Laura Madeleine
Laura Madeleine has published 4 books. The recommended reading order starts with The Confectioner's Tale (2016).
Laura Madeleine is an English novelist who writes historical fiction, and her debut The Confectioner's Tale introduced readers to her signature blend of mystery and romance in 2015. The book became an international success, translated into over a dozen languages, and set the tone for a body of work that draws on richly detailed pasts and complex emotional threads.
Before turning to the page, Madeleine spent her childhood acting professionally, with roles in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Phantom of the Opera. She trained at theatre school and seemed headed for a life on stage, but redirected her path to study English Literature at Newnham College, Cambridge. That shift from the bright lights of performance to the quiet intensity of writing sharpened her narrative voice and gave her the tools to craft the atmospheric stories she is known for today.
Her novels include Where the Wild Cherries Grow, The Secrets Between Us, and An Echo of Scandal, each weaving lyrical prose with intricate plotting. Under the pen name Lili Hayward, she writes romance, with titles like A Midwinter's Tail and The Cat of Yule Cottage. She lives in Bristol in a vivid blue house, tends an allotment in her spare time, and often visits her family in Devon, where she gets up to mischief with her sister, fantasy author Lucy Holland.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Standalone Novels
- Tagsromancesuspensemysteryhistorical-fictionthrillerDescriptionWhat does it mean to inherit not just a recipe, but the secrets kneaded into its dough? Laura Madeleine's *The Confectioner's Tale* explores the delicate architecture of memory and desire through the twin lenses of pastry and the past. This is a novel that understands how sugar and butter can carry the weight of history, how a single confection might unlock decades of silence. Madeleine writes with the precision of a pâtissier, layering narrative the way one might build a mille-feuille—each stratum revealing something unexpected, something bittersweet. The structure moves between eras, tracing connections that feel both inevitable and surprising. A contemporary discovery. An older story waiting to be told. The prose has a tactile quality, evoking the scent of caramelized almonds and the crackle of spun sugar, but it never indulges in mere sensory decoration. Instead, the confections themselves become a language, a way of speaking what cannot otherwise be said. Madeleine has crafted something rare here: a book that satisfies both the appetite for lush historical detail and the hunger for emotional complexity. It lingers the way the best desserts do—not cloying, but resonant, leaving you with the faint trace of something you can't quite name but won't soon forget.Publication dateSept. 20 2016Amazon rating4.2/5Print length334LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas Dunne Books
- Tagsromancemysteryhistorical-fictionDescriptionTwo timelines converge in this standalone novel by Laura Madeleine, a writer known for weaving historical mystery with culinary detail. The book moves between past and present, tracing secrets that refuse to stay buried and the women who must reckon with them. Without additional sources, the architecture is familiar but the execution matters: Madeleine tends toward atmospheric settings, relationships fractured by silence, and the slow reveal of what was hidden. The title promises concealment and intimacy—secrets held not from the world, but between two people. That proximity suggests betrayal, or protection, or both. The tension likely builds not from external threat but from the weight of what remains unspoken, the kind of silence that shapes lives across decades. Madeleine's previous work suggests a dual narrative structure, where a contemporary discovery unlocks a historical truth, and the reader watches both stories unspool in tandem. What sets this apart is likely the specificity of its world—whether a particular place, a craft, or a sensory landscape that grounds the emotional stakes. Madeleine writes with precision about food, memory, and the ways women navigate constrained choices. The secrets here are probably not melodramatic but human-scaled: the kind that fester quietly, that change the course of ordinary lives. A novel for readers who prefer their mysteries interior, their revelations earned.Publication date1 January 2018Amazon rating4.4/5Print length397LanguageEnglishPublisherTransworld Digital
- Tagshistorical-fictionDescriptionThis is a book about escape when life becomes unbearable. Emeline is drowning. Everything is slipping away. So she does what feels impossible and necessary at once: she boards a train and disappears. She lands in a tiny village on the French coast, where a café owner named Maman takes her in. Here, the world is sun-soaked and sensory—oranges and olives, wild herbs crushed between fingers, flavors so vivid they feel like a language she's never spoken. Emeline begins to breathe again. She learns the rhythms of this place. And then she falls in love with Maman's twenty-year-old son, a romance as intoxicating and raw as the land itself. But you can't outrun your past forever. The secrets Emeline left behind start to find her, carried on the wind like salt from the sea. Laura Madeleine weaves a story that's lush and aching, about the ways we remake ourselves when everything falls apart—and the price of starting over. It's about flavor and feeling, the kind of love that changes you, and the reckoning that comes when two lives collide. If you've ever wanted to vanish into somewhere beautiful and dangerous, this book will take you there.Publication dateFebruary 13, 2018Amazon rating4.2/5Print length336LanguageEnglishPublisherThomas Dunne Books
- Tagsromancehistorical-fictioncrimemysteryDescriptionA woman arrives in Tangier, chasing fragments of a past that refuses to stay buried. The year is 1978. She carries a name that isn't quite hers and a photograph that might unlock everything. The trail leads to a scandalous love affair decades old, one that shattered lives and left only whispers behind. The narrative splits. In the 1920s, another woman moves through the same sun-bleached streets, drawn into a world of expatriates, artists, and dangerous liaisons. The city hums with possibility and peril. Secrets accumulate like dust in the medina's corners. What connects these two women across fifty years is more than coincidence—it's blood, betrayal, and a truth someone worked hard to erase. Laura Madeleine constructs a dual-timeline mystery that trades in atmosphere as much as plot. Tangier becomes a character itself: seductive, unreliable, thick with the scent of jasmine and deception. The prose lingers on sensory detail—the taste of mint tea, the weight of silk, the particular quality of North African light. This is historical fiction for readers who want their mysteries wrapped in elegance, their revelations earned through patience. The echo of the title isn't metaphorical. The past here has teeth.Publication dateSeptember 19, 2019Amazon rating4.1/5Print length379LanguageEnglishPublisherTransworld Digital
Frequently Asked Questions about Laura Madeleine
Laura Madeleine writes standalone novels. The order in which you read them does not impact the reading experience, as each book tells a separate story. You can begin with any of her novels and enjoy them independently. The books are listed here in their publication order: The Confectioner's Tale (2016), The Secrets Between Us (2018), Where the Wild Cherries Grow (2018), An Echo of Scandal (2019).
You can start with any of Laura Madeleine's books, as they are all standalone novels. Each book tells a complete and independent story, so there is no required reading order. A good starting point might be The Confectioner's Tale, published in 2016, or An Echo of Scandal, published in 2019, depending on your preference for exploring her earlier or more recent works.
No, you do not have to read Laura Madeleine's books in order. All of her published novels are standalone stories, meaning each book has its own distinct plot and characters. They can be read in any sequence without affecting your understanding or enjoyment of the narratives. The publication order is The Confectioner's Tale (2016), The Secrets Between Us (2018), Where the Wild Cherries Grow (2018), and An Echo of Scandal (2019).
Laura Madeleine writes standalone novels. Each of her books features a unique story and characters, and they are not connected as part of a series. Readers can pick up any of her titles and be assured of a complete narrative arc within that single book. Her novels are The Confectioner's Tale, The Secrets Between Us, Where the Wild Cherries Grow, and An Echo of Scandal.
Laura Madeleine has written four books. These are all standalone novels. The titles are The Confectioner's Tale, published in 2016; The Secrets Between Us and Where the Wild Cherries Grow, both published in 2018; and An Echo of Scandal, published in 2019. Each book offers a distinct story for readers.
The first book Laura Madeleine wrote is The Confectioner's Tale. It was published in 2016. This novel marked her debut and is the first in the chronological order of her published works. It is a standalone story, as are all of her subsequent books. Readers can begin their exploration of her writing with this title.
Laura Madeleine's most recent book is An Echo of Scandal, published in 2019. This novel is a standalone story, continuing her pattern of releasing individual narratives rather than connected series. It is the latest addition to her body of work, following The Confectioner's Tale (2016), The Secrets Between Us (2018), and Where the Wild Cherries Grow (2018).
Laura Madeleine writes historical fiction. Her novels often explore relationships and societal expectations within different historical periods. Each book is a standalone story, allowing readers to immerse themselves in a specific time and place with a self-contained narrative. Her published works include The Confectioner's Tale, The Secrets Between Us, Where the Wild Cherries Grow, and An Echo of Scandal.
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We verified the reading order for Laura Madeleine's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: April 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Laura Madeleine Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/laura-madeleine