Katrina Leno Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Katrina Leno is a published American author of fiction.

She has lived in many different places, from Los Angeles to New York to Connecticut to Scotland. Leno attended school where she majored in English and had a focus on creative writing.

Katrina was previously living in New York, working as a retail manager full time. She had been living there for nearly four years when she decided that she needed to do something drastic if she was going to pursue being a writer. So she decided to give her notice on her job and move in with her parents once more, which ended up lasting for around nine months. She wrote a book, got an agent, wrote another book, and applied to a graduate school in Scotland that she got accepted to.

While she now writes young adult fiction, it was never her goal to start out with. The author admits that when she was younger she was not reading the young adult genre all that much. It was more selections like books by Stephen King or Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. She enjoys writing within the range of young adult fiction because there is a lot that you can do within it. Her first novel was darker, concerning mental illness and depression along with attempts at suicide.

Leno feels that writing books that are meant for young adults is important. She had a lot of depression herself when she was around that age, having been diagnosed at thirteen years old as having depression. She feels that if she had had access to books that dealt with depression or mental illness it would have been valuable for her. She felt alone when she was that age and now appreciates that there is so much diversity and new books being written in the young adult genre.

The Half Life of Molly Pierce is the first fictional novel to come out from this author. It was published in 2014. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called Leno a “fierce new presence”. Teenreads.com rated it highly, calling it five out of five stars. ALA Booklist described this novel as a debut that was ‘fascinating’ and ‘something original’.

This psychological mystery story is a story about coming of age. It focuses on the point of view and experiences of the main character, Molly. She’s an average girl that is seventeen years old. However, even though she may be similar to many other young women her age, she also has her own unique aspects.

She has always felt like she was been missing parts of her life ever since he’s been alive. It seems that her memory is just full of the types of gaps and holes in it that other people really don’t have. She thinks that people take having their memories, hanging out with friends, going to class, watching television, reading books, going out, and doing all of that and going to bed at night and then being able to remember everything that happened before you went to sleep the next day– they take all of that for granted.

She doesn’t even have it herself to take it for granted. But when an accident changes it all for her, she starts to wonder whether that was a blessing in disguise. Because some things are coming back to her, and she’s starting to recall some secrets that can be disturbing. She’s starting to get to the bottom of the life that she was leading before, which was a separate life entirely.

Now she’s also having to contend with love that now that she’s rediscovered it, she doesn’t want to let go of it. What will happen with this character and with her memory? Find out by reading this book and get to the bottom of Molly’s past along with her and find out where she is going too.

The Lost & Found is the second fictional novel to come out from this author. Booklist gave it a starred review, calling it a novel that was ‘wit’ and ‘humor’. If you liked the first book to come out from Katrina Leno, then check this one out too. Publishers Weekly called it a ‘romantic’ and ‘rich’ story regarding two teens on a search ‘for meaning’. School Library Journal praised the story as well, calling it a journey “well worth the ride”.

Sometimes you have to get lost before you can ever truly be found. That’s what Frannie and her friend Louis may just find in this imaginative story that will have you reading towards the end.

The two met when they were younger online. Ever since that day, they have been writing each other as pen pals. They haven’t met each other in person and don’t know the real names of the other.

What they do know about the other is that they both usually have an ability to make things mysteriously disappear and they lose things frequently. Then they get mail news that inspires each of them to hit the road. They’re going to Austin, Texas. They hope to find answers that they’re looking for and want to meet each other.

They set off and while they’re on the way, they each start to find things that the other friend has once lost. It’s almost like it’s magic. The objects just come out of nowhere and it seems like they’re on the right track. Frannie and Louis are on their way to meet face to face, and finding out all sorts of things along the way.

When they finally get the chance to meet up, they begin to realize something big. Sometimes the objects that go missing and that you lose might be not meant to be in the first place. Also, that you can never really know who or what you might discover out there if you’re only willing to put yourself out there and take that chance.

This emotional novel is about connections that we make, that go out along the way or that we discover. It’s also about family, the type you are born to and the type that you make. We’re all on a journey, and this is the story of the journey of two friends. Pick up a copy and see what you think!