Tales of the Pacific Books in Order

The Tales of the Pacific books are travel-rich romances set in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia, but they are more than scenic escapes. Emilie Richards uses these Pacific settings to tell stories about women in crisis, old wounds, second chances, and the way a dramatic landscape can push people into facing truths they have been dodging.

The series begins with From Glowing Embers, where Julianna and Gray are forced to confront a painful shared past in Hawaii. From there the books travel outward, but they keep a loose connective thread. Characters introduced in one story often walk into another. That gives the quartet a nice sense of community without making it feel overly plotted.

The settings are a real part of the appeal.

In Smoke Screen, the thermal landscape of New Zealand, mud pools, geysers, and Maori country, becomes the backdrop for a romance shaped by memory, secrecy, and a guarded child. Rainbow Fire heads to Australia's opal country, where family questions and a suspicious mine accident drive the plot. Out Of The Ashes closes the series on Kangaroo Island, with a woman fleeing abuse and a ranger hiding from his own past.

Although these are romances, there is often a suspense thread running underneath. Missing people, buried betrayals, dangerous exes, accidents that may not be accidents, and characters hiding under assumed versions of themselves all show up across the series. Richards clearly enjoys bringing emotional drama and a touch of peril into contact with wildly beautiful places.

The books also have a strong sense of movement. Many of the protagonists are displaced, traveling, hiding, or trying to begin again somewhere far from the life that hurt them. That makes the Pacific settings matter on more than a postcard level. Paradise is lovely, but it is also unfamiliar, and that unfamiliarity helps shake loose change.

If you want to read them, start with From Glowing Embers and go in order. The stories can stand alone, but the emotional links are nicer when you watch the connections build. This is Richards in a more overtly romantic, adventurous mode, with plenty of atmosphere and a recurring interest in what happens when escape turns into transformation.