Order of Chelsea Bieker Books

Chelsea Bieker is an American author of literary fiction and contemporary fiction novels. She is known for emotionally charged, character‑driven stories that explore motherhood, trauma, resilience, and the complicated bonds that shape family life. Her work often blends stark realism with a sharp sense of place, particularly the landscapes and communities of California’s Central Valley. Bieker’s debut novel Godshot introduced her as a powerful new voice, followed by her award‑winning story collection Heartbroke and her national bestselling novel Madwoman, which deepens her interest in generational wounds and the search for identity.

Chelsea Bieker made her debut as a novelist in 2020 with Godshot. Below is a list of Chelsea Bieker’s books in order of when they were originally released:

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

If You Like Chelsea Bieker Books, You’ll Love…

• Lily King
• Liz Moore
• Alice Feeney

Chelsea Bieker Synopses: Godshot is a standalone novel by Chelsea Bieker that follows fourteen‑year‑old Lacey May, a girl growing up in Peaches, a drought‑stricken town in California’s Central Valley. Once an agricultural haven, Peaches has become a cracked, barren landscape where desperation runs deep. Many residents have turned to Pastor Vern, a charismatic cult leader who promises that his secret “assignments” will bring the rain everyone is praying for.

Lacey May has no reason to question him, until her world collapses in a single act of abandonment. Her mother, cast out of the community for her supposed sins, runs off with a stranger and leaves Lacey behind. With nowhere else to go, Lacey moves in with her grandmother Cherry, a woman more invested in her taxidermy mice than in raising a child. As Lacey navigates the increasingly disturbing behavior of the men who claim authority over her life, she begins to uncover the true extent of Pastor Vern’s plans for Peaches.

Determined to find her mother and reclaim her own future, Lacey sets out on a journey shaped by the romance novels she clings to and the unexpected support of the women who once knew her mother.

Heartbroke is a short story collection by Chelsea Bieker set across the stark, sun‑blasted landscapes of California’s Central Valley, where longing and desperation simmer just beneath the surface. Each story follows characters driven by desire, survival, or the hope of something better, even when their choices lead them into danger.

A woman steals a baby from a shelter in a frantic attempt to reclaim the motherhood she lost. A phone‑sex operator sees a strange kind of salvation when a lavender‑eyed cowboy steps unexpectedly into her life. A mother and son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach draw two young documentary filmmakers into their orbit. And two teenage girls test fate through an online game that grows darker with every choice they make.

Madwoman is a standalone novel by Chelsea Bieker that follows Clove, a woman who has spent years constructing a life meant to hide the truth of who she once was. She has a steady husband, two children who feel safe in a way she never did, and a carefully curated routine built on supplements, gratitude practices, and the belief that she can keep her past sealed away if she tries hard enough.

Everything shifts when a letter arrives from a women’s prison in California. The message drags her history back into the present and pulls her into a dangerous tangle of memory, fear, and the people she thought she had outrun. As the story moves between her fragile life in Portland and her childhood in a Waikiki high‑rise with her volatile parents, Clove is forced to confront the defining day she has spent her entire adulthood avoiding.