Isabelle Holland Books in Order

A young teacher at an English boarding school struggles to show compassion to a student who does not fit in. Her failure to understand the pupil’s difficulties has consequences that threaten her own hopes for love.

Twelve-year-old Amanda knows that difficult behavior gets her noticed, but attention does not bring the affection she wants. As her conduct drives people away, she begins to recognize the difference between demanding notice and building friendships.

Fourteen-year-old Charles seeks escape from an unhappy home by preparing for boarding school. His unlikely tutor, a withdrawn man with a badly scarred face, becomes the trusted friend who challenges his understanding of love and acceptance.

A girl begins a dangerous effort to lose weight while her parents are absorbed in their own marital problems. Her growing distress exposes the risks of a family failing to recognize what is happening beneath the surface.

Eleven-year-old orphan Alison refuses to accept that she and her two younger companions must remain without a family. Her determination brings the three children to a reluctant bachelor uncle, whom she hopes to persuade to offer them a home.

An eighteen-year-old returns to the family’s island home years after a fire left her facially scarred. Distrusting the half-brother who dominates the estate, she must confront the fears and secrets surrounding the place she once fled.

Inheriting a Maine mansion from relatives who once humiliated her, Kit plans to turn it into an artists’ colony. The sprawling house’s hidden spaces and unsettling secrets soon make her attempt to reclaim it a dangerous undertaking.

Meg Grant enjoys traveling Europe with her mother as they work as tour guides. When her mother develops cancer, sixteen-year-old Meg must meet the father she has never known and confront a radically different future.

Antonia inherits a notorious Brooklyn Heights house, only to find the unexpected legacy placing her and her son in danger. The mystery also draws her toward a man from her past whose connection to the property may change everything.

Returning to Grenelle after eleven years, Susan finds the campus engulfed in turmoil and her former lover serving as police chief. When violence threatens her, she may have to trust the very man she once tried to forget.

Reporter Sally Wainwright takes a friend's identity to become governess to Tristram Darcourt's daughter on an isolated South Carolina island. Investigating the wealthy family's secret becomes dangerous when Darcourt discovers who she really is.

Angry when her father breaks a promise to take her camping, sixteen-year-old Pat decides to hitchhike home as a rebuke. Acting on that impulse places her in a situation far more dangerous than the family quarrel she left behind.

Asked to write her famous father's biography, Janet deMaury discovers papers revealing his involvement in a secret utopian society. Threats and disturbing incidents follow as someone tries to keep those documents hidden, unsettling her trust in those around her.

Twelve-year-old Dinah struggles with her weight and difficult relationships at home. Retreating into an imagined kingdom offers relief from the judgments around her, while leaving the problems of her everyday life waiting to be faced.

Candida leaves her New York publishing job to help a frightened woman at the imposing Tower Abbey. An ominous presence in the house and the reappearance of a man she believed dead draw her into dangerous secrets from the past.

When the aunt raising him dies, an orphaned boy hides her death to protect the animals he has collected. Keeping his pets together means concealing a loss that could send him to an unfamiliar home.

A request to quiet a neighboring school seems harmless until Avril Marchington’s estranged sister returns to the family home. The two events draw Avril into a chain of threatening secrets involving her family and a man she considers an enemy.

Kate reluctantly takes responsibility for the children of a sister she has not seen in twenty years. The arrangement draws her into unresolved emotions and increasingly threatening entanglements, putting the successful life she has built at risk.

Eleven-year-old Cathy spends the summer with her grandmother on an island off Maine. Encounters away from her usual surroundings lead her to reconsider who she is and how she relates to the other people in her life.

Recovering from a serious car accident, seventeen-year-old Sarah takes a job near her family’s summer cottage. Her effort to gain independence becomes complicated by local prejudices and a boy whose interest disappears when other people are around.

Summoned to Italy, Julia Winthrop learns that the relative she expected to visit has been murdered. Entering a family world tied to art and inheritance, she must confront a death that turns a personal visit into a disturbing mystery.

Already angry about being sent to boarding school while her father travels, Jessamy discovers that her horse has been sold without her permission. The loss intensifies a family conflict she struggles to control or understand.

Twelve-year-old Abbie tries to make sense of God through the people and experiences around her. Her reflections on family life and school become a personal exploration of belief and the questions that arise in everyday relationships.

Sarah attends art school in New York while trying to recover from pregnancy, miscarriage and her painful relationship with Steve. Hoping a new romance can help her move forward, she faces the lingering effects of her first love.

Recently orphaned Rebecca writes to God about the loneliness of living with her aunt and uncle. Describing the comfort she finds in an imaginary companion gives her a way to express feelings the adults around her may not understand.

A seventeen-year-old with amnesia takes work on a horse farm and discovers that riding comes naturally to her. An unexplained fear persists, making her forgotten past an unsettling presence as she tries to establish a new life.

When their father is imprisoned for tax fraud, fifteen-year-old Betsy and her younger brother refuse to accept his guilt. With little support from others, they set out to prove his innocence and restore their family.

A murder at a wealthy Manhattan church casts suspicion on the homeless people sheltered there. Reverend Claire Aldington becomes entangled in the investigation while fearing that her troubled stepdaughter may have a connection to the crime.

When Andrew Green literally changes color, teasing and rejection give him a painful new view of popularity. His efforts to respond force him to reconsider whether getting power over others can provide the acceptance he wants.

Kevin Crocodile loves his new hat until other animals’ opinions shake his confidence. A visit to the funhouse mirrors helps him look again, raising a simple question about whose judgment should decide what suits him.

Journalist Kit Maitland takes an assignment that appears routine, only to find her own past threatening to resurface. Investigating the story forces her to confront the private history she hoped would remain separate from her professional life.

Seventeen-year-old Jill Hamilton struggles with her weight, low self-esteem and life as the daughter of an alcoholic doctor. Her relationship with Nathan Vandermark, a handsome student at a nearby exclusive school, begins to change her world.

Reverend Claire Aldington is shaken when a fellow priest is murdered in Central Park. Further deaths and threatening calls draw her deeper into the mystery, while secrets kept by her fiance undermine her sense of safety.

Henry’s conviction that everyone treats him unfairly attracts an invisible toad who encourages his grievances. The more he listens to his strange companion, the harder it becomes to escape the anger and resentment shaping his view of others.

A teenager visits wealthy relatives on a Caribbean island expecting a change of surroundings. The atmosphere grows increasingly threatening, and what begins as a family stay turns into a struggle with danger she cannot easily escape.

Stephanie’s relationship with Roger is strained by his family’s social expectations. Meeting Tony and traveling to Umbria open new possibilities, but the journey also brings her closer to secrets within both her own family and his.

A homeless cat joins a dog and a donkey in following a star to meet a king. Their shared journey brings the animals toward an encounter that changes their lives and gives their search an unexpected meaning.

Thirteen-year-old Janet uses her babysitting earnings to buy a horse against her mother’s wishes. Working at the stables covers his upkeep, but leaves her unable to afford the riding lessons she had hoped would follow.

A phone call jolts Martha Tierney from a night of drinking with the news that her young son is missing. Searching for Jonathan forces her to battle alcoholism while trying to act before the danger to him becomes irreversible.

Stephanie loves Roger but struggles against his family's social snobbery. Meeting Tony and traveling to Umbria opens new questions about her identity, her loyalties and a major secret concealed within her own family's past.

Cressida hopes for a fresh start with her minister brother and his wife, but thefts at their new rectory make her a suspect. Memory lapses dating from her parents' deaths leave her questioning whether she is innocent.

An English churchman visiting St. Anselm’s for Advent is found dead at the foot of a staircase. A second murder draws pastoral counselor Claire Aldington into an investigation made urgent by growing suspicion of her husband.

Meg Grant’s sixteenth year brings love, loss and changes in how she understands the people around her. Experiences that once seemed separate begin to shape a more complicated view of growing up and the relationships that give life meaning.

A boy and his donkey become caught up in the events of the first Easter. Skeptical stories about a wonder-working king take on new meaning when losing his animal companion leads him toward faith, love and forgiveness.

Bridget feels unattractive and unloved by her adoptive father, finding refuge in fantasies. Uncovering the secrets of a mysterious house challenges that retreat and helps her confront the real relationships and difficulties she has avoided.

Editor Janet Covington has built a satisfying career and an apparently happy relationship while concealing her past. A chain of disturbing events threatens that carefully protected life, prompting her to seek help from minister and amateur investigator Claire Aldington.

Jocelyn has been blind and orphaned since she was twelve, and her guide dog is a beloved companion. When the dog is kidnapped, she sets out to solve the mystery of his disappearance and bring him home.

A year after placing her baby for adoption, sixteen-year-old Claudia becomes frightened by reports of child abuse. Bound by an agreement protecting the adoptive parents' identity, she searches for a sympathetic teacher who might help her.

In 1863 New York, teenage maid Katie O’Farrell works for a wealthy family while supporting her Irish immigrant relatives. When her employers seek to send her brother to war in their son’s place, draft riots intensify the conflict.

The wealthy Beresford family gathers at its New England compound to learn the terms of a trust. Their expectations of greater riches are disrupted by a long-lost son whose revelations and desire for revenge threaten the family.

Two orphaned Irish Catholic sisters find security with a kindly Protestant couple on the Kansas frontier. Their chance at a settled life is threatened when an uncle arrives determined to return them to New York and their family’s religion.

In 1881 New York, teenage Kevin O’Donnell works for a newspaper to support his sick father and younger sister. Prejudice against the Irish poor already shadows his prospects when a false accusation of theft threatens the job his family needs.

After losing their mother, two sisters leave New York aboard an orphan train in the late nineteenth century. Their journey west carries the hope of finding another home and the uncertainty of beginning again without their family.