Heiress Books in Order

The Heiress books move out of the Middle Ages and into the age of revolution, empire, war, and espionage. These novels are still recognizably Roberta Gellis, full of practical heroines, real political pressure, and relationships that get tested by more than simple misunderstanding, but the setting changes everything. Instead of baronial courts, you get smugglers, diplomats, fleeing aristocrats, military campaigns, and inheritance that can stretch across countries.

The series begins with The English Heiress, which places its heroine in the violence and upheaval of the French Revolution. The Cornish Heiress shifts into smuggling and intelligence work during the Napoleonic era. The Kent Heiress follows the same broad family network into Russia and Portugal, where war and diplomacy become personal. Fortune's Bride keeps the action in Portugal during the conflict with Napoleon, and A Woman's Estate widens the frame again by pulling in England, America, and the War of 1812.

Although the books can be read for their individual romances, they are tied together by family names, shared history, and the recurring problem of women whose property or position makes them useful to other people. An heiress in this series is never just rich. She is exposed. Her marriage can shift land, influence, or political leverage, which means love is almost always tangled up with strategy.

That gives the series a brisker, more adventurous energy than some of Gellis's medieval work. There are disguises, missions, shipwrecks, hostile travel, secret loyalties, and people who must decide where they truly belong when national politics and personal feeling point in different directions. The settings also let Gellis explore class and nationality in new ways. English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and American interests all cross paths here.

If you want connected historical romances with a wider geographic sweep and more overt adventure, this is a strong place to go after the medieval books. The Heiress novels still care deeply about emotional stakes, but they set those feelings inside revolutions, campaigns, and international pressure, which gives the series a momentum all its own.