Where to Start with Amanda Eyre Ward
Amanda Eyre Ward is celebrated for writing poignant, character-driven stories that blend contemporary drama, domestic secrets, and dry humor. Because her bibliography consists primarily of standalone novels, you have plenty of freedom in choosing where to begin. Here are the best entry points depending on your reading tastes:
- For Contemporary Drama & Family Secrets: Start with The Jetsetters (2020). This New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick follows a dysfunctional family on a Mediterranean cruise. It perfectly encapsulates Ward's ability to balance heavy family trauma with a fast-paced, glamorous travel backdrop. It is also the first book of the Perkins family series, which continues in 2026.
- For Social Realism & Emotional Depth: Start with The Same Sky (2015). This moving novel intertwines the narrative of a young Honduran girl fleeing to the United States with that of a Texan woman struggling with infertility. It is a powerful, compassionate look at immigration and motherhood.
- For Mystery & Neighborhood Secrets: Start with The Lifeguards (2022). Set in Austin, Texas, this domestic thriller centers on three teenage boys who work as lifeguards and uncover a dark secret, forcing their protective mothers to choose between the truth and their sons.
- For Her Literary Beginnings: Start with Sleep Toward Heaven (2003). Ward's debut novel is a darker, introspective piece of literary fiction exploring the lives of three women connected by violence, including a death row inmate in Texas.
The Perkins Family Duology
For most of her career, Ward wrote strictly standalone novels. However, she has since expanded her most famous book, The Jetsetters, into a series tracing the Perkins family. These books should be read in chronological order to follow their character arcs and life milestones:
- The Jetsetters (2020): We meet Charlotte Perkins, a seventy-year-old widow who wins a cruise and brings her three estranged adult children—Regan, Cord, and Lee. As they sail across the Mediterranean, long-buried secrets and sibling rivalries rise to the surface.
- Arrivals and Departures (2026): Set a decade after the events of the first book, the Perkins family members are scattered globally. Sibling Lee is a reality-TV star struggling with her mental health, Cord is dealing with substance abuse recovery, mother Charlotte is still longing for a lost love in Greece, and younger sister Regan disappears after falling victim to an online romance scam, prompting a family reunion and rescue mission in Athens.
Publication Order of Amanda Eyre Ward's Books
If you prefer to watch Ward's style evolve from introspective literary fiction to broader contemporary domestic dramas, reading her works in order of publication is a rewarding path. Her full catalog of novels, short story collections, novellas, and non-fiction includes:
Standalone Novels & Fiction Collections
- Sleep Toward Heaven (2003): Her debut novel, tracing three women—a doctor, a widow, and a prisoner on death row—whose lives converge in Texas.
- How to Be Lost (2004): A story of family grief and hope, focusing on a woman searching for her sister who went missing as a child.
- Forgive Me (2007): Set against the backdrop of post-apartheid South Africa, a journalist searches for the truth behind a tragic event while dealing with her own past.
- Love Stories in This Town (2009): A collection of twelve short stories. The second half of the book features six linked stories tracking a single protagonist, Lola Wilkerson, over a decade.
- Close Your Eyes (2011): Winner of the Elle Magazine Fiction Book of the Year, this psychological drama follows a woman returning to her family home to solve the mystery of her mother's murder decades earlier.
- The Same Sky (2015): A dual-narrative novel exploring the heartbreaking realities of child migrants and the universal desire for family.
- The Nearness of You (2017): An intimate look at motherhood, open adoption, and the complicated bonds between biological and adoptive parents.
- The Lifeguards (2022): A sun-drenched Austin-based thriller exploring motherhood, secrets, and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.
- Lovers and Liars (2024): A tangled story focusing on a librarian navigating complex relationships, love, and secrets in a small community.
Novellas & Short Works
- Cat & Vivian (2022): A mystery novella centering on a former reporter, Vivian, who visits her grandmother—a legendary retired private investigator—and gets pulled into a local missing persons case in the coastal islands near Savannah, Georgia. Note: Some library databases and online lists incorrectly catalog this title as "Cat & Vivianla".
Non-Fiction & Collaborative Works
- The Sober Lush: A Hedonist's Guide to Living a Decadent, Adventurous, Soulful Life—Alcohol Free (2020): Co-authored with Jardine Libaire, this non-fiction book serves as a warm, lifestyle-oriented guide to finding joy, adventure, and sensory fulfillment without alcohol.
What to Know Before You Start
Amanda Eyre Ward's novels are heavily inspired by her own experiences and travels. Her junior year spent in Kenya and her time in South Africa influenced novels like Forgive Me, while her residences in Austin, Texas, and New York provide the grounding for the settings in The Lifeguards and Lovers and Liars. In her fiction, Ward regularly tackles serious social issues—such as addiction, immigration, death row, and grief—but balances them with a warmth and accessibility that makes her books popular with book clubs. Aside from the Perkins family books (The Jetsetters and Arrivals and Departures), you can pick up any of her novels as complete standalones without worrying about prior continuity.