Governesses book series in reading order

by Sarah E. Ladd

Christina Dodd's catalogue holds 82 books published between 1991 and 2026, opening with Candle in the Window and Treasure of the Sun in 1991 and reaching Teach the Torches to Burn in 2026. Dodd writes historical romance, much of it Regency, alongside romantic suspense; recorded subjects include England, governesses, princesses, and manners and customs. Series credited to Dodd include Governess Brides, Virtue Falls, Chosen Ones, Cape Charade, Darkness Chosen, Fortune Hunter and Knight. Dodd is a recipient of the RITA Award.

Maryrose Wood's children's fiction lists orphans, feral children, governesses, fairies and plants among the recorded subjects. The listed series are Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Morgan Rawlinson, Poison Diaries and Bad Badger. Wood has 17 catalogued books, from Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love (2006) to Bad Badger: A Family Story (2026). The Mysterious Howling (2009), The Hidden Gallery (2010), The Poison Diaries (2010), Nightshade (2011) and The Unseen Guest (2012) fall in between.

Patricia Burford Ryan, born August 9, 1954 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, writes romance as Patricia Ryan and mysteries as P.B. Ryan, and is the twin sister of the romance writer Pamela Burford. A Golden Heart award came in 1994, in the short contemporary series category, along with two Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards, and Silken Threads took the Romance Writers of America RITA for Best Long Historical Romance of 2000. The catalogue lists 31 titles from A Burning Touch (1995) to Writing the Novel They Can't Put Down (2012), with Nell Sweeney recurring as a character. Series include Nell Sweeney Mysteries, Hidden Grotto, North Moon Bay, Hot City Nights and Hero For Hire.

Julia Quinn

39 books• 12 series

Julia Quinn is the pen name of the American novelist Julie Pottinger, born January 12, 1970. Quinn writes historical romance set among the English nobility, and the catalogue holds 39 books from Dancing at Midnight (1995) through to titles dated 2026. Series include the Smythe-Smith Quartet, Bevelstoke, the Lyndon Sisters, the Two Dukes of Wyndham and the Bridgerton short stories. Quinn's novels have been translated into 41 languages and reached the New York Times bestseller list nineteen times, and the Bridgerton books became a Netflix television series of the same name. The Romance Writers of America inducted Quinn into its Hall of Fame.

Historical romance set in the Regency and the wider Georgian period is Mary Balogh's territory. Born Mary Jenkins in Swansea on 24 March 1944, Balogh moved to Canada in 1967, taught in Kipling, Saskatchewan, and became a school principal there before the first novel appeared in 1985. The catalogue runs to 106 books, from A Chance Encounter (1985) to A Waltz to Remember (2026). Series headings include Westcott, Bedwyn Family, Survivor's Club, Huxtable Quintet, Simply Quartet, Dark Angel and Ravenswood. Mary Balogh is still publishing.

Regency England is where Eloisa James sets her historical romances - aristocracy, nobility and London society. Potent Pleasures (1999) opens the catalogue, which runs to 54 books and The Last Lady B in 2026. Desperate Duchesses, the Essex Sisters, the Duchess Quartet, the Pleasures Trilogy and the Wildes of Lindow Castle are the main sequences, and the Happily Ever After books work from fairy tales.

Victoria Holt's catalogue runs to 185 books published between 1940 and 1995, covering historical fiction, historical romance and mystery. Daughter of Anna (1940) is the earliest title, and Daughters of England (1995) the latest. The listing gathers several credits under other names, including titles marked as Jean Plaidy. Series include Tudor Saga, Plantagenet Saga, Georgian Saga, Stuart Saga, Norman Trilogy, Queen Victoria and Lucrezia Borgia. Kings, queens, England and France are frequent subjects.

Daisy Dalrymple, a journalist, leads Carola Dunn's English mystery series. Dunn's catalogue holds 67 books, opening with Toblethorpe Manor (1981) and reaching The Corpse at the Crystal Palace (2019). The Cornish Mysteries form a second detective line, and the Black Sheep, Rothschild and Miss Larkin trilogies are romance. Women sleuths and English settings recur as subjects.

Andre Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 to March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy who also produced historical and contemporary fiction, and used the names Andrew North and Allen Weston as well. Norton was the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master, and the first inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The catalogue carries 209 books from The Prince Commands (1934) onward. Witch World, Solar Queen, Time Traders, Beast Master and Forerunner are series.

Henry James

131 books• 1 series

Henry James was an American-British author, placed between literary realism and literary modernism. Americans abroad, social life and manners, and the friction between Europe and the United States are the standing subjects of the fiction, and James's correspondence and travel writing are catalogued alongside it. The catalogue lists 131 titles with publication dates from 1866 to 2016, opening with Selected Tales and The Novels of George Eliot, both 1866. The 1870s were the heaviest decade, holding A Passionate Pilgrim, At Isella and Watch and Ward, all published in 1871.

Robert Barnard wrote traditional English detective fiction, and lectured and reviewed alongside it. The catalogue holds 64 titles published between 1974 and 2016, opening with Death of an Old Goat (1974). Charlie Peace and Perry Trethowan head two of the series; Idwal Meredith, John Sutcliffe and a sequence about Amadeus Mozart follow. Barnard also wrote criticism, including a study of Dickens (1974) and an appreciation of Agatha Christie (1980), and published four books as Bernard Bastable. Barnard lived from 1936 to 2013.

Carole Mortimer, born in England in 1960, is a British romance novelist who has written more than 150 novels since 1978 and was one of the youngest authors at Mills & Boon. The catalogue lists 291 books, starting in 1979 with The Passionate Winter, Only Lover, Savage Interlude and Tempted By Desire, and reaching Linus (2026), with Amanda and the Lord scheduled for 2027. Series include Regency Unlaced, Regency Sinners, Regency Scandal, Regency Lovers, Dangerous Dukes, Ruthless Regency Dukes, Scandalous St. Claires, Knight Security, Steele Protectors, Dragon Hearts and Wynter Hearts. Subjects cover contemporary and Regency romance, nobility, marriage and businessmen.

Shanna Swendson writes romance and light fantasy. Katie Chandler is the best-known series, beginning with Enchanted, Inc. (2005) and continuing in Once Upon Stilettos (2006), Damsel Under Stress (2007) and Don't Hex with Texas (2008), where magic is played for humour. Earlier romances date from 1993, among them A Storybook Hero and Dateless In Dallas, and Swendson has also published as Samantha Carter. Rebel Mechanics, the Lucky Lexie Mysteries and Tales of Rydding Village came later. Thirty-seven titles are catalogued, reaching Pottery & Peril in 2026.

Christianna Brand

32 books• 5 series

Christianna Brand was the professional name of Mary Christianna Lewis, born Mary Christianna Milne on 17 December 1907 in British Malaya, now Malaysia, a British writer of crime fiction and children's books who died on 11 March 1988. Inspector Cockrill is a series, with subject headings naming police procedurals and traditional English detective stories. The catalogue lists 32 books, beginning with Death in High Heels and Heads You Lose (both 1941), Green for Danger (1944), Death of Jezebel (1949) and Tour de Force (1955). Nurse Matilda, Inspector Charlesworth and Inspector Chucky are further series, and humorous children's stories appear among the subjects.

Jillian Hunter writes historical romance, much of it around the Boscastle family in England. 27 catalogued books span 1985 to 2018, from Heart of the Storm to The Duke of a Thousand Desires. Hunter, born in Scotland in 1950 to a Welsh mother and an American father, moved to London as a child and lives in southern California; she holds a degree in French. Forbidden to Love the Duke was named on an NPR Valentine's Day list in 2015. Nobility, marriage and governesses recur as subjects, and the catalogue is likely complete.

Charity Blackstock and Paula Allardyce are two names on one body of work: historical romance and romantic suspense, with governesses, wartime plots and Nazi conspiracies among the recurring subjects. The 52 catalogued titles run from Adam and Evelina and Dewey Death in 1956 to Death My Lover (2020), peaking in the 1970s. Median length is 222 pages.