Star of the Sea Academy Books in Order

Star of the Sea Academy is a convent school on the Connecticut shore, perched where salt marsh gives way to open water. It is also a kind of crossroads, drawing in families who need shelter, penance, or one last try at forgiveness.

In Sandcastles, Honor Sullivan has spent years there teaching art and raising her three daughters under the watchful eye of her sister‑in‑law, Mother Superior Bernadette Ignatius. Her husband, John, has been in an Irish prison after a violent act meant to protect their child. When rebellious daughter Regis returns home with sudden news of a wedding, John follows, and the Sullivans are forced to confront what really tore them apart.

What Matters Most shifts the focus to Bernadette and Tom Kelly, the caretaker who has loved her since they were young. Long before her religious vocation, the two had a son together in Ireland and let him go. Now they travel back across the Atlantic to look for him, and their search intersects with another pair of lovers, James and Kathleen, whose own past in a Dublin orphanage has left deep marks.

Across both books, Rice moves between the cloistered halls of Star of the Sea, the rocky Connecticut coastline, and the green fields and city streets of Ireland. The stories mix everyday detail with hints of the miraculous, asking what forgiveness really looks like for parents, children, and people of faith.

You can read either novel alone, but together they tell a fuller story of the academy and the people who pass through it. Start with Sandcastles if you want the Sullivan family drama first, or with What Matters Most if you are drawn to the Irish chapters and a decades‑long love story.