To Have and To Hold Books in Order

The To Have and To Hold line was a multi-author series of contemporary romances built around one simple promise: these stories would explore what happens after "I do." Writing as Claudia Bishop early in her career, Mary Stanton contributed a pair of entries that fit neatly into that theme while reflecting her interest in how strong-willed people share a life.

In Where The Heart Is, a powerful businessman named Max Randall falls for artist Vicki Carrolton after seeing one of her self-portraits. Their whirlwind courtship leads to a fairy-tale marriage, but the novel picks up a year in, when the gloss has worn off and their differences are harder to laugh away. Vicki values creative freedom and resents the social duties and careful image management that come with Max's world. He, in turn, expects a degree of polish and public support that clashes with her instincts. The story follows their efforts to reconcile careers, family baggage and conflicting ideas of partnership without losing the heat that brought them together.

That Champagne Feeling follows Emma and Mark, two child psychiatrists whose connection is immediate and intense. Professionally, they are a formidable team. At home, Emma's impulsiveness and Mark's more controlled nature sometimes pull them in opposite directions. Cases at the clinic, questions about how to balance demanding work with intimacy and the challenge of trusting one another with deeply held fears all feed into the central question: can their marriage stay as bright as its sparkling beginning once real life settles in?

Across both books, Stanton focuses less on grand external obstacles and more on the everyday negotiations that make or break a relationship. Money, time, expectations around children and the pull of old habits all come into play. The tone is warm and sensual but also honest about frustration and compromise.

Because the broader To Have and To Hold line is only loosely connected, readers can treat these novels as standalones. Picking up either Where The Heart Is or That Champagne Feeling will give you a complete story about a couple learning, sometimes the hard way, how to keep choosing each other after the honeymoon phase fades.