Lane Hayes Books in Order (Updated July 24, 2026)

Lane Hayes writes contemporary MM romance, usually built around friendship groups, sports teams, musicians, small towns, workplaces, and found families. Her catalog ranges from the Washington, DC setting of the Better Than books to the hockey communities of Elmwood, Smithton, and Wood Hollow.

Most Lane Hayes books are interconnected standalones. Each main couple receives a complete romance, but previous couples frequently return, and later installments can reveal earlier outcomes.

The practical rule is simple: choose a series, begin with its first book, and stay in publication order until that storyline is complete.

The Three Reading Paths That Make the Most Sense

Readers do not need to follow one enormous publication list across every Lane Hayes title. Her separate series can usually be approached as distinct entry points.

1. For Lane Hayes’s newest small-town books: Begin with This Guy, the first Wood Hollow story.
2. For sports romance: Begin with Out in the Deep, You, Again, or One-Time Shot, depending on whether you prefer college sports, professional hockey, or college hockey.
3. For the earliest connected universe: Begin with Better Than Good, then continue through the Better Than books and their later companion stories.
4. The safest overall starting point is Better Than Good because it introduces Hayes’s earliest major cast and establishes the light, character-driven style that continues across much of her work.

Wood Hollow Stories in Order

Wood Hollow is Lane Hayes’s newest small-town series. It brings together lumberjacks, athletes, local businesses, single parents, and neighbors whose personal lives repeatedly overlap.

Read these books in publication order because community developments and established couples continue in the background.

1. This Guy (2026): A single father and a professional football player become neighbors, turning everyday favors and an unexpected attraction into a romance neither man planned.
2. Sweet Something (2026): A baker, a reserved lumberjack, and the demands of new fatherhood come together in a small-town romance shaped by responsibility and reluctant vulnerability.
3. Mountain Man (2026): The third Wood Hollow story moves deeper into the town’s rugged outdoor community, giving another local man a romance connected to the growing cast.

Mountain Man is scheduled for October 2026. It is upcoming as of this update and should be read after Sweet Something.

The Elmwood Stories in Order

The Elmwood books form a small-town hockey series. Professional players, former teammates, local businesses, and family connections keep the cast closely linked.

Each romance can stand alone, but publication order protects returning-character developments.

1. You, Again (2023): A professional hockey player encounters a man from his past, forcing both of them to decide whether an earlier connection deserves a more permanent second chance.
2. Next Season (2023): A player facing uncertainty about his hockey future finds an unexpected relationship that makes the next stage of his life feel less predictable.
3. Holiday Crush (2023): A seasonal return to Elmwood turns a familiar attraction into a holiday romance, with the town’s established couples nearby.
4. Thin Ice (2024): Hockey rivalry and personal tension place two men in close contact, where competitive instincts gradually give way to trust.
5. Hotshot (2024): A confident hockey figure discovers that charm and professional success do not automatically prepare him for emotional commitment.
6. Puck Love (2025): The Elmwood hockey circle expands through another player-centered romance, while previous couples continue shaping the town around them.

Elmwood is best read as a complete sequence. The romantic plots conclude individually, but the town and hockey community develop from one book to the next.

Smithton Bears Books in Order

The Smithton Bears series focuses on college hockey in a small-town setting. These are interconnected standalone romances with recurring teammates and campus relationships.

1. One-Time Shot (2025): A tough hockey player and an endearingly awkward academic type test an unconventional arrangement that becomes more emotionally serious than expected.
2. Something to Prove (2025): A player under pressure to establish his worth finds his professional and personal assumptions challenged by a relationship he cannot treat as another competition.
3. The Roommate Game (2025): Forced proximity between roommates turns shared routines, teasing, and blurred boundaries into a romance that affects the wider Bears team.

Read the trilogy in order. Team dynamics and earlier relationships become increasingly visible in the later books.

Out in College Books in Order

Out in College is Hayes’s longest sports-centered series. It follows college athletes across water polo, football, baseball, hockey, volleyball, skiing, and surfing.

The books feature different couples, but friendships, teammates, and romantic outcomes carry forward.

1. Out in the Deep (2018): A college water-polo player explores an unexpected attraction while balancing teammates, identity, and the uncertainty of a new relationship.
2. Out in the End Zone (2018): Football and campus life frame a romance in which friendship and attraction begin crossing boundaries neither man expected to reconsider.
3. Out in the Offense (2019): A talented quarterback faces pressure on and off the field when his connection with another man becomes too important to dismiss.
4. Out in the Field (2019): A dedicated baseball player must reconcile his athletic plans with a relationship that asks him to be more open about what he wants.
5. Out on the Ice (2020): College hockey provides the setting for a romance shaped by competition, team loyalty, and a growing emotional bond.
6. Out in Spring (2020): A new semester and a changing social circle create room for a relationship that develops beyond its casual beginnings.
7. Out on the Serve (2020): Volleyball, friendship, and attraction collide when two men discover that their easy chemistry may have lasting consequences.
8. Out in Winter (2021): A winter sports setting places two men together long enough for guarded feelings and private attraction to become impossible to ignore.
9. Out for the Holidays and Out for Gold (2021): Two connected seasonal stories revisit the Out in College world through holiday relationships and competitive ambitions.
10. Out in the Surf (2023): Surfing and coastal college life frame the final major installment, bringing a fresh couple into the established Out in College community.

Publication order is the recommended route. Starting with a later sport is possible, but it will reveal which earlier couples remain together.

Better Than Books in Order

The Better Than books center on a connected group of friends in Washington, DC. Law school, careers, friendship, coming out, and changing relationships provide the continuity.

The first four novels form the core sequence. Later books and short works revisit established characters after significant time has passed.

1. Better Than Good (2013): Matt’s carefully managed life changes when he meets Aaron, beginning a romance that also establishes the friendship group behind the wider series.
2. Better Than Chance (2014): A new couple within the Washington circle moves from attraction toward commitment while confronting the risks of changing an established life.
3. Better Than Friends (2014): Friendship becomes harder to define when emotional dependence and physical attraction begin pointing toward a more permanent relationship.
4. Better Than Safe (2015): A guarded man must decide whether emotional security is worth abandoning the distance and control that once protected him.
5. Better Than Beginnings (2020): This companion story returns to the original Better Than world and looks back at how an important relationship first took shape.
6. Better Than Home (2022): Familiar characters confront the meaning of home, stability, and belonging after the main series relationships have been established.
7. Better Than Ten Years Later (2025): The original cast is revisited a decade later, showing how love, friendship, and shared history have changed with time.
8. Better Than Baby (2025): Family plans and the possibility of parenthood create a new stage for characters whose romantic story began earlier in the series.

Better Than Short Stories

Several brief Better Than stories, including titles such as Better Than Candy, Better Than Pride, and Better Than Birthday, have circulated as bonus or promotional fiction.

These are Optional. Availability and collection placement have varied, so new readers should complete the four core novels before adding any shorter companion material.

Better Than Collections

Better Than: Books 1-4 (2025): This bundle collects the four original novels and does not represent a fifth core story.

Readers who own the collection do not need to purchase the first four books separately.

Right and Wrong Books in Order

This three-book series follows a connected set of characters through friendship, attraction, second chances, and changing personal expectations.

1. The Right Words (2014): A man who relies on language and careful choices discovers that saying the correct thing is not the same as risking honesty in a relationship.
2. The Wrong Man (2015): Attraction develops around someone who appears unsuitable on paper, challenging assumptions about what makes a relationship viable.
3. The Right Time (2015): A connection delayed by circumstances and hesitation reaches the point where timing can no longer be used as an excuse.

The three romances are individually complete. Reading in order gives better context for the recurring social circle.

A Kind of Stories in Order

The A Kind of books move through music, celebrity, friendship, personal reinvention, and relationships that unfold inside an interconnected cast.

1. A Kind of Truth (2016): A musician balancing ambition and identity meets a man who makes it harder to keep his public career separate from his private life.
2. A Kind of Romance (2016): A new couple discovers that an apparently simple attraction carries complications created by friendship, expectations, and emotional history.
3. A Kind of Honesty (2016): A guarded relationship can only move forward when both men stop relying on partial truths and begin confronting what they actually need.
4. A Kind of Home (2017): The series turns toward belonging and chosen family as another couple decides where, and with whom, a lasting future can be built.

These books should be read from A Kind of Truth through A Kind of Home. Returning characters make later installments more rewarding after the earlier romances are known.

Leaning Into Books in Order

The Leaning Into series follows a group of friends and professionals whose relationships cross business, music, family, and social boundaries.

Several installments are shorter than full novels, but all belong to the same connected sequence.

1. Leaning Into Love (2017): A successful businessman confronts an attraction that disrupts his assumptions about friendship, control, and the shape of his future.
2. Leaning Into Always (2017): A continuing couple faces the practical work of sustaining love after the first major romantic decision has been made.
3. Leaning Into the Fall (2017): A man accustomed to keeping his balance meets someone who makes emotional risk feel more necessary than caution.
4. Leaning Into Touch (2017): Physical chemistry develops into a more vulnerable connection as two men learn to communicate beyond attraction.
5. Leaning Into a Wish (2017): A hoped-for relationship begins taking form when private longing is finally matched by action.
6. Leaning Into the Look (2018): Appearances, assumptions, and public presentation complicate a romance that requires both men to look beyond first impressions.
7. Leaning Into Forever (2018): The concluding installment turns toward permanence, bringing the connected friendship group to a settled emotional point.

Leaning Into Love and Leaning Into Always: This combined edition contains the first two stories and adds no separate installment.

Starting From Books in Order

Starting From follows musicians, creative professionals, and friends around a Los Angeles rock band. The books use separate central couples but share a strong continuing cast.

1. Starting from Zero (2019): A musician at the beginning of a new professional chapter meets someone who changes the personal meaning of starting over.
2. Starting from Scratch (2019): A relationship develops while career and creative pressures force both men to rebuild expectations from the ground up.
3. Starting From Here (2020): Another member of the shared circle reaches a turning point where the future cannot be shaped entirely by old choices.
4. Starting From Somewhere (2020): A man who feels directionless discovers that a lasting relationship can begin before every other part of life is resolved.
5. Starting From the Top (2021): Success and visibility create new pressures for a couple whose relationship demands honesty beyond a carefully maintained public image.

Starting From Bonus Stories

Short pieces featuring Charlie and other established characters have appeared as holiday or promotional extras.

These are Optional and should be read only after the relevant main novels. They are not required to understand the five-book sequence.

The Script Club Books in Order

The Script Club combines sports, academic life, friendships, rules, and carefully planned romantic arrangements that rarely stay under control.

1. Following the Rules (2021): A man who prefers clear boundaries enters a relationship that becomes complicated when emotional attachment refuses to follow the original plan.
2. Rules of Play (2021): Competition and attraction push two men to reconsider whether the rules governing their connection are helping or protecting them.
3. The Jock Script (2021): A sports-centered arrangement begins according to a familiar social script, then changes when the people involved want something more genuine.
4. The Holiday List (2021): A seasonal list of plans and expectations brings two men together, allowing a temporary holiday connection to deepen.
5. The Professor’s Date (2022): An academic and his unexpected date move beyond a controlled social arrangement toward a relationship with more personal consequences.
6. Love and History (2022): The final Script Club romance connects present-day attraction with a love of the past, closing the series through another member of the established group.

The series works best in order because friendships and background relationships develop steadily across all six books.

The Baxter Chronicles in Order

The Baxter Chronicles follow characters associated with a prominent public figure and the people working closest to him.

1. The Real Baxter (2022): A man known through reputation and public image becomes the center of a romance that exposes the private person behind the name.
2. Baxter’s Right-Hand Man (2023): A trusted assistant accustomed to managing another person’s life finds his own priorities altered by an unexpected relationship.

These books occupy the same continuity and should be read in order.

Love and Travels Books in Order

Love and Travels uses European destinations as the setting for self-discovery, temporary escapes, and romances that become more lasting than planned.

1. Falling for Raine (2024): A trip to London introduces a man to Raine, turning an escape from ordinary life into an emotionally significant relationship.
2. Winnie Takes Paris (2024): Paris provides the setting for a second travel-centered romance in which distance from home creates room for honesty and change.

The books are linked by theme and series identity rather than a single continuing plot. Publication order remains the simplest choice.

A Way With Stories in Order

These two connected stories focus on words, personal expression, and relationships that develop when communication becomes unavoidable.

1. A Way With Words (2018): A man known for handling language discovers that emotional honesty requires more than charm or verbal skill.
2. A Way with You (2018): The companion story turns toward a relationship in which choosing the right person matters more than finding the perfect words.

Read them in publication order. They form a compact two-book sequence.

Standalone Lane Hayes Books

These titles do not require knowledge of one of Hayes’s numbered series.

1. The Humbug Holiday (2022): A holiday skeptic encounters a man and a seasonal situation capable of challenging his resistance to romance and celebration.
2. Fairy Cakes in Winter (2023): Baking, winter festivities, and an unexpected connection shape a warm holiday romance outside Hayes’s larger series.
3. The London Chance (2023): A visit to London creates an unplanned romantic opportunity that asks both men to decide whether a travel connection can survive real life.
4. Moody’s Grumpy Holiday (2024): A gruff central character is drawn into a festive romance that gradually weakens his determination to remain uninvolved.
5. A Cowboy Holiday (2025): A seasonal cowboy romance places two men together during the holidays, where rural life and forced proximity create space for a lasting bond.
6. All’s Fair in Love and Pizza (2026): Competition, food, and romantic tension meet around the pizza business, where winning becomes less important than the relationship developing alongside it.

These books can be read at any point. Their holiday and travel themes make them useful breaks between longer connected series.

Multi-Author Projects and Shared Collections

Stick to the Script

Stick to the Script (2019): Written for the multi-author Ace’s Wild project, this standalone contribution uses a shared setting while telling a complete Lane Hayes romance.

It is Optional and does not need to be inserted into the later Script Club series despite the similar title wording.

Gifts for the Season

Gifts for the Season (2020): This multi-author holiday collection contains seasonal romance stories from several writers, including Lane Hayes.

It is a collection, not a Lane Hayes series installment.

Heart2Heart Volume 6

Heart2Heart Volume 6 (2022): This charity anthology gathers matchmaking-themed MM romance stories by multiple authors.

Hayes’s contribution is optional and separate from her main numbered series.

Delicious: Volume One

Delicious: Volume One (2025): A multi-author collection built around food-centered romance, containing a Lane Hayes contribution alongside stories by other writers.

It should be treated as a separate anthology rather than part of Wood Hollow or another food-related title.

Collections and Bundles

Lane Hayes has issued several series bundles. A bundle combines previously released stories and should not be counted as a new novel.

The most important examples include:

1. Better Than: Books 1-4 (2025): Collects the original Better Than novels in one volume.
2. Leaning Into Love and Leaning Into Always (2017): Combines the first two Leaning Into stories.
3. The Right and Wrong Collection: Collects the three Right and Wrong romances without changing their internal order.

Other series collections may appear in ebook, print, or audio formats. Check the contents before purchasing so that a collected edition is not mistaken for an additional story.

Where the Series Boundaries Matter

Lane Hayes often revisits familiar themes, particularly hockey, college sports, musicians, holidays, and small-town life. Similar settings do not automatically mean two series share continuity.

Out in College, Elmwood, Smithton Bears, and Wood Hollow are best treated as separate series unless a particular book explicitly identifies a crossover.

Better Than, A Kind of, Leaning Into, Starting From, The Script Club, and The Baxter Chronicles each have their own recurring casts.

A reader can move between these groups in any order. Inside a group, publication order gives the clearest experience.

Do Lane Hayes’s Books Have a Chronological Order?

There is no useful master chronological order covering every Lane Hayes book.

Most series progress in the same order in which they were published. The romances are generally contemporary, and later books naturally show earlier couples at a later stage of life.

Publication order within each series therefore serves both continuity and practical chronology. Rearranging the books would add confusion without improving the story.

Latest Lane Hayes Book

Lane Hayes’s latest released book is Sweet Something, the second Wood Hollow story, published on July 21, 2026.

Sweet Something (2026): A baker and a guarded lumberjack navigate attraction, small-town expectations, and the responsibilities surrounding a new baby.

The next announced book is Mountain Man, the third Wood Hollow story, scheduled for October 2026.

Because Mountain Man had not been released as of July 24, 2026, it belongs on the upcoming list rather than the completed bibliography.

A Short Recommended Order for New Readers

Readers looking for one manageable route through Hayes’s large catalog can use this sequence:

1. Better Than Good: Begin with Hayes’s earliest major friendship group and foundational series.
2. A Kind of Truth: Continue with a music-centered connected cast.
3. Leaning Into Love: Move into another established group of friends and professionals.
4. Out in the Deep: Sample the longer college sports sequence.
5. Starting from Zero: Shift to the Los Angeles music world.
6. Following the Rules: Enter the Script Club’s sports and academic circle.
7. You, Again: Begin the professional hockey and small-town Elmwood books.
8. One-Time Shot: Continue with college hockey in Smithton.
9. This Guy: Finish with the newest Wood Hollow community.

This is not a shared-universe chronology. It is a guided route through Hayes’s major periods and settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first Lane Hayes book?

Lane Hayes’s first published novel is Better Than Good, released in 2013.

It begins the Better Than series and remains the clearest starting point for readers exploring her work from the beginning.

What is Lane Hayes’s newest book?

Her newest released book is Sweet Something, published on July 21, 2026.

It is the second Wood Hollow story.

What is Lane Hayes’s next book?

Mountain Man is announced as Wood Hollow book three and is scheduled for October 2026.

Do Lane Hayes books need to be read in order?

The separate series do not need to be combined into one master sequence.

Within a series, publication order is recommended because friends, teammates, relatives, and earlier couples regularly reappear.

Are Lane Hayes’s books standalones?

Most are interconnected standalones. Each book usually follows a new central couple and provides a complete romantic ending.

The surrounding cast creates continuity, so a later book may spoil who paired with whom earlier.

Which Lane Hayes series is about hockey?

The Elmwood Stories focus on a small town connected to professional hockey.

The Smithton Bears books center on college hockey. Out in College also includes a hockey installment alongside several other sports.

Which Lane Hayes series should I read first?

Begin with Better Than for the earliest connected cast.

Begin with Elmwood or Smithton for hockey, Out in College for varied college sports, Starting From for musicians, or Wood Hollow for Hayes’s newest small-town setting.

Is Sweet Something a standalone?

It has its own central romance, but it is Wood Hollow book two.

Read This Guy first for the town, recurring characters, and strongest continuity context.

Are the holiday books connected?

Some holiday titles belong to established series, while others are independent.

Holiday Crush belongs to Elmwood, The Holiday List belongs to The Script Club, and Out for the Holidays and Out for Gold belongs to Out in College. The Humbug Holiday, Fairy Cakes in Winter, Moody’s Grumpy Holiday, and A Cowboy Holiday are listed as standalones.

Do the bundles contain new stories?

Usually not. Bundles collect material already published separately.

Read the contents list before buying, particularly for Better Than, Leaning Into, and Right and Wrong collections.

Where should I place bonus short stories?

Place a bonus story after the main novel or couple it revisits.

When its exact placement is unclear, complete the entire parent series first. This avoids accidental spoilers and does not interrupt the main reading sequence.

The Safest Lane Hayes Reading Rule

Do not attempt to merge every Lane Hayes book into one timeline. Her catalog is designed around multiple friendship groups, sports communities, workplaces, bands, and small towns.

Choose the setting that appeals to you, read that series in publication order, and treat bundles, anthology contributions, and free companion stories as optional. For a complete career-spanning read, begin with Better Than Good. For the current release line, begin Wood Hollow with This Guy, continue to Sweet Something, and place Mountain Man next when it is released.