Borgia Chronicles Books in Order

Set in late‑fifteenth‑century Rome, Kate Quinn’s Borgia Chronicles follow three outsiders who find themselves entangled with one of history’s most infamous families. Rather than centering only on popes and princes, the duology looks at the Borgias from the kitchens, guardrooms, and private chambers where power is bargained for one favor at a time.

The Serpent and the Pearl begins in 1492 as a dying pope leaves the throne of Saint Peter up for grabs. Vivacious Giulia Farnese expects her new marriage to bring stability and status, only to discover she has been offered up as a concubine to Rodrigo Borgia, a charismatic cardinal with his eye on the papacy. Swept into his household, Giulia relies on two very different allies: Leonello, a sharp‑tongued dwarf with a score to settle, and Carmelina, a gifted cook hiding a dangerous past.

The first book spends as much time in the Vatican kitchens and back stairways as it does in the audience chambers. Quinn lingers on food, clothes, and the daily work of running a powerful household, so the poisonings, conspiracies, and whispered confessions feel rooted in a very physical world. The three narrators do not always agree on what matters most, which keeps the story brisk and sometimes darkly funny despite its grim stakes.

In The Lion and the Rose, Giulia is firmly installed as the cherished mistress of Pope Alexander VI, mother to his young daughter and a glittering figure in Roman society. That security proves fragile. Enemies of the Borgias circle from inside and outside the city, Carmelina’s secrets begin to catch up with her, and Leonello is pulled into a string of murders that suggests a killer is hunting the people closest to them.

Both books trace the same trio as they decide how much they are willing to pay for proximity to power. Giulia has to choose between her own safety and that of the family she has built in the pope’s shadow. Leonello must balance the satisfaction of revenge against the risk of exposing the people he has come to care about. Carmelina walks a tightrope between survival and integrity in a world that offers little mercy to women who step outside their assigned roles.

Readers who enjoy palace intrigue will find plenty of cardinals scheming, banners flying, and Borgia scandals here, but the heart of the series lies in its friendships and found family. The two novels form one continuous arc, so they work best read in order, starting with The Serpent and the Pearl and moving on to The Lion and the Rose.