Emma St. Clair Books in Order: Every Series, Romcom, and Standalone
Emma St. Clair writes contemporary romantic comedies filled with witty banter, small-town settings, second chances, fake relationships, and characters who often discover that love is nothing like the plan they made. Her books are especially popular with readers who want romantic tension and kissing without explicit bedroom scenes.
The tricky part is that her bibliography has evolved. Some older books were published under earlier series names, while newer books belong to connected romcom worlds or collaborations with other authors. This guide separates those groups so you can choose a starting point without accidentally mixing unrelated series.
The Love Clichés Books in Order
The Love Clichés is one of St. Clair’s best-known romantic comedy series. It follows women whose romantic lives become intertwined through friendship, shared experiences, and the advice-column world of Sam, also known as Dr. Love.
Read the books in this order:
- Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin
- Falling for Your Boss
- Falling for Your Fake Fiancé
- The Twelve Holidates (Christmas companion novella)
- Falling for Your Best Friend
- Falling for Your Brother’s Best Friend
- Falling for Your Enemy
The exact numbering can differ between catalog listings and editions, especially for companion stories, so the title sequence above is more useful than relying on a book number alone.
What makes this series fun?
The books draw on familiar romance setups but give them different complications. A longtime crush on a best friend’s twin, an office romance with an age gap, a fake engagement, and a friendship that threatens to become something more all feature in the series.
The Twelve Holidates is the seasonal extra. It follows a woman who turns to her best friend after a relationship falls apart and attempts to work through a list of holiday dates. Read it after the early books for the most natural introduction to its characters.
Love Stories in Sheet Cake, Texas in Order
This series takes place in the fictional Texas town of Sheet Cake, where a family of former professional football players buys the town and discovers that the community comes with more than real estate. Each book focuses on a different romantic couple, with the Graham family and local residents connecting the stories.
Recommended reading order
- The Buy-In
- The Bluff
- The Pocket Pair
- A Holly Jilly Christmas (holiday novella)
- Upping the Ante (companion novella)
- To Have and To Fold (2026)
The series has expanded over time, and some catalogues differ in how they number the novellas and newer books. The titles above include the core early books and notable companion stories, with the 2026 release included separately in the reading sequence.
Where to begin
The Buy-In introduces the Graham family’s purchase of Sheet Cake and a second-chance romance involving NFL player Patrick Graham. His return forces a woman from his past to reconsider whether she can trust him again.
The Bluff moves to a grumpy-boss romance, while The Pocket Pair centers on feelings that develop between longtime friends. These stories can be read on their own, but the shared town and recurring characters make publication order more rewarding.
The Appies Hockey Romances in Order
Co-written with Jenny Proctor, The Appies Hockey Romances follows a minor-league hockey team in Harvest Hollow, in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. The books combine sports romance with fake dating, marriage of convenience, second chances, and the friendships formed among teammates.
The main Emma St. Clair reading order is:
- Just Don’t Fall (2023)
- The Buy-In is not part of this series; the second Appies installment should be checked against the current joint-series reading guide.
- A Groom of One’s Own (2024)
- Runaway Bride and Prejudice (2024)
- As You Ice It (2025)
Because this is a joint series and catalogue numbering is inconsistent across sources, use the author and coauthor’s current series guide when determining the exact placement of every installment. The titles above identify the main Emma St. Clair Appies books, but should not be treated as a complete numbered list of all books by both authors.
Which Appies book is right for you?
Just Don’t Fall is a good entry point if you enjoy the brother’s-best-friend trope. Logan returns to town as a hockey player recovering from an injury, and his old crush finds herself working with him.
A Groom of One’s Own is a marriage-of-convenience romance involving a hockey player facing an immigration paperwork problem. Runaway Bride and Prejudice brings together the team’s bad boy and the coach’s daughter after a wedding-day disaster.
These novels keep the romance focused on chemistry, humor, and emotional connection rather than explicit scenes.
Oakley Island Romance in Order
Oakley Island Romance, also called Oakley Island Romcoms, is co-written with Jenny Proctor. Three sisters inherit their grandmother’s beach property and take on the challenge of renovating it, finding that a new home can lead to unexpected romantic beginnings.
Read the books in this order:
- Eloise and the Grump Next Door (2022)
- Merritt and Her Childhood Crush (2023)
- Sadie and the Bad Boy Billionaire (2024)
- Izzy and Her Off-Limits Love (novella)
The first three novels follow the sisters as they rebuild the property and reconsider what they want from life. The novella Izzy and Her Off-Limits Love moves to a younger generation and provides a later look at the extended family.
Why read this series in order?
Each novel has its own central couple, so you can technically start anywhere. Still, the inherited house and the sisters’ shared experience provide a natural thread through the trilogy. The novella is best saved until after the main three books.
Sweet Royal Romcoms in Order
If you enjoy royal families, arranged marriages, and the complications of falling in love under public scrutiny, try St. Clair’s Sweet Royal Romcoms.
- Royally Rearranged (2021)
- Royal Gone Rogue (2023)
In Royally Rearranged, a princess faces the prospect of losing her kingdom if she does not marry by a deadline. When her intended groom arrives with an American girlfriend, she makes an unexpected deal with his rival, a duke.
Royal Gone Rogue follows Crown Prince Phillip, who tries to choose a suitable wife through an analytical system. His carefully designed plan begins to unravel when he meets Alessia and discovers that attraction cannot be reduced to a list of qualifications.
These are connected royal romances, but each focuses on a different couple and can be enjoyed independently.
Sandover Island Books in Order
Sandover Island is one of St. Clair’s earlier small-town romance worlds. It centers on beach-town relationships and a cast of characters whose lives intersect over time.
The main Sandover Beach sequence is:
- Sandover Beach Week
- Sandover Beach Memories
- Sandover Beach Melodies
- Sandover Beach Christmas
- Sandover Beach Forever
Secrets Whispered from the Sea is another title associated with the broader Sandover setting. Some book catalogues group it separately, so readers should check the edition and series label they are using before assigning it a fixed number in the sequence.
The Sandover stories are a good fit for readers who prefer a coastal setting, community connections, and romances that feel like returning to a familiar place.
The Billionaire Surprise Series in Order
The Billionaire Surprise is an earlier Emma St. Clair romance series. It features wealthy heroes, family complications, and relationship twists.
Read the six connected titles in this order:
- The Billionaire Love Match
- The Billionaire Land Baron
- The Billionaire Benefactor
- The Billionaire’s Masquerade Ball
- The Billionaire’s Secret Heir
- The Sandover Beach Billionaire
Some older catalogues list The Sandover Beach Billionaire under the title Sandover Beach Memories. Because St. Clair’s older books have been repackaged and relabeled, check the title and edition details if you are comparing a used copy with a newer digital listing.
These books belong to the earlier part of her career, before the contemporary closed-door romcoms became her primary focus.
Hometown Heartthrobs: An Older Series Being Revised
Hometown Heartthrobs is an earlier series featuring football players, cowboys, and men with reputations to overcome. St. Clair has publicly discussed revising these books to bring their point of view, tense, voice, and romance tropes closer to her newer work.
That history matters if you encounter different titles or descriptions in older book lists. The books previously appeared under different series names, including Not-So Bad Boys, and the author announced plans to rework the stories. Her update said the revised books were still in progress.
For that reason, older Hometown Heartthrobs listings should be treated as an earlier edition of the series rather than assumed to reflect the final revised version. Check St. Clair’s current bibliography before buying or reading these titles in a particular order.
Standalone Emma St. Clair Books and Other Connected Romances
Not every Emma St. Clair novel belongs to one of the series above. Some are standalone stories, while others sit in shared worlds or multi-author projects.
If All Else Sails (2025)
This standalone romcom follows Josie, an elementary school nurse, who ends up helping her brother’s best friend, a grumpy hockey player recovering from an injury. A boat trip forces the two into close quarters, complicating a relationship that was already difficult.
It is a good option if you want a complete romance without committing to a longer series.
The Serendipity (2025)
The Serendipity is part of the multi-author Only Magic in the Building collection, a whimsical romance world featuring books set around the same magical building. Readers who enjoy a slightly fantastical premise alongside a closed-door romance may want to explore this title.
Lemon Tea and Library Dragons (scheduled for October 20, 2026)
This title is listed as an upcoming standalone for October 20, 2026. Since that date is only days away as of October 15, 2026, confirm its publication status before treating it as available.
Ava Enters the Group Chat (scheduled for February 2027)
This is another announced upcoming standalone. It is not required reading for any of the established series.
Other Collaborative and Shared-World Books
St. Clair has written in several romance worlds alongside other authors, and catalogue listings do not always agree about whether a book should be considered a standalone, a contribution to a joint series, or part of a connected author universe.
When checking a specific title, pay attention to the coauthor and the series name listed on the current edition. This is particularly useful for the Appies Hockey Romances, Oakley Island, and the Only Magic in the Building collection.
The most reliable way to read those books is to follow the current series order published by the authors, rather than merging every connected title into one long Emma St. Clair list.
Publication Order vs. Series Order: Which Should You Follow?
For Emma St. Clair, series order is usually the most useful approach. Her books tend to focus on one couple at a time, so you rarely need to read every novel she has written to understand a new story.
Use these simple guidelines:
- Want a connected reading experience? Start with book one in the relevant series and continue in order.
- Only interested in one romance trope? You can often jump into a later standalone within the series.
- Reading a novella? Check its placement in the author’s series guide, since holiday and companion stories may be numbered differently by retailers.
- Buying an older title? Verify the edition and series name, especially for The Billionaire Surprise and Hometown Heartthrobs.
A single master publication list can be useful for seeing how St. Clair’s career developed, but it is less practical if your goal is to follow the relationships in one fictional world.
About Emma St. Clair
Emma St. Clair is a USA Today bestselling author with an MFA in fiction. She writes contemporary romantic comedies known for humor, banter, romantic chemistry, and satisfying happy endings. Her books range from small-town and sports romances to royal love stories, beach-town series, and whimsical shared-world projects.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Emma St. Clair’s first book?
Her earlier bibliography includes The Billionaire Love Match and other 2018 titles, while Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin launched The Love Clichés in 2020. The answer depends on whether you mean her first published novel or the start of a particular series.
Do Emma St. Clair’s books need to be read in order?
Most of her romances focus on one couple and can be read as standalones. Reading in series order is still recommended because characters, friends, and family members recur across the books.
Are Emma St. Clair’s books spicy?
Her current author profile describes her work as closed-door romantic comedy. The books emphasize romantic tension, humor, and emotional connection while keeping explicit bedroom scenes off the page.
Which Emma St. Clair series should I read first?
Try The Love Clichés if you like contemporary romcom tropes and interconnected friendships, The Appies Hockey Romances if you enjoy sports romance, or Oakley Island if you prefer beach-town settings and family relationships.
Has Emma St. Clair stopped writing Hometown Heartthrobs?
She announced plans to revise and relaunch the earlier books, but her published update said the project was still in progress. Check her current author bibliography for the latest status before relying on older series lists.
What is the newest Emma St. Clair book?
As of October 15, 2026, To Have and To Fold is listed among her 2026 releases. Lemon Tea and Library Dragons is scheduled for October 20, 2026, and Ava Enters the Group Chat is listed for February 2027.
Final Note
If you are new to Emma St. Clair, don’t feel you have to read her entire bibliography from the beginning. Pick the romantic world that sounds most appealing, then follow that series in order. Start with Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin for The Love Clichés, The Buy-In for Sheet Cake, Texas, Just Don’t Fall for the Appies, or Eloise and the Grump Next Door for Oakley Island. Each is a doorway into a connected cast of characters and a different flavor of contemporary romance.
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