Jan Moran Book Series Order
Jan Moran Book Series Order
Many readers ask me what order my books should be read in, so I thought I would offer guidance on my women's fiction beach series and historical family sagas. (Each is outlined below in the book series order.) If you're interested in my beach reads series, the reading order I'd recommend is to start with Seabreeze Inn, the first book in the Summer Beach series.
Next would be the Coral Cottage series, which I began writing after book number 4 (Seabreeze Christmas) in the small town Summer Beach series. However, many readers begin with Coral Cottage first and then read the Summer Beach series. Either way is fine, as I try not to give spoilers.
Both series are set in the fictional Southern California small beach town of Summer Beach, so you'll see a few crossover supporting characters, just as if you lived there. You can switch back and forth between these two series if you'd like. The reading series order is below, and I'll also share the series order of my Love California books and my historical family saga novels. My holiday books in the series (Seabreeze Christmas and Coral Holiday) were designed to be read as stand-alone as many readers liked to give books to friends or re-read these during the holidays. But of course, it's more enjoyable to read them in order.
All my books are available in ebooks everywhere, paperback, hardcover, and audiobooks. Most are also available in large print.
Summer Beach Series (aka Seabreeze Inn Series)
In the small town of Summer Beach, I cast an array of quirky, lovable characters, with artist Ivy Bay and her sister Shelly at the center of it all. The two sisters are remaking their lives; Ivy is over 40, and Shelly is over 30. The old beach house is also a starring character; you'll discover many secrets hidden within its walls.
If you like women's fiction, slow-burn clean romance, old beach houses, treasure hunts, art and antiques, a dash of history and mystery, and small town happenings, you'll enjoy visiting Summer Beach. The novels in this series were my first to achieve spots on the Wall Street Journal top ten bestseller list, so these are special to me because readers really connected with Ivy Bay.
As a side note, I imagined this as a three-book series, but readers clamored for more, so here we are. Yes, authors really do listen to what readers love!
- Seabreeze Inn
- Seabreeze Summer
- Seabreeze Sunset
- Seabreeze Christmas
- Seabreeze Wedding
- Seabreeze Book Club
- Seabreeze Shores
- Seabreeze Reunion
- Seabreeze Honeymoon
Coral Cottage Series
This sun-soaked beach series features Marina Moore, Ivy Bay's best friend from her teenage beach days, along with her sisters and grandmother. If you like scruffy dogs, swoon-worthy single fathers, farmers' markets, beach cafes, and community theater, you'll enjoy this series. Marina is remaking her life after 40, and Summer Beach is the perfect place to do it. Her sister Kai is a real hoot, and grandmother Ginger offers a lot of advice…along with secrets from a life well-lived.
Coral Cottage meant a lot to me as it was my first novel to reach the USA Today bestseller list. You could hear that celebration up and down the beach that day!
- Coral Cottage
- Coral Cafe
- Coral Holiday
- Coral Weddings
- Coral Celebration
Love, California Series
The Love California series was the first series I wrote and had a special place in my heart, as each book includes a trip to a place I've loved, along with many hotels and restaurants I've visited. This is a fun, circle-of-friends series, with each friend getting their own story. The protagonists are in their late 20s to early 30s.
The Love California series books are stand-alone, but they are linked. You'll see the same circle of friends throughout the series. As for reading order, I recommend starting with Flawless, as you'll meet everyone and learn their backstories. It's the longest book and follows Verena (named after one of my Swiss ancestors).
These smart, savvy women love style, beauty, design, fashion, travel, and starting their own businesses, so you'll discover lots of inside stories from the beauty industry. This series includes many personal experiences as I wrote these books during and immediately after my work in the beauty business (I created the touch-screen Fragrance IQ and SkinIQ for Sephora and DFS stores around the world). Read on for more fun…
- Flawless (Paris)
- Beauty Mark (Spain)
- Runway (Ireland)
- Essence (South of France, Monaco, Malta)
- Style (New York, Malibu, Copenhagen)
- Sparkle (Sydney)
20th Century Historical Fiction
If you're in the mood for long, immersive family sagas set in yesteryear, check out my 20th-century historical family sagas, which are all stand-alone stories with different characters and locations. These are book club favorites as they cover complex women's issues in the stories, and I've included book club discussion questions in the back of each book and on the website.
The order in which I wrote these books is below, but I often suggest that people begin with Hepburn's Necklace, The Chocolatier, or The Winemakers. If you enjoy period dramas from the 1940s and 1950s, strong-willed women, learning about wine, chocolate, and perfume, and visiting Italy, Paris, and Napa Valley, then you'll enjoy these multi-layered stories that deal with many women's issues of the day. Each one revolves around a family secret or mystery. Of course, you'll find an emotionally satisfying ending as well.
I love writing about complicated families (aren't they all?), so these are multi-generational stories with mothers, children, grandparents, and friends in the mix. Hepburn's Necklace is a dual-timeline, so you'll meet Ruby Raines as a young starlet in awe of Audry Hepburn, a seasoned actress.
When I read novels, I love to learn new things, so you'll see the fruits of my deep research into the perfume, wine, and chocolate industries as well as the Golden Era of Hollywood history. I even met and attended the birthday party of the Napa winemaker whose wine won an important blind taste test in Paris that helped put Napa Vally wines on the map. A chocolatier and chef from a Venezualan cacao family and Peruvian cacao farmers provided research for The Chocolatier. One of the world's top-ranked winemakers in Napa informed The Winemakers.
The Perfumer is a heart-breaking WWII family novel seen through the lens of a young female French perfumer, so be forewarned (you'll need a hanky), but it does offer hope ahead. That was my first novel published (originally as Scent of Triumph) with St. Martin's Press, so it holds a special place in my heart. I penned this novel on long flights across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans while working with perfumers and researching entrepreneurs in the beauty industry, particularly female founders.
These novels are all available in ebooks everywhere, print books, and audiobooks. For The Perfumer audiobook, look for it as Scent of Triumph, as that was the original title.
- The Perfumer: Scent of Triumph
- The Winemakers
- The Chocolatier
- Hepburn's Necklace