Love, Life, and the List Books in Order

The Love, Life, and the List books are three connected standalones that orbit the same friend group in coastal California. Each novel focuses on a different girl chasing a creative dream, wrestling with messy feelings, and bumping into the same circle of friends, crushes, and parents along the way.

Love, Life, and the List is Abby's story. Abby is a seventeen year old artist whose paintings are technically strong but, according to her boss at the local museum, lack heart. Stung but determined, she writes a 'heart list' of ten experiences she hopes will shake up her life, from facing a fear to learning a stranger's story. As she checks items off the list alongside her best friend Cooper, the boy she has secretly loved for years, the book explores how hard it is to outgrow old patterns without losing the people who feel like home.

In Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss, the spotlight shifts to Lacey, a relentlessly driven actress who finally lands a breakout role in a zombie movie. She has to move in with her dad, keep up with schoolwork through an independent study program, and convince a skeptical tutor named Donavan that she cares about more than just fame. Between missing cues, awkward on screen kisses, and a string of accidents on set that might be sabotage, the story mixes behind the scenes chaos with slow burn attraction and the pressure of everyone watching you succeed or fail.

Moment of Truth follows Hadley, a competitive swimmer used to knowing exactly who she is and what she wants. Her life is knocked sideways when someone dressed as a fictional action hero keeps crashing local events, including one of her biggest meets. Tracking down the prankster pulls her into new friendships, unexpected feelings, and some painful truths about the way her family has handled the death of her older brother. Cameos from Abby, Cooper, and Lacey link the book back to the earlier stories without overshadowing Hadley's arc.

Read together, the three novels feel like snapshots of the same world from different angles. There are crushes and kisses, of course, but just as much time is spent on parents with their own baggage, jobs that matter to the characters, and friends who push each other to grow. The tone stays light and funny even when the topics dip into anxiety, grief, or fear of failure, making this series a comforting choice if you like your contemporary romance with lots of banter and a strong sense of community.

You can pick up any title first, but starting with Love, Life, and the List makes every crossover moment a little sweeter.