Jane Green Books in Order
Browse Jane Green books in order, with quick summaries, reading order help, and suggestions on where to start with her contemporary women’s fiction.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
29 books
Straight Talking
by Jane Green
1997
Thirty-year-old Tash is a London television producer whose love life is a string of disasters. As she and her friends trade dating war stories, an old flame and a long-time male best friend force her to rethink what “Mr Right” really looks like.
Jemima J
by Jane Green
1998
Jemima Jones is a clever but self-conscious London columnist who hides behind food and fantasy. An online romance with a California hunk pushes her into a drastic makeover, only for her to discover that changing her body doesn’t magically fix her heart.
Mr. Maybe
by Jane Green
1999
At twenty-seven, Libby thinks a rich husband is the answer to everything. Torn between charismatic but broke Nick and wealthy, dependable Ed, she has to decide whether she wants security, passion, or something much messier—and more honest—in between.
Bookends
by Jane Green
2000
Best friends Cath and Si run a cozy West Hampstead bookshop with a café and a tight circle of college friends. When glamorous Portia bursts back into their lives, old jealousies and secrets resurface, threatening friendships, careers, and Cath’s new chance at love.
Babyville
by Jane Green
2001
Three women in their thirties face very different ticking clocks: Julia is obsessed with getting pregnant, Maeve wants anything but a baby, and new mum Sam feels trapped and lonely. Their intertwined stories explore fertility, motherhood, and what happens after happily-ever-after.
To Have and to Hold
by Jane Green
2002
Formerly scruffy caterer Alice marries Joe, the handsome golden boy she once idolised, and lets herself be remade into the perfect trophy wife. As his serial affairs and coldness mount, she must decide whether to keep faking the fairy tale or walk away.
The Other Woman
by Jane Green
2004
Ellie finally finds the man of her dreams in Dan—only to realise his real soul mate may be his overbearing mother, Linda. As marriage, motherhood, and meddling in-laws collide, Ellie has to choose which relationships are worth fighting for.
Swapping Lives
by Jane Green
2005
London magazine editor Vicky longs for a husband and kids; Connecticut housewife Amber envies glamorous careers and freedom. A magazine contest lets them swap lives for a month, and both women quickly learn that the grass on the other side comes with its own weeds.
This Christmas
by Jane Green
2005
This holiday collection gathers three warm, romantic novellas, including Jane Green’s story of a suburban wife who suggests a trial separation when her husband’s job takes him away. As Christmas approaches, each heroine must decide what—and who—she really wants.
Vacation
by Jane Green
2005
Once a driven Manhattan magazine editor, Sarah Evans now feels trapped in the suburbs with a checked-out husband and two kids. When his job sends him away for months, she proposes a “trial separation” and discovers who she is on her own—just as Christmas forces a reckoning.
Second Chance
by Jane Green
2007
Four estranged school friends reunite at the London memorial of the one person who used to bind them together. Tom’s sudden death pushes Holly, Saffron, Olivia, and Paul to confront failing marriages, addictions, and secret desires in search of their own second chances.
The Beach House
by Jane Green
2008
On Nantucket, eccentric widow Nan Powell refuses to sell her rambling cliff-top home, even as her money runs out. When she takes in summer boarders, her quiet life fills with tangled families, new romances, and unexpected reckonings for everyone under her roof.
Girl Friday
by Jane Green
2009
One year after her divorce, Kit Hargrove is rebuilding a life in a wealthy Connecticut beach town, working as assistant to reclusive novelist Robert McClore. A too-perfect new boyfriend and a best friend with dangerous secrets threaten the fragile happiness she’s just begun to trust.
The Love Verb
by Jane Green
2010
Callie seems to have everything—a devoted husband, two young children, and a close-knit extended family—until her breast cancer returns. As her free-spirited sister Steffi, best friend Lila, and divorced parents rally around her, they all learn what love looks like when time is running out.
A Modern Fairy Tale
by Jane Green
2011
This nonfiction e-book traces the courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton, following them from school days to engagement, while also revisiting the love stories and weddings of Prince Charles and Diana and Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip across three royal generations.
Cosmo's Sexiest Stories Ever
by Jane Green
2011
An anthology of three steamy short stories by Jane Green, Jennifer Weiner, and Meg Cabot, this collection offers playful, explicit tales of women revisiting old crushes, taking bold chances, and rediscovering desire in unexpected places.
A Walk in the Park
by Jane Green
2012
In this short story, twenty-something Amy Adamson’s ordinary day in the park explodes into chaos when a massive dog charges her tiny Yorkie, Pippin. The scare forces her to look hard at what—and who—she’s been protecting, and what she’s been avoiding.
The Patchwork Marriage
by Jane Green
2012
Andi finally finds the man she wants in Ethan—but he comes with two daughters and a volatile ex-wife. As teenage Emily turns Andi into a convenient villain and Ethan refuses to step in, Andi must decide how much of this blended family she can live with.
Family Pictures
by Jane Green
2013
Sylvie in suburban California and Maggie in upscale Connecticut believe they have solid marriages to hardworking men who travel too much. When their teenage daughters become friends, a buried secret surfaces and both families learn that one husband has been living a double life.
Saving Grace
by Jane Green
2014
Grace Chapman appears to have the perfect life, cooking and keeping house for her famous novelist husband, Ted. After a new assistant, Beth, arrives and slowly takes over, Grace begins to doubt her own memory and sanity, and must uncover what’s really happening before she loses everything.
Tempting Fate
by Jane Green
2014
At forty-three, Gabby believes her marriage and family are unshakable—until a younger entrepreneur’s attention makes her feel visible again. What starts as a flirtation spirals into a reckless night and a life-changing pregnancy, forcing her to rebuild trust, motherhood, and self-respect from the ground up.
Cat and Jemima J
by Jane Green
2015
In this crossover short story, recovering alcoholic Cat meets Jemima Jones, the once-invisible heroine of Jemima J. A career-making scoop tempts Cat to exploit Jemima’s private pain, forcing her to choose between professional ambition and the chance to be the kind of friend she’s always needed.
Summer Secrets
by Jane Green
2015
London journalist Cat Coombs drinks hard, parties harder, and hides the pain of a long-buried family secret. Meeting the American relatives she never knew on Nantucket leads to a disastrous betrayal; years later, newly sober, Cat returns to the island hoping for forgiveness and a fresh start.
Falling
by Jane Green
2016
Burned out on Manhattan finance, British expat Emma Montague rents a run-down cottage in a Connecticut beach town and falls for her landlord, Dominic, a carpenter raising his young son alone. As their relationship deepens, an unforeseen tragedy tests everything Emma thought she’d finally found.
Good Taste
by Jane Green
2016
Part cookbook, part entertaining guide, Good Taste gathers Jane Green’s favorite recipes, menus, and hosting tricks from her own busy kitchen. From easy one-pot suppers to dinner-party desserts, she focuses on unfussy food meant to bring friends and family around the table.
The Sunshine Sisters
by Jane Green
2017
Ronni Sunshine, a former film star and spectacularly difficult mother, summons her three estranged daughters home after a terminal diagnosis. As Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy return to the house of their childhood, old resentments flare—but so do unexpected alliances, forgiveness, and new beginnings.
The Friends We Keep
by Jane Green
2019
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher were inseparable at university, but decades of secrets, failed relationships, and one disastrous betrayal have splintered their friendship. Reunited in middle age, they’re given one last chance to tell the truth and decide whether the bond between them can survive.
Sister Stardust
by Jane Green
2022
In the late 1960s, small-town English girl Claire remakes herself in swinging London and is swept into the glamorous Marrakesh circle of model Talitha Getty. Amid parties, music, and drugs, Claire must decide how much of herself she’s willing to lose to stay in that intoxicating world.
When We Were Friends
by Jane Green
2024
Newly divorced and craving connection, Lucy quickly bonds with Elle, a chic younger woman who seems like the perfect best friend. As the friendship intensifies and red flags multiply, Lucy begins to suspect that Elle’s interest in her life may not be entirely benign.
Where should I start?
If you want her early London single-girl stories: Straight Talking → Jemima J → Mr. Maybe → Bookends
If you like friendship and second chances: Second Chance → The Beach House → The Friends We Keep
If you enjoy family drama and mother–daughter stories: Babyville → Family Pictures → The Sunshine Sisters
If you’re in the mood for darker domestic drama: Tempting Fate → Saving Grace → Summer Secrets
If you want a taste of everything in shorter form: Vacation → This Christmas → Cat and Jemima J → When We Were Friends.
Author bio
Jane Green was born in London in 1968 and grew up in a city that gave her endless stories to eavesdrop on, from double-decker buses to café tables. She went to South Hampstead High School and then on to Aberystwyth University in Wales to study fine art, thinking she might spend her life painting rather than writing.
In her early twenties she joined Granada Television as a publicist, then slid into journalism, writing women’s features and opinion pieces for national newspapers, including the Daily Express.
By the mid‑1990s she was ready to try fiction. She left the paper in 1996, wrote her debut novel Straight Talking in just a few months, and soon found herself at the center of a bidding war between publishers. The book’s frank, funny take on dating in London helped put a new label—“chick lit”—on the map, and Green quickly became one of its earliest, most visible voices.
Those early novels, including Jemima J, Mr. Maybe, and Bookends, follow single women as they juggle friendships, bad dates, career hopes, and the long shadow of self‑doubt. They’re fizzy on the surface but anchored by questions about self‑worth, body image, and what it really means to be chosen.
As her readers grew older, so did her characters. In books such as Babyville, Second Chance, The Beach House, and Family Pictures, Green turns toward marriage, motherhood, and the complicated loyalties that come with blended families and lifelong friends. The settings range from London and suburban America to sun‑washed Nantucket, but the heartbeat is the same: ordinary people trying to love one another as best they can.
More recent novels push into darker territory.
Tempting Fate looks at midlife restlessness and the fallout from a single affair; Saving Grace explores gaslighting inside a seemingly perfect literary marriage; Summer Secrets follows a journalist whose drinking shatters the family she’s only just found. These stories keep her trademark warmth but add suspense, asking how you rebuild when the life you built has quietly come apart.
Alongside fiction, Green has nurtured a long‑standing love of cooking. She studied at the International Culinary Center in New York (formerly the French Culinary Institute) and eventually gathered her favorite recipes and entertaining ideas into Good Taste, a cookbook built around feeding friends and family at a big, welcoming table.
She has spent much of her adult life in the United States, making a home in coastal Connecticut, raising a large blended family of children, cats, dogs, and backyard chickens while writing at her kitchen table. Between books she has taught at writers’ conferences, told stories on stage, and taken on occasional broadcasting work, including covering the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and writing an insider’s account of their courtship.
In recent years she has stretched again, moving into historical fiction with Sister Stardust, which reimagines the glamorous, uneasy world surrounding Talitha Getty in 1960s London and Marrakesh. Across all of her work—whether she’s writing about a London newsroom, a Nantucket beach house, or a chaotic family kitchen—Green keeps circling the same questions: how we grow up, how we forgive, and how we find our way back to ourselves when life doesn’t look like the plan.
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