Isabelle Holland Standalone Novels books in order

Reading order

Isabelle Holland’s 36 standalone novels cover a lot of ground. Her early work in the late 1960s and early 1970s includes realistic YA fiction like Cecily (1967) and Amanda’s Choice (1970), books that dealt with identity and family conflict in a direct way that was unusual for the time. The Man Without a Face (1972) brought her wide attention and remains her best-known book.

Through the mid-1970s, Holland wrote several gothic romances for adults. Kilgaren, Trelawny, Moncrieff, and Grenelle follow the classic gothic template: isolated settings, brooding men, women in danger, and secrets in the walls. They’re competent genre fiction that found a reliable audience.

Her later work returned mostly to YA territory. Bump in the Night (1988), Thief (1988), and Behind the Lines (1994) deal with young people facing moral dilemmas, broken families, and difficult truths. Holland’s recurring theme across all her fiction, regardless of genre, is characters confronting uncomfortable realities about themselves and the people they love.