Hell's Belles Books in Order

Hell's Belles shifts the focus to early Victorian London and hands the reins to a covert network of women who fix problems the law will not touch. The series follows a tight knit girl gang that moves easily between Mayfair ballrooms and back alley taverns, using scandal, stealth, and the occasional explosion to protect people with less power. Each book pairs one of the Belles with a partner who has to learn to see her as an equal rather than a curiosity.

At the center of the group is Lady Sesily Talbot, long written off by society as a cheerful scandal, along with three friends who are just as formidable. Adelaide Frampton slips between identities, an unassuming wallflower in the north of the city and an invisible thief in the south. Lady Imogen Loveless is a chaos loving bluestocking whose interest in chemistry runs to explosives and incendiary devices. A still to be revealed fourth Belle quietly pulls strings in the background, setting up future stories.

Bombshell opens the series with Sesily embracing her reputation as London's most notorious unmarried woman. The ton believes she lures men into gardens for illicit trysts, in reality she uses those meetings to gather information and destroy the plans of cruel husbands, predators, and corrupt officials. The one person who sees through the performance is Caleb Calhoun, her brother in law's American business partner, who keeps trying and failing to stay out of her way while the two of them fall in love.

In Heartbreaker the focus shifts to Adelaide, now known in certain circles as the Matchbreaker because she uses her skills as a thief and investigator to free women from bad engagements. Henry Carrington, Duke of Clayborn, has spent his whole life cultivating an impeccable reputation and has no patience for the chaos that follows in her wake. When the pair end up racing across Britain to intercept his brother's elopement, bad weather, bad luck, and one bed inns turn their rivalry into something warmer.

Knockout gives Lady Imogen her turn in the spotlight. Officially she is an eccentric aristocratic daughter with too much interest in science, secretly she is the Belles' explosives expert, tracking a string of bombings in London's East End. Detective Inspector Thomas Peck is ordered to keep her out of trouble but quickly realizes she is usually three steps ahead of him. Their partnership forces him to question the institutions he serves and gives her a chance to be wanted for more than her chaos.

A fourth novel, Mastermind, is due to continue the series and bring the final Belle center stage. Even without that finale, Hell's Belles reads like a complete, joyful argument that women have always found ways to carve out power, protect one another, and demand love that feels like partnership. It is an ideal starting point if you like your historical romance unapologetically feminist and a little bit explosive.