Reading Order – Christina Hovland

READING ORDER:

I’m so lucky to have an amazing team who help me keep my sh!t together. (Mostly.)

They recently asked me to put together a reading order and I did a slow owl blink because… I don’t know how to do that.

So I’m going to do the best I can to explain the order that *I* would read the books. Which is, pretty much, the order that I wrote them.

(And the series were all written out of order, so hold on tight.)

Keep in mind that all of my books are stand alone and can be read in any order. So it doesn’t really matter where you enter my universe. So far all of my books take place in the same universe. That’s likely to change. But for now, all of my characters are co-existing and likely bumping into each other at King Soopers.

TLDR Version:

The Mommy Wars series, Mile High Rocked series, Mile High Heat, and Mile High Matched series all take place in Denver,

and they do have character crossover.

Each book stands alone so you can read them in any order.

However, the Mile High Matched books occur prior to all other series

Okay… here goes…

1.) The Honeymoon Trap: This is the book I wrote to see if I could even write a book. Confluence is based on my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado. (With loads of creative liberties taken… hence the fake town name.) If you want to see how I’ve grown as a writer, this is an excellent place to start.

Fun Fact: The original Honeymoon Trap was called Confessions (when I was drafting) and it was a romantic suspense/rom com.
But when I was trying to get published for the first time, the publisher asked me of I would re-write half the book to make it a straight romantic comedy/contemporary romance. So I wrote out all of the suspense and now the finished version is a delicious contemporary romance.

2.) Going Down on One Knee: After The Honeymoon Trap I was all set to write Cathy’s story in the Confluence world. Alas, she got preempted by Brek and Velma and their story crafted what the Mile High universe would become.
(Someday I might write Cathy and Jeff’s story, but I don’t know when that would be or what it would be about.)

2.a.) Hear me out… this is where I’d read Rock Hard Cowboy. Technically, I put it as a prequel on all the retailers, but I wrote it after Going Down and, really, I think it’s nice to read here before Blow Me Away. It does HAPPEN before Going Down… but, yeah, I’d read it here. I *may* write love stories for Tucker’s siblings… but that hasn’t really gelled in my mind. So, for now, it’s just Tucker and Kenzie.

3.) Blow Me Away: Book two in the Mile High Matched series. I definitely think this book is best read after Going Down.

4.) Take It Off the Menu: Book three of Mile High Matched. Huzzah! We are still going in order.

5.) Do Me a Favor: Book 4 in the Mile High Matched series. So far we are in order, but this is where it’s going to get tricky. I knew that Zach Dvornakov needed his story, but I didn’t know what it would be. So I closed the series and figured it was done.

Until. I figured out Zach’s story. Then it was going to be called The Accidental Bride to launch a NEW series, but that really didn’t fit so I decided to make it book five in this series. Still with me? That book will be later on. For now, let’s move on to Mommy Wars. Er… I guess I mean Ball Sacked. THEN Mommy Wars.

5.a.) Ball Sacked: This is where I’d recommend you read Anna Dvornakov’s super short story called Ball Sacked. I’ve considered expanding this into a novel. It might happen. Maybe?

6.) The Mommy Wars series has some cameos from Brek (Going Down on One Knee) and Sadie (Do Me a Favor). I’m going to include all three books of Mommy Wars here, but the only two that really should be read in order are Rachel, Out of Office and then There’s Something About Molly. (Fun Fact: Molly is, in my opinion, the best book I’ve ever written. I have a serious crush on Gavin and Molly and they hold an extremely special place in my heart. I think it was the easiest book to write because they took my hand and showed me the story.)

7.) April May Fall: Here’s the thing… technically AMF is part of the Mommy Wars series.
BUT.
I wrote it before I wrote There’s Something About Molly, and it really reads like more of a standalone story. I don’t think you need to even consider reading the other two first. So, I guess I’m saying, this book could be 1 or 3 in the Mommy Wars. Or .5 in the whole damn list. Whatever… it can be put where you want to put it. Jack and April are happy to go wherever you want them to go. (They’re fantastic like that.)

8.) Mile High Rocked series goes here. Or above the Mommy Wars series, if you decided that you aren’t really into children having a large part in your romantic fiction and want to sit out on Mommy Wars. (Which I wouldn’t do because…. Molly is my fav.)

The Mile High Rocked series was in my head from the second I wrote Going Down on One Knee. Thus number 8 could really be number 6, if you prefer rockstars.

I would read these in order: Played by the Rockstar, Knocked Up by the Rockstar, Married to the Rockstar, Tapped by the Rockstar and Reckless with the Rockstar.

9.) It Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard was *originally* supposed to be published as Everything’s Fine, Emmaline in the Mommy Wars series. For lotsa reasons
I split Emmaline off to launch her very own new series: Mile High Heat.

10.) This is where I would read Can’t Believe You Came — Book 5 in the Mile High Matched series. (Coming Fall 2023!)

And after I finish up editing all of this goodness (because as of this writing, all of these books are written), I plan to write some mafia because… well… I love a good villain. Will they be mafia rom coms? Maybe… My writing style lends itself to romantic comedy. So these will likely end up more like Married to the Mob than heavy-duty-dark-mafia, hold-my-hand-it’s-scary romance.