More Than Books in Order

The More Than series is a pair of connected contemporary romances about people who have known one another for years, then discover that old friendships, old wounds, and old assumptions can be harder to escape than they thought. The books follow different couples, but the characters share a close circle, so reading in order gives the relationships more context.

More Than Lies starts with Taralynn Evans and Shawn Braden. They have known each other since childhood, and Tara has long wanted their friendship to become something more. Shawn feels the pull too, but he keeps shutting it down because he believes Tara deserves someone better than him. He is a college dropout and tattoo artist with a reputation for keeping things casual. Tara is dealing with her own family pressure and the lasting feeling that she never measures up to what her mother wants.

They are close, but neither knows how to make closeness safe.

The tension in their story comes from everything that goes unsaid. Shawn’s attempts to protect Tara often look a lot like pushing her away, while Tara is tired of being treated as though her choices don’t count. A tragedy changes the shape of their relationship and leaves them facing a lie that cannot stay hidden without hurting them both.

The second book, More Than Memories, turns to Shawn’s brother Shane Braden and Whitney Lane, his first love. They were high-school sweethearts until a devastating accident separated them. Ten years later, Whitney is living a life that does not feel like her own because she has no memories of the first eighteen years of it. Shane has spent those same years grieving someone he believed he had lost.

When Shane and Whitney cross paths again, the story becomes a second-chance romance with a mystery at its center. Whitney has a husband and children, but she also has an instinct that the people closest to her have withheld crucial parts of her past. Shane knows the woman she used to be and has to reckon with the fact that finding her again does not make the damage disappear.

Both books are emotional, angsty stories about trust. They feature family conflict, friendship groups, old attraction, and characters trying to separate what they have been told from what they truly want. The romances are steamy, but the real engine is the question of whether love can survive when honesty arrives late.

Begin with More Than Lies. Each novel has its own main couple, yet the people and history from the first book matter in More Than Memories, especially as Shane and Whitney’s story unfolds.