Lisa Jewell Books in Order (Updated 2026-02-06)

Lisa Jewell’s career splits into two very different stretches: early relationship-driven contemporary fiction, then later psychological suspense. Most titles are standalones, with just a couple of clear “read-these-together” exceptions.

If you want to avoid the only real continuity bumps: keep the two connected pairs in order (noted below), and otherwise read by mood.

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The only books that truly depend on order

Ralph’s Party duo (read in order)

1. Ralph’s Party (1999): A chaotic house-share turns everyday romance into a messy, overlapping web of wants and misreads.
2. After the Party (2010): Years later, the same world is revisited as adulthood forces tougher choices than flirting ever did.

The Family Upstairs duo (read in order)

1. The Family Upstairs (2019): An inheritance opens the door to a past shaped by control, secrecy, and a house that remembers everything.
2. The Family Remains (2022): Loose ends resurface across timelines, tying old damage to new consequences.

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Full publication order of Lisa Jewell novels

(Each line below is an original, spoiler-light guide.)

1. Ralph’s Party (1999): A shared living space becomes a pressure cooker where attraction spreads faster than common sense.
2. Thirtynothing (2000): A woman on the edge of thirty questions love, timing, and whether “fine” is good enough.
3. One Hit Wonder (2001): A missing pop-star boyfriend leaves a woman piecing together what was real and what was performance.
4. A Friend of the Family (2004): A charming outsider slips into a family’s orbit, and the cost of welcoming him arrives late.
5. Vince and Joy (2005): Two people keep colliding across years, trying to decide if history is romance or warning.
6. 31 Dream Street (2007): A house becomes the center of multiple lives as friendships and love stories overlap in unexpected ways.
7. The Truth About Melody Browne (2009): A woman’s forgotten childhood begins to surface, and certainty becomes impossible to hold.
8. After the Party (2010): Familiar lives return, this time with marriage, regret, and consequences doing the talking.
9. The Making of Us (2011): A genetic connection links strangers who must decide what “family” should mean now.
10. Before I Met You (2012): A young woman uncovers an older love story and realizes her own life is echoing it.
11. The House We Grew Up In (2013): Siblings return to a childhood home and confront the hidden damage their mother left behind.
12. The Third Wife (2014): A sudden death raises questions that don’t match the version of a marriage everyone accepted.
13. The Girls (2015): A friendship between two teenage girls curdles into obsession, and adulthood can’t fully outrun it.
14. I Found You (2016): A stranger on a beach pulls two separate lives into the same unsettling mystery.
15. Then She Was Gone (2017): A missing-girl case reshapes a mother’s life when the past returns in a new form.
16. Watching You (2018): Neighborly curiosity turns predatory as the line between looking and knowing disappears.
17. The Family Upstairs (2019): A wealthy, sealed-off household leaves behind a story that won’t stay buried.
18. Invisible Girl (2020): A lonely man, a missing teenager, and a suspicious neighborhood converge around one disturbing question.
19. The Night She Disappeared (2021): A young mother vanishes after a night out, and the truth hides in plain sight.
20. The Family Remains (2022): A new discovery drags old secrets into daylight, and the living pay for the dead.
21. None of This Is True (2023): A chance friendship turns into a public unraveling where the storyteller may be the danger.
22. Breaking the Dark (2024): A hard-edged investigative story set in the Jessica Jones/Marvel Crime world, separate from Jewell’s usual continuity.
23. Don’t Let Him In (2025): A seemingly perfect man moves through multiple lives, and each woman notices a different crack.
24. It Could Have Been Her (2026): A new psychological suspense novel (announced) built around suspicion, misdirection, and the fear of being wrong too late.

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A starting point that matches what you’re after

• For classic “early Jewell” (relationships, voice, humor): start with Ralph’s Party.
• For the modern thriller era (tight suspense): start with Then She Was Gone or None of This Is True.
• If you want the most continuity-rich experience: read The Family Upstairs → The Family Remains back-to-back.

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What to know about alternate titles and editions

• 31 Dream Street is also known in some markets as Roommates Wanted.
• The Girls is also known in some markets as The Girls in the Garden.

Same stories, different packaging.

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Bottom line

Lisa Jewell doesn’t require a master plan. Keep the two linked pairs in order, and everything else is yours to rearrange, by era, by vibe, or simply by whichever premise makes you uneasy in the best way.