Female friendship book series in reading order

by James Patterson

by Donna Ball

by Nancy Thayer

by Dolores Stewart Riccio

by Ellery Adams

by Nancy Revell

Fern Michaels was the pen name of Mary Ruth Kuczkir, born Mary Ruth Koval on April 9, 1933, who died on November 12, 2025. The American novelist wrote romance and thrillers, including the Texas quartet, the Captive series, Family Blessings, Pretty Woman and Crown Jewel. Michaels's output passed 200 books with an estimated 150 million copies sold. The catalogue lists 190 titles, from Pride and Passion (1975) to A Season of Secrets (2026). Series include the Sisterhood, Godmothers, Men of the Sisterhood, Lost and Found, Vegas, Kentucky and Twin Lights. Female friendship, vigilantes and revenge appear among the subject tags.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Debbie Macomber

245 books• 35 series

Debbie Macomber, born October 22, 1948, is an American author of romance novels and contemporary women's fiction. Six Macomber novels became made-for-TV movies, and the Cedar Cove novels became a television series of the same name, with Macomber serving as executive producer on the adaptations. Macomber won the first fan-voted Quill Award for romance in 2005 and holds a RITA Award and a lifetime achievement award from the Romance Writers of America. The catalogue counts 245 books between Starlight (1983) and A Date with Santa (2026). Series include Heart of Texas, Midnight Sons, Navy, Those Manning Men, Orchard Valley and Angels Everywhere.

Female friendship holds Wendy Wax's women's fiction together, often with a house restoration or a reality television programme in the plot. Key to My Heart (1999) opens the catalogue and 7 Days and 7 Nights (2003) follows. Ten Beach Road is the named series. Twenty-seven titles are catalogued, reaching Just Beachy in 2025.

Melody Carlson, born March 2, 1956 in San Francisco, is an American author of more than 250 books for women, teens and children, including the Diary of a Teenage Girl series. The catalogue lists 298 books from 1995, when Contemplative Bible Reading and How to Start a Quality Childcare Business in Your Home appeared, to All Booked Up (2026). Series include Carter House Girls, On The Runway, TrueColors, 86 Bloomberg Place, Secret Life of Samantha McGregor, Beary Patch Bears and Fruit Troops. Subjects include Christian life, high schools, friendship, Bible stories and stories in rhyme. Carlson grew up in Springfield, Oregon, attended Lane Community College and lives in Sisters, Oregon.

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.

Nancy Thayer, born December 14, 1943, is an American novelist. The catalogue here lists 39 books spanning 1980 to 2026, from Stepping to Nantucket Christmas Stroll, and includes the Hot Flash Club series. Recurring subjects are female friendship, family life, middle-aged women, mothers and daughters, and Nantucket Island. Thayer's release status is ongoing.

Simon Brett writes English detective fiction across several long-running series. Charles Paris, an actor, heads one; the Fethering Mysteries follow Carole Seddon; Mrs Pargeter, Blotto and Twinks, and the Decluttering Mysteries make up the rest. Brett's catalogue holds 107 books, from Cast in Order of Disappearance (1975) to A Shock to the System (2026), with plays, short stories and non-fiction alongside.

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.

Neta Jackson has 101 books in the catalogue, published between 1974 and 2021. Living Together in a World Falling Apart (1974) is the earliest, and Hero Tales, Vol. IV (2021) is the newest. The Yada Yada Prayer Group is among the character entries, and series include Yada Yada House of Hope, Trailblazer, Hero Tales, SouledOut Sisters, Windy City Neighbors, Pet Parables and Secret Adventures. Subjects include Christian life, Christian women, missionaries, prayer groups, female friendship, orphans, biography and children's fiction.

Patricia Scanlan is an Irish novelist born in 1956. The catalogue lists 26 Scanlan books from Apartment 3B (1991) to City Girls Forever (2025), with subject tags for female friendship, marriage, sisters, weddings, family life and Dublin. City Girl (1992) and City Woman (1999) appeared in the early run, and City Girls and Forgive and Forget are the named Scanlan series. Finishing Touches, Mirror, Mirror and Francesca's Party are other titles in the list.

Elin Hilderbrand is an American novelist, born July 17, 1969, who writes mystery and romance. Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket, and the novels are typically set on and around the island. The 39 catalogued books start with The Beach Club (2000) and reach The Thoroughbreds (2026). Named series include Nantucket, Paradise and 28 Summers. Subject headings return to family secrets, female friendship, summer resorts and love stories. In 2019 New York magazine called Hilderbrand "the queen of beach reads".

Quilting, sisters and female friendship run through the fiction of Marie Bostwick. Fields of Gold (2005) is her earliest catalogued novel, and the Cobbled Court Quilts series, set in Connecticut, is her best known strand, with the Dillon, Oklahoma and Too Much, Texas books alongside it. Bostwick's 18 titles reach The Book Club for Troublesome Women in 2025.

Donna Ball, born in North Georgia in 1951, has published mainly romantic novels since 1982, under that name and as Rebecca Flanders, Donna Carlisle and Donna Boyd, and jointly with Shannon Harper as Leigh Bristol and Taylor Brady. The catalogue holds 109 books from Winners (1982) to Bones From the Sky (2026), several 1983 and 1984 titles carrying the Rebecca Flanders byline. Raine Stockton Dog Mystery, Ladybug Farm, Dogleg Island Mystery, Hummingbird House and Blood River are the series listed. Debra Dixon, Sandra Chastain, Deborah Smith, Virginia Ellis and Nancy Knight are each credited beside Ball on one title. Subjects include romance, historical romance, western romance, female friendship and time travel.

Elizabeth Harbison writes contemporary and historical romance, and the later titles carry the byline Beth Harbison. Female friendship, dating, shoes and self-realization run through the subject list, with the Cinderella Brides and Shoe Addict series named in the catalogue. Two cookbooks sit among the fiction, Bread Machine Baker (1999) and Four Seasons with the Bread Machine Baker (2001). 35 books span 1996 to 2022, closing with Confessions of the Other Sister.

Marian Keyes

26 books• 5 series

Marian Keyes, born 10 September 1963, is an Irish novelist and radio presenter known for popular fiction. Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Anybody Out There and This Charming Man take on alcoholism, depression, addiction, cancer, bereavement and domestic violence with humour. Keyes has sold more than 35 million copies in 33 languages. The catalogue lists 26 books, from Watermelon (1995) to My Favourite Mistake (2024), with the Walsh Family as the recurring series. Dublin, female friendship and single women are among the tagged subjects.

Emilie Richards has 78 books in the catalogue, from Angel and the Saint (1985) to Peaks and Valleys (2022), and no new title has appeared since. Richards is an American writer of contemporary romance and mystery novels. Series include MacDonald Sisters, Shenandoah Album, Tales of the Pacific, Goddesses Anonymous, Happiness Key, Iron Lace, Whiskey Islands and Ministry Is Murder. Brendan's Song (1985), Gilding the Lily (1985) and Something So Right (1986) are among the early titles. Subjects include female friendship, mothers and daughters, sisters and family life.

Jean Stone writes contemporary fiction about female friendship, remarriage and starting over, much of it set on Martha's Vineyard. Sins of Innocence (1994) opens a catalogue of 26 books that reaches The Little Bookshop by the Harbor (2026). Three series, Martha's Vineyard, Vineyard and Up-Island, carry the island setting, and adoption, weddings and the lives of middle-aged women recur. Stone continues to publish.

E.F. Benson

106 books• 4 series

Mapp & Lucia Novels is one of the series listed for E.F. Benson, and Lucia and Miss Mapp both appear in the subjects alongside humour, England and female friendship. Born Edward Frederic Benson on 24 July 1867, Benson wrote novels, biography, memoir, history and short stories, and died on 29 February 1940. Dodo (1893) opens a listing of 106 books that includes The Babe, B.A. (1897), The Luck of the Vails (1901), The Valkyries (1903), The Blotting Book (1908) and Account Rendered (1911). Dodo Trilogy and David Blaize are further series, and English ghost stories also appear among the subjects.

Joan Medlicott is known for the Ladies Of Covington books, a series about retired women sharing a boarding house in North Carolina. The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love (2000) opens it, followed by The Gardens of Covington (2001), From the Heart of Covington (2002), The Spirit of Covington (2003), At Home in Covington (2004) and A Covington Christmas (2005). Seventeen catalogued titles in all run from Celibate Wives: Breaking the Silence (1992) to Reflections in a River (2011), with two Virgin Islands collections and a Caribbean novel in the early years. Female friendship and older women are the recurring subjects.

Kris Radish writes about women's friendships and self-reinvention. Fourteen books are catalogued from Run, Bambi, Run (1992) to A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere (2017), among them The Elegant Gathering of White Snows (2002), Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral (2006), The Sunday List of Dreams (2007) and Tuesday Night Miracles (2012). Female friendship, married women, mothers and daughters and self-actualization recur as subjects, with biography, case studies, fugitives from justice and criminal investigation also in the list. The median book runs 331 pages, and nothing new has appeared since 2017.

Michael R. Phillips writes Christian historical fiction. The Stonewycke books opened the catalogue in 1985 with The Heather Hills of Stonewycke, and the Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister follow a teenage girl in California. Later series include The Russians, Secret of the Rose, Secrets of Heathersleigh Hall, Shenandoah Sisters and Carolina Cousins. Reconstruction, plantation life, race relations and orphans sit among the subjects. The catalogue holds 89 books through Praying with David (2026), at a median of 367 pages.

Susan Mallery is an American romance novelist born in 1970, whose books are set in small, tight-knit communities and give pets a prominent role. The catalogue counts 201 books from Tender Loving Care (1991) onward, including early titles published as Susan Macias. Series include Fool's Gold, Desert Rogues, Hometown Heartbreakers, Happily Inc., Marcelli, Buchanans, Blackberry Island and Mischief Bay. The Bookstore Diaries (2026) is the newest release, and Friend Request is due in 2027.

Jude Deveraux

78 books• 14 series

Historical and contemporary romance make up Jude Deveraux's 78 catalogued books, many following the Montgomery and Taggert families across generations. Edilean, James River, Summerhouse, Nantucket Brides, Peregrine, Providence Falls and the Medlar Mystery books are among her series. The catalogue begins with The Enchanted Land (1978), runs densest through the 1980s, and reaches Order of Royals in 2026.