Tracey Garvis Graves Books in Order

Tracey Garvis Graves grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, alongside her fraternal twin sister, Trish. Long before her novels reached bestseller lists, she was a reader who liked getting lost in a story. That love of books stayed with her through school, work, marriage, and raising a family.

She first studied at the University of Iowa, where creative writing classes gave her an early nudge. After transferring to Grand View College in Des Moines, she took another writing class and held onto a teacher's encouraging note that said publication was possible if she kept working at it.

For a while, writing took a back seat to everyday life. After college she worked, married, and started a family, and the pages stopped coming as regularly.

In 2008, with her children in school during the day, Graves started a blog simply because she wanted to write again. It gave her room to be funny, candid, and conversational. Before long, blog posts weren't enough. She wanted to learn how to write a full novel.

So she did.

Graves wrote the first draft of On the Island in about six months, teaching herself as she went. The story of a teacher and her teenage student stranded in the Maldives became her debut novel. After traditional publishing attempts did not pan out, she hired freelance editors and other specialists, then self-published the book herself. Reader word of mouth helped it find a large audience, and it was later acquired in a two-book deal. On the Island spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into dozens of languages.

Her later books keep the focus on people whose lives have been knocked off course. Covet looks at a troubled marriage and an emotional line that may be crossed. Heart-Shaped Hack and White-Hot Hack add cybercrime and danger to a romance between a food-pantry founder and a hacker. In The Girl He Used to Know, former college sweethearts face a second chance, while Heard It in a Love Song follows two newly single adults trying to decide whether friendship can become more.

Graves often writes about starting over, rebuilding trust, grief, and the risks of letting another person matter. Her characters may be dealing with survival, a bad marriage, a long-held secret, or a painful loss, but the stories leave room for connection and hope. The romantic thread matters, yet so does the work of figuring out what a good life looks like after plans fall apart.

She lives in a suburb of Des Moines with her husband, two children, and her dog, Chloe. When she isn't writing, she's still the kind of reader who knows a growing to-be-read pile is both a problem and a pleasure.