Broke and Beautiful Books in Order

The Broke and Beautiful trilogy follows three twenty-something roommates in New York City who are long on dreams and short on cash. It’s a series about friendship as much as romance, capturing that specific life stage when your apartment is tiny, your bank account is terrifying, and your love life is one unexpected left turn after another.

In Chase Me, aspiring actress Roxy Cumberland has watched her theater hopes fizzle and is paying the bills by performing singing telegrams. Her first gig in a giant pink bunny suit brings her to the door of Louis McNally II, a smug, successful Manhattan lawyer fresh off a courtroom win. Their meet-cute involves an obscene song, too much champagne, and a kiss that neither of them can shake. The story tracks what happens when working-class hustle collides with old-money expectations, and how much both Roxy and Louis have to change to meet in the middle.

Need Me turns to Honey, the sweet, small-town transplant who traded her Kentucky roots for Columbia University and a tight scholarship budget. She falls hard for Ben Dawson, the young English professor whose lectures and bookish charm become the highlight of her week. When a dark closet encounter at a party reveals their chemistry, they have to weigh their intense attraction against very real professional consequences. The forbidden-student-teacher setup lets Bailey play with power imbalances, but the heart of the book is two people trying to do the right thing and failing more than once before they figure it out.

By Make Me, the group’s dynamic is well established. Abby Sullivan is the responsible hedge-fund heiress who bankrolls more than her share of rent; Russell Hart is the big, blue-collar construction worker who has been her protective shadow and secret admirer for years. Abby sees herself as practical and unremarkable, while Russell is convinced he’s too rough and unpolished for her world. When a near-tragedy pulls them closer, their friends-to-lovers story becomes a study in how class, body image, and self-worth can twist the way you see your own desirability.

Threaded through all three books is a sense of camaraderie and found family. The roommates show up at each other’s worst moments with cheap wine and questionable advice. Side characters move from comic relief to scene-stealers. Expect frank, explicit heat; jokes about broken appliances and subway mishaps; and a reminder that being “broke and beautiful” is as much about emotional vulnerability as it is about living on instant noodles.