickens in 2021 and now Sheepish this past May.

Sheepish is a story of San Francisco tech girl Aly Bennett, who finds herself on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friend Hannah, her sheep Dandelion, a fisherman named Whit, and his best friend Chas.

The book captures themes of romance, self-growth and friendship, as well as the magic and realities of living on the Vineyard.

All three of Ms. Bell’s novels center around Martha’s Vineyard, a place she knows and loves as a summer resident.

“My novels are very much grounded in the Vineyard and its landscapes, its food and everything else,” she said.

Ms. Bell said that in setting her novels on the Vineyard, she gets to include her favorite spots and activities, creating Island-specific anecdotes throughout the book.

“I love it when I hear people say it reminds them of why this is such a special place or that it feels like an extension of their vacation, or that they then feel they have to go to Martha’s Vineyard after reading or that it feels like they have already been there,” she said.

Ms. Bell always selects an animal as the central character, inspired by the Island’s landscapes and farms.

For Sheepish she did a lot of local research, working at Allen Farm in Chilmark and Flat Point Farm in West Tisbury.

“Dandelion is named after a bottle-fed lamb Kaila Allen-Posin told me about who would follow her around.... And then also Flat Point Farm is roughly, with some changes, the landscape I was picking to put Hannah’s house,” she said.

Ms. Bell also looks to highlight social issues.

“The divide between local and summer people, and washashores that are kind of in between, as well as recognizing the Brazilian community as a very critical component to the Island,” she said.

In Sheepish, Ms. Bell also touches on issues of affordable housing.

“I think it makes the novel feel more real to weave in some of these issues and recognition into the novel,” she said.

But at its core, her books are supposed to be lighthearted beach reads, which she hopes serve as a breath of fresh air for readers.

“It provides an escape into a fictional world that’s also kind of real, and given everything going on in real life, whether it’s in your personal life or what you are reading in the news, I like the idea that it offers an escape for a little while,” she said.

T. Elizabeth Bell will give a book talk on August 9 at the West Tisbury Library.