Mary Alice Monroe - Book Series In Order (2024)

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Publication Order of Beach House Books

Publication Order of The Islanders Books

Publication Order of Lowcountry Summer Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Young Palmetto Books Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Mary Alice Monroe is one of the New York Times bestselling author of America, who is often published as Mary Alice Kruesi. She is particularly famous for writing her novels based on the environmental fiction genre. Mary was born on May 25, 1960, in The United States of America.

She believes that moving to the coastal South Carolina was the ultimate decision which helped her to get close to the nature and write environmental fiction novels. Before moving there, she was already a noteworthy author.

But, her new home allowed her to witness the fragility and the beauty of nature surrounding her new home. The quickly changing habitat of the region made her experience the necessary and the strong things, which she used in her books.

Many of the books written by Mary are richly textured and delve into the numerous complexities of the parallels and the interpersonal relationships of the life and land. The novels written by her have been published all over the world and have also been translated into a number of foreign languages.

The success of the novels has allowed author Mary to be included in a number of bestseller lists, including the USA Today, the New York Times, and SIBA. Mary has also won a number of prestigious literary awards. Some of the most popular ones include the Readers’ Choice Awards, which she has received multiple times in her writing career, the Writing Book Award by the South Carolina Center in the year 2008, the Lifetime Achievement Award by the RT.

Mary has also achieved the feat of getting featured in the Book’s National Festival. One of her novels titled ‘The Butterfly Daughter’, has won the International Book Award in the category of Green Fiction. Apart from serving as a noteworthy author of books based on the conservation of the environment, author Mary Alice Monroe is also an active member of the conservationists’ board.

She also serves on the member Board of The Leatherback Trust, the South Carolina Aquarium, and the Charleston Literacy Volunteers. Other than these, Mary also speaks on various topics frequently at a number of conferences, book festivals, and private functions all over the world.

As of today, she lives happily along with her family on a barrier island, located just outside Charleston in South Carolina. She published ‘Beach House Memories’ in the year 2012, which serves as the prequel to the bestseller novel written by her, called as ‘The Beach House’.

Being true to her service as a conservationist, Mary has often dealt with a number of environmental issues through her novels. An example of it is her book titled Swimming Lessons, which talks about the hardships faced by the injured turtles of the sea.

Besides that, she has also written a few novels, which deal with issues related to women. One such novel is ‘Time is River’, which is based on the lives of the breast cancer survivors in one of the fly-fishing groups located in North Carolina. She has also described the lives of workers in the shrimping industry. The latest novel written by author Mary is titled ‘The Summer Girls’.

This novel deals with the relationships between 3 half sisters who get scattered across the nation and are helped by their grandmother to finally meet and get connected. One of the successful novel series written by author Mary Alice Monroe is the Beach House series.

All the novels of this series are based on the environmental issues and deal with one of the important issues of the nature, on a broader extent.

The first novel of the Beach House series was titled ‘The Beach House’. It was published by the Mira publishing house in the year 2002. The plot of this novel revolves around the life of the main character named Caretta Rutledge or Cara, as she is often referred to as. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, author Mary has described being requested by her mother unusually to come back to her childhood home in her scenic hometown.

Before that, Cara used to think that she had left her troubled family and her Southern roots too far behind. Also, her life was spinning way out of control and she was not able to think of a fruitful solution to get her life back on track. And, as soon as she gets the message from her mother, Caretta Rutledge decides to get back to her scenic Lowcountry hometown.

As she arrives there after many years, her heart gets opened by the wonderful rhythms of the island. She begins to repair the beach house of her family and begins to look after the turtles. Soon, she comes to be known as the ‘turtle lady’ of the town.

Cara also renews her old acquaintances that she thought were long lost. However, she is about to learn the most precious lessons of life by reconnecting with her mom. Caretta Rutledge seems to be learning the facts of life, such as, family is forever, true love requires sacrifice, and the past mistakes of life can very well be forgiven.

The second novel of the series written by author Mary Alice Monroe was published in the year 2007 by the Mira publishing house. It was titled ‘Swimming Lessons’ and revolved around the happenings in the lives of the main characters named, Miss Lovie Rutledge, Caretta Rutledge, Toy, Emmaline Baker, and Florence Prescott. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Miss Lovie Rutledge is introduced as the original ‘turtle lady’.

However, after 5 years of her passing away, the legacy of her works has been inherited by Little Lovie and Toy. Keeping her vow to her mentor, Toy decides to give up her dysfunctional and abusive lifestyle and become a responsible and strong single mother.

She also begins to work as an aquarist at the Carolina Aquarium. However, her success makes Toy fearful of the risks and change. On the other side, it is shown that Caretta, Florence, and Emmaline have also experienced huge losses in their lives.

All the four women come together during the summer and support each other to fulfill their dreams and turn them into reality. Toy begins the turtle season by rescuing a sick turtle on the beach. After bringing it to her aquarium, she takes the help of her boss and sets up a turtle hospital. The summer progresses with the measured steps of freedom and healing of the turtles.

The four ladies also try to gain strength and overcome their fears. They seem to be moving towards their bright futures courageously. This way, the novel proved to be a satisfying description of the nature and the connections between the struggling women.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Mary Alice Monroe

4 Responses to “Mary Alice Monroe”

1. Rosemary Huckabay: 2 years ago

   What book is after swimming lessons ? I love you books so much . I have a hard time reading. But you books get me interested and don’t want to put down . Thank you so much for your books . Want to read all of them

   Reply

   • Graeme: 2 years ago

     Hi Rosemary – as per our list, Beach House Memories is next

     Reply

2. Sara: 2 years ago

   I enjoy your books, living on the marsh in SC as I am.
   I’m confused. Are Mary Alice Monroe and Mary Monroe one and the same???

   Reply

   • Graeme: 2 years ago

     Hi Sara – they are two different people.

     Reply

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