Rachael Lippincott Books in Order

Rachael Lippincott grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and earned a BA in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her wife, fellow writer Alyson Derrick, their daughters, and Hank, the family dog.

She first considered a pre-med path in college, but a class in writing young adult fiction helped point her in a different direction. Lippincott had always been drawn to reading and writing, and the course gave her a clearer sense that stories for teen readers were where she wanted to work.

That choice led somewhere fast.

Soon after graduating in 2017, she was offered an unusual first assignment: adapting the screenplay for Five Feet Apart into a novel. She wrote a sample chapter, won the job, and completed an early draft on a very tight deadline. The project gave her a practical crash course in shaping scenes, building character voices, and keeping a story moving.

Published in 2018, Five Feet Apart follows Stella Grant and Will Newman, two teens whose medical risks mean they cannot safely get close to one another. Written with screenwriters Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, the novel became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a film. Its mix of first love, hospital life, and impossible choices introduced Lippincott to a wide audience.

She teamed up with Daughtry again for All This Time, a romance about grief, recovery, and the uncertainty that follows a life-changing accident. The book keeps the emotional focus close to its characters, a trait that runs through much of Lippincott's work. Her stories often begin with people who feel stuck, then let them find a way forward through connection.

Her first solo novel, The Lucky List, gave her room to tell a quieter coming-of-age story. It centers on Emily, who finds her late mother's teenage bucket list and begins working through it with the help of a new friend. Lippincott later brought time travel and Regency-era complications to Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh, where a heartbroken Pittsburgh artist is sent back to 1812.

Collaboration has remained an important part of her career. Lippincott and Derrick, who met while studying at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote She Gets the Girl together. The college-set romantic comedy follows two very different young women who agree to help each other win over their crushes. They also co-wrote the holiday romance Make My Wish Come True and the companion novella Joy to the Girls.

Her books make room for crushes, friendship, family strain, grief, and the awkward work of figuring out what you want. The romances are central, but so is the question of how young people learn to be honest with themselves.

Lippincott has said she works best with outlines and schedules. It fits the way her books read: emotionally open, easy to follow, and built around characters taking one hard step at a time.