Lauren Spieller Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Author Lauren Spieller is a literary agent that lives with her husband in New York. When she is not busy writing, she is pining after every single dog she sees, drinking lattes, or visiting her native California.

Besides writing and reading, Lauren’s hobbies include interior design and cooking. When she bought her house with a big kitchen, she spent a lot of time on both hobbies.

She became an agent by becoming a writer. She got halfway through her first novel when she began researching what she should do with it. This is when she discovered the publishing industry, and what the literary agent’s job actually was. Quickly she realized it was her dream job, and since she has found that working in publishing and writing both go hand in hand.

She drafted and revised “Your Destination is on the Left” over two years, while “She’s the Worst” took her nine months. The former had a more meandering revising and plotting process, which is in part what took so long to finish it. “She’s the Worst”, on the other hand, had a clear outline right from the start.

Lauren knows that she likes to have a plan. Outlines are something that she loves. This is something that she learned from actually writing. She also learned that if she does not fast-draft the first version of a novel, she is never going to complete it, making deadlines a friend of hers too. Even if she hates having them in the moment.

When she started writing “She’s the Worst”, she knew that she wanted to pen a love letter to the place that she grew up. Lauren realizes that not everybody likes Los Angeles. However, she firmly believes that if people spend enough there to really get a sense for the whole place, and see how exciting, diverse, and gorgeous the place is, you cannot help but fall in love with it.

Working in the publishing business makes her more aware of how her book/themes/characters fit into the marketplace, which is a great thing. It makes her more self critical, not so great. Whenever she feels uninspired or stressed, she starts thinking about all the incredible books she gets to help bring into the world and she starts to feel better immediately.

Lauren’s debut novel, called “Your Destination Is On the Left”, was released in the year 2018. Her work is from the young adult and romance genre.

“Your Destination Is On the Left” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2018. Dessa Rhodes, seventeen years old, is torn between leaving her nomadic, modern life and chasing her dreams of becoming an artist. She travels with her family in their RV, with their lives defined by exit signs, state lines, and the tiny, communal caravan that they call home.

One of them is Cyrus, her long-time crush and best friend, a guy that she knows she can never be with. It is much too dangerous to take a risk on romance, when both of your families are linked perpetually. Instead, Dessa peers into the future. She would like to be a real artist, and attending art school is Dessa’s ticket to a new life and success. There is just a single problem. She has not been accepted to any schools.

All of a sudden, her future is wide open, and it would appear that she is going to be stuck traveling forever. There is an unexpected opportunity that opens up for her. It is an internship working for a local artist in Santa Fe.

She struggles to prove both to herself and her boss that she actually belongs there. Right when she finally hits her stride working for him, her family suffers an unexpected blow. Faced with losing all that she has been working for, she is faced with a tough decision. Is she going to say goodbye to the boy she loves and the nomadic lifestyle? Or is she going to choose to never stop moving?

This is a great read that kept some readers up all night, glued to the pages, and by the end upset because they wished it could have gone on longer. The book is an entertaining read that pulls you into the characters and their whole journey, yet it still speaks to some larger themes. Dessa is an easy character to connect with in the book.

“She’s the Worst” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2019. April and Jenn, sisters, have not been at all close in many years now. Jenn, eighteen years old, is much too busy with school, her boyfriend, and the family antique shop. April, age sixteen, would rather hang out with the boy next door and play soccer.

April notices that her older sister is saddened because she has to stay home for college, she decides she should do something about it. The girls go off to revive a pact that they made when they were kids, spend an entire epic day as they explore the greatest hits from their childhood as well as everything that Los Angeles has to offer.

April learns that Jenn has got a secret she has been keeping that might rip their entire family, including their fighting parents, to shreds. With just a single day to make it all right, the sisters have to choose if their relationship is worth saving, or if the truth is just going to rip them apart forever.

This story is very delightful, and it made readers root for these two sisters to patch things up and fix the bond they used to have. Spieller makes each stop on their schedule interesting and fun, but used it as a chance for the characters to examine themselves and their relationship. Readers like how realistic the book feels, showing how kids get caught in the crossfire of parental squabbles and they wind up feeling unimportant by comparison. The dialogue is pitch-perfect and the setting, the city of Los Angeles, is fleshed-out and beautiful.