Heather Hansen Books in Order

Heather Hansen grew up in California as the oldest of five children. She wanted to write from an early age, and in seventh grade she began a murder mystery inspired by Agatha Christie. The young writer had one small problem: she couldn't work out who the killer was.

Instead, the draft kept expanding as she introduced new characters and dispatched them in increasingly gruesome ways. Her teacher was both impressed and horrified. It was a messy but useful start for a writer drawn to secrets, pressure, and dangerous choices.

Hansen studied English at California State University, Fullerton. She later traveled widely with her husband, a retired Marine, and has said that living in Okinawa, Japan, was a favorite part of that time, helped along by easy access to ramen, Japanese curry, and sushi.

Those years gave her a wider view of place, movement, and what it means to feel at home.

Her first published novel, The Breaking Light, arrived in 2017. It opens the Split City series, a young adult dystopian story set in a city where access to sunlight is tightly controlled. Arden comes from the dark Undercity, while Dade belongs to the wealthy class above it. Their relationship puts them between family loyalty, gang ties, and a system designed to keep people in their place.

The follow-up, The Stolen Sky, keeps Arden and Dade on the move as Split City reaches a breaking point. These books mix forbidden romance with escapes, surveillance, sabotage, and a fight over life-saving Vitamin D. The question is rarely just whether someone can get away. It is whom they can trust when every side wants something.

With Only The Trees Know, Hansen moves from future-city rebellion to contemporary suspense. Four high school friends enter Yosemite on a spring-break hiking trip, but only Josiah comes out. He then faces a murder trial while the story moves between the woods and the aftermath.

It is a darker story about friendship under strain, buried history, and the gap between what people say and what happened.

Across her books, Hansen puts young people in situations where simple choices become impossible. Her characters are pushed by loyalty, fear, class, family expectations, and love. The stories move quickly, but the emotional problem stays close: how do you hold onto yourself when your world narrows?

Her author biography lists Las Vegas as home, where she balances corporate work and writing, with a stated fondness for eating Nutella with a spoon.