Adele Parks Books in Order (Updated March 5, 2026)

Adele Parks is an English novelist whose books are mostly standalones, you can pick up nearly any title without prep.

The only place order truly helps is a small thread featuring DC Clements, where reading in publication order preserves reveals and character context.

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Reading-order essentials

• Safest first book: Playing Away (her debut; an easy entry point into her style).
• If you’re here for the darker domestic-thriller phase: start with Lies Lies Lies (then continue forward).
• Only “must-read-in-order” area: the DC Clements pair (Both of You → Just Between Us).

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Complete publication order (with one-line guides)

1. Playing Away (2000): Two families swap homes for a holiday and discover how quickly friendship and marriage can tip into temptation and fallout.
2. Game Over (2001): A relationship-driven story where love and loyalty are tested once consequences stop being theoretical.
3. Larger Than Life (2002): A romance complicated by unequal commitment and life-changing stakes, forcing hard decisions rather than neat compromises.
4. The Other Woman’s Shoes (2003) (also published as Lust for Life): A jealousy-and-desire setup that turns on what people will risk when they think someone else has the better life.
5. Still Thinking of You (2004): Past choices refuse to stay in the past, as old feelings resurface and unsettle the life someone has built.
6. Husbands (2005): A high-wire premise about tangled love and double lives, where the truth eventually demands a reckoning.
7. Young Wives’ Tales (2007): A friendship-and-rivalry dynamic escalates when marriage and motherhood sharpen every comparison and resentment.
8. Tell Me Something (2008): A couple’s move abroad strains identity and fidelity, with cultural pressures and personal longings pulling in different directions.
9. Love Lies (2009): A whirlwind romance with glamour and promise, where the shine fades and the costs of chosen fantasy come due.
10. Men I’ve Loved Before (2010): A relationship crossroads story that pushes the heroine to measure the love she has against the lives she might have had.
11. About Last Night (2011): A long friendship is stress-tested by a single night that demands loyalty, and asks how far “helping” is allowed to go.
12. Whatever It Takes (2012): Family duty tightens into suffocation, as a buried secret turns caregiving and obligation into a moral pressure cooker.
13. The State We’re In (2013): A chance meeting sparks connection, but real-life histories and incompatible worldviews keep complicating the idea of destiny.
14. Spare Brides (2014): A bigger, more sweeping relationship narrative where love and practicality collide under social expectation and personal fear.
15. If You Go Away (2015): A love story shaped by absence and return, tracking how separation changes what people think they want.
16. The Stranger in My Home (2016): A domestic nightmare premise, what if the child you raised isn’t yours, used to explore identity, trust, and unraveling certainty.
17. The Image of You (2017): Identical twins with opposing instincts meet a charismatic man, and the story leans into perception, manipulation, and who gets believed.
18. I Invited Her In (2018): A reunion with an old friend becomes an intrusion, as hospitality turns into a slow, deliberate takeover.
19. Lies Lies Lies (2019): A marriage under strain becomes a tight, secret-loaded suspense story where the danger is as much emotional as it is physical.
20. Just My Luck (2020): A huge lottery win detonates a family’s balance, exposing greed, entitlement, and the sharp edges of “good fortune.”
21. Both of You (2021) (also published as Woman Last Seen): Two women vanish the same week, and DC Clements’ investigation links seemingly separate lives into one escalating case.
    Continuity note: This is the first DC Clements book.
22. One Last Secret (2022): Power, sex, money, and leverage collide in a story built around what people will do to keep a secret from surfacing.
23. Just Between Us (2023) (also published as Two Dead Wives): A web of identity and betrayal tightens as DC Clements digs into a case that doesn’t behave like a simple missing-person story.
    Continuity note: This follows Both of You.
24. First Wife’s Shadow (2024): A relationship is haunted by the past in the most literal social sense, old love becomes present danger when obsession refuses to stay buried.
25. Our Beautiful Mess (2025): A high-stakes domestic suspense setup where a “known mistake” returns with sharper teeth, turning personal history into immediate threat.

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Short fiction and other extras (separate from the novels)

• Happy Families (2008): A short-form story entry (often listed via quick-read/anthology contexts), best treated as optional because it doesn’t steer the main novel experience.
• Love Is A Journey (2016): A short-story collection that’s best read as a sampler between novels, not as a required step in any continuity.

(Anthologies containing individual Adele Parks stories exist, but they don’t function as required reading for any novel’s plot.)

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Recommended reading orders

If you want the simplest “one list that always works”

Read straight down the publication order above. It’s spoiler-safe and shows how her themes shift over time.

If you want peak domestic-thriller momentum

1. Lies Lies Lies (2019)
2. Just My Luck (2020)
3. Both of You (2021) (Woman Last Seen)
4. One Last Secret (2022)
5. Just Between Us (2023) (Two Dead Wives)
6. First Wife’s Shadow (2024)
7. Our Beautiful Mess (2025)

If you specifically want the DC Clements through-line

1. Both of You (2021) (Woman Last Seen)
2. Just Between Us (2023) (Two Dead Wives)

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Latest release status

• Most recent novel (as of March 5, 2026): Our Beautiful Mess (2025).
• Next announced novel (widely listed): Eyes on You (scheduled for August 2026).

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FAQs

Do Adele Parks books need to be read in order?
Usually, no. Most titles stand alone. The exception is the DC Clements pair, where reading in order is the cleanest experience.

Why do some titles look different in different countries?
A few books are published under alternate titles in different markets (notably Both of You / Woman Last Seen and Just Between Us / Two Dead Wives). The story is the same; the name changes.

What should I read first if I don’t know my preferences yet?
Start with Playing Away for a classic entry point, or Lies Lies Lies if you want her darker, twist-forward mode immediately.

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Bottom line

If you only want one rule: read the DC Clements books in order, and treat everything else as pick-and-choose standalones. For a modern starting point that matches her current style, begin with Lies Lies Lies (2019) and move forward.