Karen McQuestion Books in Order
See Karen McQuestion books in order, with quick summaries, series highlights, and simple tips on where to start with her suspense, romance, and YA novels.
Last updated: July 3, 2026
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Publication Order
29 books
Easily Amused
by Karen McQuestion
2009
Lola has a dream job, a newly inherited house, and more personal drama than she needs. When her sister schedules a wedding on Lola's birthday, a fake engagement scheme and a mysterious man across the street complicate everything.
Favorite
by Karen McQuestion
2009
Five years after her mother's disappearance, Angie is still waiting for answers. When a stranger attacks her and then dies before explaining why, she is pulled toward a creepy mansion and a mystery that may connect everything.
Life On Hold
by Karen McQuestion
2009
Rae is tired of being the new girl every time her mother decides to move. Just when Wisconsin starts to feel like a real home, a troubled classmate and a frightening sleepover expose secrets that could upend Rae's life again.
A Scattered Life
by Karen McQuestion
2010
Skyla finally has the stable family life she always wanted, but restlessness keeps creeping in. Her friendship with chaotic neighbor Roxanne, and a part-time job at a bookstore, shake up everything she thought she had settled.
Celia and the Fairies
by Karen McQuestion
2010
Celia thinks her grandmother's stories about fairies in the woods are just stories, until a real fairy asks for help. To save her home and the forest from destruction, Celia must be braver than she ever expected.
Secrets of the Magic Ring
by Karen McQuestion
2011
When nine-year-old Paul finds a ring buried in the hole for his family's new pool, it seems like a thrilling discovery. But wishes start coming true in messy ways, and only help from the woods can set things right.
Edgewood
by Karen McQuestion
2012
Insomniac teen Russ Becker witnesses a strange event in the sky and wakes up changed. When he discovers three other teens have powers too, they become targets of a shadowy group that threatens the people Russ loves most.
The Long Way Home
by Karen McQuestion
2012
Four very different Wisconsin women set out on a road trip to Las Vegas, where Marnie hopes to reconnect with the boy she once raised. Along the way, grief, friendship, and second chances begin to reshape all of their lives.
Absolution
by Karen McQuestion
2013
After Peru, the Edgewood teens are drawn into a high-risk mission to protect the president and her daughter. With the Associates closing in, Russ and his friends have to fight, trust carefully, and survive a world full of double games.
Wanderlust
by Karen McQuestion
2013
Russ, Nadia, Mallory, and Jameson are still learning to live with their powers when a powerful group takes them to Peru. A search for a missing man, shaky alliances, and growing feelings raise the stakes fast.
Hello Love
by Karen McQuestion
2014
Widower Dan is barely getting by when his beloved dog, Anni, disappears. Across town, newly divorced Andrea rescues a vulnerable dog, and that animal's journey keeps nudging two lonely people toward a second chance.
From a Distant Star
by Karen McQuestion
2015
When Lucas miraculously recovers from a terminal illness, his girlfriend Emma is relieved until she realizes he no longer seems like himself. A strange object, shadowy pursuers, and a desperate road trip turn the miracle into a mystery.
Grimm House
by Karen McQuestion
2015
After Hadley's parents are reported lost at sea, two strange great-aunts whisk her away to Grimm House. The endless chores, rigid rules, and eerie hints of witchcraft make escape feel like her only real chance.
Prince and Popper
by Karen McQuestion
2016
In this rhyming picture book, Prince and Popper trade places for a day and discover that someone else's life is not as simple as it looks. It is a playful, gentle story about curiosity, gratitude, and appreciating home.
Revelation
by Karen McQuestion
2016
In the series finale, Russ, Nadia, Mallory, and Jameson go undercover inside the Associates. To bring the group down from within, they must survive a centuries-old challenge with trust, loyalty, and their lives on the line.
Write That Novel!
by Karen McQuestion
2016
McQuestion mixes practical fiction-writing advice with lessons from her own publishing journey. It is a straightforward guide to starting a novel, finishing it, and keeping the process enjoyable instead of overwhelming.
Half a Heart
by Karen McQuestion
2018
Nine-year-old Logan knows how to stay quiet and survive his father's violence, until one day he runs. As he searches for safety, the grandmother he was told is dead is desperately trying to find him.
Good Man, Dalton
by Karen McQuestion
2019
Greta heads to Manhattan expecting a family internship and finds herself babysitting a social media heiress instead. Then she meets Dalton, a mysterious stranger with secrets of his own, and a modern fairy tale begins to take shape.
Missing Her More
by Karen McQuestion
2019
When eight-year-old Brenna runs off in Manhattan and ends up inside another family's home, two households are thrown into crisis. Her disappearance forces the adults around her to confront grief, conflict, and the love they have been withholding.
Dovetail
by Karen McQuestion
2020
Joe Arneson is troubled by dreams that seem to belong to another life. When he visits his estranged grandmother in Wisconsin, those visions lead him toward an old death, a family secret, and a danger that is not finished yet.
The Moonlight Child
by Karen McQuestion
2020
On a freezing January night, Sharon sees a little girl washing dishes in a neighbor's house where no child is supposed to live. With former foster teen Niki at her side, she starts digging into a mystery no one else wants to face.
Wish Upon A Christmas Star
by Karen McQuestion
2021
Newly arrived in Poplar Creek, Gwen follows a little girl's anonymous Christmas wish and ends up working with local business owner Lucky Gallagher. A lost dog, a warm small town, and a little holiday magic open the door to second chances.
214 Palmer Street
by Karen McQuestion
2022
When Maggie spots movement in a neighbor's supposedly empty house, she meets Sarah, a warm stranger with a tidy explanation. But Sarah is hiding more than she says, and the house on Palmer Street is tied to dangerous old secrets.
A Limited Run
by Karen McQuestion
2022
Former child star Meri Wetzel agrees to a bizarre offer, two million dollars to re-create her old show inside a fake 1940s town. Nostalgia quickly gives way to buried resentments, hidden cameras, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.
A Time-Travel Christmas
by Karen McQuestion
2022
After a crushing Christmas Eve, Elizabeth wishes she could see her grandmother one more time. Instead, she finds herself in 1957, helping a frightened girl and her sick little sister through a dangerous snowstorm.
The Uninvited Guest
by Karen McQuestion
2022
A watchful neighbor, a woman with a borrowed story, and one troubling address drive this tense suspense novel. As Sarah digs into the truth behind her husband's past, long-buried secrets begin pushing back.
A Switch Before Christmas
by Karen McQuestion
2024
On Christmas Eve during the Great Depression, orphanage worker Jane and wealthy heiress Jacquelyn discover they look nearly identical and switch places on a whim. What starts as a prank quickly becomes a life-changing lesson for both of them.
Written Off
by Karen McQuestion
2025
When bestselling author Dana Broderick vanishes, her friend Courtney is the only person who seems alarmed. As she digs into Dana's glittering life, Courtney realizes the real mystery is why so many people are perfectly fine with Dana being gone.
The Tip-Off
by Karen McQuestion
2026
Marcy expects a simple summer job at a prestigious lakeside restaurant, but the place feels off from the start. When fellow student Geoff spots troubling problems in the books, the two are pulled into a risky workplace mystery.
Where should I start?
If you want a suspenseful mystery: The Moonlight Child → 214 Palmer Street → Written Off
If you want heartfelt family drama: Half a Heart → Dovetail → A Scattered Life
If you want romance with warmth and humor: Hello Love → Good Man, Dalton → Wish Upon A Christmas Star
If you want YA adventure with strange powers: Edgewood → Wanderlust → Absolution → Revelation
If you want middle grade magic: Celia and the Fairies → Secrets of the Magic Ring → Grimm House
Author bio
Karen McQuestion was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of four daughters. She has said she knew early that writing mattered to her. In third grade, a teacher read one of her stories aloud to the class, and the reaction, the laughs, the surprise, the feeling that words on a page could make people lean in, stayed with her.
That was enough to hook her.
After high school, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then left before finishing. Life moved on. She worked a string of jobs, married Greg McQuestion, and raised three children, Charlie, Maria, and Jack. Somewhere in the middle of regular adult life, the old plan to write books never really went away. Eventually she decided to stop thinking about writing a novel and actually write one.
That turned into years of quiet persistence. Over roughly a decade she wrote six novels and signed with two different literary agents, but the books still did not sell to traditional publishers. Instead of giving up, she tried a different route. In 2009, after seeing other writers find readers through Kindle self-publishing, she put her own previously rejected novels out herself and waited to see what would happen.
What happened was that readers showed up. Sales grew fast enough to change her career, and A Scattered Life became one of the early self-publishing success stories people in publishing could not ignore. It was later picked up by AmazonEncore, and its film option helped make McQuestion one of the most closely watched indie success stories of that period. Her books have since sold in the millions and been translated into dozens of languages.
Since then, she has built a bibliography that moves easily between age groups and genres. Adult readers often start with Hello Love, a warm second-chance story built around a missing dog, or The Moonlight Child, which mixes neighborhood suspense with a deeply emotional mystery. Dovetail leans into family secrets and a touch of the uncanny, while Half a Heart shows her softer, more heartbreaking side. Younger readers tend to find her through the Edgewood books, where four teens are pulled into danger after gaining strange powers, or through middle grade titles like Celia and the Fairies and Grimm House.
Her books vary, but a few things show up again and again. She likes ordinary people dropped into unusual situations. She writes a lot about families, hidden histories, loneliness, hope, and the small decisions that change lives. Even when there is a speculative twist, a supernatural hint, or a thriller setup, the stories stay focused on people first. There is also a strong Midwestern feel in a lot of her work, with Wisconsin settings, practical characters, and a little humor to keep the heavier moments from sinking too low.
She writes for adults, teens, and kids.
McQuestion has said she now writes full time, and she still lives in Wisconsin, in Hartland. She is married to Greg, and her official bio also gives a small nod to the household cat, Boo, which feels fitting for a writer whose stories often make room for warmth alongside suspense. She has written that she is grateful to her readers and does not take them for granted, and that plainspoken gratitude comes through in the way she talks about her work.
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