End-Times Books in Order

The End-Times trilogy shows Donna VanLiere shifting from small-town Christmas stories to a global, high-intensity setting, while keeping her focus on ordinary people trying to hold on to hope. The books are best read in order: The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope, and Daniel’s Final Week.

The Time of Jacob’s Trouble opens on a normal workday for Emma Grady, a physician assistant in New York City. In a heartbeat, patients and coworkers vanish in front of her eyes. Subways grind to a halt, planes are grounded, graves stand open, and Emma finds herself racing from Brooklyn to Queens, desperate to find her boyfriend and make sense of what just happened. News reports reveal that the disappearances are global, not local, and rumors of biblical prophecy start to surface.

At the same time, the story follows Zerah Adler in Israel, who is watching her country edge toward war while trying to understand how ancient prophecies might fit what she sees on the evening news. As the series progresses, she witnesses dramatic events in Jerusalem, including two mysterious witnesses who call down plagues and seem to bend the weather to their will, echoing scenes many readers will recognize from the book of Revelation.

Into this chaos steps Victor Quade, a charismatic world leader who promises stability, peace, and economic recovery. In The Day of Ezekiel’s Hope and Daniel’s Final Week, his influence deepens until everyday life—from getting groceries to visiting a doctor—requires public allegiance to him. Emma and her small band of friends in a shattered New York, along with Zerah and those she protects in Israel, have to decide whom they will trust when compromise could mean survival and conviction could cost their lives.

While the stakes are higher here than in VanLiere’s holiday novels—there are nuclear attacks, persecution, and scenes of open warfare—the storytelling rhythm will feel familiar to her longtime readers. The focus stays on kitchen tables, cramped apartments, crowded shelters, and whispered conversations between people who are scared, exhausted, and still trying to care for one another.

Each book weaves together fast-paced scenes with sections that step back to explain the biblical passages that inspired the story. The final chapters in particular draw a line between the fictional events and specific prophecies, offering a kind of built-in study guide for readers who want to dig deeper. The result is a trilogy that blends suspense, scriptural reflection, and the same through-line of grace that runs under all of VanLiere’s work.