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Richard Paul Evans

Biography

Richard Paul Evans

Richard Paul Evans is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 40 novels. There are currently more than 35 million copies of his books in print worldwide, translated into more than 24 languages. Richard is the recipient of numerous awards, including two first place Storytelling World Awards, the Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, and is a five-time recipient of the Religion Communicators Council’s Wilbur Awards.

Seven of Richard’s books have been produced as television movies. His first feature film, The Noel Diary, starring Justin Hartley ("This Is Us") and acclaimed film director Charles Shyer (Private Benjamin, Father of the Bride), debuts in November 2022. In 2011, Richard began writing Michael Vey, a #1 New York Times bestselling young adult series that has won more than a dozen awards.

Richard is the founder of The Christmas Box International, an organization devoted to maintaining emergency children’s shelters and providing services and resources for abused, neglected, or homeless children and young adults. To date, more than 125,000 youths have been helped by the charity. For his humanitarian work, Richard has received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award.

Richard lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children and two grandchildren.

Richard Paul Evans

Books by Richard Paul Evans

by Richard Paul Evans - Essays, Nonfiction

Before he was the #1 New York Times bestselling author of holiday classics such as THE CHRISTMAS BOX, Richard Paul Evans was a young boy being raised by a suicidal mother and dealing with relentless bullying. He could not fathom what the future held for him. Now, in this intimate and heartfelt collection of personal essays, Evans shares his moving journey from childhood to beloved author. Here, he offers the insightful lessons he’s learned and engaging advice about everything from marriage to parenthood and even facing near-death experiences.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It’s 1967, and for young Richard it’s a time of heartbreak and turmoil. Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother’s abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate. Richard does his best to remain strong --- but when he’s run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies, and they become fast friends. As the holidays approach, the joy and light of Christmas seem unlikely to permeate the Evans home as things take a grim turn for the worse. And just when it seems like he has nothing left to lose, Richard is confronted by a startling revelation.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Richelle Bach and her identical twin sister, Michelle, couldn’t be more different, and their paths diverge as they embark on adulthood. Years pass, until --- at their father’s behest --- they both come home for Christmas. What happens then forever damages their relationship, and Richelle vows never to see or speak to her sister again. In their father’s last days, he asks Richelle to forgive Michelle, a deathbed promise she never fulfills as her twin is killed in an accident. Now, painfully alone and broken, Richelle has one last dream: to be an author. The plot of her book, The Prodigal Daughter, is a story based on her sister’s life. It’s not until she meets Justin Ek, a man who harbors his own loss, that a secret promise is revealed.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

After nearly two decades, Noel Post, an editor for a major New York publishing house, returns to her childhood home in Salt Lake City to see her estranged, dying father. What she believed would be a brief visit turns into something more as she inherits the bookstore her father fought to keep alive. Reeling from loneliness, a recent divorce and unanticipated upheavals in her world, Noel begins receiving letters from an anonymous source, each one containing thoughts and lessons about her life and her future. She begins to reacquaint herself with the bookstore and the people she left behind, and in doing so, she starts to unravel the reality of her painful childhood and the truth about her family.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Chicago celebrity and pitchman Charles James is supposed to be dead. Everyone believes he was killed in a fiery plane crash, a flight he narrowly missed. But thanks to that remarkable twist of fate, he’s very much alive and ready for a second chance at life and love. In this final installment of the provocative series that began with THE BROKEN ROAD and THE FORGOTTEN ROAD, Charles is still on his pilgrimage across the iconic Route 66. He intends to finish his trek from Amarillo to Santa Monica, despite learning that his ex-wife is now planning to marry another man. With the initial reason for his trip in jeopardy, he still has lessons to learn along the way before he discovers --- and arrives at --- his true destination.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

The year is 1975. Elle Sheen --- a single mother who is supporting herself and her six-year-old African-American son, Dylan, as a waitress at the Noel Street Diner --- isn’t sure what to make of William Smith when his appearance creates a stir in the small town of Mistletoe, Utah. As their lives unexpectedly entwine, Elle learns that William, a recently returned Vietnam POW, not only is fighting demons from his past, but may also have the answer to her own secret pain --- a revelation that culminates in a remarkable act of love and forgiveness.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Chicago celebrity and successful pitchman Charles James is supposed to be dead. Everyone believes he was killed in a fiery plane crash. But thanks to a remarkable twist of fate, he’s very much alive and ready for a second chance at life --- and love. The last time he was truly happy was when he was married to his ex-wife Monica, before their connection was destroyed by his ambition and greed. Charles decides to embark on an epic quest: He will walk the entire length of Route 66, from Chicago to California, where he hopes to convince Monica to give him another shot. Along the way, Charles is immersed in the deep and rich history of one of America’s most iconic highways.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Publicly humiliated after her husband, a local councilman, is arrested for bigamy, and her subsequent divorce, Maggie Walther has isolated herself from the world. When her only friend insists that Maggie climb out of her hole, and embrace the season to get her out of her funk, Maggie decides to put up a Christmas tree and heads off to buy one. She is immediately taken by Andrew, the kind, handsome man who owns the Christmas tree lot and delivers her tree. As their friendship develops, Maggie slowly begins to trust again. Then, just when she thinks she finally has found happiness, she discovers a dark secret from Andrew’s past. Is there more to this stranger’s truth than meets the eye?

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Chicago celebrity Charles James can’t shake the nightmare that wakes him each night. He sees himself walking down a long, broken highway, the sides of which are lit in flames. Where is he going? Why is he walking? What is the wailing he hears around him? By day, he wonders why he’s so haunted and unhappy when he has all he ever wanted. But now, at the pinnacle of his career, he’s started to wonder if he’s wanted the wrong things. When he learns that one of his customers has committed suicide because of financial ruin, Charles is shaken. Then a twist of fate changes everything. Charles is granted something very remarkable: a second chance. The question is: What will he do with it?

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Holiday

Bestselling romance author Jacob Churcher hasn't been home for almost 20 years --- not since his mentally ill mother kicked him out of the house when he was just 16. When a lawyer calls to inform him that his estranged mother has passed away and left her house to him, Jacob returns to try and reconcile with the past and the pain and abuse he experienced as a child. As he digs through two decades worth of clutter, he uncovers many puzzling items, including a diary left by someone named Noel, who stayed with Jacob’s family during her pregnancy. Jacob then has an unexpected visitor, Rachel, who is looking for the mother who put her up for adoption 30 years before. United by their quest to make sense of the past and rewrite their futures, Jacob and Rachel begin a search for Noel.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Holiday, Romance

Thinking no one is reading, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. She goes from day to day showing a brave face to the world while inside she longs to know how it would feel if one person cared about her. Alex Bartlett cares. He’s reading her posts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nursing his own broken heart and trust issues, he finds himself falling for this sensitive, vulnerable woman whose feelings mirror his own. He ultimately tracks down LBH, a woman who is as beautiful and kind as he imagined she would be. How can he tell her that he knows her secret? What’s holding him back?

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Holiday

At 32, Kimberly Rossetti has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Burlington, VT. In one of her breakout sessions, she meets Zeke, who seems as interested in her as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. And as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he’s unwilling to talk about.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Alan Christoffersen’s daring cross-country journey --- a walk across America, from Seattle to Key West, with only the pack on his back --- has taught him lessons about love, forgiveness and, most of all, hope. Now Alan must again return west to face yet another crisis, one that threatens to upend his world just as he had begun to heal from so much loss, leaving him unsure of whether he can reach the end of his journey.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Holiday

It isn’t Christmas without a Richard Paul Evans novel. Ever since he wrote the book that inspired the genre, THE CHRISTMAS BOX, his bestselling holiday stories have become a beloved literary tradition. As the New York Journal of Books wrote, “Richard Paul Evans has proven to be one of America’s most precious gifts…an inspirational writer who has the ability to read our very souls and heal broken hearts…His books are the ones you can’t wait to finish, but when you do, you wish you hadn’t.”

by Richard Paul Evans

Bestselling novelist Richard Paul Evans has met hundreds of thousands of people and heard many of their stories in his travels over the past two decades. THE FOUR DOORS is Evans’s message to those who seek inspiration in their lives. It includes stories his readers have told him, stories about great achievers who overcame hardships, and stories about his own struggle growing up.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

After the death of his beloved wife and the loss of his advertising business and home, Alan Christoffersen is a broken man. Leaving everything he knows, he sets out on an extraordinary cross-country journey --- from Seattle to Key West. Along the way, Alan meets people who teach him lessons about love, sacrifice and forgiveness. But in St. Louis, Alan faces another life-changing crisis, putting the journey in jeopardy.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction, Holiday

Joe is forced out of the family business by his jealous siblings. Moving on to another company, he soon becomes chief advisor to the CEO. But when the economy turns, Joe’s siblings need his help to save the family business.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

Halfway through his trek from Seattle to Key West, Alan Christoffersen sets out to walk the nearly 1,000 miles between South Dakota and St. Louis, but it’s the people he meets along the way who give the journey its true meaning. Among these individuals is an elderly Polish man who gives Alan a ride and shares a story that Alan will never forget.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

After squandering his million-dollar trust, Luke Crisp is suddenly broke and too ashamed to return home. Only through the kindness of a stranger --- and a woman’s love --- does he recall the early lessons of his life. But it may be too late to save his father’s company, which was turned over to a heartless man with no scruples.

by Richard Paul Evans - Fiction

One December morning, highly successful workaholic Lou Suffern uncharacteristically buys a cup of coffee for Gabe, a homeless man near his building --- but after Lou offers Gabe a job, the charitable case goes terribly wrong.