The bed and breakfast, Inn BoonsBoro, opened in February 2009 after a $3 million renovation was completed.
The renovation project was dealt a serious setback in February 2008, when the hotel was "gutted" in a fire caused by a damaged liquid-propane tank.
Roberts and her husband, Bruce Wilder, decorated each of the eight guest rooms in the former Boone Hotel based on fictional characters. The rooms include Nick and Nora (from Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, Westley and Buttercup (from William Goldman's The Princess Bride), and Elizabeth and Darcy (from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice).
Wilder owns a bookstore/cafe across the street from the historic hotel, and their son, Dan, and his wife, Stacie, own the nearby Vesta Pizzeria and Family Restaurant.
In addition to her romance novels, Roberts also writes a popular thriller series under the pseudonym J.D. Robb, the sci-fi police "...in Death" series.


