Order of Ellen Marie Wiseman Books

Ellen Marie Wiseman is an American author of coming-of-age/historical fiction novels. She is a New York Times bestselling author. Ellen realized she loved both reading and writing when she was in first grade, which interestingly enough was in one of the last surviving one-room schoolhouses in New York state. Ellen lives with her husband and their dog, and has adult children and grandchildren.

Ellen Marie Wiseman made her debut as a novelist in 2012 with The Plum Tree. Below is a list of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s books in order of when they were first published:

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

If You Like Ellen Marie Wiseman Books, You’ll Love…

• Kristin Hannah
• Ariel Lawhon
• Kristina McMorris

Ellen Marie Wiseman Synopses: The Orphan Collector is a standalone novel by Ellen Marie Wiseman. In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old Pia Lange, a German immigrant living in the slums of Philadelphia, dreams of escaping the city’s poverty and the hostility that forced her father to enlist in the U.S. Army to prove his loyalty. But a far deadlier threat looms: the Spanish influenza pandemic has descended on the city, leaving devastation in its wake. When food runs out, Pia is forced to leave her infant twin brothers behind to search for supplies – unaware that her world is about to change forever.

Across the street, Bernice Groves is consumed by grief after the recent death of her baby. Blaming overworked doctors and resenting the city’s immigrant population, Bernice is driven by a chilling resolve. When she sees Pia leave her apartment, she seizes a twisted opportunity to reshape the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she deems “true Americans.”

As Pia traverses a city darkened by death and desperation, she returns home to an unthinkable loss. The search for her brothers becomes a perilous journey through heartbreak and deception. To uncover the truth, Pia must summon every ounce of courage, confronting both the horrors of a city in crisis and the demons of a woman determined to erase her past.

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook is a standalone novel by Ellen Marie Wiseman. Sage Winters has always felt a deep connection to her twin sister, Rosemary. Though identical in appearance, Rosemary was more sensitive, more vulnerable – someone Sage instinctively protected. When Rosemary died of pneumonia six years ago, Sage was devastated. Now sixteen, she still grieves not only her sister, but also their mother, who died in a car accident soon after. Left in the care of a resentful stepfather, Sage feels adrift and alone.

Then she uncovers a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. Without her knowledge, Sage’s sister was institutionalized at Willowbrook State School – a place whispered about in the neighborhood, more rumor than reality – until she recently went missing.

Determined to uncover the truth and find her sister, Sage sets out for Willowbrook. But when she arrives, she’s mistaken for Rosemary and unwillingly pulled into the institution’s dark, harrowing world. What she experiences behind its doors will upend everything she thought she knew – about her sister, her family, and herself. A haunting story of resilience, identity, and the power of uncovering buried truths.

The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a standalone novel. When young, unwed mother Lena Conti arrives at Ellis Island, she is determined to keep her two-year-old daughter by her side. But the inspection process proves more harrowing than she expected. Her mother and teenage brother are deemed unfit for entry and sent back to Germany, leaving Lena utterly alone in a foreign land. Still, after years of hunger and hardship, she clings to the hope of building a better life for her child.

Reluctantly taken in by Silas Wolfe – a distant relative and widowed father – Lena finds herself in a remote cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, tasked with caring for his children and keeping house. Though the landscape stirs memories of her homeland, Lena struggles to find her place in this new world. Even more troubling, she learns the children have been taught to hide whenever the sheriff comes around.

As Lena becomes part of the tight-knit, resilient mountain community, she uncovers a disturbing reality: the State of Virginia is targeting these families, branding them as unfit and seeking to remove them from their land under the guise of eugenics.

When a state social worker accuses Lena of being feebleminded and immoral, she is committed to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics. There, she must summon every ounce of strength to fight for her daughter, for the community she has grown to love, and for the right to determine her own future.