Christina Lauren Books in Order: Beautiful, Wild Seasons & Every Standalone (2026)
Christina Lauren books in order is a longer list than most readers expect. The duo behind The Unhoneymooners and In a Holidaze started in fanfic and steam, wrote two interconnected series before most of their rom-com fans found them, and have added a novel almost every year since, plus a run of short Amazon Original stories that don’t show up on the usual lists. Below is every Christina Lauren book in publication order with a spoiler-free hook, a heat note for each era, where to start by mood, the In a Holidaze movie news and hotter picks for when you run out.
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Christina Lauren Books in Order: Where to Start
Christina Lauren is two people, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, and their catalog splits cleanly into two eras. The early books (Beautiful, Wild Seasons) are high-heat contemporary romance with the door wide open. From 2017 on, they moved to standalone rom-coms with lower heat, bigger laughs and the emotional gut-punch they’re now known for. Nothing after 2017 requires anything before it, so start wherever the premise grabs you:
- The classic rom-com: The Unhoneymooners. Enemies, a free honeymoon in Maui and a lie that spirals.
- The one that makes everyone cry: Love and Other Words. Childhood best friends, a decade apart, a second chance.
- The Christmas read: In a Holidaze, now a Netflix movie arriving December 2, 2026.
- The spicy one: Beautiful Bastard or Sweet Filthy Boy, where the heat is the point.
The Beautiful Series in Order
This is where Christina Lauren began: a boss-and-intern hate-to-lovers story that started life online and became a bestseller. Five novels and five novellas follow the same friend group through New York, and each couple gets a full-length book plus a short follow-up. Heat is high throughout, around 4 to 5 chilis, and the sex scenes carry a lot of the storytelling.
- Beautiful Bastard (2013): Chloe Mills has one MBA internship left to survive, and her boss, Bennett Ryan, is the beautiful bastard of the title.
- Beautiful Bitch (2013, novella): Chloe and Bennett, a few months on.
- Beautiful Stranger (2013): Sara Dillon moves to New York to start over and meets Max Stella, a British stranger with a very public streak.
- Beautiful Bombshell (2013, novella): a Las Vegas bachelor weekend with the whole crew.
- Beautiful Player (2013): Hanna Bergstrom asks her brother’s best friend, serial dater Will Sumner, to teach her how to have a life.
- Beautiful Beginning (2013, novella): Chloe and Bennett’s wedding.
- Beautiful Beloved (2015, novella): Max and Sara, after the baby.
- Beautiful Secret (2015): Ruby Miller finally gets to work with her crush, Niall Stella, Max’s buttoned-up brother, on a trip to New York.
- Beautiful Boss (2016, novella): Will and Hanna.
- Beautiful (2016): Pippa Bay Cox and Jensen Bergstrom on a wine-country road trip, the series finale.
The Wild Seasons Series in Order
Three best friends go to Las Vegas, and all three wake up married. Each Wild Seasons book follows one of those marriages, and the fourth book belongs to a friend who was there for the fallout. These run almost as hot as Beautiful, with more sweetness and a lot more Paris.
- Sweet Filthy Boy (2014): Mia Holland marries a French stranger, Ansel, in Vegas and follows him to Paris for the summer.
- Sweet Filthy Morning After (2014, novella): the Vegas wedding night from Ansel’s point of view.
- Dirty Rowdy Thing (2014): Harlow Vega and fisherman Finn Roberts, who annulled their marriage and cannot stay away from each other.
- Dark Wild Night (2015): comic artist Lola and Oliver, the pair who annulled first and stayed friends, until friends stops being enough.
- Wicked Sexy Liar (2016): surfer and bartender London Hughes and Luke Sutter, her friend’s ex and nobody’s idea of a safe bet.
Christina Lauren Standalone Novels in Order
Every book from here on stands alone, with two linked pairs noted below. The heat settles to around 2 or 3 chilis, open door but never the main event, and the hooks get bigger with every release.
- Sublime (2014): their YA ghost story, a boarding-school romance with a girl who may not be alive.
- The House (2015): YA horror romance about a boy raised by a house that doesn’t want him to leave.
- Dating You / Hating You (2017): Hollywood agents Evie and Carter hook up, then find out their agencies are merging and only one of them keeps a job.
- Autoboyography (2017): YA, and their one MM romance, between a bisexual high-schooler and the Mormon bishop’s son in a Utah town.
- Roomies (2017): Holland marries subway busker Calvin so he can take a Broadway job; the paperwork is real, the marriage isn’t supposed to be.
- Love and Other Words (2018): Macy runs into Elliot, the boy she loved and left, eleven years after the night that broke them. Bring tissues.
- Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating (2018): chaotic Hazel and steady Josh set each other up on terrible double dates.
- My Favorite Half-Night Stand (2018): Millie and Reid, friends and colleagues, go online dating and end up matched with each other under fake names.
- The Unhoneymooners (2019): Olive and Ethan, the only two people at the wedding who didn’t get food poisoning, take the bride and groom’s honeymoon as a fake couple.
- Twice in a Blue Moon (2019): actress Tate meets the man who sold her secret to the tabloids fourteen years later, on a film set, as her co-star’s writer.
- The Honey-Don’t List (2020): two assistants to a home-renovation TV couple whose marriage is a disaster behind the scenes.
- In a Holidaze (2020): Mae relives the same family Christmas at a Utah cabin until she figures out what she actually wants. Our list of books like In a Holidaze has the readalikes.
- The Soulmate Equation (2021): single mom Jess takes a DNA-matching dating test and scores a near-perfect match with the company’s grumpy founder.
- Something Wilder (2022): a treasure-hunt adventure through Utah canyons with the ex who broke Lily’s heart a decade ago.
- The True Love Experiment (2023): Fizzy from The Soulmate Equation stars in a reality dating show run by a documentary producer who doesn’t believe in romance.
- The Honeymoon Crashers (2023): an audio-original return to the Unhoneymooners world.
- The Paradise Problem (2024): Anna finds out the quickie marriage she never dissolved is to the heir of a grocery empire, who needs a wife for one week on a private island.
- Tangled Up in You (2024): a Rapunzel-inspired road trip in Disney’s Meant to Be line, with a sheltered farm girl and a jaded college senior.
- The Romance Revival (2026): scientist Emery Finch brings her dead husband back with the resurrection technology she helped build, and he comes back with no memory of her. She has to make him fall in love with her twice.
The Short Stories: Amazon Originals
Christina Lauren have written three short stories for Amazon’s themed collections. Each is a quick read, included with Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading, and a good way to sample their voice:
- The Exception to the Rule (2024): part of The Improbable Meet-Cute collection, a meet-cute that starts with a message sent to the wrong person.
- Falling (2025): from the Scared Sexy collection. At a Halloween party, Cat is the only person immune to the beautiful stranger whose charm is a centuries-old curse.
- Accidentally Yours (2026): from The Improbable Meet-Cute: Second Chances. Veronica joins the wrong video call, torches a tech company’s marketing plan and gets hired by its CEO.
What’s Next for Christina Lauren
In a Holidaze is the first Christina Lauren novel to reach the screen: Netflix releases the film on December 2, 2026, with Maddie Ziegler as Mae, Rob Lowe, Graham Phillips and Elias Kacavas. A new novel, The Best I Ever Had, is listed for 2027. Read the book before the movie, then come back for the books like In a Holidaze list.
Read Next: Hotter Picks From Fractal Enigma
Christina Lauren’s rom-coms run on fake relationships, vacations that go wrong and roommates who shouldn’t. These Fractal Enigma reads keep the setups and bring the Beautiful-era heat back.
Getting Lei’d — Aurora North (free)
Two strangers, one booking error and the honeymoon suite they’ll have to share. Uptight corporate lawyer Harper and free-spirited photographer Riley fake a marriage at a Hawaiian resort to keep the room, and the line between pretend and real gets thinner every night. The Unhoneymooners, sapphic, open door and completely free.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Fake Marriage, Honeymoon Suite, Only One Bed, Opposites Attract, Forced Proximity
Fake Fiancé, Real Fiasco — Jace Wilder
A broke grad student agrees to play fake fiancé to a wealthy heir for an inheritance scheme. Then the rehearsed affection, the shared bed and the family pressure turn the lie into the most real thing either man has ever had. Roomies and The Paradise Problem, MM and inferno.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Fake Engagement, Class Clash, Forced Proximity, Only One Bed, Family Pressure
Start reading Fake Fiancé, Real Fiasco →
The Honeymoon Wasn’t Cancelled — Isla Wilde
Jilted wedding planner Daphne Prescott refuses to waste a nonrefundable honeymoon, and the trip for one becomes a trip for three. A why-choose vacation romance for readers who thought the best part of The Unhoneymooners was the resort and wanted more people in the suite.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Why Choose (FFM), Jilted Bride, Vacation Romance, Honeymoon Suite
Start reading The Honeymoon Wasn’t Cancelled →
Wrapped Around Her Finger — Riley Kendra
A fake engagement that has to survive a Newport family Christmas, from a Brooklyn kitchen to a Rhode Island mansion dressed for the holidays. The ring is pretend, the guest room has one bed and by New Year’s neither Madison nor Renee can remember which parts were the act. In a Holidaze’s family Christmas with the door open.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Fake Engagement, Holiday Romance, Family Christmas, Only One Bed, Sapphic Rom-Com
Start reading Wrapped Around Her Finger →
FAQ: Christina Lauren Reading Order
Do Christina Lauren’s books need to be read in order?
Only the two early series, Beautiful and Wild Seasons, where the friend group carries over. Every book from 2017 on is a standalone. The two exceptions: The True Love Experiment follows a side character from The Soulmate Equation, and The Honeymoon Crashers returns to The Unhoneymooners.
Which Christina Lauren book should I read first?
The Unhoneymooners if you want the rom-com, Love and Other Words if you want the feelings, Beautiful Bastard if you want the heat.
How spicy are Christina Lauren’s books?
It depends on the era. The Beautiful and Wild Seasons books are high heat, 4 to 5 on our chili scale. The rom-coms from 2017 on are open door but lighter, usually 2 to 3. Our romance spice levels guide explains the scale, and every Fractal Enigma pick above runs at Inferno.
Is The Unhoneymooners being made into a movie?
It has been in development for years without a release date. In a Holidaze got there first: the Netflix film arrives December 2, 2026.
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