A Class of Their Own Books in Order

A Class of Their Own shifts the focus from titled ladies and heiresses to women who work for a living, or badly want to. The books still live in the Gilded Age, and there are still gowns, balls, and wealthy families, but this series is more interested in shop girls, nannies, actresses, and people trying to build a place for themselves instead of simply inheriting one.

The three novels, After a Fashion, In Good Company, and Playing the Part, each center on a heroine standing just outside the world she is supposed to impress. Harriet Peabody wants to open a dress shop for working women. Millie Longfellow is an orphan with a huge heart and a talent for causing upheaval wherever she goes. Lucetta Plum is a rising stage actress who suddenly needs somewhere safe to disappear. They are all clever, capable women, but none of them move through society without friction.

That class tension is the backbone of the series.

Turano gets a lot of mileage out of putting practical women next to men who are used to control. Oliver Addleshaw is a businessman on the rise who needs help looking respectable. Everett Mulberry is a would-be society gentleman who inherits three children and no clue what to do with them. Bram Haverstein seems eccentric and remote until Lucetta starts pulling at the loose threads around him. In every book, the romance grows out of mismatched expectations and the gradual discovery that each person needs something different from life than they first assumed.

There is a strong work thread running through the series as well. Clothes, childcare, public image, performance, and money all matter. These are not idle stories about perfect people drifting from one party to the next. Even when the scenes are funny, the heroines are usually trying to solve a real problem, keep a position, earn independence, or protect someone more vulnerable than themselves.

The tone stays light, but the books never feel flimsy. In Good Company brings in a family mystery around the children Millie cares for. Playing the Part has a threatening admirer, a secluded estate, and a house full of secrets. Even After a Fashion, which begins with a fake social arrangement, has real stakes underneath the comedy. Turano likes a little suspense with her courtship.

If you want Jen Turano at her most interested in work, class difference, and women inventing their own futures, this is a great series to pick up. The books can be read one at a time, but they flow nicely in order. Together, they show how much fun she can have when she lets ambition, romance, and social awkwardness share the same room.