Decadence Creek Books in Order

Decadence Creek is a short contemporary romance series set in a glamorous, emotionally messy world where public appearances and private feelings rarely match. The series consists of two linked novellas, Just One Night and Just the Way You Are, which focus on characters dealing with attraction, old history, and relationships that begin as something other than the truth.

Just One Night opens the series with a quick, high-heat romance setup. It introduces the mood of Decadence Creek: people who think they can keep desire separate from the rest of their lives, then discover that one night can change the terms of everything. As a short story, it offers a compact first look at the setting rather than a sprawling cast or a long-running mystery.

The second book digs deeper.

Just the Way You Are follows Stacey Parker and Harrison Duval. Stacey has set firm rules for their temporary marriage: it will last one year, involve no sex, and create no complicated feelings. Harrison, who lost Stacey once before when she disappeared from his life a decade earlier, has no interest in following rules that keep her at a distance. Their arrangement gives them a public relationship, but the real struggle is what they are willing to admit in private.

Stacey is carrying family pain and secrets from choices she had to make alone. Harrison wants another chance, but wanting someone is not the same as being able to understand what they have survived. The story leans into the tension between a practical agreement and the deeper emotions neither person can safely ignore.

The Decadence Creek books are concise and romance-forward. They do not require extensive knowledge of Ryan's other series, and the focus stays tightly on each relationship rather than on a large connected community. The setting provides glamour and a sense of escape, while the characters bring the emotional uncertainty.

Readers who enjoy fake or temporary relationships, second chances, and lovers forced to confront rules they made to protect themselves will find the core appeal here. The books are shorter than Ryan's full-length novels, which makes them easy to read in one or two sittings.

Start with Just One Night, then continue to Just the Way You Are. The second novella has the fuller emotional arc and is the best place to see what Decadence Creek does with its mix of pretense and real feeling.