Christine Wenger Books in Order
Explore Christine Wenger books in order, from cowboy romances to Comfort Food mysteries, with short summaries, series background, and easy places to start.
Last updated: July 6, 2026
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Publication Order
21 books
The Lady and the Cowboy
by Christine Wenger
1997
After years in New York City, Caroline Trask returns to Wyoming hoping to reclaim her place in the world. A property dispute throws her together with the mysterious cowboy Raven, and she must decide whether he is a threat or her best chance at home.
The Cowboy Way
by Christine Wenger
2005
Widow Beth Conroy takes her son to the ranch of his bull-riding hero and finds her guarded world shaken by Jake Dixon. As attraction grows, both must face the pain they have been carrying and the family they might build together.
Not Your Average Cowboy
by Christine Wenger
2006
Celebrity homemaker Meredith Bingham Turner escapes Boston for an Arizona ranch makeover and finds herself stranded with single dad Bucklin Porter. The ranch needs help, Buck's family comes first, and sparks fly between the city star and the stubborn cowboy.
The Cowboy and the CEO
by Christine Wenger
2007
Work-driven executive Susan Collins arrives at Gold Buckle Ranch as a donor and camp counselor, not looking for romance. Rodeo cowboy Clint Scully is all wrong for her on paper, but their differences only make the attraction harder to resist.
It's That Time of Year
by Christine Wenger
2008
Widow Melanie Bennett comes to Hawk's Lake for the Snow Festival hoping to give her young son a happy Christmas. Instead she keeps running into Sam LeDoux, the rescue worker she blames for the past and the man asking for a second chance.
The Tycoon's Perfect Match
by Christine Wenger
2009
Years after their teenage romance fell apart, Marigold Sherwood returns to Hawk's Lake burned out and unsure of her future. Brian Hawkins still pulls at her heart, but his restlessness may ruin their second chance before it truly begins.
The Cowboy Code
by Christine Wenger
2010
Broadway actress Maggie McIntyre heads to Wyoming to keep custody of her troubled nephew and gets pulled into Joe Watley's program for at-risk boys. The handsome rancher offers stability she never expected, but choosing him may mean changing her whole life.
How to Lasso a Cowboy
by Christine Wenger
2011
Jenna Reed plans a quiet summer, not a houseguest in the form of her old crush, bull rider Dustin Morgan. Tired of playing it safe, she decides to go after what she wants, and discovers romance is messier than any magazine advice.
Saratoga Sunrise
by Christine Wenger
2011
Heiress Sara Peterson loves horses more than the arranged match her father has planned for her. When Jack Wheeler returns to Saratoga Springs determined to clear his father's name, their growing bond puts love, loyalty, and family power on a collision course.
Stuck On You
by Christine Wenger
2012
After losing her job, Kate Kingston launches a house-arrest monitoring business and lands former crush John Mackowitz as her first client. He is a cop accused of corruption, she needs him to stay put, and danger keeps pulling them together.
Do or Diner
by Christine Wenger
2013
Fresh from a divorce, Trixie Matkowski returns to upstate New York to take over her aunt's Silver Bullet Diner. Her first health inspection ends in murder, and if she can't solve it fast, her new start may be over before it begins.
Lassoed into Marriage
by Christine Wenger
2013
Pilot Lisa Phillips never expected co-guardianship of her niece to mean sharing a home with carefree bull rider Brett Sullivan. Raising a little girl together forces two opposites to confront grief, responsibility, and a very inconvenient attraction.
A Second Helping of Murder
by Christine Wenger
2014
Running the Silver Bullet Diner is hard enough without a body turning up among the summer cottages. When Trixie suspects the death is tied to an old disappearance, she and Deputy Ty Brisco dig into secrets the town would rather forget.
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Death
by Christine Wenger
2015
Trixie Matkowski is helping her friend ACB open a drive-in theater beside the Silver Bullet Diner when a body turns up at the groundbreaking. With ACB the prime suspect, Trixie has to find the real killer before the town turns against them.
Macaroni and Freeze
by Christine Wenger
2015
A mac-and-cheese cook-off sounds like the perfect publicity boost for Trixie's diner, until celebrity chef Priscilla Finch-Smythe winds up dead in a snowbank. Suddenly Trixie is under suspicion and forced to untangle a chilly small-town murder.
The Rancher's Surprise Son
by Christine Wenger
2015
When cowboy Cody Masters returns home after prison, he finds his first love Laura Duke raising a little boy with Cody's unmistakable blue eyes. Trust is thin, old secrets still hurt, and both must decide whether they can finally become a family.
It's a Wonderful Knife
by Christine Wenger
2016
Christmas is the busiest season at Trixie Matkowski's Silver Bullet Diner, even before a broken leg slows her down. When the director of the town pageant is stabbed with Trixie's butcher knife, she has to clear her name and catch a killer.
The Cowboy and the Cop
by Christine Wenger
2017
Sergeant Amber Chapman heads to Oklahoma City determined to drag bull rider Luke Beaumont back to save his family's ranch from ruin. As they investigate cattle rustling and old tensions flare, attraction becomes impossible to ignore.
Reunited with the Bull Rider
by Christine Wenger
2018
Injured bull rider Reed Beaumont comes home to Oklahoma and runs straight into his high school sweetheart, Callie Wainright. While she helps restore his family's troubled ranch, old feelings return and Reed must choose between the rodeo circuit and a future with her.
Home on the Ranch
by Christine Wenger
2019
Sara Peterson is focused on her silent young son, Mickey, after a tragic accident. When an equine therapy program brings stubborn bull rider Jesse Beaumont into their lives, sparks fly and both must decide what family really means.
Her Unexpected Cowboy Match
by Christine Wenger
2020
This western romance collection features Christine Wenger's The Cowboy and the CEO, where work-driven Susan Collins arrives at Gold Buckle Ranch and clashes with rodeo cowboy Clint Scully. It is a warm ranch story built on strong wills, family ties, and unexpected attraction.
Where should I start?
If you want a cozy mystery series: Do or Diner → A Second Helping of Murder → Diners, Drive-Ins, and Death
If you want cowboy romance with rodeo energy: The Cowboy Code → How to Lasso a Cowboy → Reunited with the Bull Rider
If you like small-town second chances: It's That Time of Year → The Tycoon's Perfect Match
If you want a short historical romance: The Lady and the Cowboy
Author bio
Christine Wenger is a native of central New York who spent many years working in criminal justice. She earned a master's degree in probation and parole administration and sociology from Fordham University. Those credentials may sound like the setup for a very different career, but they gave her a close look at people under pressure, and people sit at the center of her fiction.
Writing came from a different direction. Her first published book was The Lady and the Cowboy, a western historical written for beginning adult readers and sold to Laubach Literacy. It was a modest beginning, but it set the pattern for much of what came later: western settings, emotional stakes, and ordinary people trying to build a life.
In 1998, The Lady and the Cowboy was recognized by the Public Library Association's Adult Lifelong Learning Section as one of its top titles for adult new readers. A few years later, Silhouette Special Edition bought The Cowboy Way, which was released in 2005 and helped launch her run in contemporary romance.
Cowboys clearly stuck.
Books like The Cowboy Way, The Cowboy Code, How to Lasso a Cowboy, and Reunited with the Bull Rider show what Wenger enjoys on the romance side: strong-willed heroines, family complications, second chances, and men who may be good with bulls and horses but still have to learn how to stay put. Her westerns often mix warmth and humor with practical stakes like custody fights, ranch money troubles, injuries, and the pull between life on the road and life at home.
She also moved into mystery with the Comfort Food Mystery series, beginning with Do or Diner. Set around the Silver Bullet Diner in upstate New York, the books follow Trixie Matkowski as she serves comfort food and stumbles into murder investigations. In A Second Helping of Murder, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Death, Macaroni and Freeze, and It's a Wonderful Knife, Wenger leans into small-town secrets, diner life, and the kind of local detail that makes the setting feel lived in.
Place matters in her work. One side of it draws on the lakeside towns, diners, and close communities of upstate New York. The other comes from her love of bull riding and rodeo, which gives the cowboy books an easy affection for the people, routines, and risks of that world.
She and her husband Jim enjoy watching professional bull riding and rodeo together.
Whether she's writing a Christmas romance like It's That Time of Year, a reunion story like The Tycoon's Perfect Match, or a culinary cozy with a body near the pie case, Wenger keeps the focus on everyday people who are bruised, busy, funny, and still open to connection. Her books are less about fantasy glamour and more about finding home, trust, and one good person to stand beside.
That feels like the through line in all of Christine Wenger's fiction. A ranch, a diner, a snowy small town, a rodeo stop, the setting changes, but the question stays much the same: after life knocks things sideways, can these people build something steady together?
Edited by
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