Anthologies
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| New Voices in Fiction Sampler | 2014 | Buy |
Butternut Lake Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Up at Butternut Lake | 2014 | Buy |
| Butternut Summer | 2014 | Buy |
| The Night Before Christmas | 2014 | Buy |
| Moonlight on Butternut Lake | 2015 | Buy |
| The Space Between Sisters | 2016 | Buy |
| The Light in Summer | 2017 | Buy |
| The Secrets We Carried | 2018 | Buy |
Mary McNear is best known for the Butternut Lake series, seven novels set in a small lakeside town in northern Minnesota. The series began with Up at Butternut Lake in 2014 and ran through The Secrets We Carried in 2018, with each book following different characters connected to the same community. The stories focus on family relationships, second chances, and the rhythms of small-town life across the seasons.
McNear also appeared in the New Voices in Fiction Sampler in 2014, an anthology that introduced her alongside other debut novelists. Her compact body of work stays rooted in the same warm, character-driven territory throughout.