Lindsay Ribar Books in Order

If you want the signature magical romance: The Art of Wishing → The Fourth Wish
If you want a darker standalone fantasy: Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies
If you want a funny, friendship-driven contemporary: The Pros of Cons
If you want the quickest feel for her range: The Art of Wishing → Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies → The Pros of Cons

Lindsay Ribar grew up in New Jersey, in a world where heading for New York after high school felt like the obvious next step. At NYU she started out in musical theater before shifting to English literature, which feels like a neat preview of her fiction: big feelings, sharp dialogue, and a real interest in performance, identity, and the roles people slip into.

She came to publishing through fandom as much as through school.

While she was in college, Ribar got deep into fanfiction and beta-reading, and that turned out to be a big clue about the kind of work she loved. She liked writing, but she also liked helping other people tell stories, spotting what was not working, and fixing sentences until they clicked.

That interest led her into New York publishing. She spent years at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, working with science fiction and fantasy writers, and later joined DAW Books. Her public author bios often summed up the split neatly: books by day, YA novels by night.

That double life suits her work.

Her debut, The Art of Wishing, takes the old genie story and gives it a teen romance spin. Margo McKenna finds a ring, meets Oliver, and learns very quickly that wishes are never simple. The sequel, The Fourth Wish, opens that premise up and gets more interested in identity, power, consent, and what magic can do to a person’s sense of self.

Then came Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, a darker standalone about a boy from a family with a frightening kind of magic, one that lets them steal things from inside other people, including memories and love. It still has fantasy at its center, but it is also a story about family pressure, guilt, and the uneasy question of what you owe the people who raised you. With The Pros of Cons, which she co-wrote with Alison Cherry and Michelle Schusterman, Ribar moved into a lighter contemporary register: three teen girls, three very different conventions, and a messy, funny story about friendship, fandom, and figuring yourself out.

Across those books, a few interests keep showing up. Ribar likes stories where power comes with a catch, where romance is tangled up with choice, and where teens are trying to build a self that actually feels like theirs. Music, theater, fandom, and hidden identities show up a lot too, which makes sense for a writer who has been open about loving concerts, nerdy TV, and fan communities.

She also knows the business from the inside, and that gives her fiction a practical streak. Even when the setup is magical, her characters still have to deal with school, friendship, family, and the ordinary mess of wanting two things at once.

These days, Ribar is still based in New York City and works as a freelance editor after years spent in publishing houses and literary agencies. It feels like a natural fit for a writer whose career has always sat at the crossing point between making stories and helping shape them.