Crown's Spies Books in Order

The Crown's Spies novels are Julie Garwood’s blend of Regency glamour, high‑seas adventure, and secret identities. Set in the early nineteenth century, the four books—The Lion's Lady, Guardian Angel, The Gift, and Castles—share a loose network of friends and relatives who serve the interests of the British crown while stumbling headfirst into love.

The Lion's Lady introduces Christina Bennett, a young woman raised far from England who enters London society with mysterious manners and a past she refuses to discuss. Lyon, Marquis of Lyonwood, is both fascinated and suspicious. He quickly realizes that Christina’s poise hides real danger and that her secrets are tied to political intrigue. Their courtship plays out against ballrooms, whispered scandals, and the slow unspooling of Christina’s history.

In Guardian Angel, Garwood shifts from drawing rooms to the deck of a feared privateer. The pirate known as Pagan has been robbing the wealthy and secretly funneling aid to the poor, earning the hostility of the ton and the attention of the Marquess of Cainewood. Caine is determined to hunt Pagan down to avenge his brother, but instead finds Jade, an infuriatingly brave red‑haired woman who begs for his protection. Their story ties sea battles and underworld dealings to a romance built on sharp banter and reluctant trust.

The Gift picks up threads from Guardian Angel and focuses on Nathan, Marquess of St. James—once the pirate Pagan himself—and Lady Sara Winchester. Married as children to settle a family feud, they have lived most of their lives apart. Sara has grown up dreaming of a gentle, storybook husband, not the larger‑than‑life seaman who eventually appears. Aboard Nathan’s ship, she wrecks havoc in the galley, wins over his crew, and slowly discovers the man behind the legend, even as an old scandal threatens to destroy them once they return to England.

The final book, Castles, centers on Princess Alesandra, an orphaned royal whose unstable homeland makes her a political pawn. Brought to England and placed under the protection of Colin Hallbrook, younger brother of Caine, she is told that a quick marriage to an Englishman is the safest way to secure her future. Colin intends only to keep her safe and find a suitable husband. A near‑abduction and a series of mysteries surrounding a London killer push him into proposing a marriage “in name only” that quickly becomes something else.

Taken together, the series offers a world where nobles attend glittering balls one week and chase smugglers or assassins the next. Garwood leans into big gestures: daring rescues, masked identities, and heroines who are by turns naive and quietly steel‑spined. Familiar faces reappear as siblings, in‑laws, and co‑conspirators, giving the sense of an extended family operating in the shadows of polite society.

Readers don’t have to follow a strict order, but starting with The Lion's Lady and moving through to Castles lets each revelation about Pagan, the spies, and the tangled families land in the way Garwood clearly enjoyed building them.