Carrie Arcos Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Carrie Arcos
Author Carrie Arcos was born in Albany, New York. She studied Philosophy and English at Gordon College and got her teaching credential through Chapman University. She got her MA in Creative Writing from California State University Los Angeles.

As a teacher of high school and college students, she finally had enough courage to pursue her writing after her third child was born.

“Out of Reach” was a National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.

Carrie’s debut novel, called “Out of Reach”, was released in the year 2012. She writes young adult fiction and young adult romance.

“Out of Reach” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2012. How can you find somebody that does not want to be found? A girl looks for her missing addict brother as she confronts her own secrets.

Rachel has always idolized Micah, her older brother. He battles addiction, however, she has convinced herself that he has it under control. She has gotten close to believing it, too. Until the night Micah doesn’t return home.

Rachel is horrified, and cannot help but feel responsible for it. She really should’ve listened when Micah was trying to confide in her. She just feels more guilty when she gets an anonymous note saying that Micah is close by and in danger.

With not a lot to go on but a slim lead and hope, Rachel and Tyler, Micah’s best friend, start searching. On the way, Rachel is going to be required to face her building attraction to Tyler, dark secrets of her own, and the likelihood that Micah might not be coming home this time.

Carrie delivers a tragic, beautiful, emotional, and gut-wrenching tale that felt very real. The novel goes back and forth with heartbreaking pieces of back story with sometimes sad and sometimes funny and sometimes sweet journey to locate Micah. Readers felt themselves connecting quite a lot with Rachel, the story, and the emotion. The author captured the feelings and thoughts of the reader and made them real.

“There Will Come a Time” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2014. Mark knows about grief. Ever since the accident that killed Grace, his twin sister, the only time he feels at peace is when he goes to visit the bridge where she died. Comfort is fleeting, but it’s just about in reach when he stands on the wrong side of the suicide bars. Almost.

Hanna, Grace’s best friend, says that she understands what he is going through. However, she doesn’t. Nor can she. It is not only the enormity of his loss. Since Mark was her twin, he should have known her just as well as he knows himself. But when he reads through her journal, it is as though he never knew her at all.

As a way of remembering Grace, Hannah convinces Mark to complete the bucket list Grace made in her journal. Mark’s anger, sadness, and his growing attraction for Hannah all threaten to overwhelm him. He cannot back out. He made a promise to honor Grace’s memory and this is his only chance of setting things right.

It is a simply written yet strong heart-tugging novel that is about moving forward and loss. Each of these characters are very likable, and Mark is unlike any other character some readers have read about.

“Crazy Messy Beautiful” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 2017. It should be easy to find “the one” when you are named after the greatest love poet ever Pablo Neruda. After all, Neruda Diaz, age sixteen and an aspiring artist, has been in love many times in the past. So it’s just a matter of time before somebody loves him back.

Callie could really be that somebody. She is edgy and creative, and nothing at all like the girls Neruda usually falls for. So when they are brought together for a school assignment, he is surprised to find they have a bunch in common. With his one true love in reach and all of his artistic ambitions on track, everything is now coming together, finally.

While Neruda begins to fall harder and faster than before, he gets blindsided by the complex nature of both love and art, in more ways than just one. When each of the relationships he has looked to for guidance threaten to implode, he has to confront the truth that love is messier, crazier, and even more beautiful than he ever thought, riskier too, than just saying the words.

“We Are All That’s Left” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in the year 2018. Two lives, two worlds apart. A deeply compelling tale set in the United States and Bosnia, and spans decades and generations. It is about the brutality and the trauma of everyday life after war. About the ties that binds us all together and hope.

Zara and her mom, Nadja, have a rather strained relationship. Nadja does not understand Zara’s creative passion for, and self-expression through, photography. Zara doesn’t know how she can reach beyond their differences and connect with a closed-minded mom that refuses to talk with her about her past in Bosnia.

However, when a bomb goes off while they shop in their local farmers’ market in Rhode Island, Zara is left with PTSD and her mom is in a coma. Without the chance to get to know her mom, she is left with questions. Not just about her mom, but about things like history, faith, religion, and her own path moving forward.

While Zara attempts to sort through her confusion, she meets a guy named Joseph, whose grandma is also in the hospital. His own exploration of philosophy and religion offer some insight and comfort into Zara’s line of thinking.

Told in alternating perspectives between Zara’s present-day life in Providence, Rhode Island, and Nadja’s childhood in Herzegovina and Bosnia during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. The novel shows how, no matter what period and place, tragedy and struggle is able to give way to healing, love, and connection.