Young women book series in reading order

by Phil Foglio

by Sophie Kinsella

by John Norman

by Jojo Moyes

by Paul Doiron

by Louisa May Alcott

by Charlaine Harris

V.C. Andrews was the name used by Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 to December 19, 1986), an American novelist best known for Flowers in the Attic (1979). That novel led to four sequels and two film adaptations. The publisher never classed the books as Young Adult, yet their young protagonists have drawn teenage readers for decades. After Andrews died in 1986, a ghostwriter first hired to finish two incomplete manuscripts went on publishing new books under the V.C. Andrews name. The catalogue carries 108 books under that name from 1979 to 2025, across series such as Dollanganger, Casteel, Cutler, Landry, Logan and De Beers.

Sophie Kinsella

37 books• 4 series

Sophie Kinsella was the pen name of Madeleine Sophie Wickham (12 December 1969 to 10 December 2025), an English author best known for the Shopaholic series. The Kinsella catalogue holds 37 books from 1995 to 2024; early titles such as 40 Love / The Tennis Party (1995) and Cocktails for Three (2000) appeared under the name Madeleine Wickham. The first two Shopaholic books became the 2009 film Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Can You Keep a Secret? (2003) was filmed in 2019. Kinsella's books sold more than 50 million copies in over 60 countries. Shopping, weddings and Becky Bloomwood appear among the subjects.

Joyce Carol Oates

180 books• 8 series

Joyce Carol Oates, born June 16, 1938, is an American writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays and nonfiction. The catalogue holds 180 books, beginning with By the North Gate (1963) and reaching The Frenzy: Stories (2026). Oates took the National Book Award for the novel Them (1969), and later honours include two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize in 2019. Black Water, What I Lived For, Blonde and the collection Lovely, Dark, Deep were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014.

Betty Neels (15 September 1909 - 7 June 2001) was an English author of more than 134 romance novels, born in Leyton. Mills & Boon published the novels first in the United Kingdom, and Harlequin reprinted them in North America. Neels wrote from 1969 until death, and the books are noted for being especially chaste. The catalogue lists 140 books, including Nurse in Holland (1969), Sister Peters in Amsterdam (1969) and Tempestuous April (1970). Doctors, nurses, surgeons and the Netherlands recur in the subjects, and Dr Fforde is a named series.

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.

Grace Livingston Hill

128 books• 1 series

Grace Livingston Hill wrote Christian romance about young women and the choices in front of them, a catalogue of 128 titles dating back to A Chautauqua Idyl (1887). The Parkerstown Delegate (1892), Katharine's Yesterday and Other Stories (1895), In the Way (1897), Lone Point (1898) and A Daily Rate (1900) follow. Religious fiction and historical romance run together throughout, and reprints continue to appear, the most recent being The Unknown God.

Elizabeth Aston is a pen name of Elizabeth Edmondson (21 February 1948 to 11 January 2016), an English author who also wrote as Elizabeth Pewsey. Edmondson studied Jane Austen at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and many of the stories adapt or continue Austen's works, starting with Mr. Darcy's Daughters in 2003. The catalogue holds 13 Aston books through Mr Darcy Requests the Pleasure (2015), with the series Darcy and Darcy Short Stories/Novellas. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet appear among the subjects, along with historical romance, sisters, London and Italy. Edmondson also founded a youth holiday orchestra in the York area that has run since 1992.

Jojo Moyes

21 books• 5 series

Jojo Moyes writes contemporary fiction about women, families and the communities around them. Sheltering Rain (2002) is her earliest catalogued novel, and the Me Before You books and The Girl You Left Behind are the best known of her 21 titles. Mothers and daughters, single women and small-town life recur as subjects. Moyes published We All Live Here in 2025.

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.

Jane Austen

22 books• 7 series

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 to 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose reputation rests on six novels. The novels examine the English landed gentry of the late 18th century, and Austen's plots turn on how far women depended on marriage for social position and financial security. Critics and scholars credit Austen's wit, irony, realism and social commentary, and place the novels in the shift from the novel of sensibility toward 19th-century realism. The catalogue lists 22 titles, from the juvenilia of 1787, such as Love and Freindship, through Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Mansfield Park (1814).

Larry McMurtry

48 books• 10 series

Larry McMurtry (Larry Jeff McMurtry, June 3, 1936 to March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Most of McMurtry's fiction takes place in the Old West or in contemporary Texas, and the early novels Horseman, Pass By (1961), The Last Picture Show (1966) and Terms of Endearment (1975) trace the decline of small-town Texas life. Screen adaptations of McMurtry's work received 34 Oscar nominations and 13 wins. The catalogue lists 48 books from 1961 to Thalia (2017), including the Lonesome Dove and Berrybender Narratives series and non-fiction.

Alice Hoffman

52 books• 10 series

Alice Hoffman, born March 16, 1952, is an American novelist who also writes for young adults and children. Practical Magic (1995) became a 1998 film of the same name and grew into a media franchise. Magic realism runs through much of the work, with elements of magic, irony and unconventional romances. The catalogue counts 52 books, starting with Property Of (1977) and The Drowning Season (1979) and reaching The Witches of Cambridge (2026). Series include Practical Magic, Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, Water Tales and Green Angel, plus picture books. Subjects include Massachusetts, mothers and daughters, friendship and family life.

Janette Oke, born Janette Steeves on 18 February 1935, is a Canadian author of inspirational fiction, often set in pioneer times with women as the lead characters. Bethany House published Love Comes Softly, the first Oke novel, in 1979. When Calls the Heart (1983) opened the Canadian West series and became the basis for a television series with the same title. The catalogue holds 79 Oke books, with The Pharisee's Wife (2025) the newest. Series include Love Comes Softly, Prairie Legacy, Women of the West, Song of Acadia and Janette Oke's Animal Friends. Subjects include women pioneers, Canada and Christian fiction.

Tracie Peterson, born 1959, writes Christian fiction, mostly historical novels carrying romance and faith themes. Peterson used the pen name Janelle Jamison early on and has written joint novels with other Christian authors; Bethany House publishes many of the titles. Several Peterson series feature Harvey Girls, the waitstaff of the Fred Harvey Company. The catalogue lists 153 books from A Kingdom Divided (1991) to Devoted to Love (2026), across series such as Heirs of Montana, Westward Chronicles, Ribbons West, Yukon Quest, Shannon Saga and Desert Roses. Peterson lives in Montana and runs Peterson Ink with husband Jim.

Diana Palmer is the pen name of Susan Kyle, born Susan Spaeth on December 11, 1946, an American novelist publishing romance since 1979. Kyle spent sixteen years as a journalist under the name Susan Spaeth before turning to fiction, and has also written as Diana Blayne, Katy Currie and Susan Kyle, with a science fiction novel as Susan S. Kyle. The catalogue lists 199 books from 1979 to 2026, opening with titles such as Dream's End and Sweet Enemy and reaching Blaze of Glory (2026). Wyoming Men, Soldiers of Fortune, Men of Medicine Ridge and Morcai Battalion are among the series, and Long, Tall Texans is a listed grouping. Diamond Girl became a 1998 television film. Subjects name ranchers, cowboys, Texas, Wyoming and western romance.

Amish life is Suzanne Woods Fisher's subject across fiction and non-fiction alike. Copper Star (2007) opens the catalogue, and the Amish novels follow from The Choice (2010) through the Lancaster County Secrets, Stoney Ridge Seasons, Inn at Eagle Hill, Amish Beginnings and Bishop's Family series. Fisher wrote the Adventures of Lily Lapp for children and non-fiction such as Amish Peace and Amish Proverbs. The catalogue holds 54 titles through A Plain Confession in 2026.

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.

Meg Cabot

102 books• 20 series

Meggin Patricia Cabot, born February 1, 1967, is an American novelist of young adult and adult fiction. Meg Cabot wrote The Princess Diaries, a young adult series Walt Disney Pictures adapted into two feature films. Awards include the ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. The catalogue lists 102 books from Where Roses Grow Wild (1998) to Kissing Cowboys (2026), including titles as Patricia Cabot and Jenny Carroll. Other series include Mediator, Heather Wells, Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls, Airhead and Little Bridge Island.

Dame Catherine Cookson (born Catherine Ann McMullen, 20 June 1906 to 11 June 1998) was a British novelist. A hard childhood in South Shields, North East England, shaped the novels and supplied their setting. By 2003 Cookson's books had sold an estimated 100 million copies, and 104 titles appeared under the Cookson name and two pen names. The catalogue records 112 books, from Kate Hannigan (1950) to The Rag Maid (2017). Series include Mary Ann Shaughnessy, the Bailey Chronicles, the Mallen Trilogy and the Hamilton Trilogy. Working-class life, family sagas and historical romance appear among the subject tags.

Tanith Lee

132 books• 22 series

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction and fantasy, born 19 September 1947, who died on 24 May 2015, leaving more than 90 novels and 300 short stories. Death's Master (1980) made Lee the first woman to take the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the August Derleth Award, and Lee also won several World Fantasy Awards plus lifetime achievement honours from the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards. Lee wrote the Blake's 7 episodes "Sand" and "Sarcophagus", poems, and the picture book Animal Castle (1972). The catalogue lists 132 books from The Betrothed (1968) to The Earth is Flat (2023), including The Birthgrave (1975) and Don't Bite the Sun (1976). Series include Tales from the Flat Earth, Secret Books of Paradys, Claidi Journals, Blood Opera and Piratica.

Joan Aiken

125 books• 12 series

Joan Aiken (Joan Delano Aiken, 4 September 1924 to 4 January 2004) was an English writer of supernatural fiction and alternative history novels for children. The Whispering Mountain (1968) won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was commended for the Carnegie Medal, and Night Fall won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1972. Aiken received an MBE in 1999 for services to children's literature. The catalogue lists 125 books from All You've Ever Wanted (1953) to 2020, including The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) and the Wolves Chronicles, Arabel and Mortimer and Felix Brooke series.

Anita Brookner was an English novelist and art historian who lived from 1928 to 2016. Brookner held the Slade Professorship of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge across 1967 and 1968, the first woman appointed to that visiting chair, and took the Booker Prize in 1984 for Hotel du Lac. Thirty books are catalogued, from A Start in Life (1981) to At the Hairdresser's (2011). Women, families, female friendship and London life are the recurring subjects.

Laurie Notaro is an American humorist who writes comic essays about her own life. The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club and Autobiography of a Fat Bride both appeared in 2002 and set the pattern, and I Love Everybody (2004), We Thought You Would Be Prettier (2005) and It Looked Different on the Model (2011) follow. Notaro also writes fiction, including Spooky Little Girl (2010). Nineteen catalogued titles reach I've Got a New Complaint (2026).

Jerry S. Eicher has 46 catalogued books published between 2002 and 2025, and the subject tags include Amish, Mennonites and Christian romance. The first listed titles are Transforming the Believer (2002) and Living Christianity (2003). Sarah (2007) and Sarah's Son (2008) came next, then Rebecca's Choice, Rebecca's Promise and Rebecca's Return (all 2009). Eicher series include Hannah's Heart, Adams County, Little Valley, Fields Of Home, Beiler Sisters and St. Lawrence County Amish, and Portrait of Love (2025) is the latest release.