Back in May, I talked about the benefits of having an official reading order handy (and shared one for The Alchemical Tales). Well, time marches on, and publication stops for no blog or pre-made graphic! So today I have a new Pomegranate Café reading order to share. 😉

Pomegranate Café Romance began as a spin-off series from The Alchemical Tales–a chance to explore a new genre set in the same world. The two series are undeniably intertwined. For example, A Tale of Rowan and Daisy and “Reading into the Root” technically belong to both series.

(How do I determine that? Well, at the end of the day, it’s a subjective decision. I think of it in terms of characters, genre/content, and setting. A Tale of Rowan and Daisy concerns the main characters in Strong in Love, and it’s a romance, so it matches with Pomegranate Café on two of three counts. On the other hand, “Reading into the Root” is a short mystery story, so it’s not really the correct genre. However, it’s largely set within the café and, of course, deals heavily with Saki.)

Now, since I said that, you may notice that my reading orders and series parameters are pretty generous. I approach these lists as a resource for fans who love the series and want to be sure they didn’t miss anything. As an example, the combined Alchemical Tales and Pomegranate Café list looks like this:

But when you pare it down to novels and novellas (the main “meat” of the series), it looks less crowded!

At this point, I’m just having fun playing with Canva. 😉 To me, the whole idea of “reading order” is mostly for fun. I started as a cozy mystery author, after all, and mystery series are more often read out of order. (I mean, as readers we try to go in order, but when you have a series as long as, say, the Poirot novels, it’s a lot of effort!) Because of that, I make a real effort to make each novel or novella as stand-alone as possible. It’s not 100% possible, because after all, characters change and grow as a series progresses. To me, the point is that a reading order be like a fun bonus: there if a reader wants it, but never totally necessary to enjoying the story!

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