BookSeriesInOrder.com





Book Notification

Hillary Manton Lodge Books In Order

Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Publication Order of Plain and Simple Books

Publication Order of Two Blue Doors Books

A Table by the Window (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Reservations for Two (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Together at the Table (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jane of Austin (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon

Hilary Manton Lodge

Author Hilary Manton Lodge is a graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism, and found the world of cuisine while she was interning at Northwest Palate Magazine.

Hilary is a storyteller at heart, and during her free time she likes to watch foreign films, experimenting in the kitchen, attending indie concerts, and exploring her hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Her work is from the inspirational genre. She writes the “Plain and Simple” series and the “Two Blue Doors” series. Her debut novel, called “Plain Jayne”, was released in the year 2010.

“Plain Jayne” was a Carol Award Finalist, and “Simply Sara” was an ECPA Bestselling Book. “A Table by the Window” was shortlisted for the INSPY Awards in the year 2015.

“Plain Jayne” is the first novel in the “Plain and Simple” series, which was released in the year 2010. Jayne Tate loves the life she has exactly the way it is. Living in the big city, working for a fast-paced newspaper as a reporter, and dating a guy that knows nothing at all about her past. Her dad dies though, and she is required to take a second look at what she wants from her life. After she loses out on the huge career opportunity she was hoping for, she makes the decision to go to Oregon’s Amish country, looking for solace and potentially a big story.

Even in this land of bonnets and buggies, Jayne finds that life is more complex than she thought it would be. Is she going to be able to persuade herself that her budding friendship with the handsome and mysterious Levi Burkholder is only about research? What is a motorcycle-riding laptop-using, and latte-drinking reporter to do when this new world begins changing her?

“A Table by the Window” is the first novel in the “Two Blue Doors” series, which was released in the year 2014. Juliette D’Alisa, a food writer and the youngest heir of a French-Italian restaurant dynasty, has spent her entire life negotiating her restaurant aspirations and her skill with words. Her brother Nico offers her the opportunity to open up a restaurant together, she is torn, because she wonders if she has what it takes and is unsure if she should risk leaving her journalism career behind her.

After her grandmother dies, Juliette finds an antique picture of a guy that looks strikingly like her brother. The truth behind the photograph reveals some dark secrets and a romance, and Juliette battles to keep the mystery from her nosy family until she is able to find out the whole story.

Juliette, who is inspired by the evolving story of her grandma, decides to explore the online dating world. To her surprise, she finds Neil McLaren, who is a handsome immunologist that is based in Memphis, Tennessee, who is a kindred spirit. They form a long-distance relationship that simmers, and it presents Juliette with some life-shifting choices. How could she even choose between this promising culinary life and a guy, Neil, that is a world away in more ways than just one? Could it be possible that her grandma’s story is able to help show her the way?

This one is a quiet story that starts slowly and works its way into your heart, and also your stomach, with all its descriptions of food. All of the characters in this jump right off of the page, and it is easy to tell each one of them apart. The writing is lyrical with just the right balance of dialogue and description.

“Reservations for Two” is the second novel in the “Two Blue Doors” series, which was released in the year 2015. Juliette D’Alisa has got more than enough on her plate at the moment. Her trip to Provence did unlock answers about her grandma’s past, it has provided her with complications in the form of a man she is unable to give up, in Neil McLaren.

Juliette and Neil find romance easy while they travel through Tuscany and Provence with each other, but life at home presents new challenges. Juliette has her restaurant to open, a family legacy of secrets to sort through, and a mom that is fighting a serious illness. So how does Neil, who lives so far away in Memphis, fit into her life?

She faces an uncertain future, Juliette is unable to help but wish life could be as easy as her chocolate chip cookie recipe. Will her French grandma’s letters from the forties give her some wisdom to help her in the present? Or is every new insight going to make up a new batch of mysteries?

“Together at the Table” is the third novel in the “Two Blue Doors” series, which was released in the year 2016. Juliette feels like she is on top of the world when she and her brother, Nico’s restaurant opens up to rave reviews. This feeling does not last long, in a bittersweet sequence of events. Her mom falls ill and the romance she had with Neil ends abruptly in tears and anger.

Three months later, while autumn makes its way into the Pacific Northwest, Juliette has the feeling that she is finally close to equilibrium. Her family is closer than it has ever been and the restaurant is still doing well. She and Adrien, a sous-chef, are seeing one another, both in and out of the kitchen. Right when she believes her world could stop spinning, a trip off to the waterfront brings about a chance encounter with a familiar face from her past.

Rather than get stuck on her personal life, Juliette throws herself into her research and her work. After she read her grandma’s letters from a Paris destroyed by war, she would still like to know the entire story, so she goes across multiple countries and oceans to locate it. Juliette is unable to outrun the guy that stole her heart from her. Right when she finally gets the truth about her family history, what is it going to mean for her own search for love?

Book Series In Order » Authors » Hillary Manton Lodge

Leave a Reply