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Sarah MacLean Books in Order

See all Sarah MacLean books in order, with series overviews, short summaries, reading order tips, and guidance on where to start her historical romances.

Last updated: December 23, 2025

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21 books

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Mastermind

by Sarah MacLean

2026

The fourth Hell's Belles novel continues Sarah MacLean's Victorian girl gang saga, promising another rule breaking heroine, a worthy match, and a mix of covert missions, dangerous men, and high society intrigue in the same richly connected world.

These Summer Storms

by Sarah MacLean

2025

After years estranged from her tech magnate father, Alice Storm returns to her family's private island for his funeral and a twisted inheritance game. Trapped with resentful relatives and enigmatic fixer Jack Dean, she navigates secrets, grief, and a slow burn romance over one volatile summer week.

The Bladesmith Queen

by Sarah MacLean

2024

Orsa, the only daughter in a legendary line of bladesmiths, forges unbeatable swords and sees the futures of the warriors who wield them. Branded a witch and burdened by a deadly curse on her kisses, she finds an unexpected ally and lover in Bruin, a wandering champion who seeks her out.

Knockout

by Sarah MacLean

2023

Lady Imogen Loveless would rather tinker with explosives than dance in ballrooms. As bombings rock London's East End, she investigates with the Hell's Belles while Detective Inspector Thomas Peck is ordered to keep her out of trouble, and their combustible partnership burns into something much more intimate.

Heartbreaker

by Sarah MacLean

2022

By day Adelaide Frampton is a shy wallflower, by night she is the Matchbreaker, a thief who exposes unworthy grooms. When duty bound Henry Carrington, Duke of Clayborn, chases her across Britain to stop his brother's elopement, their cat and mouse journey turns unexpectedly romantic.

Bombshell

by Sarah MacLean

2021

Lady Sesily Talbot has embraced her reputation as London's brightest scandal, using it as a mask while she and the Hell's Belles quietly ruin dangerous men. American tavern owner Caleb Calhoun has sworn to protect her, but years of buried attraction make staying at arm's length almost impossible.

A Duke Worth Falling For

by Sarah MacLean

2021

Celebrity photographer Lilah Rose retreats to the English countryside after her career implodes, hoping to rebuild far from the spotlight. There she meets Max, a taciturn farmer who is actually the Duke of Weston, and a brief escape turns into something that looks dangerously like a new life.

Daring and the Duke

by Sarah MacLean

2020

Grace Condry has built a life as the powerful queen of Covent Garden, hiding from the boy who betrayed her and became the Duke of Marwick. When Ewan finally tracks her down, vengeance and longing collide, forcing them to confront old wounds and decide whether love can survive their history.

Brazen and the Beast

by Sarah MacLean

2019

Lady Henrietta "Hattie" Sedley declares her twenty ninth year the Year of Hattie, planning to claim her father's shipping company and sample a few pleasures along the way. Instead she finds smuggler Whit, known as Beast, bound in her carriage, and their collision upends both her careful plans and his.

Wicked and the Wallflower

by Sarah MacLean

2018

Once the life of every ball, Felicity Faircloth is now an anxious wallflower whose family fortunes are fading fast. When crime lord Devil promises to help her win a duke in order to ruin his enemy, their dangerous bargain pulls her deep into Covent Garden's underworld and into his arms.

The Day of the Duchess

by Sarah MacLean

2017

Seraphina Talbot, Duchess of Haven, returns to London determined to secure a divorce from the husband who shattered her heart. Malcolm agrees but demands one last summer at his country estate while she helps him search for a new bride, giving them both a final chance to face the past.

A Scot in the Dark

by Sarah MacLean

2016

Lillian Hargrove is about to be ruined when an intimate portrait of her is set to be exhibited without her consent. Alec Stuart, the new and very reluctant Duke of Warnick, storms into London to manage the disaster, only to find a ward who insists on owning her story and her future.

The Rogue Not Taken

by Sarah MacLean

2015

After publicly shoving her cheating brother in law into a fish pond, Sophie Talbot becomes the most notorious woman in London. Fleeing scandal, she stows away on the carriage of Kingscote, Marquess of Eversley, and an unwilling journey north turns into a sharp tongued, slow burn road trip romance.

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover

by Sarah MacLean

2014

By day Lady Georgiana is a ruined debutante seeking a respectable marriage for her daughter's sake. By night she is Chase, the hidden mastermind behind London's most infamous gaming hell. When journalist Duncan West begins to suspect the truth, attraction and blackmail tangle into a high stakes romance.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover

by Sarah MacLean

2013

Engaged to a kind but dull lord, brilliant Lady Philippa Marbury decides she needs a practical education in passion before her wedding. She turns to Cross, the controlled, guilt ridden partner of a notorious gaming hell, and their lessons in temptation quickly become far more personal.

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished

by Sarah MacLean

2013

Temple, feared as the Killer Duke, was exiled from society after being accused of murdering his father's bride. Years later Mara Lowe appears alive, offering to clear his name if he forgives her brother's debts, and their uneasy bargain becomes a tense, intimate reckoning with guilt, anger, and trust.

A Rogue by Any Other Name

by Sarah MacLean

2012

A decade after gambling away his inheritance, Michael Bourne has remade himself as a ruthless gaming hell owner. When his lost estate becomes part of Lady Penelope Marbury's dowry, he forces a marriage to reclaim it, then discovers that his clever childhood friend expects a partner, not a jailer.

Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart

by Sarah MacLean

2011

Juliana Fiori, a fiery Italian born outsider, is already the subject of endless gossip when she sets her sights on icy Simon Pearson, Duke of Leighton. Determined to prove he is not above passion, she pushes him toward risk and desire, forcing them both to choose between reputation and happiness.

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord

by Sarah MacLean

2010

Lady Isabel Townsend is secretly running her crumbling estate as a refuge for women in trouble, all while protecting her young brother's inheritance. When famed antiquarian Lord Nicholas St John arrives to value her statues, his hunt for a runaway lady collides with Isabel's need for safety, secrecy, and love.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

by Sarah MacLean

2010

Tired of being the perfect wallflower, Lady Calpurnia Hartwell makes a list of nine scandalous things she has never been allowed to do. To complete it she enlists Gabriel St John, the infamous Marquess of Ralston, and their rule breaking adventure turns into something far riskier than gossip.

The Season

by Sarah MacLean

2009

Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra Stafford would rather solve problems than flirt at balls. During her first London Season she teams up with childhood friend Gavin, now an earl, to investigate his father's suspicious death, uncovering espionage, danger, and an unexpected romance amid the silk and scandal.

Where should I start?

If you want her classic Regency romances: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a RakeTen Ways to Be Adored When Landing a LordEleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart
If you love brooding gamblers and smoky casinos: A Rogue by Any Other NameOne Good Earl Deserves a LoverNo Good Duke Goes UnpunishedNever Judge a Lady by Her Cover
If scandal sheets and road trip adventures sound fun: The Rogue Not TakenA Scot in the DarkThe Day of the Duchess
If you want a feminist Victorian girl gang vibe: BombshellHeartbreakerKnockoutMastermind
If you prefer young adult or contemporary stories: The SeasonThese Summer StormsA Duke Worth Falling For

Author bio

Sarah MacLean grew up in Lincoln, Rhode Island, the daughter of an Italian father and a British mother, with books stacked in every corner of the house. As a teenager she raided her older sister's romance novels and never really stopped. Somewhere along the way she decided she wanted to write that kind of story herself.

She studied American Studies at Smith College, where she and her friends swapped paperbacks and argued about what made certain love stories work. After graduating in 2000 she moved to New York City to work as a literary publicist, then went on to earn a master's degree in education. Through all of it she kept circling back to romance as the genre she most wanted to live in.

Her first published novel, the young adult book The Season, drops a sharp tongued debutante and her best friends into Regency ballrooms, then hands them a murder mystery and a slow building friends to lovers plot. The book picked up awards and a statewide reading list spot and proved that historical fiction about teenage girls could be fizzy and still feel grounded.

With Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake she moved into adult historical romance and found a wider audience. The story follows careful, overlooked Callie Hartwell as she writes herself a list of scandalous things to do and enlists the notorious Marquess of Ralston as her partner in crime. The book landed on national bestseller lists and introduced the Love By Numbers trilogy, where heroines quietly blow up the rules that kept them small.

Next came The Rules of Scoundrels, set around a glittering underground casino called The Fallen Angel. Those four novels follow fallen aristocrats who rebuilt their lives as partners in the club, featuring a bespectacled lady scientist who wanders in looking for a lesson in vice and a supposedly ruined single mother who secretly owns the whole enterprise. The series cemented MacLean's knack for pairing sharp banter with underworld settings and very high emotional stakes.

She pushed further into the margins of London with the Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy, about three siblings who survive a brutal childhood and turn themselves into rulers of Covent Garden. Those books mix smuggling, street fights, and smoky pleasure clubs with heroines who insist on running businesses, claiming their own desire, and rewriting family legacies. The later Hell's Belles novels shift into early Victorian London and hand the reins to a girl gang of vigilantes taking on bad husbands, bosses, and politicians.

MacLean talks openly about writing as a feminist and about romance as a place where women's wants sit at the center of the page. She spent several years reviewing romance for a major newspaper and co hosts a weekly podcast that dissects beloved books, tropes, and the long history of the genre. She also speaks regularly about censorship, book bans, and the importance of letting readers find themselves in stories.

More recently she stepped outside historicals with These Summer Storms, a contemporary novel about an estranged daughter called back to her wealthy family's private island for a high stakes inheritance game that doubles as a love story. MacLean now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their daughter, still reading romance for pleasure and championing the genre in public.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 21 Sarah MacLean Books in Order (Complete List 2026)