Jodi Thomas Books in Order: The Complete Reading Guide
Jodi Thomas is an American novelist who writes Western historical romance and contemporary small-town romance, almost all of it set in Texas. She taught family living in an Amarillo high school before publishing her first novel, the Western historical Beneath the Texas Sky, in 1988, and has published steadily since. She has won several RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America - listed wins include The Tender Texan, To Tame a Texan's Heart, The Texan's Reward and Welcome to Harmony - and was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 2006. She served as Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University and was named a Distinguished Alumna of Texas Tech in 2002. Her contemporary Ransom Canyon series was adapted as a Netflix drama.
Do you have to read Jodi Thomas in order?
Her series are independent of one another, so pick the era you want and start there - none of them requires you to have read an earlier one. Within a series, publication order is the reading order and it matters, because these are small-town books where each novel's secondary characters become the next book's leads; the Harmony and Ransom Canyon series in particular build a whole town across a decade. Two exceptions worth knowing: in Ransom Canyon, the prequels Silverleaf Rapids (2025) and Winter's Camp are set long before the rest and were published out of sequence, so read Ransom Canyon itself first and treat the prequels as background. The Honey Creek and Someday Valley series share a setting and are best read Honey Creek first.
Genres and eras: Two clearly separate halves. WESTERN HISTORICAL ROMANCE, set in nineteenth-century Texas, covers everything from 1988 to about 2013: the early standalones (Beneath the Texas Sky through Forever in Texas), the Harvey Girls, McQuillen, McLain and Wife Lottery series, and the Whispering Mountain series. CONTEMPORARY small-town Texas romance and women's fiction covers everything from 2003 onward: the Harmony, Ransom Canyon, Laurel Springs, Honey Creek and Someday Valley series plus the contemporary standalones. The two overlap between 2003 and 2013, when she was writing both. The only later historical is Winter's Camp (2015), an 1872-set prequel novella to the otherwise contemporary Ransom Canyon series.
Pen names: Jodi Thomas — Pen name. Wikipedia gives her name as Jodi Koumalats; she adopted the pen name on a publisher's advice at the start of her career. Everything she has published as a novelist appears under it, so nothing is excluded on pen-name grounds.
Harvey Girls (also listed as the McCormicks) in order (1994)
Western historical. Two linked novels about Harvey House waitresses in nineteenth-century Texas. To Tame a Texan's Heart won a RITA Award.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Texan and the Lady | 1994 |
| 2 | To Tame a Texan's Heart | 1994 |
McQuillen in order (1996-1997)
Western historical.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas Love Song | 1996 |
| 2 | Two Texas Hearts | 1997 |
The McLains (also listed as the Texas Brothers series) in order (1998-2001)
Western historical. Wikipedia and RomanceWiki call this the McLain series; orderofbooks and bookseriesinorder call it Texas Brothers. Same five books, same order.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Texan's Touch | 1998 |
| 2 | To Kiss a Texan | 1999 |
| 3 | To Wed in Texas | 2000 |
| 4 | Twilight in Texas | 2001 |
| 5 | The Texan's Dream | 2001 |
The Wife Lottery in order (2002-2005)
Western historical. The Texan's Reward won a RITA Award.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Texan's Wager | 2002 |
| 2 | When a Texan Gambles | 2003 |
| 3 | A Texan's Luck | 2004 |
| 4 | The Texan's Reward | 2005 |
Whispering Mountain in order (2006-2013)
Western historical, and her longest historical series - built around the McMurray family and their nineteenth-century Texas ranch. Texas Blue won an RT Reviewers' Choice Award for American Historical Romance.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas Rain | 2006 |
| 2 | Texas Princess | 2007 |
| 3 | Tall, Dark, and Texan | 2008 |
| 4 | The Lone Texan | 2009 |
| 5 | Texas Blue | 2011 |
| 6 | Wild Texas Rose | 2012 |
| 7 | Promise Me Texas | 2013 |
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Harmony in order (2010-2015)
Contemporary small-town Texas. Nine novels plus one novella. Welcome to Harmony won a RITA Award for Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome to Harmony | 2010 |
| 2 | Somewhere Along the Way | 2010 |
| 3 | The Comforts of Home | 2011 |
| 4 | Just Down the Road | 2012 |
| 5 | Chance of a Lifetime | 2013 |
| 6 | Can't Stop Believing | 2013 |
| 7 | Betting the Rainbow | 2014 |
| 8 | A Place Called Harmony | 2014 |
| 9 | One True Heart | 2015 |
| 9.5 | Midnight Bet novella | 2015 |
Ransom Canyon in order (2015-2025)
Contemporary small-town Texas, and the series adapted by Netflix. Two of the entries are not contemporary novels: Winter's Camp is an 1872-set historical prequel novella about the town's founder, and Silverleaf Rapids (2025) is a full-length prequel novel set decades before the main sequence. Goodreads numbers Silverleaf Rapids as book 0 and Winter's Camp as 0.5; orderofbooks instead lists Silverleaf Rapids last, as book 11.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| Silverleaf Rapids | 2025 | |
| 0.5 | Winter's Camp novella | 2015 |
| 1 | Ransom Canyon | 2015 |
| 2 | Rustler's Moon | 2016 |
| 3 | Lone Heart Pass | 2016 |
| 4 | Sunrise Crossing | 2016 |
| 5 | Wild Horse Springs | 2017 |
| 6 | Indigo Lake | 2017 |
| 6.5 | A Christmas Affair novella | 2017 |
| 7 | Mistletoe Miracles | 2018 |
| 8 | Christmas in Winter Valley | 2019 |
Laurel Springs in order (2018-2019)
Contemporary, set in the fictional Texas town of Laurel Springs. The two books overlap slightly but her publisher and reviewers both note that each stands alone.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mornings on Main | 2018 |
| 2 | The Little Teashop on Main | 2019 |
Honey Creek in order (2020-2022)
Contemporary. Picnic in Someday Valley bridges into the Someday Valley series that follows.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Breakfast at the Honey Creek Cafe | 2020 |
| 2 | Picnic in Someday Valley | 2021 |
| 3 | Dinner on Primrose Hill | 2021 |
| 4 | Sunday at the Sunflower Inn | 2022 |
Someday Valley in order (2023-2024)
Contemporary, and her most recent series. Grows out of the Honey Creek books but reads independently.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Strawberry Lane | 2023 |
| 2 | The Wild Lavender Bookshop | 2024 |
Jodi Thomas: books outside the series
These sit outside the numbered series and can be read in any order.
| Title | First published | |
|---|---|---|
| — | Beneath the Texas Sky | 1988 |
| — | Northern Star | 1990 |
| — | The Tender Texan | 1991 |
| — | Prairie Song | 1992 |
| — | Cherish the Dream | 1993 |
| — | Forever in Texas | 1995 |
| — | The Widows of Wichita County | 2003 |
| — | Finding Mary Blaine | 2004 |
| — | Easy on the Heart novella | 2004 |
| — | The Secrets of Rosa Lee | 2005 |
| — | Twisted Creek | 2008 |
| — | Rewriting Monday | 2009 |
| — | Father Goose | 2022 |
Where to start with Jodi Thomas
Ransom Canyon
Her best-known contemporary and the basis of the Netflix series, opening a self-contained small-town sequence.
Texas Rain
Book one of Whispering Mountain, the best entry point to her nineteenth-century Texas historicals.
Welcome to Harmony
The RITA-winning opener of the Harmony series, if you want the small-town contemporary voice without the Netflix association.
Frequently asked questions
Do Jodi Thomas's books need to be read in order?
Not across her catalogue - her ten series are independent and any is a valid starting point. Within a series, order matters more than usual, because these are small-town books in which one novel's minor characters become the next novel's romantic leads, and continuing storylines run across several books. Publication order is the reading order in every series.
Which Jodi Thomas books are historical Westerns and which are contemporary?
Everything from 1988 to roughly 2013 is Western historical romance set in nineteenth-century Texas: the early standalones, and the Harvey Girls, McQuillen, McLain, Wife Lottery and Whispering Mountain series. Everything from 2003 onwards is contemporary small-town Texas: the Harmony, Ransom Canyon, Laurel Springs, Honey Creek and Someday Valley series. She wrote in both modes at once between 2003 and 2013.
What order should I read the Ransom Canyon series in?
Ransom Canyon, Rustler's Moon, Lone Heart Pass, Sunrise Crossing, Wild Horse Springs, Indigo Lake, Mistletoe Miracles, Christmas in Winter Valley, with the novellas Winter's Camp and A Christmas Affair fitting in as extras. Two prequels sit outside that run: the 1872-set novella Winter's Camp and the 2025 novel Silverleaf Rapids, both set well before the main books. Most readers start with Ransom Canyon itself.
How many books has Jodi Thomas written?
Fifty-eight full-length novels between 1988 and 2025 - 46 in series and 12 standalones. She has also written a substantial number of novellas and multi-author anthology stories on top of that; catalogues that include those put her total between 75 and 78, but the short works have been repackaged and reissued so often that no exact figure is reliable.
Is the Netflix series Ransom Canyon based on Jodi Thomas's books?
Yes. The Netflix drama Ransom Canyon, starring Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly, is adapted from her contemporary Ransom Canyon series about three ranching families in Texas. The first book, Ransom Canyon, was published in 2015; a prequel novel, Silverleaf Rapids, followed in 2025.
What is Jodi Thomas's newest book?
Silverleaf Rapids, published in June 2025, a prequel to the Ransom Canyon series. Before that, her most recent book was The Wild Lavender Bookshop (2024), the second Someday Valley novel. No 2026 release had been announced as of September 2026.
Where should I start with Jodi Thomas?
For contemporary small-town romance, start with Ransom Canyon (2015) or Welcome to Harmony (2010) - both open long, well-liked series and neither needs prior reading. For Western historical romance, start with Texas Rain (2006), the first Whispering Mountain book, or her RITA-winning early standalone The Tender Texan (1991).
How this list was counted
This guide lists 62 titles — 49 across 10 series and 13 outside them. Full-length novels only: 46 published in series and 12 standalones, from 1988 to 2025. Her novellas and multi-author anthology contributions are deliberately NOT included in this number, even where they are listed in the series below, because sources disagree both on how many there are and on when they first appeared - many were first published inside 1990s and 2000s anthologies and were later reissued as standalone ebooks, and the aggregator sites date them to the reissue rather than the original. Counts that include those short works run to 75-78 titles (FictionDB says 75, mostrecommendedbooks says 78), but no such figure could be verified well enough to publish.
This is the least clean of the five bibliographies and the count needs care. Her novellas and anthology stories are the problem: many first appeared inside multi-author Texas anthologies in the 1990s and 2000s, were later sold as standalone ebooks, and the aggregator sites date them to the reissue. RomanceWiki and orderofbooks disagree by a decade on several - In a Heartbeat (1993 vs 2000), A Husband for Holly (1993 vs 2012), Heart on His Sleeve (1992 vs 2013), The Valentine's Curse (2012 vs 2018), One Wish (2011 vs 2019) - so none of those is listed here and none is counted. Easy on the Heart is the one short work included, because its origin could be pinned down: it first appeared in the 2004 anthology How to Lasso a Cowboy and was reissued alone in 2006, and it is marked as a novella so it does not enter the novel count. Multi-author anthologies she contributed to, verified across at least two sources but not itemised because her individual story titles could not be reliably matched to them: How to Lasso a Cowboy (2004), Give Me a Texan (2008), Give Me a Cowboy (2009), Give Me a Texas Ranger (2010), Give Me a Texas Outlaw (2011), A Texas Christmas (2011), Be My Texas Valentine (2012), One Texas Night (2013), Boots Under Her Bed (2014), Ask Me Why (2015). Other unresolved points: Father Goose is dated 2022 by orderofbooks and 2020 by RomanceWiki - 2022 is used as the majority; Chance of a Lifetime is dated 2012 by orderofbooks and 2013 by both Wikipedia and RomanceWiki - 2013 is used; Cherish the Dream (1993) is grouped with her historicals by every source but is not nineteenth-century Texas like the rest, so treat its period with care before writing copy about it; her RITA award years differ between Wikipedia (1991, 1994, 2006) and RomanceWiki (1995, 2006, 2011), and RomanceWiki claims five wins, so the bio names the winning titles rather than the years. Silverleaf Rapids is described by reviewers as near-contemporary rather than an Old West historical, despite being a prequel. Fantastic Fiction and FictionDB both refuse automated fetches and could not be used as cross-checks.