Heathens Books in Order

The Heathens books sit in an interesting place in Amanda Richardson's catalogue. They are dark, but not in exactly the same way as her academy or billionaire romances. This series is more haunted, more emotional, and more interested in the fallout of trauma, faith, secrecy, and survival.

It starts with Lily Damewood in Heathens. She is carrying painful memories and finds herself making regular visits to Notre Dame in Paris, not because she is especially pious, but because she is trying to quiet something inside herself. There she meets Salem Tempest, a seminary student on the edge of priesthood. Their connection is immediate and very much off-limits.

That tension gives the first book its shape.

The hook is not just forbidden attraction. Lily and Salem are pulled together by deeper revelations, and the series uses that romance to open a larger, darker story. Religion, celibacy, guilt, and longing all matter, but so do the secrets surrounding the people and institutions around them. The result feels moodier than a straightforward forbidden romance.

The world gets bigger in Monsters, which follows Evelyn Snow and Benedict Martin. Evelyn is a survivor trying to build a life after unbearable abuse. Benedict is the son of a monster and is desperate not to become one himself. Their book adds Oxford, London, the Blackfriars Brotherhood, and a more conspiratorial edge to the series. It is still romantic, but it also feels like a story about aftermath, healing, and the long shadow cast by powerful abusers.

Even the shorter Sinners matters because it gives more context for Salem before the main story. That makes Heathens one of those series where reading order really helps. The books may land with different couples, but the emotional history carries over.

What links the series together is not one repeating trope so much as a shared mood. These are books about broken people trying to decide whether they can still want love after what they have seen. There are secretive institutions, dangerous men, and heavy themes, but there is also a lot of tenderness once the armor starts to crack.

If you like romance that mixes forbidden desire with recovery, hidden networks, and characters who have to fight hard for any peace at all, Heathens is one of Richardson's strongest older series. Just go in knowing it handles dark material and is best read with a little patience for the bigger emotional picture.