Inheritance and succession book series in reading order

by Emily Rodda

by Nancy Atherton

by Barbara Taylor Bradford

by Lian Hearn

by Rett MacPherson

by Carol Lea Benjamin

Emily Rodda is a pen name of Jennifer June Rowe, an Australian author born 2 April 1948. Rowe publishes crime fiction for adults under her own name, including the Verity Birdwood and Tessa Vance series, and children's fiction as Emily Rodda and as Mary-Anne Dickinson. Deltora Quest is the central children's sequence, extended by Dragons of Deltora, Deltora Shadowlands and Star of Deltora, with Rowan of Rin, Fairy Realm, Rondo and the Three Doors Trilogy beside it. The catalogue lists 102 books from Pigs Might Fly (1986) onward.

Penny Jordan is one of the pen names of Penelope Halsall, born Penelope Jones, an English novelist who lived from 24 November 1946 to 31 December 2011. Halsall produced more than 200 romance novels: contemporary romance as Penny Jordan, Regency romance as Caroline Courtney and historical romance as Annie Groves, the maiden name of Halsall's mother. Melinda Wright and Lydia Hitchcock were two further pen names. Sales passed 70 million copies, with translations into many languages. The catalogue lists 210 books from 1979 to 2019, and the earliest entries, such as A Wager For Love (1979), carry the Caroline Courtney name. Series include Perfect Crightons, Jet Set Wives, Leopardi Brothers, Parenti Dynasty and Russian Rivals.

Anthony Trollope

81 books• 6 series

Anthony Trollope was an English novelist of the Victorian era who also served as a civil servant. The catalogue holds 81 Trollope titles, opening with The Macdermots of Ballycloran (1847) and closing at Malachi's Cove and Other Stories and Essays (1985). Trollope grouped much of the fiction into the Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser novels, and wrote travel books, essays and short stories alongside them. English social life and customs, inheritance and succession, and manners recur across the subjects.

Barbara Taylor Bradford began in non-fiction, with Fashions That Please Him (1970) and a run of interior decorating guides, then wrote A Woman of Substance (1979) and the family sagas that followed. Businesswomen, inheritance and mothers and daughters are the standing subjects. 47 catalogued books include the Emma Harte and Harte Family sagas, Cavendon Hall, the House of Falconer and the Ravenscar novels. The Wonder of It All, published in 2023, closes the catalogue.

Jo Beverley (1947-2016), born Mary Josephine Dunn, was an English-Canadian author of historical and contemporary romance. Regency England and its nobility supply most of the settings, with the Mallorens and the Company of Rogues as the two groups readers follow across books. Beverley's 63 catalogued titles open with Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed (1988) and end with Merely a Marriage in 2017. Translations into several languages and multiple awards followed the work.

Historical romance and FBI suspense make up Catherine Coulter's two main bodies of work. Regency and medieval romances such as the Sherbrooke Brides and Medieval Song sequences date back to the 1979 debut The Rebel Bride, while the FBI Thriller series and A Brit in the FBI follow government investigator Dillon Savich. Coulter's catalogue runs to 95 books, reaching The Heir of Whitestone in 2026.

Nora Roberts

279 books• 37 series

Nora Roberts, born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950, is an American writer of romance under that name. As J. D. Robb, Roberts writes police procedurals with science-fiction elements, and has also published as Jill March and, in the UK, as Sarah Hardesty. This listing carries 280 Roberts books, opening with Irish Thoroughbred (1981); The Missing is scheduled for 2027. Series on the page include the In Death Universe, the MacGregors, Night Tales, the Calhoun Women, the Chesapeake Bay Saga, Irish Hearts and the O'Hurleys.

Jude Deveraux

78 books• 14 series

Historical and contemporary romance make up Jude Deveraux's 78 catalogued books, many following the Montgomery and Taggert families across generations. Edilean, James River, Summerhouse, Nantucket Brides, Peregrine, Providence Falls and the Medlar Mystery books are among her series. The catalogue begins with The Enchanted Land (1978), runs densest through the 1980s, and reaches Order of Royals in 2026.

Jayne Ann Krentz, born Jayne Castle on 28 March 1948 in Cobb, California, is an American romance novelist with New York Times bestsellers under seven pseudonyms. Three names remain in use: Krentz for contemporary romantic suspense, Amanda Quick for historical romantic suspense and Jayne Ann Castle for futuristic and paranormal romantic suspense. More than 35 million copies are in print. The catalogue lists 205 books, from Vintage of Surrender (1979, as Jayne Castle) to Enter the Nightmare (2026), with The Book Hunter due in 2027. Early titles also appeared as Jayne Bentley, Jayne Taylor and Stephanie James. Series include Burning Cove, Eclipse Bay and the Dreamlight Trilogy.

Grace Burrowes writes historical romance, with subject headings naming the Regency, nobility, England, soldiers, widowers, single fathers and inheritance. Before fiction, Burrowes worked as a technical writer and editor, earned a law degree in an evening program, opened a law practice and completed a master's degree in Conflict Management. Burrowes grew up the sixth of seven children in rural central Pennsylvania and lives in rural Maryland. The catalogue lists 120 books, among them The Heir (2010), The Soldier (2011), The Virtuoso (2011) and The Bridegroom Wore Plaid (2012), with A Gentleman of Very Few Words (2026) the newest. Series include Lonely Lords, Windham Brides, True Gentlemen, Rogues to Riches, Mischief in Mayfair and Lady Violet Mysteries.

Hannah Howell, born in Massachusetts in 1950, is an American writer of historical romance, much of it set in medieval Scotland. Howell has also published as Anna Jennet, Sandra Dustin and Sarah Dustin. The catalogue records 56 books from A Taste of Fire (1988) to The Scotsman Who Swept Me Away (2019) and marks the run likely complete. Series include Murray Family, Wherlocke, Camerons, MacEnroys, Seven Brides for Seven Scotsmen and Highland Brides, the last written as Anna Jennet. Compromised Hearts (1989), Stolen Ecstasy (1991) and Silver Flame (1992) are early titles, and subjects include knights, inheritance, psychics and the paranormal.

Sabrina Jeffries

59 books• 14 series

Sabrina Jeffries, born in 1958, is an American romance novelist who also uses the pen names Deborah Martin and Deborah Nicholas. Entertainment Weekly has named Jeffries among the long-reigning leading voices in historical romance. The catalogue lists 59 books from 1992 to 2026: Creole Nights and Moonlight Enchantment (1992) carry the Deborah Martin name, and The Pirate Lord (1998) and The Forbidden Lord (1999) followed. Series include Hellions of Halstead Hall, School For Heiresses, Sinful Suitors, Duke's Men, Duke Dynasty, Swanlea Spinsters and Royal Brotherhood. Subjects name the Regency, aristocracy and England, and Nearly a Bride (2026) is the newest.

Marion Chesney

184 books• 22 series

Marion Chesney, later Marion Gibbons (1936-2019), was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery whose published career began in 1979. Historical romances appeared under the Chesney name, the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling books among them, while the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries appeared as M. C. Beaton; both of those mystery runs were adapted for television. Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Charlotte Ward, Jennie Tremaine and Sarah Chester are further pen names on the record. This listing gathers 185 books dated from 1979 onward, including later titles on which R.W. Green is credited.

Jane Feather, born Jane Robotham in Cairo, Egypt, in 1945, is a British–American writer of historical romance with more than ten million books in print and New York Times bestseller status. In 1984 Feather wrote five contemporary romances under the pseudonym Claudia Bishop. The catalogue lists 52 books from 1984 to 2021, including Love's Charade (1986), Smuggler's Lady (1986), Reckless Seduction (1987), Chase the Dawn (1988) and Venus (1988), and ends with Ravish Me with Rubies (2021). Series include Charm Bracelet, Matchmaker Duncan Sisters, Cavendish Square, Blackwater Brides and London Jewels Trilogy, and England, aristocracy and inheritance appear in the subjects.

Anna Jacobs writes historical sagas and romance set in England and Australia. Persons of Rank (1992) opens a catalogue of 114 books that reaches Hope Comes to Eastby End (2026), with Salem Street (1994), Ridge Hill (1996) and Our Lizzie (1999) among the early run. Family sagas name most of the series: the Gibson Family, the Kershaw Sisters, the Preston Family, the Michaels Family, the Blake Sisters and Swan River Saga, the Traders, Peppercorn Street, Rivenshaw, the Ellindale Saga, Larch Tree Lane and the Wiltshire Girls. Widows, inheritance and family life recur as subjects.

Susan Stephens writes romance, with 85 books catalogued from The Italian Prince's Proposal (2003) to Christmas with Angel (2024). Stephens was once a professional singer and has also written several non-fiction books. Stephens met a future spouse on the Mediterranean island of Malta and has three children. Series include Acostas!, Blood and Thunder, Skavanga Diamonds, Hot Brazilian Nights!, Young, Hot & Royal and Maktabi Brothers. Subjects include contemporary romance, inheritance and succession, polo players and Italians.

V.C. Andrews was the name used by Cleo Virginia Andrews (June 6, 1923 to December 19, 1986), an American novelist best known for Flowers in the Attic (1979). That novel led to four sequels and two film adaptations. The publisher never classed the books as Young Adult, yet their young protagonists have drawn teenage readers for decades. After Andrews died in 1986, a ghostwriter first hired to finish two incomplete manuscripts went on publishing new books under the V.C. Andrews name. The catalogue carries 108 books under that name from 1979 to 2025, across series such as Dollanganger, Casteel, Cutler, Landry, Logan and De Beers.

Johanna Lindsey wrote historical romance across pirates, Vikings, the English aristocracy and the American west. Captive Bride (1977) opens a catalogue of 57 books, and the Malory-Anderson family novels are the best known strand, alongside the Reid family, the Viking Haardrad family, Sherring Cross and the Ly-San-Ter books. The run closed in 2019 with Temptation's Darling.

Charles Dickens

69 books• 3 series

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 to 9 June 1870) was an English novelist and journalist born in Portsmouth. At 12, Dickens left school to work in a boot-blacking factory while John Dickens, the writer's father, was held in a debtors' prison; three years later came a return to school, and then a start in journalism. The catalogue lists 69 Dickens titles, opening with Sketches by Boz (1836) and including The Pickwick Papers (1837), The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1838) and Barnaby Rudge (1841), with collected editions reaching The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (2026). Subjects include social conditions, classic literature and English Christmas stories.

Georgette Heyer

65 books• 7 series

Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 to 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer in two genres, Regency romance and detective fiction. The Black Moth (1921), the first of 65 catalogued books, grew from a story Heyer invented for an ill younger brother. These Old Shades (1926) became popular even though it came out during the General Strike. Inspector Hannasyde, Inspector Hemingway and Alastair-Audley are the recurring series. The Chinese Shawl (2019) is the newest listed edition.

Melody Carlson, born March 2, 1956 in San Francisco, is an American author of more than 250 books for women, teens and children, including the Diary of a Teenage Girl series. The catalogue lists 298 books from 1995, when Contemplative Bible Reading and How to Start a Quality Childcare Business in Your Home appeared, to All Booked Up (2026). Series include Carter House Girls, On The Runway, TrueColors, 86 Bloomberg Place, Secret Life of Samantha McGregor, Beary Patch Bears and Fruit Troops. Subjects include Christian life, high schools, friendship, Bible stories and stories in rhyme. Carlson grew up in Springfield, Oregon, attended Lane Community College and lives in Sisters, Oregon.

Nancy Atherton wrote one series and stayed with it: the Aunt Dimity mysteries, traditional English detective stories with a ghost inside them. Aunt Dimity is dead and still consulted, and inheritance, ghosts and a woman sleuth are the recurring subjects. Atherton's 25 catalogued books run from Aunt Dimity's Death (1992) to Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage in 2022, with nothing published since.

Gilbert Morris produced Christian historical fiction at length: 248 catalogued books between 1977 and 2014. The House of Winslow follows one family across American history; the Appomattox Saga and Bonnets & Bugles take up the Civil War; Cheney Duvall, M.D. follows a woman physician; the Seven Sleepers, Dixie Morris and Too Smart Jones series sit alongside, with children's fiction among the subjects. The catalogue opens with Race Against Time (1977), reaches Raina's Choice, and is listed as likely complete.

Barbara Cartland

702 books• 3 series

Barbara Cartland, born Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland on 9 July 1901 and died on 21 May 2000, was an English romance novelist and socialite. This directory catalogues 702 titles under Cartland's name, from His Hour (1910) through to A Heart in the Highlands (2024), with the 1980s the heaviest decade. The Eternal Collection, the Pink Collection and the Camfield Novels Of Love group the bulk of that output. Cartland wrote contemporary as well as historical romance, the historical novels set mainly in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and ranks fifth among the most translated authors worldwide.