J.P. Monninger Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

J.P. Monninger is an award-winning author of fiction that also writes young adult fiction as Joseph Monninger. He is best known for the critically acclaimed novel “The Map that Leads to You” though he had been writing nonfiction for years before that. “The Map that Leads to You” which was his first fiction novel as J.P. Monninger was first published in 2017. As Joseph Monninger he has published several works of nonfiction and young adult novels that include “Eternal on the Water,” “The World as we Know It,” and the “Stay Alive” series among many others. He has received critical acclaim from the likes of the New York Times Book Review who asserted that he is one of those few authors that writes with their five senses wide open. His work has been featured in prestigious magazines that include Ellery Queen, American Heritage, Sports Illustrated, Scientific American, Boston Globe, Readers Digest, Fiction, Glamour, Story, and Playboy. He has been a fellow for the New Hampshire Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has once served in Upper Volta between 1974 and 1977 as a volunteer in the Peace Corps. He is currently a Professor of English at Plymouth State University.

J.P. Monninger writes novels full of insightful details as they combine coming to age narratives with experiential stories of love, history, and romance. His novels capture the essence of the places in which the novels are set and the characters that populate his stories. Monninger writes character-driven stories in both the “Seven Letters” and “The Map That Leads to You.” In his first novel Seven Letters he tells an emotional love story of how the world splits two souls—and how love brings them back together. Monninger is an expert at bringing up the unexpected and keeping his readers on tenterhooks. Through the eyes of the lead character Kate you get a taste of the regret and grief as she agonizes over moving on. He takes you on quite a trip of discovery as Kate and Ozzie fall in love and have their love tested at each and every turn. In his second novel The Map That Leads to You, Monninger transports his readers on a European adventure. He takes you on an odyssey of new experiences and location that makes one feels as if they were there in the moment. The lead characters in the novels are Heather and Jack who fall in love while on an adventure. Jack is an enigmatic man from Vermont determined to teach Heather to abandon her comfort zone and get more out of life. J.P. takes us on a tour of romantic and charming locations of Europe. He tells of how two people are brought together only for duty and life to push them apart.

J.P. Monninger’s “The Map That Leads to You” is a vivid romantic novel about one of the most important periods of a young woman’s life. Heather is recent college graduate alongside her two best friends. They have always wanted to travel to Europe as soon as they become adults and there is no better time than after graduation. They are leaving behind all the worries and cares of the US and go live as single women in Europe. For Heather, she needs to release some steam before coming back to take a job she has been offered at the Bank of America. The adventure of a lifetime soon turns into more than they could ever have imagined. They never expected that a train ride to Amsterdam could be so life-changing. Heather meets a Hugh Jackman lookalike who makes her insides melt as they strike up a conversation that she believes was destined by fate. Jack from Vermont is older than Heather by a few years and is in Europe to relive the experiences of his grandfather who had fought in the Second World War. Even if Europe is currently not at war, he believes that just visiting these places would honor his memory. He invites the smitten Heather to go along the journey with him and she agrees, even as they both know there is much more to their relationship. With each passing day their love only seems to grow stronger though Heather has a weird feeling that Jack is holding back something from her. Nonetheless, she does not want to do anything that would ruin the perfect memories they are creating together. Her intuition is not wrong as Jack has a secret that may cause their fledgling but beautiful relationship to come tumbling down.

“Seven Letters” by Monninger is the story of the passionate and brave woman Kate and the very broken Ozzie. Unlike Kate, Ozzie is a troubled man who is working to get rid of his demons even as he falls hopelessly in love. Kate had traveled to Ireland to work on her dissertation and had been working in the Blasket Islands, where the people that were the subject of her dissertation lived. When she meets Ozzie the physical attraction is so intense though she never expected that it would change her life the way it has. They are soon in a whirlwind romance that is an epic love story full of beautiful, soulful, all-consuming even if at times tumultuous. Even as change is always to be expected, Ozzie finds it hard to adapt given that he has had a very traumatizing past that neither the reader nor Kate are privy to. But through it all they experience heartbreak and happiness but ultimately their faith and lovefor each other is called into question. With the sharing of the letters come the big unexpected reveal that will have the reader ready to cry. Through Kate’s eyes you can experience the regret and grief as she agonizes over love until she is finally forced to leave for the United States. At the end of the day, she may have to make a very big decision on whether to follow love or give up on a man that may be too far gone.