K ristin Hannah is a prolific American writer of more than 20 novels, many of them major bestsellers, including The Women The Four Winds The Nightingale
Hannah has written historical novels—taking her readers to WW2-era France and rural Texas during the Great Depression—as well as contemporary romance and family drama, but what unites her books is an interest in telling women’s stories in her own accessible, suspenseful, emotionally-charged style. “I have always loved best the big emotional epic female-driven novel that takes me to another time and place,” as she said in 2019 . “I do sort of consciously put my characters through really terrible things. In doing that, they find out who they really are.”
Hannah found commercial success early in her career, but has since had further ‘breakout’ hits as her writing has been discovered by new audiences. She has said that she found “my voice, my footing and my future” with The Nightingale in 2015; that book, set during the Nazi-occupation of France, was an international bestseller and has been published into more than 40 languages. Firefly Lane a hit Netflix series in 2021.
We’ve compiled a list of all of Kristin Hannah’s books in chronological order, starting with her most recent novel—generally felt to be her strongest—and working backwards towards her beginnings as a writer of mass-market romance novels.
🏆 Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction
The Women, which topped the New York Times bestseller lists when it was released in 2024, tells the story of a 20-year-old American woman who follows her brother to war in 1960s Vietnam. It shines a light on a topic not often focused on: the American women who served in Vietnam. In her author's note, Hannah writes that the book "has been a true labour of love, years in the making...It has taken me decades to circle back to the Vietnam War era." At the back of the book, there's a list of memoirs by nurses who went to Vietnam that Hannah read for her research. This novel is just under 500 pages, but as you would expect from an author who has sold some 25 million copies of her books, it's very accessible.
For a novel about the Vietnam War told from another neglected point of view, that of the North Vietnamese, we recommend The Sorrow of War (1991) by Bao Ninh
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“The sure touch of narrator Julia Whelan transforms Kristen Hannah’s absorbing novel about Vietnam War combat nurses into an addictive listen. As the novel interweaves historical research with the characters’ Vietnam and postwar lives, Whelan’s intensity and warmth help listeners empathize with the personal and understand the big picture.” Read more...
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A sweeping historical novel set in Texas during the Great Depression. Elsa Martinelli and her husband Rafe are struggling to get by on a farm during the grim, never-ending drought of the Dust Bowl. As The New York Times has summarized : "Its message is galvanizing and hopeful: We are a nation of scrappy survivors. We’ve been in dire straits before; we will be again. Hold your people close." The Four Winds was a major international bestseller when it was first released in 2021.
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A Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress moves his family to 1970s Alaska—only to find that life in 'the wild' is rarely simpler. When winter closes in, the Allbrights face a dark and stormy season, alone in a cabin with a man whose mind is unravelling. An instant bestseller on release in 2018, The Great Alone is an easy, emotional read about two women facing hardship head on in a remote community full of big characters, and will appeal to readers who love Delia Owens and Matt Haig. It has sold well in excess of two million copies in the United States alone.
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Although Kristin Hannah had already found commercial success as the author of popular romances, her 2015 historical novel The Nightingale was a major breakout success, having sold in excess of 4.5 million copies worldwide. Based on a true story, the novel centres on two sisters who make very different decisions after the occupation of France: one takes up with a German officer to ensure the safety of her family, while another throws herself into work for the Resistance. A long-awaited film adaptation starring real-life sisters Elle and Dakota Fanning has been postponed several times, but as of 2025 was still in development by TriStar.
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Tully Hart returns in this 2013 sequel to Kristin Hannah's beloved novel about female friendship, Firefly Lane .
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In this 2012 novel about a military family, Black Hawk helicopter pilot Jolene is deployed to the Iraq War, leaving her attorney husband to manage their family single-handed. Jolene attempts to protect her family from frightening reality in her letters home—until a terrible tragedy forces them all to reckon with the horrors of war. A portrait of a disintegrating marriage and a veteran relearning to love and to parent after experiencing trauma.
If you enjoy Home Front , you may also be interested in our interview about the best books on women and war .
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When troubled former foster child Lexi moves to a small, close-knit community, she soon falls in with twin siblings Mia and Zach. Soon they are completely inseparable, but a tragic accident borne of teenage abandon will soon drive them and the whole town apart. The Daily Mail had it right, when it observed that Night Road is "plotted with the heartless skill of a Greek tragedy." A heart-rending story that examines the ugliness of grief and class judgement—wrapped up in a summertime story full of twists and blind bends.
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☆ Nominated for a Goodreads Readers Choice Award
Two daughters—who have chosen very different paths—are reunited at their father's deathbed. They find little in the way of comfort from their mother, Anya, a Russian emigré with a mysterious past. Their father loves Anya deeply—so what can he see that they cannot? A dual timeline novel that leaps back and forth in time, from contemporary Alaska to 1940s Leningrad, as Anya's traumatic early life is laid bare. Tear-jerking holiday reading, first published in 2010.
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☆ Nominated for a Goodreads Readers Choice Award
Meet the Grey sisters. They live on a sprawling family ranch in Washington, where they wrangle with unruly love lives and vie for the attention of their widower father. This vivid, soap-opera worthy story features complex family dynamics—and a wrongful conviction. It gallops along! True Colors was a commercial hit when it was first published in 2009, although her depiction of a Native American love interest has dated badly—so bear that in mind. We think you'll like True Colors if you enjoy the television series Yellowstone.
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📺 Now a hit Netflix television series
Kate Mularkey has accepted her lot: bottom of the middle school social pyramid. But when cool girl Tallulah 'Tully' Hart moves in to her grandparents' house across the street they soon become inseparable. In Firefly Lane , best friends Tully and Kate navigate three decades by one another's sides—until an act of betrayal drives them apart. A tear-jerker that revels in the intensity of female friendship. Don't be frightened by its doorstopper proportions: those 500 pages will flip by in no time. First published in 2008.
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Julia, a child psychiatrist, is called to return to the small Pacific Northwest town where she grew up after a young girl is discovered living feral in the Olympic Forest. Julia is determined to rehabilitate the girl and give her a chance of a good life. But she has a lot to contend with in the community she once left in disgrace. Nb. This book was initially published in 2006 under the title Magic Hour.
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A Christmas story from the mega-bestselling author Kristin Hannah. In this whimsical holiday read, a recent divorcée flees the disappointment of her regular life—only to crash down hard in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Literally! The implausible plot twists are the point in this romantic almost-fairy-tale, which was first published in 2005.
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In Another Life (originally published in 2004 under the title The Things We Do For Love ), we meet Angie, a woman whose marriage has fallen apart over to her intense and unfulfilled wish for a child. Post-divorce, she returns to her hometown and goes to work in the family restaurant, but soon finds her hosting a young girl who has fallen unexpectedly pregnant. Despite the shiny new cover and title, this is usually perceived as one of the weaker books on Hannah's backlist, with a Hallmark -worthy plot. But if you're a Kristin Hannah devotee, and fancy a story of small town America that wrestles with family values and the challenges of infertility, this might be for you.
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Two strong-willed sisters, Meghann and Claire, are long estranged. But as Claire's wedding approaches, they have the opportunity to reunite, and to right past wrongs. This bittersweet family drama, released in 2003, is set over a single hot summer in the author's native Pacific Northwest. A much lighter read than Hannah's more famous books, The Nightingale and The Women .
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Elizabeth and Jackson Shore, high school sweethearts who married young, now face their future as empty nesters as their daughters leave home. Now, perhaps, they have the opportunity to pursue long-held dreams. But is their love strong enough to hold the couple together when their ambitions pull them apart? A romantic novel about marriage, reminding us to consider what it really means to commit. First published in 2002.
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Nora is a famous radio personality, dispensing moral advice to an audience of millions; her daughter Ruby is a comedian, struggling to break out in an uncaring industry. When Nora becomes the focus of a scandal, their relationship is put in the spotlight. Asked to write a tell-all memoir about their relationship, Ruby embarks with great gusto—but soon discovers that her mother is not the person she thought she was, the person she has resented for so long. A sentimental family drama from Kristin Hannah's backlist of lesser known novels, first published in 2001.
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When Mikaela, a beloved wife and mother, is seriously injured in a riding accident, it's up to her husband Liam to hold the family together. While searching through her keepsakes he discovers she has a past life he never knew about: a marriage to a famous move star. Willing to do anything he needs to, Liam decides to reconnect with her old flame after she seems to recognise his name. A sweet, soft-focus romance novel about enduring love.
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When Annie's husband confesses that he's fallen in love with a much younger woman, she decides to return to the small northwestern town where she grew up. There she rekindles her first love with Nick—now a widower struggling to manage his grieving six-year-old daughter. But true love rarely runs smooth. Another empty-nester romance from Kristin Hannah, aimed at an audience of women in their thirties and forties who can identify with her heroine's anxieties around starting fresh in mid life. A bestseller on first publication in 1999.
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Another hit romance featuring a mid-life love triangle from the multi-million bestselling novelist Kristin Hannah. Madelaine has made a success of her life—beautiful daughter, highly successful career as a cardiologist—despite being left a single mother by bad-boy Angel as a young woman. Now he's back, and he's hurt, but perhaps his virtuous, reliable brother is a more eligible option? One of the fluffier books in Hannah's back catalogue, but if you're looking for a heart-warming book to curl up with on a wet day, this 1996 novel might hit the spot.
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This early book from the mega-bestselling author Kristin Hannah is a historical romance set in 19th-century Maine with a paranormal twist. A celebrated surgeon's career has been upturned after a near-death experience left him with psychic powers of extreme empathy. But a grieviously injured young woman, found at the foot of a cliff, seems to be immune. Publisher's Weekly described it at the time of publication in 1995 as a "story of sugary Sturm and romantic Drang."
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A quirky romantic fantasy from the author of The Women and Nightingale , first published in 1994. In When Lightning Strikes , novelist Alaina Costanza finds herself transported into the plot of her newest book—a Western featuring a ruthless, but attractive, outlaw. At first she finds it fun and sexy, but soon she realises she might be stuck here—a hundred years before the birth of her daughter—Alaina must convince her fictional love interest to help her get home. When Lightning Strikes may appeal to fans of Outlander
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In this historical romance, set in 1890s Washington, farmer Old Rass and his daughter Mariah hire the ominously nicknamed 'Mad Dog' Stone to help them with their harvest. He's not the model employee they were hoping for, but it might be the start of a beautiful love story. An uplifting, tender novel dating from Kristin Hannah's early career. Published 1993.
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When the brilliant research scientist Tess Gregory dies prematurely in a traffic accident, she is met by an angel who escorts her to the 'Theatre of Second Chances' to choose another life. Reborn in post-Civil War America, she has a lot to learn about life as a pioneer woman—and her new husband! A quirky time-travel romance with a sense of humour, first published in 1992.
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In Kristin Hannah's second novel, a wealthy female trader sees her vast fortune wiped out in the stock market crash of 1893. Desperate to recoup what she can, she follows Dr Larance Digby, a university professor, to South America to reclaim the money she has invested in a fanciful expedition to find a lost Aztec city. This 1992 book can be difficult to get hold of. There are two editions—one with a rather romantic, if pedestrian, pastoral cover, the other a very racy gold number featuring an embossed couple in flagrante. If you aren't able to get hold of a copy, it's also available online as a PDF thanks to the Internet Archive.
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For those working their way through Kristin Hannah's back catalogue , this is her debut novel—a short and somewhat silly enemies-to-lovers romance set during the Yukon gold rush. It won a minor award on first release in 1991, and marked the beginning of a successful career.
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