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Steena Holmes Books in Order

Explore Steena Holmes books in order, from emotional family drama to psychological suspense, with series guides, summaries, and where to start.

Last updated: July 7, 2026

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43 books

Once Upon a Dream

by Steena Holmes

2005

Wynne Taylor has built a chocolate shop that looks a lot like the life she once imagined, except love is still missing. When her ex-fiancé reappears, old wounds and old hopes rise right back to the surface.

Chocolate Reality

by Steena Holmes

2011

Wynne pours her energy into running Chocolate Blessings after a devastating romantic blow. Between an ex-fiancé, a dream man she cannot forget, and a lot of chocolate, she has to decide what kind of future she wants.

Unknown

by Steena Holmes

2011

Former pastor Nathan Hanlin thinks walking away from church will solve his problems. Instead, Bandit Creek fills with demonic signs, old myth, and a secret that suggests he may be tied to the evil himself.

Dear Jack

by Steena Holmes

2012

Told through Dottie's letters and journals, this novella looks back to the war years when Jack went missing and she was left to hold their small family together. It adds heartache and history to the Finding Emma world.

Finding Emma

by Steena Holmes

2012

Two years after her daughter vanishes on her third birthday, Megan still sees Emma in every blonde child she passes. One photograph at a town carnival may finally connect her obsession to a devastating truth.

Dottie's Memories

by Steena Holmes

2013

This short companion piece steps inside Dottie's mind through journal entries tied to Emma's story. It adds a sad, unsettling layer to the choices that turned Emmie into the center of two families.

Emma's Secret

by Steena Holmes

2013

Emma is finally back with Megan and Peter, but the little girl who returns is quiet, distant, and missing the people who took her. Reunion brings relief, but it also opens new fractures inside the family.

Halfway to Nowhere

by Steena Holmes

2013

Nikki returns to Halfway carrying a secret son and a past she never meant to face again. In a town this small, buried truths do not stay buried for long.

Sweet Memories

by Steena Holmes

2013

A woman who thought she had found forever is left picking up the pieces when love falls apart. Rebuilding her life means facing hurt, leaning on friends, and risking her heart one more time.

Before the Storm

by Steena Holmes

2014

Before Stillwater Bay is torn apart, five women are bound by friendship, family, and routine. This short prelude shows the fragile normal they are about to lose.

Megan's Hope

by Steena Holmes

2014

Emma is home, but normal still feels far away. As Jack's health fails, Megan and her family face fresh grief and try to hold onto hope while learning what life looks like after the worst has already happened.

Return to Sender

by Steena Holmes

2014

Lauren hides herself away once a year to mourn a love she never got over. A surprise trip to a luxurious island forces her to look forward again, even as someone from her past reappears.

Stillwater Rising

by Steena Holmes

2014

An elementary school shooting devastates Stillwater Bay and shatters the bond between grieving mother Jenn and Mayor Charlotte. As the town struggles to heal, friendship and loyalty are pushed to their limits.

The Memory Child

by Steena Holmes

2014

After twelve years of waiting, Diane and Brian finally have a baby, but joy quickly gives way to fear. With Brian away and Diane's family history closing in, motherhood starts to feel deeply unsettling.

Halfway in Between

by Steena Holmes

2015

Back in Halfway, Nikki wants to believe life is finally settling down. But new love, old secrets, and a town that never forgets threaten to unravel the fragile peace she has started to build.

Halfway to Christmas

by Steena Holmes

2015

Christmas brings babies, homecomings, new beginnings, and fresh strain to the women of Halfway. It is a warm, busy, emotional look at love and family during the town's hardest and happiest season.

The Memory Journal

by Steena Holmes

2015

Charlie rushes home from the Congo when her sister lands in the hospital, leaving her fiancé and a complicated future behind. Back home, old lies and unfinished feelings make her question what love can survive.

The Word Game

by Steena Holmes

2015

Alyson finally lets her daughter go to a sleepover, and one night changes everything. What the girl says the next morning forces two sisters to confront the buried pain they never truly escaped.

Dreams of Stillwater

by Steena Holmes

2016

In the shadow of Stillwater's tragedy, grief follows Grace and Camille into every part of their lives. This emotional follow-up looks at survivor's guilt, stalled dreams, and the slow work of carrying on.

Saving Abby

by Steena Holmes

2016

Claire and Josh finally get the pregnancy they prayed for, only to learn that treatment could save Claire and endanger their unborn child. Love becomes a heartbreaking question of who, and what, can be saved.

Stillwater Deep

by Steena Holmes

2016

Mayor Charlotte Stone knows more about the school shooting than anyone realizes, and the truth points toward her own husband. Keeping that secret may destroy her marriage, her friendships, and her town.

Sweet Retreat

by Steena Holmes

2016

A woman who likes structure and schedules does not need a rugged mountain man complicating her life. Of course, that is exactly who keeps getting under her skin.

Sweet Return

by Steena Holmes

2016

Lauren Summers is the dependable one, until an unexpected trip shakes up her careful plans. Away from home, she has to face old feelings and the possibility that love might still surprise her.

Abby's Journey

by Steena Holmes

2017

Abby has known her mother only through letters, postcards, and journals. A trip through Europe's Christmas markets with her grandmother leads her toward family secrets, new freedom, and a fuller picture of the woman she lost.

Captured by Chocolate

by Steena Holmes

2017

Casey returns home hoping to settle in with Dylan after years of chasing stories around the world. But when careers pull them in opposite directions, love has to compete with the lives they each imagined.

Charmed by Chocolate

by Steena Holmes

2017

After a humiliating reality-show moment, Leah runs home to Marietta to hide and regroup. Wade, the best friend she publicly confessed her feelings for, is finally ready to fight for her.

Stillwater Shores

by Steena Holmes

2017

This prequel introduces the women of Stillwater Bay before violence changes everything. Friendship, routine, and quiet tensions fill the town, even as danger is already moving closer.

Stillwater Tides

by Steena Holmes

2017

Stillwater's tragedy still shadows every day. Grace lives with survivor's guilt, while Camille tries to keep life and work moving, and both women must decide whether healing is even possible.

Sweet Dreams

by Steena Holmes

2017

Heartbroken and tired of bad choices, a talented baker pours herself into macarons and croissants instead of romance. The trouble is, love has a way of showing up anyway.

The Forgotten Ones

by Steena Holmes

2018

Elle has spent her life surrounded by broken memories and family silence. When the grandfather she was told had died reaches out from his deathbed, the truth waiting for her is darker than she imagined.

The Patient

by Steena Holmes

2019

Therapist Danielle Rycroft fears one of her patients is the killer behind a string of murders. To stop the violence, she has to sort through secrets, suspicion, and the terrifying limits of what therapy can reveal.

Lies We Tell Ourselves

by Steena Holmes

2020

Paige has spent years living with the aftermath of her twin sister's disappearance. When a message suggests the truth is finally within reach, she steps toward answers and into a trap.

The Perfect Secret

by Steena Holmes

2020

She thinks she is building a new life with the perfect man, until he appears on the news in handcuffs, accused of murder. Suddenly every red flag she ignored starts to look deadly.

The Library of Christmas Memories

by Steena Holmes

2023

Mara joins her chosen family on a Christmas market trip to Belgium while grieving her mother. Then a stack of letters begins to unravel everything she thought she knew about her past.

A Belgium Chocolate Christmas

by Steena Holmes

2024

A holiday trip to Brussels and Bruges turns complicated when Mara's late mother starts speaking through letters filled with buried truths. Friendship, chocolate, and family secrets travel together in this cozy drama.

Engaged To A Serial Killer

by Steena Holmes

2024

Her fiancé seems like the first good thing life has handed her in years, until he shows up on the news in handcuffs, accused of multiple murders. Now she has to decide whether she ever knew him at all.

The Sister Under The Stairs

by Steena Holmes

2024

Twelve years after her twin sister vanished, a woman receives the first real lead in the case, and it may be a trap. The deeper she digs, the worse the truth becomes.

The Twin

by Steena Holmes

2024

She has always trusted her twin brother more than anyone, especially after a brutal father shaped both their lives. Then he confesses he has been hiding something huge, and her world turns frightening fast.

The Girls In The Basement

by Steena Holmes

2025

Jillian thought moving to rural Montana would give her family a fresh start. Then bodies are found on their land, and her husband's strange behavior makes home feel like the most dangerous place of all.

New

I Know You Killed Your Husband

by Steena Holmes

2026

A girls' trip to Paris turns lethal when one friend whispers an accusation over champagne and ends up dead by morning. Now grief, guilt, and old secrets are trapped in the same hotel.

New

Nine Missing Girls

by Steena Holmes

2026

FBI child abduction specialist Meri Amber carries nine haunting cases that the rest of the world wants to forget. This collection follows her through brutal investigations and the pursuit of justice for girls who vanished.

New

She Took My Baby

by Steena Holmes

2026

As nanny to a wealthy family, Trina spends every day near the child she believes was stolen from her. She knows the Eatons are hiding something, and she will risk everything to prove it.

New

When You Tell

by Steena Holmes

2026

Ghostwriter Bree Wagner reluctantly reunites with her former best friend, now a famous influencer, after eighteen years of silence. A public scandal and an old accident in Amsterdam force buried secrets back into the light.

Where should I start?

If you want the book that introduced many readers to her: Finding EmmaEmma's SecretMegan's Hope
If you want darker psychological suspense: The PatientThe Forgotten OnesThe Sister Under The Stairs
If you want emotional family drama: The Word GameThe Memory ChildSaving Abby
If you want something warmer and sweeter: Sweet MemoriesSweet DreamsSweet Return

Author bio

Steena Holmes grew up in small-town Canada and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. Before writing became the center of her working life, she spent years in church circles, and she has described her path as a move from pastor to writer. She is married, is the mother of three daughters, and brings a lot of that lived family knowledge into her fiction.

Writing seems to have become real for Holmes in stages, not all at once. She has talked about beginning in earnest while living in Calgary, working at a receptionist job, and then finding momentum after winning a writing contest. Just as important, she has said that writing changed how she saw herself. It gave her permission to try, fail, and keep going.

That shift shows up all through her books.

Many readers first found her through Finding Emma, the story that grew out of a frightening moment when she briefly thought one of her daughters had gone missing. That novel became her breakout title and won the National Indie Excellence Award in 2012. It also established a pattern Holmes returns to again and again: ordinary families thrown into terrible situations, and women who have to keep moving even when their lives no longer make sense.

Her backlist covers a lot of ground, but the emotional core stays steady. In The Memory Child, a new mother's fragile happiness turns unsettling fast. The Word Game starts with a child's sleepover and opens into buried trauma and family pain. The Patient and The Forgotten Ones lean harder into psychological suspense, asking what happens when the people closest to us are also the people we understand least.

She likes stories with a bruise under the surface.

Holmes also writes warmer, sweeter books. In titles like Sweet Memories, Charmed by Chocolate, and A Belgium Chocolate Christmas, she shifts toward small towns, friendship, travel, chocolate shops, and second chances. Even there, the pull is similar. Her characters are usually rebuilding something: trust, home, marriage, confidence, or a life that got knocked off course.

A lot of her fiction circles the same questions. What does motherhood look like under pressure? What do secrets do to marriages, sisters, and whole communities? How do people live with grief, guilt, or the version of the past they were handed as truth? Whether she is writing family drama, romance, or a darker thriller, she tends to stay close to the emotional fallout instead of stepping back from it.

Today, Holmes writes both psychological suspense and lighter travel-tinged fiction. Her books have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, and she has been recognized by the Good Housekeeping list of women authors to read. She also shares another side of her life with readers through small-group trips built around places she loves, especially Europe, Christmas markets, coffee, and chocolate.

That mix feels very on brand for her.

There is the darker side, where buried secrets blow open a family. And there is the softer side, where someone goes home, opens a sweet shop, or takes a trip that changes her life. Put together, those books give a pretty clear picture of Steena Holmes as a writer: she likes strong feelings, close relationships, and stories where the past never stays quiet for long.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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