Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes | 2011 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 2 | Younger Thinner Blonder | 2013 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 3 | Love, Lies and Lemon Cake | 2014 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 4 | Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake | 2014 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 5 | Summer Flings and Dancing Dreams | 2015 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 6 | Bella’s Christmas Bake Off | 2015 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 7 | The Christmas Cake Cafe | 2016 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 8 | We’ll Always Have Paris | 2017 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 9 | Snowflakes, Iced Cakes and Second Chances | 2017 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 10 | Our Little Lies | 2018 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 11 | The Woman Next Door / All Her Secrets | 2019 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 12 | The Empty Nest | 2019 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 13 | The Sister-in-Law | 2020 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 14 | First Date | 2020 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 15 | The Forever Home | 2021 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 16 | The New Wife | 2021 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 17 | The Resort | 2022 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 18 | The Nursery | 2022 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 19 | The Wedding Day | 2023 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 20 | The Lodge | 2023 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 21 | You, Me, Her | 2024 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 22 | Wife, Mother, Liar | 2025 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 23 | His First Wife | 2025 | Sue Watson | Buy |
| 24 | Wanting Daisy Dead | 2025 | Sue Watson | Buy |
Sue Watson’s twenty-four standalone novels span her entire career and reflect her shift from romantic comedy to domestic thriller. The early titles, including Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes (2011), Younger Thinner Blonder (2013), and Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake (2014), are lighthearted women’s fiction built around food, friendships, and second chances. They were popular with readers who wanted feel-good stories without too much conflict, and Watson published them at a steady pace through the mid-2010s.
The turning point came with Our Little Lies in 2018. From that book onward, Watson’s standalones became darker, faster-paced, and built around secrets, betrayals, and domestic danger. The Woman Next Door (2019), The Sister-in-Law (2020), First Date (2021), and The Resort (2022) all follow a similar pattern: ordinary-seeming relationships that turn out to hide something sinister. The books rely on unreliable narrators, short chapters, and late-stage twists that have become standard features of the domestic thriller genre. Watson’s version of the formula tends to center on marriages, family gatherings, or new acquaintances who are not what they seem.
Her most recent books, including The New Wife (2024) and Wanting Daisy Dead (2025), continue in the thriller vein. Watson now publishes roughly two books per year, maintaining a pace she has kept up since the beginning of her career. The result is a backlist that offers something for readers on both sides of the romantic comedy/thriller divide.