Karla Sorensen Books in Order (Updated August 4, 2026)

Karla Sorensen is an American contemporary romance author whose books frequently combine professional sports, close families, small communities, and slow-building relationships. Her largest connected continuity begins with the Washington Wolves football team and later expands through the Ward sisters, the team’s next generation, and the Wilder family.

Not every Karla Sorensen series belongs to that shared world. The Three Little Words books, Bachelors of the Ridge, Love at First Sight, Best Men, and Kings series have their own casts and starting points.

The central reading decision is therefore simple: readers interested in Sorensen’s interconnected football and family universe should begin with The Bombshell Effect. Readers who prefer a shorter, independent series can start elsewhere without losing necessary background.

The Main Karla Sorensen Reading Path

For the fullest continuity experience, use this sequence:

1. Washington Wolves
2. Ward Sisters
3. Washington Wolves: Next Generation
4. Wilder Family

These four series share the strongest character and family links. Each individual romance has a complete ending, but later books contain grown children, relatives, established couples, and references to earlier events.

The other series can be read separately.

Washington Wolves Books in Order

Continuity status: Included

The Washington Wolves trilogy is the foundation of Sorensen’s largest shared universe. It introduces the football organization, central families, and relationships that later affect the Ward Sisters, next-generation Wolves, and Wilder Family books.

1. The Bombshell Effect (2018): A woman unexpectedly takes control of a professional football team and clashes with a protective single-father player, establishing the people and team at the center of the wider universe.
2. The Ex Effect (2018): A woman working within the Wolves organization is forced into close contact with the football star who once broke her heart, expanding the team’s inner circle through a second-chance romance.
3. The Marriage Effect (2019): A Wolves player responsible for raising his younger sisters enters a marriage of convenience, creating the Ward family structure that drives the next connected series.

Why Washington Wolves Should Be Read First

The Marriage Effect leads directly into the Ward Sisters books. Readers who begin with Focused can understand its central romance, but they will miss the original introduction to the Ward family and the sacrifices made to keep the sisters together.

Publication order also allows the football team and its relationships to develop naturally.

Ward Sisters Books in Order

Continuity status: Included

The Ward Sisters series follows the four younger sisters introduced through The Marriage Effect. Each sister receives an independent sports romance, with football, snowboarding, boxing, and soccer represented across the series.

1. Focused (2020): Molly Ward works alongside the professional football player connected to a painful moment from her past, beginning the sisters’ adult stories with a tense workplace reunion.
2. Faked (2020): Claire Ward impersonates her twin sister and becomes involved with an unpredictable athlete, turning a temporary deception into a romance that cannot remain uncomplicated.
3. Floored (2020): Lia Ward faces an unexpected pregnancy after a brief encounter with a famous British footballer, pushing her into a relationship shaped by distance, responsibility, and public attention.
4. Forbidden (2021): Isabel Ward develops feelings for a man tied closely to her family, closing the sisters’ sequence with a romance complicated by loyalty and an age difference.

Can the Ward Sisters Books Stand Alone?

Each book resolves a different sister’s romance, but they are not completely isolated standalones. Family conversations, returning couples, and changes within the Ward household continue across all four novels.

Read them in publication order, especially if family continuity matters to you.

Washington Wolves: Next Generation Books in Order

Continuity status: Included

This trilogy is also known as The Wolves: A Football Dynasty. It moves the Washington Wolves universe forward and follows characters from the next generation of its established families.

1. The Lie (2021): A marriage arrangement places two people inside a relationship built on a public fiction, while their family and football connections give the deception consequences beyond the couple.
2. The Plan (2022): A carefully arranged agreement between a football player and the woman drawn into his plans becomes harder to control as practical boundaries turn emotional.
3. The Crush (2022): A long-held attraction collides with family history and professional football, bringing another next-generation relationship to the center of the Wolves world.

Where the Next Generation Fits

Read this trilogy after both Washington Wolves and Ward Sisters.

The romances can be followed without every earlier title, but the emotional effect depends heavily on recognizing parents, siblings, and relationships established in the original books.

Wilder Family Books in Order

Continuity status: Included

The Wilder Family series continues the extended family line connected to the Ward sisters. These books shift toward a Pacific Northwest small-town setting while retaining the family relationships built in the football universe.

1. One and Only (2023): A fake wedding arrangement brings two people together within the Wilder family’s close-knit world, opening the series with a romance shaped by obligation and unexpected attachment.
2. Head Over Heels (2024): A Wilder sibling faces an opposites-attract relationship that places family expectations beside a growing emotional commitment neither person planned.
3. Promise Me This (2024): A writer struggling with her work becomes entangled with a man whose connection to the Wilder family makes their forced proximity increasingly personal.
4. Forever Starts Tonight (2024): A woman who has quietly loved Jax Carter must decide whether their long friendship can survive her desire for something permanent.
5. This Wild Heart (2025): The final published Wilder sibling romance returns to the family’s small-town circle and brings another long-running emotional connection to its resolution.

Is Wilder Family a Standalone Series?

The five romances are structurally standalone, but the series is deeply family focused. Weddings, siblings, earlier couples, and household developments accumulate from one book to the next.

Begin with One and Only. For complete background, read Washington Wolves, Ward Sisters, and Washington Wolves: Next Generation first.

The Complete Washington Wolves Universe Order

Readers who want one uninterrupted route through the shared continuity should use the following order:

1. The Bombshell Effect (2018): Introduces the Wolves organization through a new owner and a single-father football player.
2. The Ex Effect (2018): Expands the team’s personal and professional circle through a workplace second-chance romance.
3. The Marriage Effect (2019): Establishes the Ward siblings through a marriage-of-convenience story.
4. Focused (2020): Begins the adult romances of the Ward sisters with Molly’s difficult reunion.
5. Faked (2020): Follows Claire into a romance founded on mistaken identity and deliberate impersonation.
6. Floored (2020): Sends Lia into an international sports romance complicated by an unexpected pregnancy.
7. Forbidden (2021): Completes the four sisters’ sequence with Isabel’s family-sensitive romance.
8. The Lie (2021): Opens the next-generation Wolves trilogy with a relationship maintained through public deception.
9. The Plan (2022): Continues the football dynasty through an arrangement that develops beyond its original rules.
10. The Crush (2022): Brings family familiarity and a long-standing attraction into another Wolves romance.
11. One and Only (2023): Moves the connected universe toward the Wilder family and its Pacific Northwest home.
12. Head Over Heels (2024): Continues the Wilder siblings’ stories through an opposites-attract relationship.
13. Promise Me This (2024): Uses forced proximity and a creative crisis to deepen the Wilder family sequence.
14. Forever Starts Tonight (2024): Turns an established friendship and unspoken love into a central romance.
15. This Wild Heart (2025): Completes the currently published Wilder Family sequence.

This is the recommended Karla Sorensen reading order for readers who care most about recurring characters and generational continuity.

Three Little Words Books in Order

Continuity status: Separate continuity

Sorensen’s first published series follows three connected women in a small Michigan setting. These books predate the Washington Wolves universe and do not provide necessary background for it.

1. By Your Side (2015): A woman dealing with a major personal upheaval finds support and possible love close to home, beginning the interconnected stories of three friends.
2. Light Me Up (2015): A relationship complicated by clashing personalities and unexpected consequences forces the central couple to reconsider what they owe each other.
3. Tell Them Lies (2015): A romantic arrangement built partly on appearances places friendship, trust, and concealed feelings under pressure.

Read the trilogy in publication order because the friendships and earlier couples continue in the background.

Bachelors of the Ridge Books in Order

Continuity status: Separate continuity

Bachelors of the Ridge follows five male friends connected to a Colorado community. Each title is named for its principal hero, while the friendships create an ongoing ensemble storyline.

1. Dylan (2016): Dylan’s romance introduces the Ridge community and the group of bachelors whose friendships hold the five-book series together.
2. Garrett (2016): Garrett becomes the next bachelor to confront a relationship capable of disrupting the settled life he expected to keep.
3. Cole (2017): Cole’s story continues the small-town sequence as friendship loyalties and romantic commitment begin to affect the wider group.
4. Michael (2017): Michael moves from supporting character to romantic lead, revealing another side of the friendships established in the earlier books.
5. Tristan (2018): Tristan’s romance completes the original Ridge group and gives the accumulated friendship arc its final principal resolution.

The romances are individually complete, but the series works best in order because each bachelor appears before receiving his own book.

Love at First Sight Books in Order

Continuity status: Separate shared world

The Love at First Sight series is set in Green Valley, Tennessee, within the larger multi-author Smartypants Romance world. Sorensen’s four books focus on the Buchanan family and its belief in a family pattern of recognizing true love immediately.

1. Baking Me Crazy (2019): A man in love with his friend must decide whether patient support can become something more in a romance centered on friendship and disability representation.
2. Batter of Wits (2020): A competitive first meeting grows into an opposites-attract romance, testing whether the Buchanan family legend applies when attraction begins with conflict.
3. Steal My Magnolia (2021): Magnolia receives her own story as family expectations and a powerful first impression complicate the future she thought she understood.
4. Worth the Wait (2022): A long-delayed relationship brings the Buchanan sequence to a close through patience, family involvement, and feelings that have had time to deepen.

Do You Need the Other Green Valley Books?

No. The broader Green Valley world contains books by many authors, but Sorensen’s four-book Buchanan sequence can be read on its own.

Readers interested only in Karla Sorensen should begin with Baking Me Crazy and continue through Worth the Wait.

Best Men Books in Order

Continuity status: Separate continuity

The Best Men series follows two men connected through a shared loss. The books combine romance with home renovation, guardianship, grief, and the creation of a new family structure.

1. The Best Laid Plans (2023): A woman inherits a renovation project and must work with a difficult man connected to the property, turning grief and practical conflict into a slow-building romance.
2. The Best of All (2024): Two people linked by the loss of mutual friends must navigate guardianship and an altered family life while confronting their own complicated relationship.

The books are connected more closely than a typical pair of standalones. Read The Best Laid Plans first so the shared loss and friendship background unfold in the intended order.

The Kings Books in Order

Continuity status: Separate continuity

The Kings series centers on identical twin brothers in professional football. Each brother receives his own romance, while their careers and family relationship link the two books.

1. Lessons in Heartbreak (2025): A professional football figure is forced to face old emotional damage when a woman from his past returns, beginning the twins’ series with a second-chance framework.
2. Single Dad Dilemma (2025): Divorced NFL coach Barrett King asks his equally grumpy neighbor for help with his children, creating a slow-burn romance between two people with opposing views of permanence.

Read the two books in order. Single Dad Dilemma has a complete central romance, but the twin and family dynamics begin in Lessons in Heartbreak.

Karla Sorensen Standalone and Collaborative Novels

These books do not require one of Sorensen’s longer series.

1. Hooked (2017): Co-written with Whitney Barbetti, this dark romantic comedy brings a former drug dealer and a troubled man together through court-mandated group therapy, theft, and criminal complications.
2. How Not to Fall in Love (2026): An NFL quarterback completing community service at an animal rescue becomes involved with a guarded single mother who has no room for an unstable athlete in her carefully managed life.

Hooked belongs to a separate continuity and differs in tone from Sorensen’s family-centered sports romances.

How Not to Fall in Love is also presented as an independent romance. It includes professional football, but it is not currently identified as another Washington Wolves installment.

Upcoming Karla Sorensen Book

Upcoming

Until I Remember (2026): Mercy wakes with no memory of the previous year and discovers she is married to Grant Hastings, her late brother’s wealthy British best friend, forcing her to reconstruct a relationship she does not remember choosing.

The book is scheduled for publication on September 22, 2026. It is presented as a standalone amnesia and marriage romance rather than a numbered installment in one of Sorensen’s existing series.

Because the release is still forthcoming as of this update, publication details may be changed by the publisher.

Boxed Sets and Collected Editions

Optional

The Washington Wolves Collection: This collected edition packages the original three Washington Wolves romances and does not add another story to the series.

The Ward Sisters: The Complete Series (2022): This collection contains Focused, Faked, Floored, and Forbidden in one volume or digital package.

Boxed sets should not be counted as separate novels. Readers who already own the individual books do not need the collections for additional continuity.

Does Karla Sorensen Have a Chronological Order?

There is no separate chronological order that improves the reading experience.

The principal connected universe develops in publication order. Reordering it by character age or inferred family chronology would introduce grown children and later relationships before the books that establish their parents and families.

For that reason, publication order and recommended order are effectively the same within the Washington Wolves universe.

Where New Readers Should Begin

The best starting point depends on the kind of commitment you want.

Begin with The Bombshell Effect for the complete interconnected experience. This route eventually leads through 15 Washington Wolves, Ward, next-generation, and Wilder Family romances.

Begin with One and Only when you mainly want the Wilder Family’s Pacific Northwest small-town setting. The central romance is understandable on its own, although previous-family references will carry less meaning.

Begin with The Best Laid Plans for a compact two-book sequence with grief, renovation, and found-family elements.

Begin with Baking Me Crazy for the Green Valley and Buchanan family books.

Begin with How Not to Fall in Love for a current standalone sports romance without a long backlist requirement.

Latest Karla Sorensen Release

Karla Sorensen’s latest published novel as of August 4, 2026, is How Not to Fall in Love, released in April 2026.

The story follows an NFL quarterback assigned to community service at an animal rescue and the single mother determined not to let him disturb her stable life. It is currently listed separately from Sorensen’s numbered series.

Her next announced novel is Until I Remember, scheduled for September 22, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Karla Sorensen’s First Book?

By Your Side (2015): The opening Three Little Words novel introduces Sorensen’s early small-town style through a woman rebuilding her life with help from someone close to her.

It is her first published novel, but it is not connected to the Washington Wolves universe.

What Is the Best Karla Sorensen Reading Order?

Start with Washington Wolves, continue with Ward Sisters, then read Washington Wolves: Next Generation and Wilder Family.

That sequence preserves the major family relationships, recurring couples, and generational developments.

Are Karla Sorensen’s Books Standalones?

Most are interconnected standalones. Each book focuses on a different couple and gives that romance a full resolution.

However, the Washington Wolves universe contains enough returning family members and later-generation characters that publication order is strongly recommended.

Are the Ward Sisters Connected to the Washington Wolves?

Yes. The Ward sisters are introduced through The Marriage Effect, the third Washington Wolves book.

Their four novels are direct spin-offs and should be read after the original Wolves trilogy.

Are the Wilder Family Books Connected to the Ward Sisters?

Yes. The Wilder family grows from relationships and family lines established in the Ward books.

Readers can begin with One and Only, but earlier books provide the fuller family history.

Should The Lie Be Read as a Standalone?

The Lie has its own central romance, but it begins the next-generation Wolves trilogy.

Read the original Washington Wolves and Ward Sisters books first when you want the recurring characters and family connections to have their intended effect.

Is Love at First Sight Part of the Washington Wolves Universe?

No. The Love at First Sight books belong to the Green Valley shared world and focus on the Buchanan family.

They form a separate four-book sequence beginning with Baking Me Crazy.

Did Karla Sorensen Write Hooked Alone?

No. Hooked was co-written with Whitney Barbetti.

It is a standalone dark romantic comedy and does not belong to Sorensen’s sports or small-town family series.

What Comes After This Wild Heart?

This Wild Heart is the fifth published Wilder Family book.

Sorensen’s next releases moved to other stories, including the Kings books and the standalone How Not to Fall in Love. No sixth Wilder Family title has been reliably confirmed as of this update.

What Is Karla Sorensen’s Next Book?

Until I Remember (2026): An amnesiac heroine wakes to discover that she married her late brother’s best friend during the year she can no longer recall.

It is scheduled for September 22, 2026.

Conclusion

The clearest Karla Sorensen reading journey begins with The Bombshell Effect. Continue through the original Washington Wolves trilogy, all four Ward Sisters romances, the three next-generation Wolves books, and the five Wilder Family novels.

That order preserves the shared universe from its football-team foundation through its later family generations.

Three Little Words, Bachelors of the Ridge, Love at First Sight, Best Men, and Kings are separate sequences with their own starting points. Hooked, How Not to Fall in Love, and the forthcoming Until I Remember can be approached without completing the larger connected universe.