EE Holmes Books in Order

If you want the core World of the Gateway story: Spirit Legacy → Spirit Prophecy → Spirit Ascendancy
If you loved the trilogy and want more ghost hunting action: Whispers of the Walker → Plague of the Shattered → Awakening of the Seer
If you prefer historical fantasy in a magical London: What the Lady's Maid Knew → The Rebel Beneath the Stairs → The Girl at the Heart of the Storm
If you enjoy deeper character insights and side stories: Read Tales from the Gateway after the Gateway Trilogy and the first few Gateway Trackers books

E.E. Holmes grew up just outside Boston, Massachusetts, with a book almost always in her hands. She read on the school bus, at the dinner table, and even while walking, practicing the art of turning pages without tripping over the curb. Stories were her favorite way to move through the world.

As a kid she also filled blank notebooks and the backs of her father's office legal pads with poems, half finished stories, and early attempts at plays. Those scribbles never left the family home, but they gave her a private stage where she could try on different voices and characters long before anyone else was watching.

In high school and college, her love of story shifted naturally toward the stage. She studied theater at the College of the Holy Cross, drawn to the way a script on the page turned into something living once actors and an audience got involved. After graduation she proved that a theater degree could be useful by working as a principal actor in a summer Shakespeare festival and by teaching acting to kids and teens.

For seven years she served as theater director at Wakefield High School, where she also taught English literature and public speaking. Her days were packed with rehearsals, costume fittings, and lesson plans. She directed dozens of productions and workshops, watching shy students slowly claim their place under the stage lights and find their own courage in the words of a script.

It was in those classrooms that she ran into a problem she could not shake. A surprising number of her students said they hated to read. For someone whose childhood was anchored by books, that admission was both baffling and unsettling. She began to wonder if she could write the kind of story that might hook even the most reluctant reader.

That question became the seed of Spirit Legacy, the first novel in what would become The Gateway Trilogy. Holmes set the book in a recognizable New England college town and built it around Jess Ballard, a smart, guarded young woman who discovers she is a living doorway for restless spirits. The book went on to earn prizes from genre focused award programs and a silver medal from a national independent publishing award, but more important to her were the notes from teens who said it was the first book they had finished in a long time.

The success of Spirit Legacy led to Spirit Prophecy and Spirit Ascendancy, then to the longer World of the Gateway, including the Gateway Trackers novels and a companion collection, Tales from the Gateway. She has also branched into other corners of fantasy with the Riftmagic Saga and the Vesper Coven series. Across all of these books she tends to return to the same questions about power, responsibility, and what it means to build a family of choice.

Holmes's stories lean on clear, conversational prose, tight character focus, and settings that feel lived in rather than lofty. Ghosts, secret orders, and magical conspiracies show up often, but so do messy roommates, awkward family dinners, and small moments of humor. Her background in theater shows in the way she stages scenes, using dialogue and blocking to keep even supernatural plots grounded in how people actually move and talk.

Today she lives in central Massachusetts with her husband, two children, and a small but impressively loud dog. When she is not writing she still gravitates toward stories, whether that means analyzing Shakespeare for fun, binging British television shows, or revisiting favorite childhood books with her kids. And if you ever spot someone walking down the street with a novel open and barely watching her feet, there is a good chance she has simply found one more story she cannot put down.