Marriage book series in reading order

by Richard & Frances Lockridge

by Kiera Cass

by Trisha R. Thomas

by Ally Condie

by Tennessee Williams

by Karen Templeton

by Janette Oke

by Carl Hiaasen

by D.E. Stevenson

by Stephen White

by Lian Hearn

by John F. MacArthur Jr.

by Maureen Child

by Nero Blanc

by Kenneth Cameron

by Jenny Han

Lynne Graham, born 30 July 1956 in Northern Ireland, has written more than 100 romance novels for Mills & Boon since 1987. The catalogue lists 151 books from Bittersweet Passion (1987) to King's Promised Princess (2026), with Italian's Heir Before Vows scheduled for 2027. Series include International Playboys; Virgin Brides, Arrogant Husbands; Secretly Pregnant, Conveniently Wed; and Stefanos Legacy. Billionaires, Greeks, marriage and pregnancy recur among the subjects.

Richard and Frances Lockridge wrote detective fiction together. Pam and Jerry North, a married couple, are the recurring investigators: Mr. and Mrs. North (1936) introduces them and The Norths Meet Murder (1940) begins the crime novels. Captain Heimrich, Lieutenant Nathan Shapiro, Paul Lane and Bernard Simmons head four further series, much of the work set in New York State. The listing holds 77 books through to The Old Die Young (1980).

Betty Neels (15 September 1909 - 7 June 2001) was an English author of more than 134 romance novels, born in Leyton. Mills & Boon published the novels first in the United Kingdom, and Harlequin reprinted them in North America. Neels wrote from 1969 until death, and the books are noted for being especially chaste. The catalogue lists 140 books, including Nurse in Holland (1969), Sister Peters in Amsterdam (1969) and Tempestuous April (1970). Doctors, nurses, surgeons and the Netherlands recur in the subjects, and Dr Fforde is a named series.

Patricia Moyes wrote traditional English detective fiction, 20 books published between 1959 and 1996. Moyes, born Patricia Pakenham-Walsh in 1923 and dead in 2000, built the catalogue around Inspector Henry Tibbett of the C.I.D. Emmy Tibbett recurs beside him, and the subject headings name married people, police spouses, England and London. Dead Men Don't Ski (1959) opens the run and Who Killed Father Christmas? (1996) closes it. Who Saw Her Die (1970), published in the United States as Many Deadly Returns, drew an Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination in 1971, the year Moyes joined the Detection Club. Juvenile fiction and short stories sit beside the Tibbett novels.

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.

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.

Across 194 catalogued books, Danielle Steel writes contemporary romance and family drama: love stories, marriages, widowhood and the turns that reshape a life. The run starts with Going Home (1973) and continues through Celebration, with 24 Hours scheduled for 2027. Steel's catalogue also holds children's picture books, short stories and non-fiction beside the standalone novels that make up most of it.

Debbie Macomber

245 books• 35 series

Debbie Macomber, born October 22, 1948, is an American author of romance novels and contemporary women's fiction. Six Macomber novels became made-for-TV movies, and the Cedar Cove novels became a television series of the same name, with Macomber serving as executive producer on the adaptations. Macomber won the first fan-voted Quill Award for romance in 2005 and holds a RITA Award and a lifetime achievement award from the Romance Writers of America. The catalogue counts 245 books between Starlight (1983) and A Date with Santa (2026). Series include Heart of Texas, Midnight Sons, Navy, Those Manning Men, Orchard Valley and Angels Everywhere.

Cathy Maxwell writes historical romance, with 46 books in the catalogue from All Things Beautiful (1994) to Curves for the Rakish Duke (2026). Why people fall in love is the question Maxwell spends hours pondering, according to the author bio, and Maxwell lives in Virginia. Early titles include Treasured Vows (1996), Because of You (1999) and Married in Haste (1999). Series include Cameron Sisters, Scandals and Seductions, Marrying the Duke, Chattan Curse, Brides of Wishmore, Spinster Heiresses and A Logical Man's Guide to Dangerous Women. Subjects include Regency romance, nobility, arranged marriage and Scotland.

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.

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.

Kiera Cass

19 books• 3 series

Kiera Cass, born May 19, 1981, is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known for The Selection series. The Selection grew into a trilogy told from the main character's point of view, two sequels about that character's daughter, and several novellas. Cass also reworked The Siren, a novel first posted online in 2008. The catalogue counts 19 titles between The Siren (2009) and A Thousand Heartbeats (2022), with Betrothed as a second series. Princesses, contests and dystopian fiction appear among the subject headings.

Kimberla Lawson Roby writes about African American families, marriage and the church. The Reverend Curtis Black series, opening with Casting the First Stone (2000), is the long-running sequence, and Behind Closed Doors (1996) came before it. Clergy, spouses of clergy and life in Illinois are recurring subjects. Twenty-nine books run to Sister Friends Forever in 2022, and nothing new has appeared since.

Anita Stansfield writes Christian romance and family sagas, much of it with Mormon characters and settings. First Love and Forever (1994) opens a catalogue of 90 books built largely from sagas, Byrnehouse-Davies & Hamilton, the Trevor Family, the Buchanans, the Barringtons, the Keane-Morrisons and Shadows of Brierley. The Scoundrel's Widow (2022) is the newest catalogued title.

Lisa Jackson

189 books• 27 series

Lisa Jackson, born Susan Lisa Jackson in 1952, is an American author of romance and romantic suspense novels, with more than 75 to that name. The catalogue holds 189 Lisa Jackson books, from A Twist of Fate (1983) to Not What It Seems (2026). Subjects across the list include serial murders, women detectives, Montana and contemporary romance. Jackson's series include Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli, McCaffertys, Cahills / San Francisco, Savannah and the Dark Jewels Trilogy, plus a historical trilogy issued as Susan Lynn Crose. New Jackson titles continue to appear.

Catherine Palmer writes Christian romance, much of it historical and set in frontier America. The catalogue holds 56 books dated between 1974 and 2010, grouped into Treasures Of The Heart, Town Called Hope, English Ivy and Miss Pickworth. Titles include The Burning Plains (1988), Land of Enchantment (1990), Forbidden (1991), Outlaw Heart (1992) and Gunman's Lady (1993), and the newest listing is The Gunman's Bride (2010). Recorded subjects include marriage, inheritance, pioneer life and American Christmas stories. The list is marked likely complete.

Lucy Monroe writes contemporary and historical romance, with Harlequin among the recorded subjects alongside billionaires, marriage, seduction, Greeks and werewolves. Ninety books are catalogued from The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress (2003) to Honorable Sins (2026). Series include Royal Brides, Princesses by Royal Decree, Children of the Moon, the Goddard Project, Syndicate Rules, the Mercenary Trilogy, the Petronides Brothers and Northern Fire.

Fay Weldon

59 books• 9 series

Fay Weldon (1931-2023), born Franklin Birkinshaw, was a British novelist, essayist and playwright whose career ran fifty-five years and produced 31 novels. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) is the best known, televised by the BBC in 1986. The Bulgari Connection (2000), Puffball (1980), Wicked Women (1995) and The Cloning of Joanna May (1989) sit alongside it. Weldon was a feminist and described her subject as overweight, plain women. Fifty-nine catalogued titles, taking in novels, plays, short stories and nonfiction, run from 1967 to 2019.

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist, born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 8, 1963. Kingsbury worked as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Missy's Murder (1991), Kingsbury's first book, grew out of a murder story covered as a reporter in Los Angeles. Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. The catalogue holds 115 titles, running to The Christmas Ring (2025), and the series include Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, Red Gloves and Forever Faithful. Christian fiction and family life recur among the subjects.

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.

Jeaniene Frost

34 books• 9 series

Jeaniene Frost, an American fantasy author born on 13 June 1974, created the Night Huntress series and the Night Huntress World novels. Foreign rights to Frost novels have been sold in twenty countries. The catalogue lists 35 Frost books, from Halfway to the Grave (2007), At Grave's End (2008) and One Foot in the Grave (2008) to A Curse of Beasts and Magic (2026), with A Storm of Dragons and Sorcery due in 2027. Other series include Night Prince, Night Rebel, Broken Destiny and Beautiful and Beastly. Subjects include vampires, paranormal romance, romantic suspense and bounty hunters.

Lionel Shriver

22 books• 1 series

Lionel Shriver has 22 books catalogued from The Female of the Species (1987) to A Better Life (2026). Checker and the Derailleurs (1989), Game Control (1994), A Perfectly Good Family (1996) and Double Fault (1997) came first. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005, and The Post-Birthday World (2007) and So Much for That (2010) followed. Born Margaret Ann Shriver on May 18, 1957, Shriver is an American author and cultural commentator. Marriage, family life and musicians recur in the subjects.

Christine Rimmer, born January 28 in California, is a USA Today and Waldenbooks bestselling American romance novelist who began publishing novels in 1987. Rimmer has also placed poems and short stories in small literary journals. The catalogue counts 130 books, from The Road Home (1987) to The Maverick's Homecoming (2026). Several series carry the Bravo name, including Bravo Family, Bravos of Valentine Bay, Bravo Royales and Bravos of Justice Creek, alongside the Jones Gang, Viking Brides and Wild Rose Sisters. Contemporary and western romance, single parents, pregnancy and small-town life are recorded subjects.

Jillian Hart grew up on a family homestead near Carnation, Washington, raising cattle to pay for college and riding horses in the Cascade foothills. After an English degree from Whitman College, Hart travelled, worked in advertising, taught Sunday school and volunteered before turning to writing. The catalogue lists 113 books from 1998 to 2020, opening with Last Chance Bride and Hannah's Heart (1998), then Cooper's Wife, Jonah's Bride and Lissa's Cowboy (1999). Series include McKaslin Clan, McPhee Clan, Granger Family Ranch, Bluebonnet Bride, Buttons & Bobbins, Timber Valley Brides and Rose Hill Brides. Christian and historical romance, Montana, ranchers and mail order brides appear in the subject tags.