Below is the complete list of Richard Paul Evans books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Walk Books
Publication Order of Broken Road Books
Publication Order of Christmas Box Books
Publication Order of Locket Trilogy Books
Publication Order of Michael Vey Books
Publication Order of Mistletoe Collection Books
Publication Order of Noel Collection Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Children’s Books
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
Publication Order of Collections Books
About Richard Paul Evans
Richard Paul Evans is an American novelist best known for emotionally direct stories about family, loss, forgiveness, faith, and second chances, as well as the action-oriented Michael Vey series for younger readers. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1962, Evans graduated from the University of Utah in 1984 and worked in advertising before becoming a full-time author. His career began in an unusually personal way: he wrote The Christmas Box as a story for his young daughters without expecting it to become a commercial book.
Unable initially to find a publisher or literary agent, Evans self-published The Christmas Box in 1993 and distributed it through local bookstores. Strong word of mouth turned the small publication into a regional success and eventually attracted national publishers. The book became a major bestseller, at one point holding the number-one position on bestseller lists in both hardcover and paperback editions. Its success transformed Evans from an advertising executive into a professional novelist and established the sentimental, family-centered storytelling that would define much of his adult fiction.
The Christmas Box developed into a trilogy and was followed by numerous novels exploring relationships tested by grief, separation, illness, regret, and unexpected changes of fortune. The Locket trilogy begins with The Locket and develops a separate multigenerational story, while The Walk follows Alan Christoffersen after catastrophic personal losses lead him to attempt a journey across the United States. The Broken Road series uses another extended journey to examine guilt, redemption, and the possibility of beginning again.
Evans has also written several loosely connected holiday collections, including the Mistletoe and Noel books. Christmas appears frequently throughout his bibliography, but his seasonal fiction usually concentrates less on celebration itself than on loneliness, damaged relationships, bereavement, and people forced to reconsider what they value. Books such as The Mistletoe Promise and The Noel Diary exemplify this approach. Several of his novels have been adapted for television, while The Noel Diary became a feature film released in 2022.
A markedly different side of Evans’s writing emerged in 2011 with Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25. The young-adult series follows a teenager who discovers that he and other young people possess unusual electrical powers and have become targets of a powerful organization. Michael has Tourette syndrome, a condition Evans himself has discussed living with since childhood. The series combines science-fiction concepts, friendship, conspiracies, international adventure, and questions about how power should be used. Its success gave Evans a substantial readership beyond the adult inspirational and relationship fiction for which he was already known.
His nonfiction includes reflections on faith, personal development, money, and the circumstances surrounding his unexpected publishing career. The Christmas Box Miracle recounts the story behind his breakthrough book and the changes its success brought to his life.
Evans’s charitable work also grew directly from The Christmas Box. In 1998 he founded The Christmas Box International, an organization dedicated to assisting abused, neglected, homeless, and otherwise vulnerable children and young adults. The organization has since supported youth through shelters, services, and other resources.
With more than forty novels and tens of millions of books in print internationally, Evans has developed a bibliography that divides naturally into adult stand-alone fiction, several connected series, holiday-centered collections, nonfiction, and the Michael Vey novels. Despite their differences in audience and genre, his books repeatedly return to the same underlying concern: what people do after the life they expected has disappeared, and whether love, responsibility, and deliberate acts of kindness can provide a way forward.