College students book series in reading order

by Lev Grossman

by Colleen Hoover

Francine Pascal (née Rubin, 1932–2024) was an American author whose name is tied to the Sweet Valley books for young adults. Sweet Valley High anchored that collection, was adapted for television, and branched into spin-offs such as The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. The catalogue opens with Hangin' Out with Cici (1977) and also carries the Fearless series. Subjects include twins, sisters, high schools, friendship and dating. Most Sweet Valley books came out in the 1980s and 1990s, and several titles were re-released decades later.

Carolyn Keene is a Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, the credit on the Nancy Drew mysteries. Mildred Wirt Benson, one of the writers behind the name, used it from 1929 to 1953 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. The catalogue lists 647 Carolyn Keene books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery (all 1930) and reaching Vans & Villains (2026). Series include Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Nancy Drew Diaries, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and Dana Girls Mystery Stories.

Anna Todd

17 books• 7 series

Anna Todd, born Anna Renee Todd on March 18, 1989, is an American novelist and a New York Times bestseller for the After series, the Brightest Stars trilogy, The Spring Girls and The Last Sunrise. Todd started out writing on a phone through Wattpad, where After became the most-read series on the platform, passing two billion reads. Todd has worked as a producer and screenwriter on the After and After We Collided films and founded Frayed Pages Media in 2017. The catalogue holds 17 Todd books, from After (2014) to The Last Sunrise (2025), with college students and contemporary romance among the subjects.

Robin Jones Gunn

99 books• 14 series

Robin Jones Gunn is an award-winning Christian author of more than 100 books. Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen are series for teen girls, and Christy Miller's characters carry on in Christy and Todd: College Years, Christy & Todd: The Married Years, Christy & Todd: The Baby Years and Katie Weldon. Glenbrooke and Sisterchicks are further series, and Sisterchicks in Gondolas won the Christy Award in 2007. The site lists 99 books from 1985 to Shortbread in the Highlands (2026), starting with the Billy 'n' Bear titles of 1985.

Molly McAdams writes contemporary romance turning on love triangles, college-age characters and coming-of-age crises. Twenty-nine catalogued books run from From Ashes (2012) to Stealing Chances (2022), among them the Forgiving Lies, Thatch, Brewed, Sharing You and Secrets in L.A. series, with stories set in Texas and San Francisco. No new McAdams title has been recorded since 2022.

Lev Grossman

19 books• 5 series

Lev Grossman, born on 26 June 1969, is an American novelist and journalist and the author of the Magicians trilogy: The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011) and The Magician's Land (2014). From 2002 to 2016 Grossman was book critic and lead technology writer at Time. Later work includes the children's book The Silver Arrow and its sequel The Golden Swift, The Bright Sword, which reimagines the King Arthur legend, and the screenplay of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. The catalogue lists 19 books from Warp (1997) and Codex (2004) to The God of Sleep (2026), including Magicians graphic novels. Subjects include coming of age and medieval manuscripts.

Jen McLaughlin writes contemporary romance. The catalogue holds 15 books from Out of Line (2013) to A Wedding in Maine (2025), and the recorded subjects cover man-woman relationships, college students, Marines, criminals and surfers, with Boston among the settings. Five series sit under the name: Sons of Steel Row, Stepbrother, Love Is the Rose, Back in the Game and McCullagh Inn. The median McLaughlin book runs 270 pages, and the listing is marked ongoing.

Colleen Hoover

28 books• 6 series

Colleen Hoover is an American novelist, born Margaret Colleen Fennell on December 11, 1979, whose work sits mainly in romance and young adult fiction. The catalogue holds 28 Hoover books, from Hopeless and Slammed (both 2012) to Woman Down (2026). Hoover's series include Hopeless, Maybe, Slammed, Never Never and It Ends With Us, and the 2016 novel It Ends with Us is the title Hoover is best known for. Many Hoover books were self-published before a publishing house took them on. Sales stood at roughly 20 million books by October 2022, and Time magazine listed Hoover among its 100 most influential people in 2023.

Contemporary romance and romantic suspense are the two fields Canadian author Elle Kennedy works in. Born on 19 January 1982, Kennedy has won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America. The catalogue credits 78 books to Kennedy, starting with Bad Moon Rising (Short Story) in 2007 and reaching Bad Idea, due in 2027. Kennedy's series include Killer Instincts, Off-Campus, Briar U, Campus Diaries, Avalon Bay, Outlaws, Prep and Small Town Scandals. Subjects tagged on the books include hockey and sports romance.

E.L. James

9 books• 4 series

E.L. James writes erotic contemporary romance. Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker (2011) and Fifty Shades Freed (2012) open the catalogue, and Grey (2015), Darker (2017) and Freed (2021) retell that story as told by Christian. The Mister (2019), The Missus (2023) and Land of Ghosts (2026) follow, making 9 books in all. Dominance and submission run through the subjects.

Bella Andre is a New York-born American author of contemporary romance and the writer of The Sullivans series, a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Andre's books had sold over 8 million copies as of 2019. Andre also writes as Lucy Kevin for Four Weddings and a Fiasco and Married in Malibu, and the Billionaire for Me series appeared as Bella Riley. The catalogue lists 87 books from Crown Jewels (2004) to Tempted in Love (2026), with Maverick Billionaires, Bad Boys of Football and Hot Shots: Men of Fire among the other series.

Jamie McGuire is an American novelist working in romance and new adult fiction. Her 30 catalogued books span 2010 to 2026, from Providence (2010) to Beyond Redemption (2026), and Beautiful Disaster brought her a wide readership. The Maddox Brothers, Happenstance, Crash and Burn, Red Hill and Sovereign Saga series make up most of that run, with several titles self-published. Contemporary relationships, college students, firefighters, weddings and marriage recur across the books. McGuire was born in 1978 and comes from Oklahoma.

Tom Perrotta

15 books• 3 series

Tom Perrotta, born Thomas R. Perrotta on August 13, 1961, is an American novelist and screenwriter. Election (1998) and Little Children (2004) are Perrotta's best-known novels, and both became films nominated for Academy Awards; Perrotta and Todd Field co-wrote the 2006 Little Children screenplay, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Leftovers (2011) became an HBO series co-created by Perrotta and Damon Lindelof. The catalogue opens with Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies (1994) and includes The Wishbones (1997), Joe College (2000) and The Abstinence Teacher (2007), with Ghost Town (2026) the newest. Tracy Flick is the listed series, and New Jersey and suburban life appear in the subjects.

Christopher Golden is an American writer, born in 1967, with 139 catalogued books published between 1994 and 2026. Horror, fantasy and science fiction run through the work, alongside vampires, the supernatural and murder. Of Saints and Shadows (1994) opens the catalogue and Carry Me to My Grave (2026) is the newest entry. Golden's series include the Shadow Saga, Baltimore, Joe Golem, Body of Evidence, Prowlers, Hollow, Hidden Cities and the Secret Journeys of Jack London, and the listing also carries Buffy the Vampire Slayer and X-Men titles. Mike Mignola is credited alongside Golden on 4 books.

Jessica Sorensen's catalogue runs to 202 books, published between The Fallen Star (2011) and Finding Chaos (2026). Contemporary romance carries most of it, with teenagers, college students, secrets and coming of age as the recurring material, and a fantasy strand of vampires and academies running beside. The Coincidence, Shattered Promises, Unraveling You, Guardian Academy, Enchanted Chaos, Mystic Willow Bay and Sunnyvale Mysteries are among the series. Seven titles carry a 2012 date, and volumes median 248 pages.

Garth Stein, born in 1964, is an American novelist and film producer from Seattle. The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008) is the best known book, and the Enzo titles that followed carry dogs and motor racing into children's fiction. Eleven books are catalogued, from Raven Stole the Moon (1998) to The Cloven: Book Two (2023), the Cloven books among them. Stein also makes documentary films, writes plays, teaches and races as an amateur. No new title has been recorded since 2023.

David Lodge (28 January 1935 – 1 January 2025) was an English novelist and literary critic who taught literature at the University of Birmingham until 1987. Several Lodge novels satirise academic life, above all the Campus Trilogy of Changing Places (1975), Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988); the last two reached the Booker Prize shortlist. Roman Catholicism is another recurring theme, present from the debut novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays, and went on publishing criticism after retiring. The catalogue lists 40 books from 1960 to 2021.

Cora Carmack writes contemporary romance and, later, fantasy. Losing It opened the catalogue in 2012 and gave its name to a series continued in Faking It and Finding It. The Rusk University books put college students and football players in Texas, and Stormheart, also catalogued as Stealing Storms, brings in magic. Thirteen books run to Reign in 2025, and Carmack continues to publish.

Stephanie Perry Moore's 66 catalogued books date from 2000 to 2023, beginning with Saved Race, Sober Faith and Staying Pure in 2000. Subjects include Christian life, African Americans, high schools, universities and colleges, dating, friendship, family problems and sisters, along with children's fiction. Series include Payton Skky, Laurel Shadrach, Carmen Browne, Perry Skky Jr., Beta Gamma Pi Novels, Yasmin Peace, Morgan Love and Sharp Sisters. Women of Color Devotional dates from 2002, and Circus Web (2023) is the most recent title.

John Allison

41 books• 9 series

John Allison, born 1976, writes and draws comics, and has been producing them since 1998. Giant Days and Bad Machinery head a 41-title catalogue that runs from Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers (2005) to Kill or Be Quilt (2025), with Scary Go Round, By Night, Steeple and Great British Bump-Off alongside. Teenage girls, women college students, female friendship and small-scale detective work recur as subjects. Allison's comics have taken multiple Eisner Awards.

John Barth

21 books• 1 series

John Simmons Barth (1930-2024) was an American writer of postmodern and metafictional fiction. The catalogue holds 21 titles from The Floating Opera (1956) to Postscripts (2022), taking in The End of the Road (1958), Chimera (1972), Letters (1979), Sabbatical: A Romance (1982), The Friday Book (1984) and The Tidewater Tales (1987). Three books from the 1960s drew the most attention: The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), which retells the colonial history of Maryland; Giles Goat-Boy (1966), a satirical fantasy in which a university stands for the Cold War world; and Lost in the Funhouse (1968), an experimental and self-referential story collection. Chimera took a share of the National Book Award in 1973. Subjects recorded against the catalogue include American fiction, novelists, storytelling, college students, married people and Maryland.

Alexandra Sokoloff is an American novelist and screenwriter who divides her time between Raleigh, North Carolina and Los Angeles. Hauntings and other paranormal events run through the fiction. The Harrowing (2006), a ghost story, was Sokoloff's debut, and it drew nominations for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. The Huntress/FBI Thrillers put an FBI special agent on the trail of a female serial killer. Sokoloff's catalogue holds 20 books reaching The Grapevine in 2026, with subjects covering suspense, serial murders, horror and ghost stories.

Jessica Park writes the Flat-Out Love, Left Drowning and Death Trippers series. The 11 catalogued books span 2010 to 2021, and subjects include romance, coming of age, first loves, college students, family secrets and Boston. Relatively Famous (2010) is the earliest title, Flat-Out Love (2011) follows, and The Color of Us (2021) is the newest. Median length is 292 pages.

Two books make up Ian Caldwell's catalogue. The Rule of Four, co-authored and published in 2004, sets college students and a male friendship against the Renaissance text Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The Fifth Gospel followed in 2015, turning on the Catholic Church, its clergy, relics and the apocryphal gospels. Caldwell is an American novelist born in 1976, and no third book is recorded.