Shirlee Busbee Books in Order
This page lists Shirlee Busbee books in order, with series reading guides, short summaries, background notes, and where to start with her romances.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
24 books
Gypsy Lady
by Shirlee Busbee
1977
Lady Catherine Tremayne catches Jason Savage’s eye while dancing in a traveling encampment, and he mistakes her for someone far less sheltered. Marriage, revenge, and a government mission soon test their fierce attraction.
Lady Vixen
by Shirlee Busbee
1980
Nicole Ashford escapes a plot against her on a privateer’s ship bound for New Orleans, only to land in Captain Saber’s dangerous world. Her flight from England becomes a high-seas romance filled with peril.
While Passion Sleeps
by Shirlee Busbee
1980
Beth Ridgeway and Rafael Santana think the worst of each other when they meet again in New Orleans. Their forbidden attraction challenges a marriage, years of anger, and the judgments that hardened them.
Deceive Not My Heart
by Shirlee Busbee
1984
Leonie Saint-Andre claims Morgan Slade married her and fathered her son, but he denies ever seeing her. Their fight over a dowry uncovers fraud, attraction, and old family danger in Louisiana.
The Tiger Lily
by Shirlee Busbee
1985
Sabrina once adored Brett Dangermond, until betrayal and years of separation hardened her heart. When he returns as guardian of her estate and future, desire and resentment become equally dangerous.
The Spanish Rose
by Shirlee Busbee
1986
Pirate Gabriel Lancaster captures Maria Delgato while seeking revenge against her family. Their nations, names, and old hatreds stand between them as attraction turns his plan for vengeance into a dangerous bond.
Midnight Masquerade
by Shirlee Busbee
1988
Melissa Seymour devotes herself to her Louisiana farm and thoroughbreds until Dominic Slade claims her prized stallion. Their battle of wills unfolds amid wartime intrigue and a passion neither can neatly control.
Whisper to Me of Love
by Shirlee Busbee
1991
American Royce Manchester rescues Pip, a pickpocket who is really Morgana Fowler in disguise. His protection draws them into London’s underworld, where her hidden parentage and a murderer threaten them both.
Each Time We Love
by Shirlee Busbee
1993
Savanna O’Rourke believes Adam St. Clair is tied to her father’s death, while he thinks she may be after stolen gold. Kidnapped by the same outlaw, they must cooperate to survive.
Love a Dark Rider
by Shirlee Busbee
1994
Seven years after being branded a murderer, Yancy returns to reclaim his Texas birthright. Sara now stands in his way, and her suspicion about his past threatens the love neither of them expected.
Lovers Forever
by Shirlee Busbee
1996
Lady Tess flees a cruel cousin, only to lose her jewels and her memory to ruffians. An earl offers passion and protection, but she refuses to become any man’s mistress.
A Heart For The Taking
by Shirlee Busbee
1997
Chance Walker blames his cousin for his wife’s death, then decides to woo widowed Lady Fancy Merrivale as revenge. The scheme turns dangerous when real love and a hidden enemy enter the game.
Love Be Mine
by Shirlee Busbee
1998
Micaela Dupree distrusts Hugh Lancaster, the bold family business partner digging into suspicious dealings. As threats close in around them, their rivalry turns into a choice between fear, betrayal, and desire.
At Long Last
by Shirlee Busbee
2000
Arabella Montgomery needs help saving her family plantation after her brother gambles it away. Tony Daggett, the man who once hurt her, offers a bargain that could reclaim her home or break her heart again.
For Love Alone
by Shirlee Busbee
2000
Widowed Lady Sophy Marlowe vows never to marry again without love. When she is suspected of murder, Viscount Ives Harrington offers escape from the gallows through a marriage neither expected to need.
Swear by the Moon
by Shirlee Busbee
2001
Social outcast Thea Garrett has sworn off trust until Patrick Blackburne enters her guarded world. A web of blackmail and murder forces both wounded hearts to decide what they’re willing to risk.
Return To Oak Valley
by Shirlee Busbee
2002
Shelley Granger comes back to her California hometown after her brother’s death, facing old family secrets and Sloan Ballinger, the man she once fled. The Granger-Ballinger feud makes every answer personal.
Coming Home
by Shirlee Busbee
2003
Model Roxy Ballinger returns to Oak Valley, trading Manhattan glamour for a cabin and an irritating deputy sheriff, Jeb Delaney. Home promises peace, but old judgments and new attraction quickly complicate her fresh start.
Scandal Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2007
Nell Anslowe has sworn off marriage after injury and betrayal, while Julian, Earl of Wyndham, wants bachelorhood. A storm, a cottage, and a near-abduction force them into a hasty union that surprises them both.
Seduction Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2008
Daphne Beaumont’s fortunes change when her brother inherits a Cornwall estate. Charles Weston arrives chasing a buried secret, and a rockslide traps them together long enough for scandal and tenderness to take root.
Surrender Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2009
Marcus Sherbrook is known as a perfect gentleman, except to Isabel Dunham, the rebellious former ward who once defied him. When a blackmailer threatens Isabel, protection leads them into marriage and long-denied desire.
Passion Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2010
Asher Cordell wants a lawful life after stealing to feed his siblings, until one last theft uncovers Juliana Greeley in the same library. Her blackmail problem pulls the childhood friends into danger and desire.
Rapture Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2011
Emily Townsend secretly leads smugglers to save her village and family fortune. When her men rescue Barnaby, the new Viscount Joslyn, from the sea, danger and trust become impossible to separate.
Desire Becomes Her
by Shirlee Busbee
2012
Gillian Dashwood’s fortune and reputation were wrecked by her husband’s murder, but she still fights to protect her uncle. Lucien Joslyn, a cool gambler with secrets, suspects her innocence is only another dangerous wager.
Where should I start?
For Regency romance with scandal and secrets: Scandal Becomes Her → Seduction Becomes Her → Surrender Becomes Her.
For classic Louisiana historical romance: Deceive Not My Heart → Midnight Masquerade → Love Be Mine.
For Southern family drama and old grudges: The Tiger Lily → Each Time We Love → At Long Last → Love a Dark Rider.
For contemporary second-chance romance: Return To Oak Valley → Coming Home.
For a standalone historical taste: Lovers Forever → For Love Alone.
Author bio
Shirlee Busbee was born Shirlee Elaine on August 9, 1941, in San Jose, California. She was the first daughter of a career naval officer, so childhood meant moving often, with two sisters and three brothers along for the ride.
That mobile childhood took her far from California. She attended high school in Kenitra, Morocco, then returned to the United States and studied at Burbank Business College in Santa Rosa. She earned a certificate in 1962, and she also met Howard Busbee, the man she married on June 22, 1963.
Before books became the center of her working life, Busbee held practical office and technical jobs. She worked around title companies and county offices, including drafting work for Solano County. That job mattered for a very specific reason.
It brought her into the path of Rosemary Rogers.
Rogers became a friend and mentor, and Busbee began taking writing seriously. Her first novel, Gypsy Lady, appeared in 1977 and placed her firmly in historical romance, with headstrong heroines, dangerous misunderstandings, family secrets, and men who usually need more emotional work than they expect.
Busbee built much of her name on sweeping historical romances. Lady Vixen, Deceive Not My Heart, The Tiger Lily, and While Passion Sleeps show her love of tangled families, old grudges, and settings that move from England to New Orleans, Louisiana plantations, Texas, and the wider American South. Readers often come to her for big feelings, high-stakes attraction, and romances where pride has to be dragged into the light before love can settle in.
She also wrote contemporary romance. The Ballinger Family books, beginning with Return to Oak Valley, trade pirate ships and Regency ballrooms for California ranch country, but they keep the Busbee staples: buried hurt, family rivalry, and people who have to go home before they can move forward.
Later, the Becomes Her books returned to Regency romance with Scandal Becomes Her, Seduction Becomes Her, and their sequels. These stories lean into accidental scandals, blackmail, guardianships, smuggling, and marriages that begin for practical reasons before feelings get inconvenient.
Busbee has written seven New York Times bestselling novels and has had more than nine million books in print. She has lived in California with Howard, and her author bios over the years have also made room for the animals in her life, including schnauzers, horses, and American Shetland ponies.
Not a bad life for someone whose writing career began after a friend gave her a nudge.
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