Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Up at Butternut Lake | 2014 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 2 | Butternut Summer | 2014 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 3 | The Night Before Christmas | 2014 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 4 | Moonlight on Butternut Lake | 2015 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 5 | The Space Between Sisters | 2016 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 6 | The Light in Summer | 2017 | Mary McNear | Buy |
| 7 | The Secrets We Carried | 2018 | Mary McNear | Buy |
The Butternut Lake series by Mary McNear runs seven books from 2014 to 2018, all connected by the same lakeside setting. The opening three books — Up at Butternut Lake, Butternut Summer, and The Night Before Christmas — all appeared in 2014, giving the series a strong start before it continued annually through Moonlight on Butternut Lake (2015), The Space Between Sisters (2016), The Light in Summer (2017), and The Secrets We Carried (2018).
The seasonal and light-themed titles across the series — Butternut Summer, Moonlight on Butternut Lake, The Night Before Christmas, The Light in Summer — suggest a focus on atmosphere and community rather than plot-driven tension. Reading from Up at Butternut Lake onward tracks the full arc of the characters and their lives around the lake across nearly five years of storytelling.