The List Books in Order

The List follows longtime friends who decide to honor a pact they made when they were much younger. Ali Parker begins with women who have spent years being responsible and now find that their lives haven't matched their teenage expectations. A list of daring challenges offers a way to change their routines. Completing it also brings opportunities for romance that are harder to manage than a simple set of tasks.

The rules were written before adult life complicated them.

In The Naughty List, a ten-year high school reunion brings the old promise back into view. The heroine is a bookshop owner and writer whose good-girl habits have become comfortable, even when they aren't making her happy. Seeing the handsome boy next door again suggests someone who might help her attempt the challenges. The familiar connection makes the possibility exciting, while also making it harder to dismiss as an anonymous experiment.

The list gives the friends permission to try things they would usually talk themselves out of doing. Some entries are playful, some embarrassing and some sexual. Parker uses the contrast between teenage bravado and adult hesitation to create the comedy. Deciding to become more adventurous is straightforward when it remains a conversation between friends. Actually approaching another person, risking a public scene or admitting a desire requires a different kind of courage.

The New Me List centers on a divorced woman who cannot use her former marriage as a reason to avoid taking part. An encounter with a younger rock musician turns an intimidating challenge into something she wants to repeat. The story brings age, experience and the possibility of a different public life into the group's shared premise. Reinvention becomes personal rather than a performance of the carefree person she thinks she should be.

In The Bucket List, helping to open a ski lodge interferes with plans for travel and adventure. Her brother's older business partner becomes another distraction, particularly when he is present for behavior she would normally consider mortifying. The contrast between a composed adult man and the demands of a teenage checklist gives this romance its own version of the question running through the series: what does becoming bolder actually mean?

Read The Naughty List, The New Me List and The Bucket List in order to follow the friends taking their turns. These are connected adult contemporary romances with different central relationships, rather than three installments devoted to one couple. Friendship supplies the continuity, while each heroine discovers her own limits and wishes. Expect humor, sexual situations and women finding that taking a chance on love can feel more daunting than completing even the most outlandish item on their old list.