Fandom Hearts Books in Order

Fandom Hearts is where Cathy Yardley really lets her geek flag fly. These books live in a world of video games, fan culture, cosplay, conventions, bookshops, online friendships, and side hustles that matter just as much as the love story. If you like romance that treats nerdy hobbies as part of real adult life, not as a joke or a costume, this series has a lot going for it.

The heart of it is community.

Each book follows a different couple, but the stories are tied together by overlapping friendships, family links, and a shared sense that fandom can be both refuge and launchpad. Yardley's characters are coders, actors, readers, artists, mechanics, grad students, and dreamers. They are trying to make rent, hold onto businesses, repair old relationships, and figure out who they are when no one is watching.

Level Up starts the series with Tessa and Adam, housemates and coworkers in game development who stumble from long work hours into something much more intimate. One True Pairing moves into fake dating territory, pairing TV actor Jake with bookstore defender Hailey. Game of Hearts brings in Kyla and Jericho, with cosplay, auto-shop chaos, and a brother's-best-friend setup. Those first books show the range of the series really well. The setting may be playful, but the emotional stakes are not light.

As the series expands, Yardley keeps changing the shape of the romance without losing the core tone. What Happens at Con turns a masked convention hookup into a messier, more vulnerable connection. Ms. Behave digs into second chances and old friendship wounds. Playing Doctor gives the series one of its most unusual setups, with an agoraphobic heroine and an online friend forced into a treasure hunt that could change both of their lives. Ship of Fools closes things out with a second-chance romance between Rachel and her billionaire ex, Ren, bringing the focus back to old feelings that never quite died.

What ties these books together is the way fandom is never treated as background wallpaper. Conventions, games, costumes, and fan spaces shape how the characters meet, hide, work, and open up. The series understands that shared obsessions can be part of intimacy. So can group chats, guilds, message boards, and long-running in-jokes.

The tone is funny, sexy, and warm, but Yardley also makes room for anxiety, burnout, class difference, family pressure, and the fear of wanting something too much. Her people are often underdogs, and they know it. That makes the victories feel earned.

These books can be read one at a time, but they are more satisfying in order because the ensemble keeps growing around the edges. By the end, Fandom Hearts feels a little like a favorite fandom itself, familiar, comforting, and full of people you want to keep checking in on.