The sheer volume is intimidating. A standalone novel is a manageable trial. If you love the pacing and the twisty plots, you've got a massive back catalog to explore. If you find it too formulaic or shallow, you're done after one book. Starting a series and quitting after book one feels like more of a personal failure, weirdly.
His non-thriller standalones are hidden gems! 'Sundays at Tiffany's' is a complete departure—a bittersweet fantasy romance. Starting there would give you a wild misconception of his usual work, but it shows his range. It's a fun curveball if you want to avoid the crime genre entirely at first.
Forget the books for a second. The man's bookshots, his bookish philanthropy, his masterclass—it's an empire. Starting with a series feels like engaging with the core brand. Starting with a standalone feels like trying a side project. Which experience are you buying? The flagship product or a experimental spinoff?
2026-07-22 13:32:30
4
View All Answers
Scan code to download App
Related Books
Billionaire Love Story Series
beyondlocks
9.3
88.9K
The 7 Gold Lifes are 7 Billionaires who rules America.
Aaron Samuel, Sky Locason, Alexander North, Maximillion Cesantio, Luke Hastington, Sebastian Cesborn and lastly the leader, Kenneth Domanco.
The work hard to get where they are. They have the money, the looks, the power and they can easily get women. They swore that they will never settle down but slowly one by one they're falling in love.
Will they decide to settle down or just fool around?
This series consist of 8 books in total.
Prologue: Loving Blake Coster
BLS #1: The Red String of Fate (Aaron Samuel and Sophia Celastio)
BLS #2: Challenging The Billionaire (Sky Locason and Janet Stanmore)
BLS #3: Dealing With Trouble (Alexander North and Angelia Selosvone)
BLS #4: Stabbed by Rose (Maximillion Cesantio and Rose Hastington)
BLS #5: Beautiful Nightmare (Luke Hastington and Hailey Anderson)
BLS #6: Locking Her Heart (Sebastian Cesborn and Alexis Sierra)
BLS #7: Breaking The Last (Kenneth Domanco and Chloe Regens)
Do you ever wish a secret billionaire would sweep you away to a tropical island? Do you ever wish that you could be like Cinderella and find your happily ever after with the prince? From New York Times bestselling author Krista Lakes, comes a sweet but spicy Billionaire Romance Series that will have you believing in happily ever after!
Each story in this series is a stand-alone one. But with all the stories happen in one world, characters will reappear in other stories.
******
The First Set:
Saltwater Kisses– An accidental marriage between Jack and Emma.
Rainwater Kisses– Falling in love, and finding how they fit together with Owen and Kaylee.
Freshwater Kisses– Finding love in childhood friends with Robbie and Sam.
BONUS: Kisses From Jack: The first half of Saltwater Kisses, but from Jack's perspective!
Timeless Love Stories:
Champagne Kisses– A story of long lost love and second chances with Dean and Rachel.
The Second Set:
Sandcastle Kisses– Finding love in all the wrong places with Noah and Izzy
Hurricane Kisses– Surviving the storm together with Logan and Olivia
Barefoot Kisses– A Cinderella story with Aiden and Lena
The Third Set:
Sunrise Kisses– Ava and Bastian discovering true beauty
Waterfall Kisses– Leo finally succumbing to Charlotte's charms
Island Kisses: Gabe finally meets his match in Harper!
They say life begins after 40, but Cassie ain't feelin' it. Divorced and feeling trapped by her job, she wants to let loose for her friend's tropical beach wedding. She decides to let her hair down and get a little unpredictable. That's when she meets a handsome bartender, Wyatt.
Despite a few grey hairs, Wyatt's the liveliest man that Cassie has ever met. She knows that there's got to be more to his life story than just being a bartender, but this is just supposed to be a vacation fling. And after sunny days spent breaking all the rules on the beach together, Cassie realizes that nobody has ever listened to her the way that Wyatt does.
His carefree life is enviable, his kisses are intoxicating, and she can almost imagine a life with him. But all vacations come to an end. And when Cassie invites him to visit her hometown, Wyatt reveals that he can never go back. Not to her town. Not to America. Not to civilization.
Cassie leaves, confused and heartbroken, wondering just who she got herself involved with. Suddenly, her predictable life gets turned upside down when she sees her picture splashed across the Internet. And when the tabloids come looking for the mature woman who found the lost billionaire, she has no idea what to do...
...until he comes back.
“You are playing with fire, Alyssa,” he warned. “I’m trying not to lose control.”
The emotions were roiling inside of her, building to something far greater than anything she’d experienced with any other man. Sometimes we run away from the one person we should be running to...
***
From USA Today bestselling author and the author of Billionaire’s Secret Baby, comes a brand-new suspenseful romance about a socialite falling in love with the man ordered to protect her. With one hell of a twist, this steamy romance is a must read!
Agent Scott Tabor was as sexy walking away as he was coming toward you. You know the kind of attractive that makes your mouth dry, and your palms sweat before you ever speak to the man? Yeah… that’s my reality.
But let’s back up a second.
It all started a few weeks after my parents died in a freak accident. While I was trying to grieve, my long-lost uncle came into the picture. At first, I thought Uncle Frank was trying to make an effort—until I came home to a nightmare.
Forced to abandon my apartment, I turned to my lawyer and old boyfriend, Nate Livingston. Only his very pregnant wife wasn’t too happy with me hanging around. And who could blame her?
Meanwhile, Uncle Frank was doing everything in his power to make my life a living hell.
Enter Scott Tabor, FBI agent extraordinaire and my new roommate. I’m sure we can keep everything platonic. After all, we are both adults. Adults with wants, needs, and dare I say, an insane attraction for each other?
Jack Saunders wanted one last hurrah before taking the mantle of DS Oil & Gas, the billion-dollar company that his father founded. His friend, Owen, let him borrow his mansion on a tropical island so that he could throw a final party before “marrying” the business that would dominate the rest of his life. He brought his secretary, Brandy, hoping that he could kindle a relationship that would last through the long days and nights of running a company. However, while the party was great, the gold digging woman he brought was not, and Jack resigned himself to a lifetime of loneliness.
That was until he took a walk down the beach and met her. A woman who didn’t recognize him from the tabloids and only saw him, the man behind the money. Of all the women Jack had ever met, there was nobody like Emma LaRue. With one pretend marriage ceremony, she would change his life forever, and become the only one he ever wanted to give his saltwater kisses to.
This novella is the first half of Saltwater Kisses written from Jack’s point-of-view, with a few bonus scenes thrown in as well.
Nathan Andrews, a billionaire with a dark and dangerous past, had built his immense fortune as a ruthless contract killer. After years in the business, he had finally retired, hoping to leave the shadows of his old life behind him. But the ghosts of his past refused to rest, and when his former boss marked him for assassination, Nathan realized that escaping his previous life wouldn't be as easy as he'd thought.
Determined to protect himself and the ones he loved, Nathan hired an elite team of bodyguards, led by the fierce and stunning Miranda. Miranda's skill in combat was unmatched, her instincts razor-sharp, and Nathan found himself captivated by her. As they worked closely together to stay one step ahead of his enemies, a passionate romance began to blossom between them.
As they continued to battle their adversaries, Nathan and Miranda's bond deepened, and they realized that the only way to ensure each other's safety was to make significant sacrifices. Nathan knew he had to confront his past head-on, formulating a daring plan to eliminate his former boss and sever the ties that bound him to his old life once and for all.
From high-speed car chases to heart-pounding shootouts, "The Billionaire's Protector" takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of adrenaline-fueled action and suspense. The stakes were continually raised as Nathan and Miranda fought not only for their lives but also for their love.
In the end, Nathan and Miranda's love proved to be a force to be reckoned with. As they faced their final showdown against their enemies, they drew strength from their unwavering trust in one another, their love serving as a beacon of hope in a world filled with danger and uncertainty.
A critical take: start with 'When the Wind Blows'. It's a sci-fi thriller about genetic engineering and flying children. It's weird, inventive, and later spawned the Maximum Ride YA series. It's Patterson unmoored from crime procedurals, and it's genuinely thrilling and original. You get his pace with a more unique premise. The sequel, 'The Lake House', is also strong. It's a hidden gem in his bibliography.
My first was 'Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas'. Yeah, the romance one. My mom left it on the coffee table. It's a huge departure—a tragic love story told through a diary. It’s schmaltzy and manipulative, but it absolutely works if you're in the right mood. It proved to me that Patterson, at his core, understands how to pull emotional levers and keep you turning pages, regardless of genre. So if you're not into crime at all, this is your weird little secret entry point. Just don't expect it to be representative of his main output.
Pick any that has a movie adaptation you've already seen, like 'Kiss the Girls'. That way, you're not stressed about the plot, and you can just enjoy his writing style and how he builds scenes compared to the film. It’s a low-pressure way to sample his work.
I genuinely think the concept of a 'first read' is overrated. Just read the one whose synopsis you don't remember five minutes after reading it. That's the Patterson experience. The plots are vehicles for pace, not for lasting memory. So pick at random. Use a random number generator on his bibliography page. The outcome will be the same: a few hours of distracted entertainment, followed by a vague recollection of a twist. And sometimes, that's exactly what you need from a book.
Let's be real, the man has written a ton. You won't read it all. So just start with the series whose first book has the most intriguing title or cover to you. 'Kiss the Girls'. '1st to Die'. 'Step on a Crack'. 'Private'. Go with your gut. The goal is to be entertained, not to optimize some literary pilgrimage.
I read 'The 6th Target' (a Women's Murder Club book) thinking it was standalone. Big mistake. Felt completely lost with all the recurring characters and subplots. So my earnest advice: make absolutely sure it's truly a standalone before you start. Check Wikipedia or a fan site.
Many of his books with titles that sound standalone are actually part of a series. The true standalones are often the ones with the more generic, movie-title-style names. Do a quick search to avoid my confusion. Nothing worse than getting invested and realizing you're book seven of something.