Jennifer Rush Books in Order

Jennifer Rush writes young adult and middle-grade fiction built around secrets, danger, messy loyalties, and characters trying to work out who they can trust. Her books range from science-fiction thrillers involving altered memories to fantasy stories where magic, crime, and romance collide.

She lives in a small Michigan town on the shore of Lake Michigan with her husband, two children, and a cat called Jasper Ole Boy. Michigan is part of the texture of her public persona. She has joked about being worn down by the winters, then promptly forgetting them once summer arrives.

Rush started making up stories before she could write a proper sentence. In fourth grade, she entered the Young Author's Contest and won a Mickey Mouse pencil, an early prize that made writing feel like something worth pursuing. It also gave her a clear memory of competition, since the first-place winner got a day away from school.

By her teens, writing had become more serious. She completed a vampire novel before finishing high school, and she is frank that it was not very good. Still, finishing it mattered. It gave her the practice of turning a big idea into a full story.

Her middle-grade novel Bot Wars, written as J.V. Kade, follows twelve-year-old Trout St. Kroix in a future shaped by conflict between humans and robots. Trout's search for his missing father becomes a larger fight against the stories his government has told him. The book shows Rush's interest in fast plots, family ties, and young people who have to question the rules around them.

Her young adult novel Altered takes a different route. Anna Moray has grown up around a hidden laboratory and four boys whose memories and bodies have been changed by a shadowy organization called the Branch. When the boys escape, Anna is pulled into a dangerous search for the truth about their pasts, and her own. Erased and Reborn continue that story with more clues, shifting loyalties, and the pressure of staying one step ahead of people who want control.

Rush often comes back to questions of identity. What do you owe the people who raised you? Can you trust a memory if someone may have put it there? Her characters do not get to solve those questions from a safe distance. They are usually running, hiding, investigating, or making a hard choice before they have all the facts.

With Devils and Thieves, she moved into urban fantasy. The novel follows Jemmie Carmichael, a young woman living in a world where magic has its own social rules and real physical costs. Motorcycles, rival groups, forbidden power, and a troubled romance give the story a more supernatural edge, while keeping the same focus on secrets and divided loyalties.

Rush keeps the tone personal and down to earth. When she is not writing, she has said she enjoys reading and wandering, either on foot or by car. The result is a body of work for readers who like suspense with emotion at the center.