Married women book series in reading order

by Richard & Frances Lockridge

by Laurie R. King

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.

Richard and Frances Lockridge wrote detective fiction together. Pam and Jerry North, a married couple, are the recurring investigators: Mr. and Mrs. North (1936) introduces them and The Norths Meet Murder (1940) begins the crime novels. Captain Heimrich, Lieutenant Nathan Shapiro, Paul Lane and Bernard Simmons head four further series, much of the work set in New York State. The listing holds 77 books through to The Old Die Young (1980).

Detective fiction across several series is Laurie R. King's output. The Mary Russell books pair Mary Russell with Sherlock Holmes, beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994), while Kate Martinelli, a policewoman, has her own run from A Grave Talent (1993). Harris Stuyvesant, Raquel Laing and Folly Island add more, alongside standalone novels and non-fiction. King's catalogue holds 50 titles through Those Who Are Gone in 2026.

Willa Cather

59 books• 1 series

Willa Cather wrote about the Nebraska plains, frontier and farm life, and the immigrants who settled them. Her earliest catalogued titles are short stories from 1896, and the Great Plains Trilogy is the sequence her fiction is grouped around. Sixty-nine catalogued titles, poetry and collected editions included, run through reissues dated to 2022.

Marriage, infidelity and the friendships around them are Adele Parks's material. Playing Away (2000) opens a catalogue of 31 books, followed by Game Over (2001), Larger Than Life (2002), The Other Woman's Shoes (2003), Still Thinking of You (2004) and Husbands (2005). A DCI Clements grouping carries the later crime fiction. Eyes On You is the newest title, and Parks remains actively publishing.

Wilkie Collins

88 books

Wilkie Collins, born William Wilkie Collins on 8 January 1824 and died on 23 September 1889, was an English novelist and playwright. The Woman in White (1860) is an early sensation novel; The Moonstone (1868) set out much of what the modern detective novel came to do, and stands as an early example of the police procedural. Collins was the son of the London painter William Collins and Harriet Geddes, spent two years in Italy and France from the age of twelve, learned Italian and French there, and worked at first as a tea merchant. The catalogue holds 88 titles, from Iolani; Or, Tahiti as It Was (1840) onward, with the 1850s the heaviest decade.

Kathleen Morgan is catalogued with 27 books published between 1991 and 2012, a run the catalogue marks likely complete. Subjects place the work in Christian and historical romance, among women pioneers, married women, frontier and pioneer life, and Colorado. Heart's Lair and The Knowing Crystal date from 1991, Child of the Mist and Crystal Fire from 1992, and A Love Forbidden closes the listing in 2012. The series listed are Brides of Culdee Creek, Culdee Creek Christmas, These Highland Hills, Scottish Highland and Guardians of Gadiel.

Pamela Morsi (1951-2024) wrote romance, historical and contemporary. The catalogue lists 31 books dated 1990 to 2020, at a median of 378 pages, with the 1990s the heaviest decade: Courting Miss Hattie (1991), Garters (1992), Wild Oats (1993), Marrying Stone (1994) and Simple Jess (1996). Six series are named, among them Small Town Swains, Marrying Stone, Territory Trysts and That Business Between Us. Texas settings, married women, widows and mothers and daughters recur as subjects.

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".

Jodi Picoult

42 books• 7 series

Jodi Picoult is an American writer, born in 1966, whose fiction is described as family saga, often built around moral dilemmas or procedural dramas that set family members against one another. As of 2026 Picoult had published 30 novels and several short stories, and had written several issues of Wonder Woman. Around 40 million copies of Picoult's books are in print in 34 languages, and the New England Bookseller Award for fiction came in 2003. The catalogue holds 42 books, opening with Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992) and including Harvesting the Heart, The Pact, Plain Truth and Salem Falls, alongside plays and graphic novels.

Lisa Wingate

32 books• 10 series

Lisa Wingate has 32 books in this catalogue, from Tending Roses (2001) to The Last Father-Daughter Dance (2026). Texas is among the subjects, and the Wingate series include Texas Hill Country, Moses Lake, Daily, Texas, Carolina Chronicles and Blue Sky Hill, alongside standalone novels and non-fiction. The subjects also cover Christian fiction, Christian romance, historical fiction, farm life, sisters and town life. Good Hope Road and Texas Cooking both appeared in 2003.

Heather Graham is the name under which Heather Graham Pozzessere, an American writer born on 15 March 1953, publishes mainly romance fiction; Shannon Drake is a further pen name. Graham's work has been published in about 25 languages, with more than 75 million copies printed. The catalogue records 311 books from Tender Taming (1983) to Destiny Rising (2026). Krewe of Hunters, Harrison Investigation, Cafferty & Quinn, Alliance Vampires, Keepers: L.A., New York Confidential and Finnegan Connection are among the Graham series. Subjects span historical, paranormal, contemporary and suspense romance.

Something Borrowed (2004) opens the Emily Giffin catalogue, which runs to 14 books and ends with Love You More (2026). Giffin is an American novelist born on March 20, 1972. Married life, single women and love triangles appear among the subject headings. Other titles include Baby Proof (2006), Heart of the Matter (2010), Where We Belong (2012) and The One & Only (2014), and the Adventures of Darcy series sits beside the standalone novels.

Eric Jerome Dickey wrote about African American men and women, love and betrayal, often in Los Angeles. 33 catalogued books run from Sister, Sister (1996) to The Son of Mr. Suleman, including Friends and Lovers (1997), Milk in My Coffee (1998), Cheaters (1999) and Liar's Game (2000). The Gideon novels, the McBroom Sisters and Nia Simone Bijou head series of their own, alongside standalone fiction, short stories and graphic novels. The catalogue closed in 2021.

Domestic fiction is Diane Chamberlain's form: mothers and daughters, sisters, marriages and friendships, with North Carolina and New Jersey as the usual settings. Chamberlain's 32 catalogued books open with Lovers and Strangers (1990) and include the Keeper of the Light Trilogy, Before The Storm, Necessary Lies and Pretending To Dance. The Last House on the Street is the most recent title, and the catalogue has been dormant since 2022.

Louisa May Alcott

103 books• 4 series

Alcott wrote novels, short stories and children's fiction, and the catalogue runs to 103 titles, with Little Women, Eight Cousins and Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag among the named sequences. The list starts with The Inheritance (1849) and Flower Fables (1854) and takes in Hospital Sketches (1863), Moods (1864) and Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power (1866). Young women, social custom and gender roles are the recurring subjects, and the Alcott catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Jackie Collins

40 books• 6 series

Jackie Collins wrote about Hollywood, the film business and the women who fought their way through it. 40 catalogued books run from The World Is Full of Married Men (1960) through The Stud (1969), The Love Killers (1974), The World Is Full Of Divorced Women (1975) and Lovers and Gamblers (1977), ending at The Santangelos. Lucky Santangelo is the character Collins is best known for, joined by the Madison Castelli and Fontaine Khaled books. The catalogue is likely complete.

Family secrets, marriage and the ties between fathers and daughters run through Patti Callahan Henry's fiction. Losing the Moon (2004) opens the catalogue, followed by Where the River Runs (2005), Between the Tides (2007), The Art of Keeping Secrets (2008) and Driftwood Summer (2009). Nineteen titles are catalogued, reaching The Story She Left Behind in 2025.

Madeleine L'Engle (November 29, 1918 to September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. A Wrinkle in Time (1962) earned L'Engle the Newbery Medal, and the American Library Association gave L'Engle its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1998. The catalogue lists 70 books, beginning with The Small Rain (1945). Series include the Austin Family Chronicles, the Crosswicks Journals, the O'Keefe Family and the Time Quintet. Subjects run from science fiction and space and time to Christian life and meditations.

Gilbert Morris produced Christian historical fiction at length: 248 catalogued books between 1977 and 2014. The House of Winslow follows one family across American history; the Appomattox Saga and Bonnets & Bugles take up the Civil War; Cheney Duvall, M.D. follows a woman physician; the Seven Sleepers, Dixie Morris and Too Smart Jones series sit alongside, with children's fiction among the subjects. The catalogue opens with Race Against Time (1977), reaches Raina's Choice, and is listed as likely complete.

Marion Chesney

184 books• 22 series

Marion Chesney, later Marion Gibbons (1936-2019), was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery whose published career began in 1979. Historical romances appeared under the Chesney name, the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling books among them, while the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries appeared as M. C. Beaton; both of those mystery runs were adapted for television. Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Charlotte Ward, Jennie Tremaine and Sarah Chester are further pen names on the record. This listing gathers 185 books dated from 1979 onward, including later titles on which R.W. Green is credited.

Pearl S. Buck

99 books• 1 series

China is the subject Pearl S. Buck is catalogued for. East Wind: West Wind (1930) is the earliest of 99 entries, followed by The Good Earth (1931), Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935); House Of Earth is the one named series. Farm life, marriage, families and social customs fill the subject tags. No newer title is dated, and the listing is marked likely complete.

Jane Green is an English novelist, born in 1968, who lives in the United States. By 2014 Green's books had sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into 31 languages, and Green has been called one of the first chick lit writers. The catalogue lists 32 books from Straight Talking (1997) and Jemima J (1998) to The Many Private Lives of Missy Cooke (2026). Subjects include single women, female friendship, dating, family secrets and London.

Monica Wood has 13 books in the catalogue, published between 1993 and 2024. Secret Language (1993) is first, followed by Description (1995) and My Only Story (2000). Ernie's Ark (2002), Any Bitter Thing (2005), When We Were the Kennedys (2012) and A Woman in a Million (2016) are later titles, and How to Read a Book (2024) is the newest. Subjects include authorship, narration and description, Catholics, clergy, sisters, orphans and beauty operators.