Guide to Sarah Addison Allen Books in Order (Including Her 2026 Release)

If you love a book that feels like magic is hiding just under the surface of an ordinary Southern town, Sarah Addison Allen is your author. She writes warm, magical realism novels where apple trees throw fruit at people who need it, wallpaper changes overnight, and food can carry a feeling straight into someone’s heart.

Table of Contents

• Sarah Addison Allen Books
• Sarah Addison Allen’s New Book for 2026
• Anthologies with Sarah Addison Allen Contributions
• Do you need to read Sarah Addison Allen’s books in order?
• Printable Sarah Addison Allen Book Tracker
• Are There Any Sarah Addison Allen Movies?
• About Sarah Addison Allen
• More Authors & Book Recommendations You’ll Love

Full Table of ContentsShow Less

After a long wait between books, she’s back with a new novel in 2026. We’ve seen questions about whether her books connect to each other, and which ones you need to read in order, so we’re here to answer all of that and give you a synopsis of each of her books in order of publication!

Sarah Addison Allen Books

Below is a list of every Sarah Addison Allen book in order of publication. Her novels are almost all standalone, with exceptions we’ll cover below the book descriptions. While her books are known for being cozy and uplifting, several deal with grief, family estrangement, and illness more directly than you might expect from the covers.

Garden Spells

Sarah Addison Allen

Waverley Family #1

Publication Date:

08/28/2007

Setting:

North Carolina

Book Summary

Each Waverley family member has a unique gift, and these peculiar gifts have turned them into outsiders in their North Carolina town. Even their garden and apple tree are special, with prophetic fruit and edible flowers that inspire new powers.

Claire Waverley is a caterer who uses mystical plants like snapdragons, pansies, and nasturtiums from the Waverly garden in her cooking to help her customers. Her elderly cousin Evanelle is also known for distributing clever gifts.

Claire and Evanelle are the last of the Waverleys tending the gardens, but Claire has a rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled town years earlier. When Sydney unexpectedly returns with a young daughter, Claire’s peaceful life is turned upside down.

About the Book

Garden Spells isn’t only Sarah Addison Allen’s debut novel, it’s also the first introduction to the Waverley family, which makes it an excellent place to start if you’re new to her work.

Amazon

Bookshop.org

First Frost

Sarah Addison Allen

Waverley Family, #2

Publication Date:

01/20/2015

Setting:

North Carolina

Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book

4.3 out of 5
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

Book Summary

It’s October, the temperatures are dropping, and the leaves are changing in North Carolina. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies. She loves the way her specialty products heal others, but along the way, she’s losing herself.

Sydney Waverley has also lost balance in her life as she’s become singularly focused on having a baby. When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of the Waverley family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. Along the way, romance is in the air.

About This Series

This magical realism romance is a follow-up to Garden Spells, but it takes place 10 years later. You need not have read Garden Spells in order to read and enjoy First Frost. However, if you’re planning on reading both, it’s much better to enjoy them in chronological order.

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Other Birds

Sarah Addison Allen

Publication Date:

08/30/2022

Setting:

South Carolina

Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book

4.3 out of 5
97% Would Recommend to a Friend

Book Summary

On Mallow Island, off the coast of South Carolina, sits an old cobblestone building in the shape of a horseshoe. It’s called the Dellawisp, named after the tiny turquoise birds who reside there alongside its human tenants. The building has an air of magical secrecy.

When 19-year-old Zoey inherits her late mother’s apartment at the Dellawisp, she meets the quirky and secretive neighbors, including a henna artist, a lonely chef, middle-aged sisters (one of whom is a hoarder), and three ghosts. The property is overseen by Frasier, who has a special affinity for the birds.

When one of the residents turns up dead, the other neighbors search for answers, but each is also hiding secrets of their own. The investigation leads to the island’s famous but reclusive author and to a long-lost relative of the sisters.

Thoughts on This Book

Reviewers recommend giving this unique book a chance, even if magical realism isn’t your usual genre of choice. They say you’ll fall in love with this cast of eccentric and flawed characters, and be sad to say goodbye to them when you turn the final page.

Other Birds was released seven years after First Frost, but Sarah Addison Allen’s return was well-received by readers and was selected as a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick.

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Sarah Addison Allen’s New Book for 2026

Romance/Magical Realism

Paper Ghosts

Sarah Addison Allen

Publication Date:

09/01/2026

Setting:

1976 & Present-Day, North Carolina

Book Summary

The Wester House has been full of whispers, old griefs, and uncanny knowing for generations. The women of the house have long unsettled and fascinated their small town, but now, it’s time to reconcile the past.

In 1976, Willamena Wester fell for a stranded musician who made her feel like she had some freedom and opportunity for the first time. For a moment, she even believed their love could escape the pull of the Wester legacy.

Now, Bailey Wester has returned to her small North Carolina hometown, which she’d rather avoid. But she needs to reconnect with her estranged grandmother, Willamena, and to understand the love, heartbreak, and impossible choices that shaped the women in her family to help her make sense of her past and plan her future.

Reader Thoughts on This Book

We know two early readers of this book, and both enjoyed it and recommend it as a quick, compelling read full of heart, mystery, and magical realism. That said, they both separately mentioned that it didn’t have quite the same level of magically immersive spark as some of her earlier works.

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Anthologies with Sarah Addison Allen Contributions

In addition to her full-length novels and the related short story included above, Sarah Addison Allen has also contributed stories to two installments of a humorous Southern anthology series edited by Deborah Smith.

• More Sweet Tea (2005)
• On Grandma’s Porch (2007)

Do you need to read Sarah Addison Allen’s books in order?

The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Peach Keeper, Other Birds, and Paper Ghosts stand completely alone, but we’ve noted the books that work better in order below.

Garden Spells Before First Frost

Garden Spells and First Frost are the Waverley Family books, both set in Bascom, North Carolina, and First Frost returns to the same sisters roughly a decade on. While First Frost can stand alone, we recommend reading them in order for the best experience.

Additionally, if you’re planning on reading both Garden Spells and The Peach Keeper, pick up Garden Spells first. Some of those characters make a small appearance in The Peach Keeper.

Waking Kate & Lost Lake

Waking Kate is a short story prequel to Lost Lake, published a month before the novel. It introduces Kate Pheris, the widow at the center of Lost Lake, in a single afternoon’s conversation with an elderly neighbor over a cup of butter coffee. Lost Lake stands entirely on its own, but Walking Kate gives you a feel for who Kate was before the novel begins.

Where we’d start

Garden Spells remains Sarah Addison Allen’s highest-rated book on Goodreads and would be our top pick for your first SAA read. Other Birds coming in a close second.

If you enjoy reading digital/Kindle books, picking up the free short story Walking Kate would also be a great choice, especially because you can continue on to Lost Lake if you enjoy it.

Printable Sarah Addison Allen Book Tracker

Looking for a printable version of this Sarah Addison Allen book list? Our Buy Me a Coffee BFFs have access to a printable tracker featuring the covers of all her novels, including her 2026 release, Paper Ghosts. Join our membership site today for instant access to your copy, along with some other fun perks!

Are There Any Sarah Addison Allen Movies?

Not that we’ve been able to confirm, but we’d love to see a TV series based on the Waverly family!

About Sarah Addison Allen

Sarah Addison Allen was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, and the mountain South runs through everything she writes — the small towns, the food, the family histories that everyone in town already knows.

Her breakthrough came in 2007 with Garden Spells, a modern-day fairy tale about an enchanted apple tree and the family of North Carolina women who tend it. It became a New York Times bestseller and a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection.

After publishing four bestselling books in five years, Allen stepped back from writing when she was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer in 2011. She returned in 2014 with Lost Lake, and revisited the Waverley sisters the following year in First Frost. Other Birds followed in 2022, and Paper Ghosts arrives in September 2026.

More Authors & Book Recommendations You’ll Love

If you enjoy Sarah Addison Allen’s blend of Southern settings and everyday magic, we think you’ll also enjoy:

• Magical Realism Novels
• Wade Rouse and Viola Shipman Books
• Mary Kay Andrews Books in Order
• Books Set in North Carolina