Christina Clancy Books In Order

Publication Order of ChristinaClancy Standalone Novels

Christina Clancy
Christina Clancy’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Sun Magazine, as well as various literary journals, which include Hobart, Glimmer Train, and Pleiades.

Christina holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She taught English at Beloit College for nearly a decade.

“The Second Home” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2020. Some places never really leave you.

After one disastrous summer spent at her family’s home on Cape Cod while she was 17, Ann Gordon is quite happy to never see Wellfleet ever again. If she’d only stayed in Wisconsin, she may never have met Anthony Shaw, and she would’ve held onto the future that she had so carefully planned out for herself. But instead, she winds up harboring this devastating secret which strains the relationship she has with her parents, sends her sister Poppy to each corner of the world chasing waves (as well as her next fling), and leaves Michael (her adopted brother) estranged from the family.

15 years later, her parents have died, and Poppy and Ann are left to figure out the fate of the beach house which has been in the Gordon family for generations at this point. For Ann, the formerly beloved home is tainted with some bad memories. And even though Poppy loves the old saltbox on Drummer Cove, owning a house means settling down, and she is unsure whether she is ready to remain in one place.

Michael, right when the sisters decide it’s time to sell, re-enters into their lives with a legitimate claim to a third of the estate. He wants the house. However more than that, he wants to set the record straight about what exactly happened during that long-ago summer which changed everybody’s lives since. While the siblings reunite after many years apart, their old lies and secrets, losses and longings, get pulled to the surface. Could this house be the one thing which can still bring them all together, or is it going to tear them apart, once and for all?

Told from the shifting perspectives of Poppy, Ann, and Michael, this affecting and assured debut novel captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places that we return to over and over. It’s about second homes, second chances, and second families. Compassionate and tender, heartbreaking and incisive, this is the story about a family you’ll soon fall in love with and won’t soon forget.

“Shoulder Season” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2021. A dazzling portrait of a young woman that’s coming into her own, the youthful allure of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, and what we lose, and gain, when we leave home.

Once in a lifetime, you can have the time of your life.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a small town, is an unlikely location for a Playboy Resort, and Sherri Taylor (age 19) is an unlikely bunny. Having grown up in neighboring East Troy, she plays organ at the local church and never has felt comfortable in her own skin. However after her parents die in quick succession, she leaves the one home she has ever known for the opportunity to be part of a glamorous slice of history. During the winter of 1981, in a costume that’s two sizes too small, her toes pinched by stilettos, she joins the daughters of factory workers and dairy farmers for the defining experience of her whole life.

Living in the ‘bunny bunch’ (Playboy’s version of a college dorm) Sherri gets her education in the joys of sisterhood, the thrill of financial independence, the magic of first love, and the heady effects of drugs, sex, and rock n roll. However while spring gives way to summer, she finds she’s caught up in a romantic triangle, and the tragedy that ensues is going to haunt her for the following 40 years.

From the Midwestern prairie to the California desert, from Wisconsin lakes out to the Pacific Ocean, this is the story of what happens when small town life gets sprinkled with stardust. With a heroine to root for and a narrative to get lost in, this is a sexy, evocative story, drenched in desire and longing, which captures a fleeting moment in American history with heart and nostalgia.

“The Snowbirds” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 2025. A page turning story about a couple fleeing winter in the Midwest for Palm Springs, where they find their relationship is at a crossroads.

Grant and Kim are at a turning point. Together for 30 years, their “together yet separate” partnership is running up against the realities of late middle age: Grant’s mom has just died, the college where he was teaching philosophy got shuttered, and their twin girls have grown up and left. Escaping from the bitter cold of a Midwestern winter for the hot desert sun of Palm Springs seems to be just as good a solution as any to the more intractable issues that they face.

Once they arrive at Le Desert, this quirky condo community where everybody knows everybody else’s business, Kim quickly embraces this chance to make some new friends and explore a more adventurous side of her personality. At the same time, Grant struggles to find his footing in an unfamiliar landscape, leaving Kim to start wondering if their relationship can possibly survive the snowbird season. However once Grant goes missing on a hike in the Palm Springs mountains, Kim’s forced to consider two horrifying outcomes: if this time, he’s really left her, or if Grant is actually lost.

Could it ever really be too late to become the person that we wanted to be, and is there still time enough to change into somebody better? The exhilarating, yet often confusing transitions of midlife get pitched against the glamour and promise of Palm Springs in an honest and tender tale about what it takes to truly commit to somebody for a lifetime. With humor and compassion, Christina explores the redemptive power of find ourselves, and being found.