Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stepping | 1980 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 2 | Three Women at the Water’s Edge | 1981 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 3 | Bodies and Souls | 1983 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 4 | Nell | 1985 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 5 | Morning | 1987 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 6 | Spirit Lost | 1988 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 7 | My Dearest Friend | 1989 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 8 | Everlasting | 1991 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 9 | Family Secrets | 1993 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 10 | Belonging | 1995 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 11 | An Act of Love | 1997 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 12 | Between Husbands and Friends | 1999 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 13 | Custody | 2001 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 14 | Moon Shell Beach | 2008 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 15 | Summer House | 2009 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 16 | Beachcombers | 2010 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 17 | Heat Wave | 2011 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 18 | Summer Breeze | 2012 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 19 | Island Girls | 2013 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 20 | A Nantucket Christmas | 2013 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 21 | Nantucket Sisters | 2014 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 22 | An Island Christmas | 2014 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 23 | The Guest Cottage | 2015 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 24 | The Island House | 2016 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 25 | Secrets in Summer | 2017 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 26 | A Nantucket Wedding | 2018 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 27 | Surfside Sisters | 2019 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 28 | Let It Snow | 2019 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 29 | Girls of Summer | 2020 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 30 | Family Reunion | 2021 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 31 | Summer Love | 2022 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 32 | All the Days of Summer | 2023 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 33 | The Summer We Started Over | 2024 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
| 34 | Summer Light on Nantucket | 2025 | Nancy Thayer | Buy |
Nancy Thayer’s 34 standalone novels cover two distinct phases of her career. The early books, from Stepping (1980) through Custody (2001), are domestic fiction set in various American locations. They deal with marriage, motherhood, and the choices women face as their lives shift. Nell (1985) and My Dearest Friend (1989) are among the best of these early titles.
After a gap, Thayer returned with Moon Shell Beach (2008) and began writing Nantucket novels almost exclusively. Since then she has published one island-set novel per year, with titles like Summer House (2009), Island Girls (2013), A Nantucket Wedding (2018), and Summer Light on Nantucket (2025) making her name nearly synonymous with Nantucket summer reading. These later books are lighter than her earlier work, focused on family reunions, seasonal romances, and the particular pleasures and tensions of island life.