Bad Luck Brides Books in Order
Part ofEmily March Books in OrderBrowse the Bad Luck Brides series by Geralyn Dawson in order, with story summaries, series background, and reading order help for Emma, Mari, and Kat McBride's romances.
Last updated: December 26, 2025
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Publication Order
8 books
Her Outlaw
by Geralyn Dawson
2007
Widowed Emma McBride Tate longs for one last reckless adventure before settling into respectability. A playful flirtation with Highland rogue Dair MacRae sends her chasing a stolen heirloom from London to Texas, where passion, family secrets, and a supposed bad-luck curse collide.
Her Scoundrel
by Geralyn Dawson
2005
Kat McBride has sworn off trouble, but when legendary treasure hunter Jake Kimball offers a chance to reclaim a long-lost dream, she cannot resist. Their search for hidden riches forces this former Menace to choose between safe respectability and a scoundrel worth loving.
Her Bodyguard
by Geralyn Dawson
2005
Respectable at last, Mari McBride refuses to let her wild past stop her from hunting for her missing sister. To survive the trek across dangerous Texas country she hires notorious gunslinger Luke Garrett, and soon trusting him with her life means risking her guarded heart.
The Bad Luck Wedding Night
by Geralyn Dawson
2001
On their Texas wedding night, teenage bride Sarah panics and sends husband Nick Ross away, only to lose him to an unexpected earldom and ten lonely years. When he finally summons her to England, long-distance affection turns into a wary, second-chance courtship neither quite trusts.
Sizzle All Day
by Geralyn Dawson
2000
To save her crumbling Scottish castle, Gillian Ross invents a resident ghost to satisfy a superstitious buyer. Instead she spooks Jake Delaney, a charming Texan hunting a legendary treasure, and her make-believe haunting soon sparks a very real, very inconvenient attraction.
Simmer All Night
by Geralyn Dawson
1999
After being crowned San Antonio’s Chili Queen, irrepressible Christina Delaney is packed off to England with steady family friend Cole Morgan as escort. Between Derbyshire teas, missing documents, and old sparks, their bickering partnership slowly simmers into something far hotter than either planned.
The Bad Luck Wedding Cake
by Geralyn Dawson
1998
Baker Claire Donovan’s broken engagement has branded her family’s once-“magic” cakes as bad luck, threatening their beloved shop. Confirmed bachelor Tye McBride needs a bride to keep custody of his mischievous nieces, so their marriage of convenience soon tests every rule they made about love.
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress
by Geralyn Dawson
1996
Fort Worth seamstress Jenny Fortune’s masterpiece gown has been blamed for every mishap to strike the brides who wear it, and her business is crumbling. Widowed saloon owner Trace McBride wants stability for his three wild daughters, not a new wife, until Jenny’s courage makes him rethink fate.
Series background & context
Bad Luck Brides zooms in on the notorious McBride sisters, sometimes known as the McBride Menaces, and gives each of them her own adventure. These are historical romances with a strong Western streak, but they tilt more toward family saga than straight frontier shoot‑’em‑up.
The premise is that the sisters grew up being told they carried a “bad luck love line,” a palm reader’s warning that only the truest love could break the family curse. Their mischief as children, chronicled in the earlier Bad Luck Wedding books, has calmed down, but the legend still hangs over them when it is time to marry.
In Her Bodyguard, responsible eldest sister Mari McBride is determined to find out what really happened to a younger sibling who may have perished in a disastrous fire. To pursue the truth she hires Luke Garrett, a gunslinger with a hero’s instincts and an outlaw’s reputation. Their journey across Texas forces Mari to balance duty to her family with the inconvenient pull of her own heart.
Her Scoundrel turns the spotlight on impulsive, romantic Kat McBride. After one mistake too many, she has sworn off reckless choices, especially when it comes to men. Of course that is exactly when treasure hunter Jake Kimball strides into her life with promises of adventure and a chance to rewrite her fate. Their hunt for lost riches becomes a more intimate search for trust and self‑worth.
In Her Outlaw, widow Emma McBride Tate, once the ringleader of the Menaces, yearns for one last taste of mayhem before she buries her wild streak for good. A flirtation with Scottish rogue Dair MacRae, a stolen necklace, and a chase that stretches from London ballrooms to Texas badlands push her to decide what kind of future she really wants.
Across the trilogy, recurring characters, especially the protective McBride patriarch, add both humor and pressure. The supposed curse is a running joke, but it also becomes shorthand for the doubts that can haunt any woman raised to put everyone else first. The stories are packed with travel, danger, family secrets, and slow-earned trust.
Readers who enjoyed the earlier Bad Luck Wedding novels will appreciate seeing the McBride girls all grown up and facing their own choices. Newcomers can easily start here, though, because each book focuses tightly on one sister’s romance and resolves its central conflicts. If you like historical romance with spirited heroines, complicated fathers, and an undercurrent of family legend, Bad Luck Brides delivers.
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