Below is the complete list of Karen Kingsbury’s Cody Gunner books in publication order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Cody Gunner Books in Publication Order
- A Thousand Tomorrows (2005)
A Thousand Tomorrows was published in 2005 and is listed as book #1 in the Cody Gunner series. - Just Beyond the Clouds (2007)
Published in 2007, Just Beyond the Clouds is listed as book #2 in the Cody Gunner series. - This Side of Heaven (2009)
This Side of Heaven is a 2009 release and appears as book #3 in the Cody Gunner series.
About Cody Gunner
Karen Kingsbury’s Cody Gunner series is a short inspirational fiction sequence built around rodeo, loss, family responsibility, faith, and the difficult work of learning how to love after years of shutting people out. The core series follows Cody Gunner, a champion bull rider whose public toughness hides deep wounds from childhood, abandonment, and broken family relationships. Compared with Kingsbury’s larger Baxter Family saga, the Cody Gunner books are more compact, but they carry many of her familiar concerns: grief, forgiveness, second chances, and the belief that emotional healing often begins when a person stops running from the people who love them.
The first book, A Thousand Tomorrows, introduces Cody as a talented but angry rodeo star who has built his identity around competition and control. He is successful in the arena, but emotionally closed off, especially because of the pain caused by his father and the instability of his early family life. The one person Cody allows himself to love freely is his younger brother, Carl Joseph, who has Down syndrome. That relationship is one of the emotional foundations of the series. Carl Joseph is not a side detail; he represents the part of Cody that still knows how to be tender, protective, and loyal.
Ali Daniels, a barrel racer with her own private burden, becomes Cody’s match in the first novel. Like Cody, she is gifted, driven, and determined to live on her own terms. Her secret gives the romance its urgency, while her faith and courage challenge Cody’s belief that love only leads to loss. Their story is intense because both characters are trying to avoid vulnerability while being drawn toward exactly the kind of love they fear most. Kingsbury uses the rodeo setting effectively, not as decoration, but as a world where risk, performance, pain, and endurance are part of daily life.
Just Beyond the Clouds continues Cody’s story after heartbreaking loss, shifting the focus more strongly toward Carl Joseph and the question of independence. Cody wants to protect his brother by keeping him close, but his protectiveness is tangled with fear. Carl Joseph wants a fuller life, including the chance to learn, work, and love with dignity. Elle, a teacher who believes in Carl Joseph’s potential, challenges Cody’s assumptions and becomes part of his own slow return to trust. This second book gives the series a more mature emotional shape because it moves beyond romantic love into questions of caregiving, control, and what it truly means to protect someone.
Some reading lists also group This Side of Heaven near the Cody Gunner books because of related themes and character connections, though the clearest Cody-centered arc remains A Thousand Tomorrows and Just Beyond the Clouds. The heart of the series is Cody’s transformation from a man defined by anger and fear into someone capable of faith, release, and renewed love.
The Cody Gunner series works because Kingsbury combines romance with family drama and spiritual reflection. The books are emotional, direct, and openly faith-centered, but their strongest moments come from human conflict: a brother afraid to let go, a wounded man learning to trust again, and characters who discover that love is not measured only by holding on, but also by allowing others to live fully.