Cyra Hafisa/Kadin Books in Order

The books often grouped under the Cyra Hafisa or Kadin heading—chiefly The Kadin and Love Wild and Fair—form the foundation of Bertrice Small’s historical universe. They introduce the Leslie family and establish many of the themes she would revisit for decades: cross‑cultural marriages, women surviving in male‑dominated courts, and the long echo of one woman’s choices on her descendants.

The Kadin tells the story of an English noblewoman swept out of her familiar world and into the Ottoman Empire. Kidnapped and sold into the sultan’s harem, she is renamed and remade as the Kadin, the sultan’s favored consort. The book lingers on the physical textures of that life—gardens, jewels, strict hierarchies—as well as on the emotional cost of being both cherished and owned. Even within the confines of the harem, the heroine finds ways to build alliances, protect her children, and quietly influence political outcomes.

Love Wild and Fair jumps ahead to the next generation, following Catriona, Countess of Glenkirk, a descendant who has inherited not only beauty but a complicated legacy. Living between Scotland and the broader European stage, Catriona becomes a pawn in royal and noble power struggles. Her marriage prospects are entangled with kings, ambitious earls, and rivals who see her body and her titles as prizes to be claimed. The story carries her from Highland strongholds to glittering continental courts and the exotic domes of Constantinople, echoing the east‑west tension of The Kadin.

Together, these novels trace a family line that will feed into other series, including the O’Malley and Friarsgate books. They are classic “big Bertrice Small” reads: long, detailed, unapologetically sensual, and packed with enough political maneuvering to satisfy readers who like their romance served with a strong dose of history.

If you want to start at the very beginning of Small’s fictional timeline, or if you’re curious about the mix of harem life and European intrigue that first made her name, the Cyra Hafisa/Kadin novels are the place to begin.