To Win a Dark Heart Books in Order

To Win a Dark Heart is another multi-author fairy tale collection, but its angle is a little sharper. Each standalone takes well-known tales, myths, or legends and turns the spotlight toward characters who would normally be tagged as the villain. The promise is not that these people were secretly perfect all along. It is that they deserve a fuller story, one with desire, danger, bad choices, and maybe a real shot at happiness.

In other words, this is villain romance territory.

The books are designed to be read on their own, and the common thread is tone rather than plot. Expect magic, bargains, divided loyalties, and characters whose worst decisions are usually tied to very human needs like survival, pride, revenge, or wanting more than the role they were handed. The romances lean toward tension and moral mess instead of sweetness first.

Lucy Tempest's Falling For the Trickster kicks off her corner of that idea by pairing two unlikely figures, Rumpelstiltskin and the maid from The Goose Girl. Ottoline has spent years enduring Princess Gertrude's cruelty. During a voyage to Orcage, where the princess is supposed to marry the crown prince and settle a royal debt, Ottoline meets the silver-haired fae nobleman Roderick von Ravenstock. He offers her the kind of bargain fairy tales always warn about: switch places with the princess and claim the life she has been denied.

Naturally, it goes badly.

What starts as a scheme becomes a trap when the king of Orcage demands that Ottoline, now living under false colors, solve the kingdom's debt by turning everything into gold. To stay afloat, she keeps returning to Roderick, and each rescue comes with a new price. A kiss. A favor. Another step deeper into his plans against the royal family. The story then pushes beyond palace fraud into Faerie, where forced proximity, recovering trust, and a final shared con turn two apparent villains into the center of the emotional story.

That makes the book a strong match for the larger series. To Win a Dark Heart likes characters who are already compromised when the story begins. They are schemers, cursed figures, outcasts, or people using the only leverage they have. The fun comes from watching those characters collide with someone just as dangerous, then discovering that affection may be even riskier than the original plan.

If you enjoy fairy tale retellings that keep the magic but let the morality get a little muddy, this series should land well. Tempest's book adds fae deals, court intrigue, and a story about frauds, tricksters, and social climbers who suddenly have to decide what, or who, is worth more than the con. It is messy in the best fairy tale way.