Pleasures Series Books in Order

The Pleasures books, sometimes called the Channel or Passionate Pleasures series, move Bertrice Small’s storytelling into the present day while keeping the erotic intensity that defined her historical work. Instead of queens and lairds, these novels follow modern women whose lives look ordinary from the outside—until they discover The Channel.

The Channel is a secret, women‑only interactive network that lets subscribers program and experience their own fantasies. It’s part virtual reality, part magic, and part narrative device. Through it, widowed mothers, librarians, bestselling romance authors, and high‑powered professionals can step into scenarios that range from fairy‑tale castles to pirate ships to wickedly rewritten classics.

Each book centers on a different woman and the gap between her real life and her hidden desires. In Private Pleasures, Nora Buckley learns that her husband is leaving her for someone younger. The other women in her housing complex introduce her to The Channel, and fantasy becomes a bridge to rebuilding her confidence—and deciding what she wants in the real world.

Forbidden Pleasures follows Emily Shann, a successful but surprisingly inexperienced romance novelist who’s been told to write “hotter” scenes. Embarrassed by how little she knows, she turns to The Channel and to her new editor, Michael Devlin, blurring the line between research and seduction. In Sudden Pleasures, wealthy businesswoman Ashley Kimbrough risks losing her inheritance if she doesn’t marry, so she embarks on a marriage of convenience with Ryan Mulcahy while using The Channel to experiment with the skills she might bring into their shared bed.

Dangerous Pleasures gives quiet, overworked widow Annie Miller a week at an exclusive spa where the only television station is The Channel—a prize that awakens needs she has buried under childcare and bills. Passionate Pleasures lets small‑town librarian Kathryn St. John live out her love of adventure tales and classic swashbucklers through fantasy, until a real man, the new school principal, decides he wants to compete with her imaginary heroes. Guilty Pleasures shifts to an ensemble cast of friends who already use The Channel, plus a newcomer whose first fantasy involves a Celtic warrior.

Despite the explicit content, the books are as much about friendship and self‑knowledge as they are about sex. The women in Egret Point and beyond talk honestly about aging, body image, work, and divorce. Fantasies push them to ask what they truly want and what kind of relationships will sustain them once the screen goes dark.

If you’re curious about erotic romance that keeps one foot in recognizable suburban life and the other in fully imagined fantasy, the Pleasures series offers a connected but flexible world. You can dip into almost any installment on its own, though reading in order lets you watch The Channel’s secrets—and the women’s friendships—unfold over time.