Story Lake Books in Order

Story Lake is one of Lucy Score’s newer fictional towns, a slightly scruffy lakeside community in Pennsylvania that is trying hard not to fade away after losing its major employer. She has called the series her love letter to readers who wish they could pack up and move to a book town. On the page that means town council meetings, volunteer projects, and neighbors who may bicker but still show up with casseroles.

The first book, Story of My Life, follows Hazel Hart, a rom com novelist in the middle of a career and identity crisis. After a divorce and a serious case of writer’s block, she impulse buys a dilapidated Victorian house in Story Lake, sight unseen. The house comes with peeling wallpaper, a raccoon problem, and, to her shock, a seat on the town council that drags her into every local drama.

Hazel’s plans to quietly fix up the house and rewrite her next book are further complicated by Cam Bishop, the grumpy contractor she hires to tackle the renovation. Cam is rooted in Story Lake in a way Hazel has never been rooted anywhere, thanks to his close knit family and history with the town. Their dynamic runs on clash and crackling chemistry as they hammer out building plans, spar over budgets, and slowly start to let each other in.

Future installments shift the focus to other members of the Bishop family and to the people who drift into town almost by accident. Mistakes Were Made centers on Zoe, Hazel’s big city literary agent best friend who is convinced her stay will be temporary, and Gage Bishop, the youngest brother who splits his time between a law career and the family contracting business. Their story plays with an opposites attract setup, asking what happens when a woman whose life is built around leaving bumps up against a man determined to stay.

Underneath the individual romances runs a larger arc about keeping a struggling town alive. Local businesses are on the edge, budgets are tight, and every festival or fundraiser is a little act of defiance against decline. The tone is warm and funny, with plenty of pets, mishaps, and sibling banter, but there is also a quiet seriousness in the way Story Lake insists that everyone deserves a place to belong.