Ilsa Madden Mills Books in Order
See the Tia Louise and Ilsa Madden Mills collaborations in order, with quick summaries, background on the pairing, and help picking where to start.
Last updated: July 8, 2026
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Publication Order
26 books
Very Bad Things
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2013
Perfect-on-paper Nora Blakely cracks under the weight of family pressure and dark secrets just as graduation arrives. Her path collides with Leo Tate, a tattooed older bad boy who becomes both a refuge and a risk.
Very Wicked Beginnings
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2014
This prequel novella follows Cuba Hudson before Very Wicked Things, when he first notices scholarship ballerina Dovey Beckham at Briarwood Academy. What starts as pursuit quickly hints at a deeper, more dangerous connection.
Very Wicked Things
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2014
Dovey Beckham, a ballerina from the wrong side of town, and football golden boy Cuba Hudson share a connection neither can shake. Past sins, class divides, and family trouble make their romance anything but easy.
Dirty English
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2015
Elizabeth Bennett has rules, hard ones, until tattooed British fighter Declan Blay crashes through them. Their attraction is fierce, but both are carrying damage that makes love feel like the most dangerous bet of all.
Very Twisted Things
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2015
World-famous rock star Sebastian Tate can't stop watching the reclusive violinist who survived a devastating plane crash. When he finally meets Violet St. Lyons, attraction is instant, but both carry scars that make trust risky.
Filthy English
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2016
After being dumped before her wedding, Remi flies to London for a reckless reset and wakes up beside Dax Blay, the British bad boy who once broke her heart. One wild night forces them to face old pain and unfinished chemistry.
Fake Fiancée
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2017
A made-for-show first kiss turns into a fake engagement when football star Max Kent needs the right image. Pretending should be easy, until staged affection starts feeling like the most real thing either of them has had.
Spider
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2017
Rose meets Spider as a gorgeous stranger on a flight, then learns he's a British rock star and her new stepbrother. Their instant pull comes with plenty of warnings, but staying apart may be harder than facing the fallout.
The Last Guy
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2017
An ambitious TV reporter clashes with her new boss, a former NFL quarterback running the sports desk. One off-limits hookup turns their office war into a funny, very messy fight over who falls first.
I Bet You
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2018
Quarterback Ryker Voss offers Penelope Graham a ridiculous bargain, he'll help her get her crush if she'll play along. Their jealousy plan sounds simple until real feelings start outrunning the bet.
I Dare You
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2018
A mystery texter dares Delaney Shaw to spend one unforgettable night with him, and curiosity gets the better of her. The stranger is Waylon football star Maverick Monroe, who wants far more than a single hookup.
The Right Stud
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2018
Trying to turn her grandmother's beach house into a B and B, a woman hooks up with a stranger who reappears as a TV renovation star and her new houseguest. Their chemistry is instant, but his secrets could wreck more than the property.
Boyfriend Bargain
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2019
Broke and desperate, Sugar Ryan makes a no-feelings deal with cocky hockey star Zack Morgan. Their fake relationship is meant to solve practical problems, but the hookups and growing trust make the rules impossible to keep.
I Hate You
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2019
Blaze Townsend and Charisma Rossi have unfinished history, bruised egos, and plenty of reasons to stay apart. Back at Waylon University, their hate-flirting reunion turns into a messy second chance neither of them is ready for.
Dear Ava
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2020
After a traumatic night at Camden Prep, Ava Harris receives an anonymous love letter from one of the privileged Sharks she despises. The mystery pulls her back toward old wounds, and toward scarred quarterback Knox Grayson.
I Promise You
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2020
Years after one unforgettable bonfire kiss, quarterback Dillon McQueen runs into the girl who never left his head. Serena barely remembers him, which makes their second chance equal parts funny, tense, and impossible to ignore.
Not My Romeo
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2020
Elena Riley thinks she's meeting a blind date and instead lands in the penthouse of bad-boy quarterback Jack Hawke. Their one-night mistake follows them into community theater, where Romeo and Juliet starts feeling dangerously personal.
The Revenge Pact
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2020
Campus football king River Tate and outsider Anastasia Bailey have every reason to stay away from each other. But when her life unravels, they strike a revenge pact that drags buried feelings and dangerous loyalties into the open.
Not My Match
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2021
When gifted but unlucky Giselle Riley loses her home, star receiver Devon Walsh gives her a place to stay and offers to help her date. What starts as friendship and matchmaking quickly turns into something far harder to control.
Beauty and the Baller
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2022
After a disastrous one-night stand, former beauty queen Nova returns to Blue Belle, Texas and finds brooding ex-NFL star Ronan Smith next door. Their fake-dating plan is supposed to solve a town problem, but the chemistry is very real.
Boyfriend Material
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2022
At Hawthorne University, a struggling heroine is forced back into the orbit of Eric Hansen, the golden-boy hockey star who once broke her heart. Rescue turns into reluctant closeness, and old wounds start looking a lot like unfinished love.
Princess and the Player
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2022
Dumped before her wedding, Francesca escapes to a masquerade ball and spends one reckless night with a masked stranger. He turns out to be NFL star Tuck Avery, and one unexpected test makes their no-strings fantasy much more complicated.
Christmas Cupid
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2023
In this holiday novella, an injured hockey player hides out in a snowed-in cabin with a boot-designing princess who can't stand him. Forced proximity, Christmas chaos, and sharp banter do the rest.
My Darling Bride
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2023
When bookseller Emmaline Darling steals a football star's Lamborghini to escape her ex, she doesn't expect Graham Harlan to track her down with a marriage ultimatum. Their deal is practical on paper, but sparks ruin the plan.
My Darling Jane
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2024
Single mom Jane Darling is trying to launch her matchmaking business when star quarterback Jasper Jannich offers to become her biggest client. Setting him up with other women would be easier if he didn't only want her.
The Kiss Lottery
by Ilsa Madden Mills
2025
Everly Davis returns to Rose, Tennessee for the town's Valentine's Day Kiss Lottery and runs straight into Beckett Whitfield, her former best friend and first heartbreak. Old secrets, small-town gossip, and the holiday tradition push them toward a real second chance.
Where should I start?
If you want college sports romance: I Dare You → I Bet You → I Hate You → I Promise You
If you want pro football and rom-com energy: Not My Romeo → Not My Match → Beauty and the Baller → Princess and the Player
If you want more angst and intensity: Very Bad Things → Dirty English → Dear Ava → The Revenge Pact
If you want newer adult romance with a lighter feel: My Darling Bride → My Darling Jane
Author bio
Ilsa Madden Mills writes romance that loves big feelings, sharp banter, and heroes who need a reality check.
Before she was publishing romance, she taught high school English and worked as a librarian. That background shows up all over her fiction. Her campuses, prep schools, and student worlds feel observed from the inside, with the mix of pressure, gossip, ambition, loneliness, and too much feeling that comes with being young.
She has said she started writing in high school, first in journals and then in short stories she shared with friends just for fun. That beginning makes sense when you look at the books. Even when the setup is flashy, a star quarterback, a fake engagement, a masked stranger at a ball, the stories stay close to the people at the center and the emotional mess they are trying to hide.
Schools are in her bones.
A lot of readers first found her through the academy novels, especially Very Bad Things, Very Wicked Things, and Very Twisted Things. Those early books helped define the kind of story she does so well, intense attraction, wounded people, music and sports in the background, and a love story that has to earn its way through chaos. Over time, many of her books, including Dirty English, Not My Romeo, The Revenge Pact, and Dear Ava, found a wide readership and strong bestseller attention.
What makes her catalog fun to follow is that she does not stay in one exact lane. Dirty English plays with a modern Pride and Prejudice feel. Dear Ava leans into secret admirer tension and prep-school hurt. The Hook Up books and Hawthorne University titles bring college football and hockey energy. Later novels like Beauty and the Baller, Princess and the Player, and My Darling Bride show her moving comfortably into more adult contemporary romance while keeping the same quick chemistry and emotional pull.
She clearly loves a swaggering hero, but she rarely lets him coast on charm alone. Her heroes tend to arrive with confidence, reputation, and at least one thing badly wrong under the surface. Her heroines, on the other hand, are often smart, stubborn, funny, a little quirky, and very willing to call a man on his nonsense. Across football fields, dorm rooms, small towns, theaters, and locker rooms, she returns to fake relationships, second chances, first love, and the point where attraction stops being the easy part.
Mr. Darcy still has a hold on her.
Madden Mills has said she adores Pride and Prejudice, and that affection shows less in direct retellings than in the way she builds tension. She likes misread intentions, pride, bruised feelings, and couples who have to grow up a little before love can work. Off the page, the details she shares are pleasantly ordinary. She describes herself as Southern, a mother of two, and a gardener. She also has a soft spot for frothy coffee drinks, cheesy magnets, and books with unicorns and sword-wielding women.
That mix, grounded and playful at the same time, helps explain why her romances can slide between angst and comedy without losing their identity. You know you are in an Ilsa Madden Mills book when people are talking big, wanting hard, hiding something important, and one kiss makes everything less manageable. If you come for sports romance, damaged charmers, brainy heroines, or just the promise of feelings with some heat behind them, her backlist gives you plenty to choose from.
Edited by
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