Below is the complete list of Chloe Walsh’s Ocean Bay books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Ocean Bay Books
About Ocean Bay
Chloe Walsh’s Ocean Bay series is a three-book contemporary romance sequence set around Ocean Bay Academy and a tightly connected group of high-school friends. The series begins with a complete romance centered on Mercy James and Rourke Owens, then shifts its focus to Daryl King and Molly Peterson for a two-part story. Shared characters, friendships, and school life connect the books, but the structure is uneven by design: Endgame stands largely on its own, while Waiting Game and Truth Game must be read together.
In Endgame, Mercy James arrives in Ocean Bay after her mother unexpectedly remarries. Mercy has spent years working toward a carefully planned escape from an unstable home life, hoping to complete senior year, earn a scholarship, and establish an independent future. Instead, she is uprooted shortly before school begins and moved into the household of Gabe Owens, her mother’s new husband.
The new family includes Amelia, a welcoming stepsister, and Rourke, Gabe’s hostile son. Rourke is Mercy’s age, socially powerful at school, and determined to make clear that he does not want her in his home or his life. Mercy refuses to be intimidated, creating an adversarial relationship driven by arguments, provocation, and reluctant attraction. Their position as new step-siblings intensifies the secrecy and social complications surrounding the romance, while Mercy’s need for control clashes with a household arrangement she never chose.
Although Endgame establishes Ocean Bay’s principal social circle, its central relationship reaches a conclusion within the novel. Rourke’s best friend Daryl and Mercy’s friend Molly appear as supporting characters, creating the foundation for the books that follow. Their history is markedly different from Mercy and Rourke’s antagonistic beginning. Daryl and Molly have known one another since childhood, but separation, trauma, and concealed events have damaged the closeness they once shared.
Waiting Game moves Daryl into the foreground. He is Ocean Bay Academy’s star quarterback and has constructed his identity around strength, control, and refusing to revisit the past. Molly’s return threatens that arrangement. She remembers him as her childhood best friend and hero, while Daryl knows that her understanding of what happened between them is incomplete. His affection is genuine, but so is his fear that the truth will destroy the image she has preserved of him.
The novel explores how trauma can distort memory and turn protection into secrecy. Daryl believes that withholding information will spare Molly further pain, yet his silence also prevents their relationship from developing honestly. Molly carries her own scars and unresolved questions, making their renewed connection less a simple friends-to-lovers romance than a confrontation with a shared past neither has fully processed.
Truth Game continues their storyline directly. The emotional conflict established in Waiting Game remains unresolved, and the revelations surrounding Daryl’s behavior, Molly’s history, and their separation become central. The title reflects the series’ larger tension between the stories people tell themselves to survive and the truths capable of overturning those stories. Love cannot restore what was lost unless both characters are prepared to face memories that have been suppressed, altered, or deliberately concealed.
Ocean Bay combines enemies-to-lovers tension, childhood friendship, sports romance, blended-family conflict, and emotionally darker material involving violence and trauma. Its tone moves between confrontational banter, explicit romance, school drama, and serious psychological distress. The books are intended for mature readers rather than younger teenagers.
Publication order is the clearest approach. Endgame introduces the setting and friendships before completing Mercy and Rourke’s story, while Waiting Game and Truth Game form one uninterrupted Daryl and Molly arc. Together, the three novels depict young people attempting to build stable relationships while carrying family disruption, painful histories, and truths that affection alone cannot make harmless.