KJ Charles Books in Order

Exiled smuggler Lucien Vaudrey returns to England as Lord Crane and immediately finds himself targeted by deadly magic. He needs reluctant magician Stephen Day to keep him alive, even if neither man wants the attraction between them.

As Lord Crane and Stephen Day try to hold onto their secret affair, a blackmailer and a plague of giant rats close in. Stephen's growing power may save London, or destroy the life he has built.

Occult murders, strained loyalties, and a dangerous magical bond push Stephen and Crane to the edge. To survive old enemies and fresh grief, they have to decide whether love is strength or weakness.

Tokyo hostess Kerry Ekdahl is framed for a yakuza murder and forced onto the run through Japan. Her only ally is Chanko, an ex-sumo fighter with secrets of his own and reasons she cannot quite trust.

Captain Archie Curtis arrives at a country house determined to investigate a wartime suspicion, not fall for poet Daniel da Silva. Blackmail, sabotage, and murder make that plan impossible.

Radical Harry Vane is thrust into high society when a fortune and title come into view. The last person he expects to want is Julius Norreys, the elegant dandy meant to teach him how to fit in.

Home Office man Dominic Frey discovers that his anonymous lover is Silas Mason, a radical bookseller he should be hunting. Politics, danger, and fierce desire turn a private arrangement into something far riskier.

Magical thief Jonah Pastern betrayed constable Ben Spenser and wrecked his life, but Ben still cannot quite let him go. On the run together, they face grudges, lies, and the wreckage of what they once had.

Ruined gambler Gabriel Ashleigh gets one last chance to win back everything from the man who has every reason to hate him. What begins as revenge turns into a far more dangerous kind of bargain.

Journalist Robert Caldwell looks back on two decades with ghost-hunter Simon Feximal, from their strange first meeting to increasingly dangerous cases. The hauntings are real, and so is the bond growing between them.

Lord Richard Vane relies on his brilliant valet David Cyprian for nearly everything except the truth about how he feels. Crossing the class line between them could cost both men more than either can afford.

Apprentice magician Crispin Tredarloe returns to London to find dangerous papers missing and his master dead. Waste-paper dealer Ned Hall may be his only hope of getting them back before disaster follows.

Crispin Tredarloe is trying to use magic honestly at last, but the strain is tearing at his relationship with waste-paper dealer Ned Hall. When something ancient stirs in London's castoffs, their shaky trust becomes a matter of survival.

Journalist Nathaniel Roy means to expose spiritualist Justin Lazarus as a fraud, not fall into a battle of wits and desire with him. Then a deadly family secret pulls them onto the same side.

Quiet lodging-house keeper Clem Talleyfer and taxidermist Rowley Green want peaceful lives, not murder. But when violence lands on their doorstep, their careful friendship starts to deepen under pressure.

Private enquiry agent Mark Braglewicz tracks a missing aristocratic heir to a music hall and finds Pen Starling on the trapeze. Pen wants nothing to do with title or fortune, but a killer is closing in.

Disgraced archaeologist Saul Lazenby keeps stumbling into strange, frightening events in postwar England. The only man who may understand them is Randolph Glyde, an occultist as secretive as he is compelling.

Johanna Oakley will do anything to save Arabella from Mr. Fogg's madhouse, even step into a barber shop linked to horrors worse than murder. What follows is a swift, bloody plunge into the darkest parts of London.

Merchant Martin St. Vincent drags slippery writer Theodore Swann on a frantic chase after a runaway couple. On the road north, deception and attraction start catching up with them both.

When his sister is laid up at Sir Philip Rookwood's estate, earnest Guy Frisby rushes to protect her from the notorious hellfire set staying there. Instead he finds temptation, kindness, and gossip sharp enough to ruin lives.

Disgraced soldier Jasper Detchard takes service with men plotting to seize the throne of Ruritania. Between swordfights, betrayals, and the dangerously charming Rupert of Hentzau, survival gets complicated.

Lawyer Vikram Pandey goes looking for a missing youth and finds Gil Lawless, the friend he thought lost years ago, now selling illicit books on Holywell Street. Solving the case means reopening old feelings too.

Alec Pyne hires the notorious Lilywhite Boys to rob his dreadful father, the Duke of Ilvar. Falling for jewel thief Jerry Crozier was never part of the plan, and neither was everything the job uncovers.

Jewel thief Templeton Lane is accused of a brutal double murder and has nowhere left to run. The one person who might save him is Susan Lazarus, the detective who knows him best and trusts him least.

Champion shot Patricia Merton arrives at a country-house shooting party and promptly falls for Fenella Carruth, her host's fiancée. Then blackmail and murder turn a difficult attraction into a very dangerous weekend.

Music-hall singer Miss Christiana is deep in trouble and running out of ways to escape it. Stan Kamarzyn can help, but his life as fence to the Lilywhite Boys brings dangers of its own.

War veteran Will Darling inherits a ramshackle bookshop and stumbles into a hunt for hidden information. His most useful ally is Kim Secretan, charming, cultivated, and almost certainly not telling the truth.

Two months after swearing off Kim Secretan, Will Darling is dragged back into his world through a disreputable nightclub and a fresh conspiracy. This time the danger lands far closer to home.

Will Darling thinks life with Kim Secretan may finally be settling down, then a brutal club murder pulls them back into crime and secrets. Old enemies, family pressure, and class divisions put everything at risk.

Handsome schemer Robin Loxleigh plans to marry money, until Sir John Hartlebury decides to stop him. Their clash begins as suspicion and turns into something much more inconvenient for both men.

Toby never meant to become a highway robber or an impostor valet, but desperate times keep opening bad ideas. Unfortunately, the earl he is trying to fool is the very man he robbed on the road.

Disgraced hotel detective John Garland wants revenge on stage designer and jewel thief Barnaby Littimer. A Christmas conspiracy forces them together, and John's tidy hatred starts falling apart.

Newly made Earl Rufus d'Aumesty needs sharp, capable Luke Doomsday to untangle a nest of inheritance problems. But Luke has secrets of his own, and the old manor house is hiding plenty.

New baronet Gareth Inglis arrives on Romney Marsh and runs straight into Joss Doomsday, the smuggler he never forgot. Blackmail, family danger, and old desire make their reunion anything but simple.

A decade after his Oxford friend Toby Feynsham was murdered, Jem Kite receives a letter accusing him of the crime. To clear his name, he has to pull apart the secrets of the old group that survived.

After a stolen ring and an ill-advised night, the Duke of Severn goes incognito to recover his heirloom. On the road he finds trouble, freedom, and disgraced gentleman Daizell Charnage.

Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a remote Gothic manor and trapped there with the family members he least wants to see, plus the ex-lover he never got over. Then the locked house turns deadly.

Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler meets a graphologist who can read far too much from a person's handwriting. When Joel Wildsmith identifies a powerful man as a murderer, the two are pushed into real danger.

Paint-maker Titus Pilcrow becomes unexpectedly rich after an improbable deathbed marriage, and London swindlers quickly circle. One of them, the charming and thoroughly unreliable Nico, may be the most dangerous of all.

A practical guide to writing romance, from first idea through drafting, revision, and polishing. Charles draws on years as both novelist and editor to focus on what makes a romance story work.