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Series · contemporary romance

Dove Pond

by Karen Hawkins

The Dove Pond series by Karen Hawkins has 5 known books (5 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Love in the Afternoon (2019).

Books
5 known books (5 novels)
Published
5
First published
2019
Status
ongoing
Shelved under
Romance
Last checked

Start here: Love in the Afternoon (2019) — then read straight through in publication order.

Book one

Cover of Love in the Afternoon

Love in the Afternoon (2019)

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. Love in the Afternoon

    Novel

    Love in the Afternoon , at 134 pages the shortest book in Dove Pond, opened the series alongside The Book Charmer in 2019, introducing the fictional North Carolina town and its found-family cast of women rebuilding their lives there.

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  2. The Book Charmer

    Novel

    The Book Charmer , the second entry, also arrived in 2019 at 368 pages, continuing Karen Hawkins's genre pivot from Regency historical romance to cozy, magical-realist small-town fiction.

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  3. A Cup of Silver Linings

    Novel

    A Cup of Silver Linings , published in 2021 at 368 pages, follows a new Dove Pond resident whose reinvention is nudged along by the town's quiet, magical-realist charm, two years after the series opened.

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  4. The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove

    Novel

    The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove , the fourth entry at 352 pages, arrived in 2023, continuing Dove Pond's cozy blend of women's fiction, light romance and small-town magic.

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  5. The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams

    Novel

    The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams , published in 2024 at 384 pages, is the most recent Dove Pond novel to date, continuing the town's gentle, magical-realist nudges toward its residents' personal reinvention.

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About the Dove Pond series

Dove Pond is Karen Hawkins' contemporary small-town series set in a fictional North Carolina town touched by gentle, low-key magic, marking a genre shift from the Regency and Victorian historical romance that dominates her earlier career. Love in the Afternoon and The Book Charmer, both published in 2019, introduce the town and its found-family cast of women rebuilding their lives there. A Cup of Silver Linings (2021), The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove (2023) and The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams (2024) continued the series, each following a new resident of Dove Pond whose personal reinvention is nudged along by the town's quiet, magical-realist charm.

Where Hawkins' historical series lean on Highland curses and royal intrigue, Dove Pond trades that for cozy small-town women's fiction with a romantic thread and a light touch of magic -- closer in tone to contemporary book-club fiction than traditional Regency romance, reflecting a deliberate late-career pivot for Hawkins.

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in the Dove Pond series?

Five: Love in the Afternoon (2019), The Book Charmer (2019), A Cup of Silver Linings (2021), The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove (2023), and The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams (2024).

Is Dove Pond a departure from Karen Hawkins' usual historical romance?

Yes -- it's a contemporary small-town series with light magical-realist elements, a genre shift from the Regency and Victorian historical romance that makes up most of her earlier bibliography.

Do the Dove Pond books need to be read in order?

Not strictly -- each follows a different woman settling in the town, but recurring characters and a shared sense of the town's development reward reading in publication order.

What is Dove Pond?

A fictional small town in North Carolina with a subtle, magical-realist quality that gently nudges its residents' lives in better directions -- the series' central setting.

Is a sixth Dove Pond book planned?

None has been announced as of August 2026, though the series has continued releasing new entries roughly every one to two years.

Reading order last verified .