Claire Kann Books in Order

Claire Kann grew up in California’s Bay Area, a place that still shapes the way she talks about home and weather. She earned a degree in English and creative writing from Sonoma State University, then built a writing life alongside work for a nonprofit. She now lives and writes in California with her cat, Bebe.

Her route to fiction was not especially tidy. After an uncertain start to college and a quarter-life reset in her mid-twenties, Kann decided to focus on becoming a writer. She began drafting her first novel on January 1, 2014, and soon started sharing stories online, where immediate reader feedback suited her need to keep moving.

Those early online years mattered. Kann posted fiction on Wattpad, where The Scavenger Hunt and Fat Girl Magic won Watty Awards, and she also found the Swoon Reads community. In 2016, readers selected Let’s Talk About Love for publication.

A few years later, her debut reached shelves.

Let’s Talk About Love follows Alice, a Black, biromantic asexual college student trying to make sense of a breakup, friendship changes, and a new connection with library coworker Takumi. The book keeps its focus on everyday stuff, work shifts, family pressure, favorite food, awkward feelings, while making room for Alice to define love on her own terms. It was published in 2018 and introduced the mix of warmth, humor, and frank emotional questions that runs through Kann’s work.

Her young adult books move comfortably between grounded coming-of-age stories and bigger, stranger setups. In If It Makes You Happy, Winnie spends a summer at her grandmother’s diner while confronting the spotlight and expectations that come with becoming her small town’s Summer Queen. The Marvelous shifts into mystery and competition, bringing teens to a reclusive heiress’s mansion for a cash-prize game full of challenges and secrets.

Kann’s adult romances give that same interest in friendship, self-knowledge, and unexpected attraction more room to breathe. The Romantic Agenda centers on Joy, an asexual woman secretly in love with her best friend, and the fake-dating arrangement that changes her plans. Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places adds paranormal investigation, a haunted Victorian house, and a romance that has to contend with a very possessive home.

She also writes for younger readers. Her middle-grade Suitehearts books follow two cousins learning the family trade of magical matchmaking from a San Francisco hotel.

Across age categories, Kann tends to write characters who are figuring out what they want instead of pretending they already know. Her stories make room for crushes, friendship trouble, family expectations, work, magic, and the sometimes inconvenient work of being honest with yourself. The details may include enchanted charms or a sentient house, but the feelings stay close to everyday life.