Susan Wiggs Books in Order (The Lakeshore Chronicles, The Lost and Found Bookshop, Sugar and Salt)

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Susan Wiggs is a best-selling American author known for her historical and contemporary romance novels. She published her first book, the Western historical romance “Texas Wildflower“, in 1987. A few years later, she gave up her teaching career to be a full-time writer. Since then, she wrote two books per year–for a total of more than 70 novels as of today.

She published standalone books, but also series, most notably The Lakeshore Chronicles and The Bella Vista Chronicles, but also The Calhoun Chronicles, The Great Chicago Fire Trilogy, and many more.

How to read Susan Wiggs’ Books in Order?

The Lakeshore Chronicles in Order

The books explore the many facets of love and friendship, taking place in the Catskills, in a little town where family ties clash with family secrets and love is not that far away if you really look. Summer Camp Kioga is located in Avalon, right beside Willow Lake, where families would come for the summer before it was turned into a summer camp for kids and the characters have some tie to the camp.

Each book tells a complete tale about different characters, but still, with links to the community, you can read them in any order or you can read them in chronological order (and also following the Daisy Bellamy storyline). For more information, check out our article dedicated to the Lakeshore Chronicles.

1. Summer At Willow Lake (2006)
2. Homecoming Season – short story published in More Than Words: Stories of Courage.
3. The Winter Lodge (2007)
4. Dockside (2007)
5. Snowfall at Willow Lake (2008)
6. Fireside (2009)
7. Lakeshore Christmas (2009)
8. The Summer Hideaway (2010)
9. Marrying Daisy Bellamy (2011)
10. Return to Willow Lake (2012)
11. Candlelight Christmas (2013)
12. Starlight on Willow Lake (2015)

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The Switchback, Vermont Series in Order

Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes.

0. The Key Ingredient (short story, 2016) – Every great love story has a beginning. Annie Rush’s started at a food cart in a vibrant city park when she came across a charismatic chef serving up gourmet street food. Together Annie and Martin Harlow conceived The Key Ingredient, a cooking show featuring Martin as the star while Annie handles production. As they travel to Annie’s Vermont hometown to film their pilot episode, she realizes that she might want to create more than television magic with Martin, but does he feel the same way? When the shoot turns out to be a disaster, Annie can’t help but wonder if she is always destined to stay behind the scenes, both at work and in her love life.
1. Family Tree (2016) – Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost. Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago.

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The Bella Vista Chronicles in Order

1. The Apple Orchard (2013) – Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their owners. People like Annelise Winther, who has just been reunited with her mother’s long-gone necklace, worth a sum that could change her life. To Annelise, whose family was torn apart during WWII, the necklace represents her history, and the value is in its memories. But Tess’s own history is filled with gaps. Then the enigmatic Dominic Rossi arrives on her San Francisco doorstep with the news that the grandfather she never knew is in a coma and that she’s destined to inherit half of his apple orchard estate called Bella Vista. The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen, the half-sister she didn’t know she had.
2. The Beekeeper’s Ball (2014) – Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the enchanting Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista’s rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens, and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel’s project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past. But Isabel’s carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O’Neill arrives to dig up old history.

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The Us Series in Order

1. The Ocean Between Us (2004) – After years of following her navy officer husband on assignment around the world, Grace Bennett realizes that she’s left something behind-herself. Her husband, Steve, can’t understand the unraveling of his wife’s heart and is determined to set things right. Their already-strained relationship is pushed to the edge when old secrets are revealed. Now, with plenty of space to ponder the true distance between them, Grace begins to reinvent herself. But, just as her new self is coming to terms with her family life, the unthinkable happens: a disaster aboard Steve’s ship. A navy wife’s worst nightmare collides with the cold truth that life’s biggest chances can slip away while you’re busy looking for guarantees.
2. The Story of Us (2010) – As a good girl waiting for her chance to be bad, Grace McAllen felt lost and discontented. But all that changed one day when a gorgeous stranger with ocean blue eyes rode into tiny Edenville, Texas, on a Harley. Grace knew in her heart that the chance meeting was just the beginning of a grand new adventure.

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The Great Chicago Fire Trilogy

1. The Hostage (2000) – Deborah Sinclair is a beautiful, accomplished young heiress with a staggering dowry. But her fortune does her no good when, one horrible night, Chicago is engulfed in flames. Tom Silver will walk through fire to avenge a terrible injustice—and he may have to. But when he makes Deborah a pawn in his revenge, the heat of the inferno fades next to the attraction he feels for his captive. And the further he takes her from everything she’s known, the stronger their passion grows, until it threatens to consume them both.
2. The Mistress (2000) – Most days Kathleen O’Leary is a penniless maid. But tonight she takes a risk and masquerades as a glamorous heiress, thanks to a borrowed gown and her friends’ sense of adventure. To her surprise, the ruse succeeds–even Dylan Kennedy, Chicago’s most eligible bachelor, seems enraptured. But like Kathleen, Dylan isn’t who he says he is. And before their true identities can be revealed to one another, fire erupts, sending rich and poor alike running for their lives.
3. The Firebrand (2001) – Chicago is burning and Lucy Hathaway is running for her life. As she rushes past a fine hotel engulfed in flames, a wrapped bundle tumbles from a window into her arms. Seconds later the building crumbles-and Lucy is astonished to discover the swaddled blanket contains a baby. Five years later Lucy walks into Rand Higgins’s bank and knows: the orphan she rescued that day actually belongs to this ruthless financier. Now, to keep the child she’s come to love, she’ll have to give up her hard-won freedom and become his wife. But giving Rand her heart? That, she could never have expected…

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The Calhoun Chronicles in Order

As the ballrooms of 1800s America glitter, romance is afoot…

1. The Charm School (1999) – Boston and Rio de Janeiro, 1851. An awkward misfit in an accomplished family, Isadora Peabody yearns to escape her life as a wallflower in Boston society. Fate intervenes when she learns that a ship bound for Rio de Janeiro is in need of an interpreter-a pursuit she very much enjoys. The only problem? The surly and handsome captain is adamantly opposed to a woman taking the role. Sea captain Ryan Calhoun used to have a good family name. But he’d purposely walked away from everything it afforded him, driven by his quest to right an old wrong. When he finds himself falling for the meek young woman who comes aboard his ship, he’s determined to stay away from her-if only to keep her out of his secretive, dangerous plans.
2. The Horsemaster’s Daughter (1999) – Virginia, 1854. Once a privileged son of the South, Hunter Calhoun now stands a widower shadowed by the scandal of his wife’s death. Burying himself in his business breeding Thoroughbred racehorses, he’s left his family to crumble and his young children to mourn alone. But when a poor investment threatens to bankrupt him, Hunter is forced to seek help by other means…
3. Halfway to Heaven (2001) – Washington, D.C., 1870s. At a glittering White House gala, Abigail Cabot discovers the man of her dreams. Only, he’s not interested…yet. So the gifted lady astronomer, whose passion for measuring stars has left her woefully lacking in social graces, seeks someone to educate her…someone who is a master at the art of seduction. Jamie Calhoun’s handsome looks and easy charm have made him as popular on the Senate floor as he is with the capital’s most attractive women. But secretly he loathes the cynical, manipulative man he’s become. Initially, he befriends Abigail as a means to a political end. But somewhere along the way, the plan goes awry.

4. Enchanted Afternoon (2002) – New York, 1880s. Beautiful, charming, and respected as the wife of an ambitious senator, Helena Cabot Barnes is the leading lady of Saratoga Springs. But beneath the facade lies a terrible deception. Helena married for all the wrong reasons-and discovered too late that her husband is a dangerous man. Fearing for her safety, she ends her marriage and flees to the legendary Moon Lake Lodge, where she creates a refuge for other women in need of a safe haven. And there she finds the courage within to become the woman she was meant to be.
5. A Summer Affair (2003) – A gifted but troubled physician, Blue Calhoun runs a thriving medical practice from his Nob Hill mansion in San Francisco while raising his son alone after an unthinkable tragedy. Then one day a female fugitive with a gunshot wound appears in Blue’s surgery. Even though she holds a pistol aimed at his heart, the desperation in her eyes awakens Blue’s compassion. Reluctantly he is drawn to her fragile beauty, her nerves of steel, and the mystery surrounding her circumstances. Isabel Fish-Wooten has spent most of her life on the run, but everything changes when she forces a stranger to save her life. Yet her rescue comes with an unexpected price.

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The Swept Away Series in Order

1. The Lightkeeper (1997) – Jesse Morgan is a man hiding from the pain of his past, a man who has vowed never to give his heart again. Keeper of a remote lighthouse along a rocky and dangerous coast, he has locked himself away from everything but his bitter memories. Now, the sea has given him a second chance. A beautiful stranger washes ashore, the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Penniless and pregnant, Mary Dare is a woman who carries painful memories of her own.
2. The Drifter (1998) – Leah Mundy has spent her life dashing from town to town, one step ahead of her father’s dreadful reputation. Now she wants to create a home for herself and build a medical practice in Coupeville, a cozy village nestled amid the majestic isles and mountains of Washington Territory. But her neighbors are loath to trust a newcomer, especially a woman doing a man’s work. On the run for a crime he didn’t commit but can’t deny, Jackson Underhill is desperate when he holds Leah at gunpoint. He needs her doctoring to mend his wounds, but he soon realizes that she is also capable of healing his soul.

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The Tudor Rose Series in Order

1. At the King’s Command (aka Circle in the Water, 1994) – Frustrated by his own failures at matrimony, King Henry VIII punishes an insolent nobleman by commanding him to marry the vagabond woman caught stealing his horse. Stephen de Lacey is a cold and bitter widower, long accustomed to the sovereign’s capricious and malicious whims. He regards his new bride as utterly inconvenient…though undeniably fetching. But Juliana Romanov is no ordinary thief-she is a Russian princess forced into hiding by the traitorous cabal who slaughtered her family. One day she hopes to return to Muscovy to seek vengeance. What begins as a mockery of a marriage ultimately blossoms into deepest love.
2. The Maiden’s Hand (aka Vows Made in Wine, 1995) – Roguishly handsome Oliver de Lacey has always lived lustily: wine, weapons and women are his bywords. Even salvation from the noose by a shadowy society provides no epiphany to mend his debauched ways. Mistress Lark’s sole passion is her secret work with a group of Protestant dissidents thwarting the queen’s executions. She needs no other excitement-until Oliver de Lacey drops through the hangman’s door and into her life. As their fates become inextricably bound together in a struggle against royal persecution, both Oliver and Lark discover a love worth saving…even dying for.
3. At the Queen’s Summons (aka Dancing on Air, 1996) – Feisty orphan Pippa de Lacey lives by wit and skill as a London street performer. But when her sharp tongue gets her into serious trouble, she throws herself upon the mercy of Irish chieftain Aidan O’Donoghue. Pippa provides a welcome diversion for Aidan as he awaits an audience with the queen, who holds his people’s fate in her hands. Amused at first, he becomes obsessed with the audacious waif who claims his patronage. Rash and impetuous, their unlikely alliance reverberates with desire and the tantalizing promise of a life each has always wanted-but never dreamed of attaining.

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The Women of War Series in Order

1. The Mistress of Normandy (aka The Lily and the Leopard, 1991) – Rand Fitzmarc has fought his way to prominence under the banner of King Henry V. At long last, his loyalty to the English crown will be rewarded with a title and land…in Normandy, France’s richest prize. Now the freshly knighted nobleman will have to battle once more for the right to possess his French barony, and for the hand of the woman who holds it. Lianna of Bois-Long is determined to keep her lands free from the usurping English king and the husband he’s chosen for her…and her heart safe from any man. Yet when she meets a golden stranger in a sunny forest glade, Lianna is seduced by the heat of his tender gaze and his strong embrace.
2. The Maiden of Ireland (aka The Mist and the Magic, 1993) – John Wesley Hawkins was condemned to hang, accused of treason and heresy. As he’s transported to the scaffold at Tyburn, however, the Lord Protector steps in and offers him the hand of mercy—if Wesley agrees to travel to Ireland on a dangerous mission into the heart of the Irish resistance against English rule. He’ll have to seduce the rebels’ secrets from a headstrong Irishwoman, but that shouldn’t be a problem for a man of Wesley’s reputation….

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The Discovery Series in Order

1. October Wind (1994) – A saga of Columbus’ voyage to the North American continent follows the young Italian as he plans the seemingly impossible voyage with Queen Isabella of Spain.
2. Jewel of the Sea (1994) – Appalled by the cruelty of their countrymen, Armando, a restless wanderer with an uncertain heritage, the beautiful Gabriella, Paloma, child of a Spanish grandee and an Indian wise woman, and Will, a musician, organize and fight back.
3. Kingdom of Gold (1994) – Queen Elizabeth charges Sir Francis Drake and his companion, Evan Carew, to search for an heir to the throne in the New World, where they encounter love in the form of two-spirited women.

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Other Novels by Susan Wiggs

• Texas Wildflower (1987) – All her life, beautiful Shiloh Mulvane has wanted to follow in her father’s revered footsteps as one of the Texas frontier’s greatest detectives. Now, she finally has her chance-by bringing sexy outlaw Justin McCord to her employer, a powerful judge who wants him to marry the daughter he allegedly compromised. But Justin has other ideas. . . .The secret spy has a mission to complete, and he knows what will happen in Houston: he’ll be forced into a sham marriage that will destroy the dream of Texas independence he’s fought for, unless . . . he’s already married.
• Briar Rose (1987) – Despite her best intentions, Briar Rose loses her heart to Gareth Hawke, a Saxon warrior stripped by fate of his wealth, his authority, and his scruples.
• Winds of Glory (1988) – A spy for the Colonial cause, indentured bondsman Ashton Markham believes he is prepared for any hazard until he is forced to marry fierce Tory Bethany Winslow in order to escape the gallows.
• Embrace the Day (1988) – Filled with dreams of a better life, 17-year-old Genevieve Elliot makes the perilous journey from England to colonial Virginia, where she and handsome frontiersman Roarke Adair tame the savage wilderness and survive the sorrows of war to make a home.
• Moonshadow (1989) – Brash, beautiful Jessica Darling preferred to forget what she’d done to survive her destitute childhood. Now, her shameful past safely behind her, she found contentment as the governess of two motherless children – until their long-lost father returned unexpectedly to take them. Fletcher Danforth, imprisoned for five years in the colonies, felt little love for anyone – except his son and daughter. He would take any risk to claim them from their guardians – even blackmail Jessica into marrying him! But as the sweet passion of moonlit nights claims them, Fletcher discovers the healing power of Jessica’s love, only to realize he may have lost all hope to win her heart.
• The Canary Who Sailed with Columbus (Picture book, 1989) – Carlos the canary accompanies Columbus on his voyage to the new world.
• The Raven and the Rose (1991) – One of Napoleon’s mercenaries sent to conquer the Hospice of St. Bernards, Daniel Severin, falls in love with Lorelei du Clerc, the illegitimate daughter of King Louis XVI, who is cloistered there, and the two risk their lives for a passion that cannot be denied.
• Lord of the Night (1993) – Sandro Cavalli, Lord of the Night, is legendary for bringing criminals to justice. But in the city’s shadowy alleyways, a new, deadly plot is afoot-a sinister threat that even Sandro needs help to uncover. He enlists the aid of alluring, sensuous beauty, Laura Bandello. But Laura’s innocent loveliness may hide a dark secret, and Sandro vows to keep his distance. Yet the deeper he delves into the underworld, the harder he falls for Laura. Pursued by unspeakable danger, Sandro risks his honor, his reputation, and even his heart-all for the love of a mysterious beauty he can’t quite trust.
• Miranda (1996) – In Regency London, a woman escapes from a burning warehouse only to realize she doesn’t know her own identity. Although the locket around her neck bears the name Miranda, she has no recollection of her past. Nor does she know why two very different men want her-the devilishly handsome Scotsman Ian MacVane, and Lord Lucas Chesney, the nobleman who claims to be her betrothed.

• Merry Christmas, Baby! (1996) – In Cinderfella, a reporter hopes to save a shelter and seduce his boss, while in Grady’s Kids, a stubborn rancher dislikes the woman his kids have chosen for him, and in It Takes a Miracle, a divorced couple gets a second chance.
• Husband for Hire (1999) – With the Hell Creek High School Reunion just around the corner, beautician Twyla McCabe, a widow with a young child, is stunned when her loyal customers come up with a gorgeous date for her–ambitious Denver pathologist Rob Carter–at a charity bachelor auction.
• The You I Never Knew (2001) – Michelle Turner thought she lost everything at 17. Her father, a Hollywood legend, had finally summoned her to his Montana ranch. But when he learned of her affair with Sam McPhee, a hired hand, he had Sam fired and destroyed his family. Michelle, pregnant and alone, fled to Seattle. Now a successful advertising exec, Michelle is safe-safe from love, safe from hurt. But her son is lost to her, a troubled teen on the verge of self-destruction, a boy who blames her for the absence of his father and grandfather. And then her father calls to tell her he is dying. He has only one chance to live – if she will donate a kidney to save him.

• Passing Through Paradise (2002) – It’s been two years since the mysterious accident took Sandra Winslow’s politician husband, Victor — the favorite son of a town called Paradise — and left Sandra under a cloud of suspicion. She decides to sell her beach house on the edge of town and hires Mike Malloy, who touches her lonely heart. Can she trust a man with unbreakable ties to a community she’s eager to leave behind — and who is determined to unearth her deepest secrets?
• Home Before Dark (2003) – As an irresponsible young mother, Jessie Ryder knew she’d never be able to give her newborn the stable family that her older sister could, and the security her child deserved. So Luz and her husband adopted little Lila and told her Jessie was but a distant aunt. Sixteen years later, having traveled the world with the winds of remorse at her back, Jessie is suspending her photojournalism career to return home-even if it means throwing her sister’s world into turmoil.
• Summer by the Sea (2004) – With a little determination and a lot of charm, Rosa Capoletti took a run-down pizza joint and turned it into an award-winning restaurant, voted the “best place to propose” three years in a row. For Rosa, though, there has been no real romance since her teenage love affair with Alexander Montgomery ended without explanation a decade ago. But guess who’s just come back to town?

• Lakeside Cottage (2005) – Each summer, Kate Livingston returns to her family’s lakeside cottage, a place of simple living and happy times – a place where she now hopes her shy son can blossom. But her quiet life gets a bit more interesting with the arrival of an intriguing new neighbor, JD Harris. Although she is a confirmed single mother, Kate is soon drawn into the sweetness of a summer romance and discovers the passion of a lifetime.
• Table for Five (2005) – Lily Robinson and Sean McGuire have nothing in common. She guards her independent lifestyle with a ferocity that hides a fear of love and the pain it can bring. He’s always been a rolling stone, making his own way. But with the sudden deaths of a couple close to them both, the two become joined in grief and a knowledge that they must step up and care for the three orphaned children.
• Just Breathe (2008) – Sarah Moon tackles life’s issues with a sharp wit in her syndicated comic strip, Just Breathe. With both Sarah and her cartoon heroine undergoing fertility treatments, her fiction often reflects her reality. However, she hadn’t scripted her husband’s infidelity. In the wake of her shattered marriage, Sarah flees to the coastal town in California where she grew up. There, she revisits her troubling past. But he’s been through some changes himself. And just as her heart is about to reawaken, Sarah makes a most startling discovery. She’s pregnant. With her ex’s twins.

• The Borrowed Bride (2008) – During her own bridal shower, Isabel Wharton is whisked away by past love Dan Black Horse to his retreat in the Cascade range. But returning to her Native roots, and Dan’s loving arms is harder than she ever imagined.
• How I Planned Your Wedding (2011) – Bestselling author Susan Wiggs literally wrote the book on happily-ever-after love. But orchestrating her daughter Elizabeth’s real-world wedding turned into a different story altogether, and one that takes two to tell-the mother and the bride. Here is the all-too-true tale of a mother and daughter collaborating on life’s ultimate celebration-a dream wedding.
• The Goodbye Quilt (aka The Summer It Begins, 2011) – Linda Davis’s local fabric shop is a place where women gather to share their creations: wedding quilts, baby quilts, memorial quilts, each bound tight with dreams, hopes, and yearnings. Now, as her only child readies for college, Linda is torn between excitement for Molly and heartache for herself. Who will she be when she is no longer needed in her role as mom?

• Snowfall in the City (aka The St. James Affair, 2014) – Elaine St. James has it all-a thriving career as an elite Manhattan publicist, A-list best friends and a gorgeous, high-profile boyfriend her parents adore. But when Byron breaks up with her on Christmas Eve, Elaine is faced with the prospect of spending the holidays alone…until the man she loved long ago reappears, much like a ghost from Christmas past.
• A Fairytale Christmas (2014) – Ace reporter Jack Riley loves his job, or at least he did until Madeleine Langston took over as publisher for the Courier. The perfect blonde ice queen is a daunting presence in the newsroom and an irresistible distraction, despite Jack’s determination to avoid her as often as possible. Even if it means boycotting her fancy Christmas party.
• Island Time (2016) – Off the coast of Washington lies Spruce Island, home to Rainshadow Lodge, the perfect summer retreat. Neither Mitch Rutherford or Rosie Galvez expect to find romance during their month-long visit to the rambling Victorian getaway. Mitch, an architect, is a workaholic on a deadline, while Rosie’s determined to relax and enjoy the scenery while preparing an environmental report. But despite-or perhaps because?-of their differences, they find themselves drawn to each other, and their lives are irrevocably changed by their stay at the lodge.

• Map of the Heart (2017) – Widowed by an unspeakable tragedy, Camille Palmer has made her peace with the past and settled into the quiet safety of life with her teenage daughter Julie in a sleepy coastal town. Then the arrival of a mysterious package breaks open the door to her family’s secret past. In uncovering a hidden history, Camille has no idea that she’s embarking on an adventure that will utterly transform her.
• Between You and Me (2018) – Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around the family, farm, faith-and long-held suspicions about outsiders. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life.
• The Oysterville Sewing Circle (2019) – At the break of dawn, Caroline Shelby rolls into Oysterville, Washington, a tiny hamlet at the edge of the raging Pacific. She’s come home. Home to a place she thought she’d left forever, home of her heart and memories, but not her future. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous fashion world of Manhattan. But her success in New York imploded on a wave of scandal and tragedy, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows.

• The Lost and Found Bookshop (2020) – Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worriying about. In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes a caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative-not counting her scoundrel father. But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell it.
• Sugar and Salt (2022) – Jerome Sugar learned the art of baking in his grandma’s bakery, also called Sugar, on historic Perdita Street in San Francisco. He supplies baked goods to the Lost and Found Bookshop across the street. When the restaurant that shares his commercial kitchen loses its longtime tenant, a newcomer moves in: Margot Salton, a barbecue master from Texas.
• Welcome to Beach Town (2023) – In idyllic Alara Cove, a California beach town known for its sunny charm and chill surfer vibe, it’s graduation day at the elite Thornton Academy. At Thornton, the students are the worldly and overindulged children who live in gated enclaves with spectacular views. But the class valedictorian is Nikki Graziola, a surfer’s daughter who is there on scholarship. To the shock of everyone in the audience, Nikki veers off script while giving her commencement address and reveals a secret that breaks open the whole community. As her truth explodes into the light, Alara Cove will face a reckoning.

• The Twelve Dogs of Christmas (2023) – Brenda Malloy wants nothing to do with Christmas ever again. Last year, Brenda and her husband rushed their beloved dog Tim to the emergency vet on Christmas eve. The good news: Tim survived after the vet cleared the obstruction–a pair of women’s lace undies. The bad news: the undies were not Brenda’s. A year after the breakup, Brenda has put her life back together. She’s trained for a marathon, is writing a children’s novel, and she’s found purpose and healing as a volunteer with a dog rescue organization in Houston, Texas. The rescue partners with a program in Avalon, New York–a small, snowy town deep in the Catskills. Now Brenda is arranging the transport of rescued dogs from Houston to Avalon-just in time for a merry Christmas with their forever families. Brenda’s friends worry about her driving a van two thousand miles with twelve dogs in crates, but she shrugs off their concern. How hard can it be?

If you like our article about the Susan Wiggs reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also want to check out Robyn Carr’s series, or our guide to Jenny Colgan’s books.