Kate Bateman Books in Order

Kate Bateman was born in Cambridgeshire, England, and grew up between school in England and long summers on the Costa Blanca in southern Spain. History was around her early. So were auctions, flea markets, and the kind of family outings that can turn into a hunt for odd, beautiful old things.

It makes sense that she ended up writing historical romance.

Before novels took over, Bateman spent about fifteen years working in antiques and fine art. She co-founded her family's auction house, Batemans, in Stamford with her father, and she also became familiar to TV viewers as an on-screen antiques expert and appraiser on several British shows. That background shows up in her fiction in a grounded way. Her books like old objects, hidden stories, and the small details that make the past feel lived in.

Writing came later, after her husband's job moved the family to the United States in 2011. Bateman has said she was already a devoted reader of historical romance, and after throwing one disappointing novel across the room, she told her husband she could write a better one. He bet her a dollar she would not finish. She had studied English and French, so the leap was not quite as wild as it sounded. She finished the book.

He still owes her that dollar.

Her early breakout books, published as K.C. Bateman, were To Steal a Heart, A Raven's Heart, and A Counterfeit Heart. Those novels mix Napoleonic intrigue with thieves, codebreakers, counterfeiters, and people who are often in over their heads before the romance even starts. Readers who like fast plots usually end up noticing the banter too. Bateman likes a clever heroine, a dangerous situation, and a hero who is not nearly as in control as he thinks he is.

She carried that same energy into This Earl of Mine, To Catch an Earl, and The Princess and the Rogue. These books lean Regency, but they still have caper energy, false names, jewel thefts, prison weddings, and women who refuse to sit quietly while the men handle things. She has also written outside the Regency, as in The Devil to Pay, a Renaissance romance that shows how comfortable she is with bigger adventure and a slightly rougher edge.

Across all of it, her favorite ingredients are pretty clear: smart heroines, sharp dialogue, hidden identities, and a strong sense that history should be fun on the page, not dusty. Her books have picked up starred reviews, and The Devil to Pay was a RITA finalist. More simply, she writes for readers who want wit, movement, and real romantic tension.

These days Bateman still has one foot in the antiques world and one in books. She splits her time between Illinois and England, writes with three children and a toy poodle named Monty somewhere nearby, and still turns up in her old field as an appraiser and auction specialist. It is a busy setup, but it suits a writer whose stories rarely stand still.