Lisa Wingate Books in Order: Complete List

The Lisa Wingate books in order include six series, standalone historical novels, short fiction, nonfiction, and anthology contributions. Wingate began with inspirational and contemporary women’s fiction, often blending family drama, community, and romance, before becoming best known for historical novels inspired by real events.

Her series are easy to approach because the novels and novellas can generally stand alone, even when characters or settings overlap. The lists below follow publication order, with notes only where a shorter work connects directly to a novel.

Jump to:

• Lisa Wingate Books by Series
• Lisa Wingate Standalone Books
• Lisa Wingate Short Stories
• Lisa Wingate Nonfiction Book
• Lisa Wingate Anthology Contributions
• About Lisa Wingate

Lisa Wingate Books by Series

Tending Roses Books

Tending Roses follows Kate Bowman as she tries to persuade her ailing grandmother to leave her rural home. Lisa Wingate drew part of the story from her own relationship with her grandmother, who moved in with Wingate’s family after the birth of one of her sons.

The five novels share family connections and recurring characters, although each one follows a different central character. I recommend publication order if you plan to read the entire series because the relationships build naturally, but each novel can also be read independently.

1. Tending Roses (2001)
2. Good Hope Road (2003)
3. The Language of Sycamores (2005)
4. Drenched in Light (2006)
5. A Thousand Voices (2007)

Texas Hill Country Books

The Texas Hill Country series shifts toward contemporary inspirational romance. Each novel follows a different woman in a small-town Texas setting, so the stories can stand alone. I prefer publication order because it keeps the shared setting and character connections in sequence.

1. Texas Cooking (2003)
2. Lone Star Cafe (2004)
3. Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner (2005)

Daily, Texas Books

These three novels follow different protagonists whose lives intersect with the small town of Daily, Texas. Each book has its own romance and complete story, so you won’t be lost if you start with any one of them. I’d still read them in publication order for the simplest introduction to the town and its residents.

1. Talk of the Town (2008)
2. Word Gets Around (2009)
3. Never Say Never (2010)

Blue Sky Hill Books

The Blue Sky Hill books are set around a changing Dallas neighborhood and explore family, friendship, community, and second chances. Characters from the Tending Roses series appear here, so my advice is to read Tending Roses first if you want every crossover in context. Otherwise, Blue Sky Hill works on its own, and the four novels can be read independently.

1. A Month of Summer (2008)
2. The Summer Kitchen (2009)
3. Beyond Summer (2010)
4. Dandelion Summer (2011)

Moses Lake Books

The Moses Lake novels share a lakeside Texas community and blend romance, family drama, mystery, and themes of belonging. Each book centers on a different protagonist. I recommend publication order, although readers can start with any title without needing the earlier books.

1. Larkspur Cove (2011)
2. Blue Moon Bay (2012)
3. Firefly Island (2013)
4. Wildwood Creek (2014)

Carolina Heirlooms Books

Lisa Wingate’s connected North Carolina books are published under both the Carolina Chronicles and Carolina Heirlooms names. They share Outer Banks settings, family histories, and recurring characters, but each novel and novella can be read independently.

1. The Sea Glass Sisters (2013) (Novella)
2. The Prayer Box (2013)
3. The Tidewater Sisters (2014) (Novella)
4. The Story Keeper (2014)
5. The Sandcastle Sister (2015) (Novella)
6. The Sea Keeper’s Daughters (2015)

I recommend the order above because the shorter works fit naturally around the novels. The Sea Glass Sisters is a prelude to The Prayer Box, The Tidewater Sisters is a postlude to it, and The Sandcastle Sister continues Jen Gibbs’s story after The Story Keeper. You don’t need the novellas to understand the novels, but they add useful character context.

Related Carolina Short Fiction and Collection

1. A Sandy’s Seashell Shop Christmas (2014) (Short Fiction)
2. Sisters (2016) (Collection)

A Sandy’s Seashell Shop Christmas is an Outer Banks e-short connected to the Carolina setting. Sisters collects The Sea Glass Sisters, The Tidewater Sisters, and The Sandcastle Sister in one volume. It doesn’t contain an additional story, so readers who already own the three novellas don’t need to buy the collection.

Lisa Wingate Standalone Books

Lisa Wingate’s standalone novels move more fully into historical and literary women’s fiction, with stories inspired by overlooked events and family histories. These novels aren’t connected and can be read in any order.

1. Before We Were Yours (2017)
2. The Book of Lost Friends (2020)
3. Shelterwood (2024)

If you’re deciding where to start, I’d choose Before We Were Yours for historical fiction. Readers who want Wingate’s earlier contemporary and inspirational fiction should begin with Tending Roses.

Lisa Wingate Short Stories

The Last Father-Daughter Dance is a standalone Amazon Original Stories release rather than part of one of Lisa Wingate’s series.

1. The Last Father-Daughter Dance (2026) (Short Story)

Lisa Wingate Nonfiction Book

Before and After, coauthored with journalist Judy Christie, is the nonfiction companion to Before We Were Yours. It shares accounts from adoptees and birth families affected by Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, which operated from the 1920s until 1950.

1. Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society (2019) (With Judy Christie)

Lisa Wingate Anthology Contributions

Among Lisa Wingate’s multi-author anthology contributions are the following books.

1. When You Pass Through Waters: Words of Hope and Healing from Your Favorite Authors (2015)
2. Stories from Suffragette City (2020)

Stories from Suffragette City includes Wingate’s short story “Apple Season.”

About Lisa Wingate

Lisa Wingate says she can’t remember a time when she didn’t write. She credits a first-grade teacher in Massachusetts with encouraging her by reading her work aloud to the class and telling her that she expected to see Wingate’s name in print one day.

Before becoming a full-time novelist, Wingate attended college, worked as a journalist and technical writer, married, and became a mother. Her debut novel, Tending Roses, was partly inspired by her experience with her grandmother after the birth of one of her sons.

Before We Were Yours became a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained on the list for more than two years. Its success also helped reconnect some people affected by the Tennessee Children’s Home Society scandal, whose experiences Wingate and Judy Christie later documented in Before and After.

Looking for similar books in order?

If you want more romance authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Romance Books in Order index.

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