Jean Stone Books in Order
Explore Jean Stone books in order, with series guides, short summaries, Martha's Vineyard reading paths, and simple where to start advice for new readers.
Last updated: July 5, 2026
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Publication Order
25 books
Sins of Innocence
by Jean Stone
1994
Twenty-five years after meeting in a home for unwed mothers, four women reunite with one another and with the children they gave up. The gathering forces each of them to face the past that shaped everything after.
First Loves
by Jean Stone
1995
Meg, Zoe, and Alissa make a pact to find the men they never forgot. Their search for first love turns into a riskier look at the lives they built, the compromises they made, and what they still want.
Ivy Secrets
by Jean Stone
1996
Fifteen years after college, three women are pulled back together by a kidnapping and the secret they swore to keep. As Charlie's daughter hangs in the balance, old loyalties and buried truths become impossible to ignore.
Places by the Sea
by Jean Stone
1997
Television star Jill McPhearson returns to her Martha's Vineyard childhood home just as her polished life starts to crack. The trip offers a career-defining story, but it also forces her to confront a family secret she has tried to outrun.
Birthday Girls
by Jean Stone
1998
Three high-achieving friends reunite just before turning fifty, and each is forced to face the dream that got away. Old loves, private regrets, and the pressure of time turn a birthday reunion into a last shot at change.
Tides of the Heart
by Jean Stone
1999
A letter from the daughter she gave up for adoption sends Jessica Bates back to Martha's Vineyard and into the past she never escaped. What begins as a search for the truth becomes a reckoning with grief, love, and identity.
The Summer House
by Jean Stone
2000
Liz Adams has spent years living the public life her powerful father designed for her. Retreating to Martha's Vineyard as politics and tragedy close in, she must choose between duty, ambition, and the love she left behind.
Off Season
by Jean Stone
2001
Jill McPhearson gave up a glamorous television career for a quieter life and marriage on Martha's Vineyard. When her husband is accused of a shocking crime, the island home she chose begins to feel dangerous, and the truth may cost everything.
Trust Fund Babies
by Jean Stone
2002
Three wealthy cousins are tied together by a family fortune and a long-buried summer tragedy. When the money vanishes, they reunite on Martha's Vineyard and discover that recovering their inheritance may mean exposing the secrets they have lived on for years.
Beach Roses
by Jean Stone
2003
On Martha's Vineyard, four women arrive with very different troubles, from pregnancy to illness to buried grief. Over one summer, strangers become allies as the island gives them room to face truth, loss, and the possibility of starting over.
Once Upon a Bride
by Jean Stone
2005
After a painful breakup, Boston publicist Jo Lyons goes home and joins three friends in a business that plans second weddings. As Elaine prepares to remarry, Jo gets a chance to rebuild her life and maybe trust love again.
Twice Upon a Wedding
by Jean Stone
2005
The new wedding planning business lands bigger opportunities just as each friend faces personal chaos. Makeovers, ex-husbands, teenage kids, and risky romance test whether second chances can really be sweeter the next time around.
Four Steps to the Altar
by Jean Stone
2006
The Second Chances business is thriving, but its four founders are still sorting out love, money, and old baggage. Inheritance troubles, surprise reunions, and tough choices force each woman to decide what her next chapter should look like.
Three Times a Charm
by Jean Stone
2006
Sarah, the only never-married member of the wedding planning team, is happy to focus on work after heartbreak. Then a man from her past returns with answers to a mystery that has shadowed her life for years.
Good Little Wives
by Jean Stone
2007
In an upscale New York suburb, a group of restless trophy wives closes ranks after a friend's ex-husband is murdered. Kitty is caught with the gun, but the real story lies in the grudges, betrayals, and secrets behind the manicured doors.
Perfect Little Ladies
by Jean Stone
2009
Elinor Young looks like the perfect Westchester wife until a blackmailer exposes her affair with a married politician. As she and her friends dig for answers, scandal spreads and other secrets start coming loose.
The Secrets Sisters Keep
by Jean Stone
2010
Four estranged sisters reunite for their uncle Edward's seventy-fifth birthday, only to discover that he has vanished. The search forces each woman to confront old grudges, family secrets, and the life she might still reclaim.
Vineyard Magic
by Jean Stone
2016
Libby retreats to Martha's Vineyard after losing her money, her memory, and possibly her husband. When her stylish friends arrive to help, they find a missing man, a dead body, and plenty of old secrets beneath the island charm.
A Vineyard Christmas
by Jean Stone
2018
New to her Chappaquiddick cottage, novelist Annie Sutton finds a baby left on her doorstep during a blizzard. As Christmas approaches, she hides the child, searches for the mother, and discovers how complicated family and belonging can be.
A Vineyard Summer
by Jean Stone
2019
Annie thinks she finally belongs on Martha's Vineyard, until she loses her cottage and finds a young woman unconscious on her lawn. Helping Fiona means navigating class tensions, danger, and Annie's own fear of losing the life she has built.
A Vineyard Morning
by Jean Stone
2021
During the Vineyard off-season, Annie is renovating her inn and settling into life with John when her biological mother arrives with painful news. A discovery on the property halts construction and pulls Annie into a buried mystery from the past.
A Vineyard Crossing
by Jean Stone
2022
Annie Sutton is running her new inn and planning a wedding when a troubled teen, a mysterious guest, and an intrusive journalist stir up trouble. On Martha's Vineyard, friendship, loyalty, and secrets grow harder to sort out.
A Vineyard Wedding
by Jean Stone
2022
Weeks before Annie's wedding to John Lyons, family tensions and an ugly heirloom gown are the least of her worries. When baby Bella disappears, Annie races across the island to protect the child and her fragile future.
A Vineyard Season
by Jean Stone
2023
Annie should be happily planning her wedding and enjoying her inn, but success pulls her in unsettling new directions. As illness, distance, and a stranger's secret threaten her family, she has to decide what home really means.
Up Island Harbor
by Jean Stone
2024
Divorced professor Maddie Clarke heads to Menemsha expecting to settle her late grandmother's estate and leave. Instead, a cottage inheritance, long-hidden family history, and deep ties to the island open the door to a very different future.
Where should I start?
If you want a welcoming island series: A Vineyard Christmas → A Vineyard Summer → A Vineyard Morning
If you prefer emotional family dramas: Sins of Innocence → Tides of the Heart → Off Season
If you want friendship, weddings, and second chances: Once Upon a Bride → Twice Upon a Wedding → Three Times a Charm
If you want a newer fresh-start story: Up Island Harbor
Author bio
Jean Stone grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts, in a house where writing started early. When she was nine, a small piece of hers appeared in Jack and Jill magazine. Not long after that, she and her sister launched a homemade paper called The Neighborhood News, typing up stories about lost cats, vacations, and whatever else seemed important enough for two cents a copy.
She was writing before she knew it was a career.
A teacher helped make that feel real. Stone has written about an English teacher in West Springfield who told her, in effect, to keep going, keep daydreaming, keep putting stories on paper. That kind of encouragement has a long shelf life, and it stayed with her.
Her first paid writing job came in college, when she worked as a reporter for the Springfield Daily News. Journalism taught deadlines, but she wanted more room for invention, so she moved into advertising. She eventually ran her own award-winning agency for fifteen years, a long stretch that sharpened her sense of pace, voice, and what makes people keep reading. After those high-stress years, she moved into fiction full time.
That path shows in the books. Stone writes about women in messy seasons of life, when old choices come back, family history refuses to stay buried, or love asks for another try. Her debut novel, Sins of Innocence, set the pattern with a story about women reunited with the children they gave up for adoption. Later books such as Places by the Sea, Tides of the Heart, and Off Season kept returning to questions of memory, loss, loyalty, and reinvention.
Then Martha's Vineyard changed everything.
Stone first visited the island in 1984, and she has said the light, the roads, the villages, and the feeling of place all hit her at once. That trip fed Places by the Sea, and the Vineyard became more than a backdrop in book after book. In the later Annie Sutton novels, beginning with A Vineyard Christmas, she mixes small-town life, romance, family mysteries, and found family. In the newer Up Island Harbor, she shifts the focus to Menemsha and starts again with another woman trying to figure out where she belongs.
She has also written under the name Abby Drake, especially for sharper, more satirical stories about friendship, marriage, and secrets. Books like Good Little Wives and Perfect Little Ladies lean into suburban trouble, gossip, and dark humor, while the Second Chances novels keep a lighter eye on friendship and romance. Across both names, readers tend to come for the coastal settings and page-turning complications, then stay for the women trying to build better lives out of imperfect material.
Stone lives in Massachusetts, and Martha's Vineyard has long been one of her deepest creative homes. She has also spent time on Cape Cod, taught at writers conferences, and spoken at colleges and literary events. What runs through all of it is something simple: she likes stories about people who are still becoming themselves, even after they thought the biggest choices were already behind them.
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