Play 2026 Book Bingo
Louisiana Books: The Best Books Set in the Bayou State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in Louisiana, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Bayou State! If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
Literary Themes in Louisiana Books
The Pelican State’s unique French and Creole heritage, particularly in New Orleans, creates an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in America. Voodoo, jazz, Mardi Gras, and Southern Gothic elements infuse Louisiana literature. Swamps, bayous, and hurricanes provide dramatic settings, while themes of corruption, sensuality, and the supernatural appear frequently. Cajun country offers distinctly different flavors from the Big Easy.
The Best Books Set in Louisiana
Kin
Book Summary
Vernice and Annie have known each other their whole lives. They were raised in the same small town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana. Bonded at an early age by the loss of their mothers (one through death and the other through abandonment), the girls formed a deep friendship. But they are fated to lead very different lives.
After her mother’s death, Vernice’s aunt is determined to give her a stable home, and at the age of 18, Vernice moves to Atlanta to attend Spelman College. There, she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and marries into a wealthy family.
Annie, on the other hand, is constantly haunted by the hole in her life left by her mother’s abandonment and is fixated on the idea of finding her. Her efforts to track her mother down set her on a journey into a world of peril and adversity that will lead her to a battle for her own life.
Thoughts on This Book
Tayari Jones, the author of An American Marriage, is a master at writing complex relationships. Set in the South throughout the 1950s and 60s, a time of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, Kin is a novel about powerful bonds of friendship and sisterhood, as well as mothers and daughters.
Early readers of this novel say that it does not have a concrete ending that ties up all of the loose ends, but rather leaves certain questions up to the interpretation of the reader. Keep this in mind if you prefer a story with a clear and definitive conclusion.
Book Summary
Dr. Willa Watters is a prominent child psychologist, but she just had a very bad day…during a television interview. After the interview goes viral, she retreats to the town where she spent her childhood summers, Broken Bayou, Louisiana. At a family home, she finds some of her troubled mother’s belongings, which hold secrets of her own past.
It’s not only the attic discoveries that crush Willa’s chance at rest. The water levels in the Bayou have dropped due to drought, and barrels containing human remains have been uncovered. With the barrels, there is another item from Willa’s past. Divers, police, and media take over the town, and she isn’t sure who to trust since her fate seems eerily tied to the murders.
The Second Life of Mirielle West
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Mirielle West lives a glamorous life in LA as the wife of a silent film star. When a doctor sees a small spot on her hand, she’s quickly whisked across the country to what feels like a different world. She hopes to have only a brief visit to the Louisiana Leper Home, but when she arrives, there is barbed wire, a curfew, and little chance of ever returning to her everyday life.
As Mirielle is assigned work inside the home, she must come to terms with both the illness and its perception in the outside world.
Thoughts on This Book
Based on the true story of Carville leprosarium in Louisiana, this historical fiction pick will introduce you to a little-known slice of American history. Reviewers say that the audio version of the book is excellent.
First Lie Wins
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
It sounds like Evie Porter has the perfect Southern life – a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, and fancy friends. But Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
The identity is created by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith. She learns everything there is to know about the town and the people who live there. The mark is Ryan Sumner.
Evie doesn’t know Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she does know this job will be different, and she can’t make any mistakes after what happened last time.
But Ryan is getting under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different kind of life. She’s worked her whole life to keep her true identity hidden, and now she must stay one step ahead of her past if she wants to secure her future.
About the Setting
The majority of this book takes place in and around Shreveport in Northern Louisiana.
The Thread Collectors
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
During the Civil War, a young Black woman named Stella embroidered maps onto cloth in her small Creole cottage in New Orleans. The maps helped enslaved men flee to the North and join the Union Army. Her activities were risky because she was bound to a man who would kill her if he discovered her maps. To complicate matters further, her true love is William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.
In New York City, a Jewish woman named Lily attends abolitionist meetings, rolls bandages, and crafts quilts. She’s working on a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. When months go by without hearing from him, she decides to make the perilous journey South to find him.
Inspiration For the Book
Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman are longtime friends whose collaboration as co-authors grew out of a shared conversation about their own family backgrounds. The Thread Collectors is their first novel together, which draws on their unique perspectives – Richman’s background as a best-selling historical novelist, and Edwards’ family connections to the Civil War.
Love’s Recipe
Book Summary
Newly divorced mom Rosalie had to return to her small Louisiana hometown after the end of her marriage. She finds a job as a waitress to help make ends meet, but discovers that Ady’s Creole Cafe is on the verge of closing. Her only chance of keeping her job is to find a way to save the restaurant.
Nicholas is in charge of Ady’s after his mother’s passing, and his grief has impacted business. He didn’t expect Rosalie to stir the pot when he hired her, but soon realizes she is determined to stop his failure.
Things We Lost to the Water
Book Summary
In 1979, Huong and her young sons arrived in New Orleans from Vietnam. The transition was tough, especially with her husband, Cong, remaining in Vietnam. While her boys began to settle into their new life, Huong slowly realized they’d never see Cong again.
Her sons take different paths – Tuan tries to remain connected to his heritage by joining a Vietnamese gang. Binh now goes by Ben and embraces being American while also exploring his sexuality. While each family member searches for their own identity in their adopted country, they are pulled away from each other. But in 2005, a disaster strikes New Orleans, drawing them back together.
Award Nomination for this Book
Things We Lost to the Water was a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction.
Call the Canaries Home
Book Summary
When Savannah was four years old, her twin sister disappeared from their small Louisiana town. The family was never the same. Now 32, Savannah has convinced her estranged older sisters, Sue Ellen and Rayanne, to return to their Meemaw’s backyard and retrieve the time capsule they buried as kids.
As they revisit the contents of the time capsule, they find a photograph taken on the day Georgia disappeared. In the background of the photo, they spot a familiar woman they hadn’t noticed before. Savannah becomes determined to find the woman.
The sisters must confront and reconsider what they believed about that day and about each other. As they dig up the past, they’ll each rediscover what their Meemaw has always known: Family is everything.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel is a character-driven mystery, with the messy dynamics between the sisters playing a large role in the story. While the story is set in the present day, you’ll also see past timelines of the girls’ childhood in the 1980s & 1990s throughout.
The Book of Lost Friends
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
During the Civil War, freed slaves placed “Lost Friends” ads in Southern newspapers in hopes of being united with loved ones who had been sold. This historical fiction novel tells the story of three women looking for family in 1875 post-Civil War Louisiana.
Lavinia was set to inherit a wealthy plantation, but now it is destitute. Juneau Jane is her illegitimate Creole half-sister, and Hannie is Lavinia’s former slave. The unlikely trio sets out on a perilous journey, encountering those still fighting a war that ended ten years earlier.
Their story intersects with that of a first-year teacher one hundred years later in 1987 Louisiana. Benedetta (Benny) has taken a job in a poor, rural district to help eliminate her college debt. It seems like the perfect opportunity, but when she arrives, she’s shocked by the level of poverty her students endure. But a hidden book that tells the lives of three women a century ago could change everything.
About the Author
This historical fiction from the author of Before We Were Yours was a Goodreads Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2020.
Book Summary
In the New Orleans nightlife world, everyone knows Miz Poppy, the colorful reviewer. However, no one knows Hollyn, the real person behind the Miz Poppy online persona. When Hollyn’s boss tells her that she has to add a video component to her reviews or she’ll lose her job, the fear of exposing her struggles with anxiety is overwhelming. And her Tourette’s Syndrome adds another layer.
Jasper is an aspiring actor and is shocked to learn that the shy woman who orders coffee each day is really Miz Poppy. It’s the perfect opportunity to bolster his career. If he can help Hollyn find her voice, everyone wins.
Consider This Before Reading
Readers love learning about Hollyn’s Tourette’s Syndrome and anxiety disorder, and how the author uses them to add depth to the characters without letting either define Hollyn.
Roni Loren was previously most known for steamy erotic romances, and her readers are loving the switch to more of a rom-com contemporary fiction feel. That said, there are still open-door bedroom scenes that are quite graphic – more so than you may expect based on the cover. We’ll let you decide if that info makes you want to pick it up or pass.
Out of the Easy
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Despite her rough start to life as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, 17-year-old Josie has big dreams of escaping New Orleans to attend an elite university. However, her careful plans are turned upside down after a mysterious death in the French Quarter. She becomes tangled in the investigation, which will test her conscience, allegiances to her mother, and to the madam of Conti Street.
What to Expect in This Book
While Ruta Sepetys’s novels are classified as YA, the characters and subject matter are very well-researched and complex, making them very enjoyable for adult readers. Like the author’s other historical fiction, you’ll find a strong female character trying to make the best of a difficult situation and a great supporting cast.
The Green Mile
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Cold Mountain Penitentiary is home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. All of them are convicted killers awaiting their time to walk the Green Mile – the path that leads to the electric chair known as “Old Sparky.”
Death row guard Paul Edgecombe has walked the mile with a lot of convicts, but he’s never met anyone else like John Coffey – a giant man with the mind of a child who has been condemned for a terrifyingly violent crime.
Read + Watch
This book inspired the 2000 Academy Award-nominated movie by the same name.
Big Gay Wedding
Book Summary
Barnett’s mother knows he is gay, but he has another secret. He’s engaged and is planning a wedding at his mother’s farm in his small Louisiana hometown. But she shouldn’t worry, he’s only inviting two hundred or so guests from what she called the “heathen coasts”.
As Barnett finalizes plans for the big day, forces within the family and within the town do not want to see this marriage happen. Through it all, his mom, Chrissy, draws on her experiences teaching manners to reconcile her original visions for her son’s life to his vision for his own life.
What to Expect in This Book
Readers say this book will elicit all your emotions, and you’ll likely laugh and cry at different points throughout. It’s perfect for those looking for a touching mother-son story with some great side characters.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the summer of 1964, Ibby’s father died unexpectedly, and her mother dropped Ibby off with her eccentric grandmother, Fannie. While Fannie tends to get committed to the local asylum, Fannie’s Black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, keep an eye on Ibby and educate her on the ways of the South.
Fannie’s family history is filled with tragedy and hidden in the closed rooms of her ornate mansion. When Ibby arrives, it may be time to unlock the mysteries. Along the way, Queenie and Dollbaby’s caring and wisdom show Ibby that family can be found in unexpected places.
What to Expect in This Book
Some reviewers say this 2014 Goodreads Choice Nominee for Best Historical Fiction reads like a YA coming-of-age novel.
The Shop on Royal Street
Book Summary
Fans of mysteries and southern romance will love this ghost story set in New Orleans. Nola purchased her first fixer-upper, but she had an unexpected problem when the former owners didn’t seem ready to leave. Nola didn’t understand her stepmother’s ability to communicate with ghosts, but she knew someone else in town who could.
Unfortunately, she hoped never to see Beau Ryan again. He has a dark past, including the disappearance of his parents and sister during Hurricane Katrina. Nola believes he is the only one who can help her solve the mystery of the restless spirits in her house.
Consider This Before Reading
Readers say that while some of the mysteries are tied up in this book, others will make you want to reach for the sequel, The House on Prytania, right away.
The Royal Street series is a spin-off of Karen White’s New York Times bestselling Tradd Street novels.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Twenty years ago, when Chloe was just twelve years old, six teenage girls went missing in her small hometown in Louisiana over the course of one summer. Chloe’s father was arrested, accused of being a serial killer, and imprisoned for the murders.
After years of dealing with the aftermath, Chloe has finally built a happy life in Baton Rouge. She’s preparing for her wedding and has a fulfilling career as a psychologist.
In her psychology practice, she works with troubled teens. When the first local teen girl and then another go missing, the memories from that terrifying summer in her childhood come crashing back. She sees parallels – but are they really there, or is she just being paranoid? Is she about to unmask a killer for the second time in her life?
A Lesson Before Dying
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
80% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Set in a small Cajun community, a young black man, Jefferson, is in the wrong place at the wrong time when a liquor store shooting leaves three men dead. As the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Grant Wiggins left his hometown to attend university but returned to teach at the plantation school. His aunt persuaded him to visit Jefferson in jail and share some of his learning so that Jefferson could “die a man.”
Accolades
When it was published in 1993, the Chicago Tribune called this book “an instant classic”. It was also a National Book Critics Circle Choice winner.
The Seamstress of New Orleans
Book Summary
When Alice’s husband disappears, she leaves chilly Chicago behind to make a new home for herself in New Orleans. She offers sewing lessons at an orphanage to support herself and the child she’s carrying.
Constance is a young widow whose future is still threatened by Benton, her late husband, who had secret gambling debts. When she meets Alice, she offers her lodging in exchange for Alice’s help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras.
While each woman gets stronger and more independent, darkness lingers. The Black Hand are the gangsters who control Storyville. They aren’t satisfied with Benton’s death and still want his debt paid.
What to Expect in This Novel
Most readers enjoy learning about the female-driven Leap Year traditions of Mardi Gras, though some wish that the gown-making aspect was more prominent based on the title. The story is more focused on the missing husbands and uncovering their secrets.
Wolf Gone Wild
Book Summary
The Savoie sisters are witches living in New Orleans. Evie Savoie spends her days working at The Cauldron, the bar owned by her oldest sister, Jules, and at Mystic Maybelle’s, the shop her sister, Clara, owns.
One day, a moody and volatile werewolf walks into the bar. Unable to shift for three months, Mateo is fighting against the violent and carnal thoughts of the wolf in his head. The house rules of the Savoie sisters’ coven dictate “no werewolves,” so Evie’s first inclination is to bounce him out of the bar. But she sees the desperation in Mateo’s eyes and agrees to help him break the hex.
About the Series
The six novels in this series can be read as stand-alones. They are described as flirty, fun, and steamy.
A Kind of Freedom
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
80% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel traces the legacy of racial disparity in the South through the history of one Creole family. Evelyn’s family inhabits the upper echelon of Black society in New Orleans, but as she comes of age during WWII, she faces a choice between her life of privilege and her true love.
Forty years later, in the 1980s, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother with an absent, drug-addicted husband. When he returns, she is forced to decide whether to take him back in hopes of regaining their old life. If she does that, will he just walk out again?
Fast forward again, and Jackie’s son, T.C., has reinvented himself after Hurricane Katrina, following a short stint in prison for possession with intent to distribute marijuana. For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake, new threats spring up to haunt her descendants.
Louisiana Longshot
Book Summary
Fortune is a CIA assassin, and her next assignment in Sinful, Louisiana, is her toughest mission yet. She has to pose as a former beauty queen turned librarian in the small bayou town. While this isn’t her idea of a good time, she has to fly under the radar until one of the world’s largest arms dealers is neutralized.
Before she can even unpack, her new dog digs up a human bone in the backyard. But some seemingly sweet old ladies are her perfect co-detectives—they know everything that happens in this small town.
Additional Books You May Enjoy
There are 28 books in the Miss Fortune series, so if you enjoy the characters in this one, you have a lot of entertaining books to add to your list!
The author also wrote the Ghost-in-Law mystery romance series, which is also set in Louisiana.
Zeitoun
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
88% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Caught between two of the significant events of the early 21st century-the war on terror and Hurricane Katrina- this is the true story of one family trying to survive.
Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun operate a house painting business in New Orleans. As the storm approaches, Kathy evacuates with their young children, but Zeitoun, a Syrian-born American citizen, stays to watch over the business. In the aftermath of the storm, he uses his canoe to rescue many neighbors and animals, until he is arrested by the police and National Guardsmen, who mistake him for a terrorism suspect.
Things to Know Before Reading
This is an extremely powerful book that paints a vivid portrait of the impacts of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in the days during and after the storm.
Unfortunately, in more recent years, the seemingly perfect marriage portrayed in the book unraveled, and Abdulrahman Zeitoun has been arrested for charges of domestic violence, stalking, and more against his now ex-wife.
Non-Fiction Books Set in Louisiana
Five Days at Memorial
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
The author is an investigative journalist and a physician. This nonfiction book is the culmination of her six years of reporting on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
As the flood waters rose in New Orleans, the power failed, and the heat climbed inside Memorial Medical Center. Difficult decisions had to be made about which patients to rescue first. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths.
This book takes you inside the chaos of the hospital and into the conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.
TV Adaptation
While we always tend to think that the book is better, you may also be interested in watching the eight Apple TV+ streaming episodes of this book. Melissa and her husband watched some of the episodes and thought the reenactments felt a bit too much like a fictionalized version of the nonfiction events, but others have rated it highly.
The Yellow House
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This memoir, set in East New Orleans, covers the author’s family history and her relationships with the house her mother purchased in the 1960s. When the family purchased the home, it was in an up-and-coming new area near a major NASA plant that exuded postwar optimism.
Over the years, the family, home, and neighborhood struggled, including the home being swept away by Hurricane Katrina. However, much had changed before Katrina as well.
This memoir explores class, race, inequality, and life in New Orleans outside the tourist district.
Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this list of books about Louisiana and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
Sign Up for the Read Around the USA Challenge
Sign up for our email list below to receive a free printable tracker for the Read Around the USA Challenge. Our weekly email newsletter helps you stay on track with friendly reminders while still allowing you the flexibility to read at your own pace.
Printable Version of This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists.
As we create stand-alone book lists for the Read Around the USA Challenge throughout the year, each individual state book list will be available in a single-page printable format for both our Inner Circle and our BFF Level BMAC members.
Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
