Life change events book series in reading order

by Donna Ball

Across 194 catalogued books, Danielle Steel writes contemporary romance and family drama: love stories, marriages, widowhood and the turns that reshape a life. The run starts with Going Home (1973) and continues through Celebration, with 24 Hours scheduled for 2027. Steel's catalogue also holds children's picture books, short stories and non-fiction beside the standalone novels that make up most of it.

Christmas stories, Christian fiction and romance make up most of Richard Paul Evans's catalogue, which also turns to science fiction, electricity and Tourette syndrome as subjects. Evans's 64 titles open with The Christmas Box (1993) and take in the Michael Vey books, the Walk series, the Locket Trilogy, the Christmas Box, Noel and Mistletoe collections and the Broken Road novels. Mercy's Child is the most recent title, and publication continues into 2026.

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.

Allison Winn Scotch is an American novelist, born on June 12, 1973, and a New York Times best-selling author. The Department of Lost & Found (2007) is the first of 11 catalogued books, and The Insomniacs (2026) is the newest. For the Allison Winn Scotch books in order, Time of My Life (2008), The One That I Want (2010), The Song Remains the Same (2012) and The Theory of Opposites (2013) come next, then In Twenty Years (2016), Between Me and You (2018), Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing (2020), The Rewind (2022) and Take Two, Birdie Maxwell (2024). Scotch has written for magazines including Redbook, Self, Shape and Prevention, and started a writing blog called Ask Allison.

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist, born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 8, 1963. Kingsbury worked as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Missy's Murder (1991), Kingsbury's first book, grew out of a murder story covered as a reporter in Los Angeles. Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. The catalogue holds 115 titles, running to The Christmas Ring (2025), and the series include Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, Red Gloves and Forever Faithful. Christian fiction and family life recur among the subjects.

T. Davis Bunn, born in 1952 and raised in North Carolina, is an American writer of historical fiction and legal thrillers in which Christian faith plays a major part. After a 1974 BA in psychology and economics from Wake Forest University and graduate study in international finance and economics at Gresham College in London, Bunn worked as a consultant and lecturer in international finance in Switzerland and Germany. Bunn is Novelist in Residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford, and divides time between Oxford and Florida. The catalogue holds 108 books from The Presence (1990) to The Sapphire Sea (2026), including Florian's Gate (1992), The Amber Room (1992) and Rhineland Inheritance (1993); some books carry the name Davis Bunn, and Marc Royce and Acts Of Faith are among the series.

Mary Ellen Taylor has 11 catalogued books, from The Union Street Bakery and Sweet Expectations (both 2013) to The Promise of Tomorrow (2024). At the Corner of King Street (2015), The View from Prince Street (2016), Winter Cottage (2018), Spring House (2019), Honeysuckle Season (2020) and The Words We Whisper (2021) are other titles. Union Street Bakery is the listed series. Bakeries, family secrets, single women, self-realization and Virginia appear among the subjects.

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.

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.

Barbara Delinsky, born Barbara Ruth Greenberg on August 9, 1945, is an American romance novelist with 19 New York Times bestsellers. Delinsky has also used the pen names Bonnie Drake and Billie Douglass, and 1982 titles such as A Time to Love are listed under Douglass. The catalogue counts 96 books from 1981 to Tender Loving Care (2024), starting with Surrender by Moonlight and Passionate Touch. Series include Crosslyn Rise, Blake Sisters and Victoria Lesser, and mothers and daughters recur in the subjects.

Robin Lee Hatcher writes Christian and historical romance, with 103 books in the catalogue from Stormy Surrender (1983) to To Find Where She Belongs (2026). Hatcher has been a RITA Award finalist eleven times and has won it twice, and has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. Series include Women of Hope, King's Meadow, Coming To America, Hart's Crossing, Sisters Of Bethlehem Springs, Where The Heart Lives and Legacy Of Faith. Subjects include frontier and pioneer life, Idaho and young women.

Sarah Pekkanen writes fiction about sisters, female friendship and the turns a life takes. The Opposite of Me (2010) is among her earliest novels, followed by Skipping a Beat, These Girls, The Best of Us and Catching Air. Fifteen catalogued books, short fiction included, reach The Women in White in 2026.

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.

Cathy Kelly writes women's fiction. Twenty-seven books are catalogued from Woman To Woman (1997) to The Island Retreat (2026), most of them standalone novels, with short stories and novellas beside them. Ireland, families, sisters, female friendship and life change events recur as subjects. Kelly, born in 1966, worked as a journalist before this, and Someone Like You took the Romantic Novelists' Association award for Romantic Novel of the Year in 2001. The median book runs 455 pages.

Erica James, born in 1960, is a British writer of contemporary romance set largely in England and Italy. Gardens of Delight won her the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2006, after four previous shortlistings. James is read internationally, translated into thirteen languages, and the Norwegian edition of Summer at the Lake reached number one in Norway. Twenty-six catalogued books span 1993 to 2026, from The Holiday to The Forever Home, with friendship, family and life changes as the recurring subjects.

Knitting runs through Terri DuLong's fiction, along with mothers and daughters, widows, stepmothers and friendship, set largely in Florida. Spinning Forward (2009) and Casting About (2010) name the craft outright, and a Cedar Key sequence follows in Sunrise on Cedar Key (2011), Postcards from Cedar Key (2012), Secrets on Cedar Key (2013) and Farewell to Cedar Key (2014). The Ormond Beach series is the one named group. Fifteen books date from 2002 to 2021, at a median 310 pages.

Christian romance is the main subject area for Joanne Bischof, whose 14 catalogued books run from 2012 to 2024. Be Still My Soul (2012) is the first, and Writer on the Wall (2024) is the latest. Bischof writes the Cadence of Grace, Blackbird Mountain, Suddenly Sadie and Wild Air series. Other titles include The Lady and the Lionheart, Sons of Blackbird Mountain and Christmas at the Circus. Subject tags also cover marital conflict and life change events.

David Baldacci

71 books• 16 series

David Baldacci is an American novelist, born on 5 August 1960, who trained as an attorney and writes mostly suspense fiction and legal thrillers. The catalogue lists 72 Baldacci books, starting with Absolute Power (1996); All In appeared in 2026 and Boom Town is scheduled for 2027. Recurring leads include Amos Decker, Will Robie, John Puller, Atlee Pine and Aloysius Archer, alongside the Camel Club and the Sean King & Michelle Maxwell books. Baldacci novels have been published in more than 80 countries and 45 languages, with worldwide sales above 130 million copies.

American novelist Kristin Hannah was born in 1960. The catalogue lists 28 of her books, from A Handful of Heaven (1991) through The Women, with The Fire announced and the list reaching 2027. The Women, published in 2024, is set in the United States during the Vietnam War of the 1960s. Winter Garden, The Nightingale, Firefly Lane, The Great Alone and The Four Winds rank among her most notable works. Subjects across the list include historical and contemporary romance, mothers and daughters, sisters and female friendship. Her listings also contain the Girls of Firefly Lane series, standalone novels and short stories.

Nicholas Sparks

27 books• 4 series

Nicholas Sparks, born December 31, 1965, is an American novelist who also works as a screenwriter and film producer. Sparks has published 24 novels, 16 of them New York Times bestsellers, plus two nonfiction books, and sales exceed 130 million copies in more than 50 languages. The earliest catalogued title is Wokini (1990), a nonfiction book written with Billy Mills; The Notebook (1996) was the first novel. The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle are among 11 Sparks books adapted as feature films. Subjects in the catalogue include contemporary romance, North Carolina, widowers and fathers and daughters. The site lists 27 books, with Remain (2025) as the newest, and series entries for the Calhoun Family / Notebook and Jeremy Marsh & Lexie Darnell.

Robyn Carr is the American author of the Virgin River books, and an executive producer on the television versions of Virgin River and Sullivan's Crossing. The catalogue records 70 Carr books, from Chelynne (1980) to The Friendship Club (2024). Thunder Point, Sullivan's Crossing and the Grace Valley Trilogy are Carr's other series. Several novels, The Hero among them, reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Subject tags on the books include contemporary romance, California, single mothers, veterans and city and town life.

Legal thrillers about women lawyers form the core of Lisa Scottoline's work. Rosato & Associates, later listed as Rosato & DiNunzio, names the recurring law firm series, and the catalogue runs to 51 titles from Everywhere That Mary Went (1993) to This Changes Everything (2026). Scottoline also writes standalone suspense, non-fiction, and the Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman books, which the subject tags mark as humour. Publication is ongoing.

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.

Fredrik Backman

13 books• 5 series

Swedish author Fredrik Backman, born in 1981, also works as a blogger and columnist. A Man Called Ove (2012) opens his catalogue of 13 books, which runs to My Friends (2025). Other titles include My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, Anxious People and The Winners. His books were number one bestsellers in Sweden and have been published in more than twenty-five languages. Subjects include hockey teams, neighbours, friendship, and fathers and sons.