When in Rome Books in Order

The When in Rome series, also known as the Rome, Kentucky books, is Sarah Adams’s cozy small town universe built around the Walker siblings and the people who wander into their orbit. Each novel can stand alone, but together they trace a web of romances that start with a runaway pop star on a stranger’s lawn and expand to classrooms, farms, and pie shops full of second chances.

It all begins in When in Rome, when burned out pop star Amelia Rose, better known to fans as Rae Rose, escapes her carefully managed life by driving to the nearest place called Rome. Instead of Italy she lands in Rome, Kentucky, where her car breaks down in front of Noah Walker’s house. Noah runs the local pie shop and guards both his heart and his quiet routines fiercely, but he grudgingly offers Amelia a guest room while her car is fixed. The story leans into grumpy sunshine chemistry, nosy neighbors, and the question of what happens when a woman who lives for the stage falls in love with someone whose world fits inside a single small town.

Practice Makes Perfect shifts the focus to Noah’s younger sister Annie, a soft spoken florist who feels like everyone’s favorite good girl and no one’s first choice romantically. After an especially rough date, she decides she needs to practice being bold and flirtatious if she wants the kind of love she dreams about. She recruits Will Griffin, the tattooed bodyguard assigned to Amelia, to coach her through fake dates and confidence building exercises. As lessons turn into real feelings, the book tackles social anxiety, people pleasing, and the courage it takes to ask for more than what you have always been handed.

In Beg, Borrow, or Steal, eldest sister Emily Walker takes center stage. Emily is a meticulous second grade teacher with a secret life as a romance writer, and she has spent years sparring with fellow teacher Jack Bennett. When Jack returns to Rome after a broken engagement and moves in next door, their hallway skirmishes and classroom competitions crank back up. A misfired email that could expose Emily’s pen name forces the enemies to team up, and what starts as sabotage and snark becomes a story about grief, depression, creativity, and finding someone who sees both your public persona and the messy truth underneath.

The fourth book, In Your Dreams, brings youngest sister Madison Walker home from New York after her culinary ambitions take some hard hits. She accepts an offer to become head chef at a new farm to table restaurant on Huxley Farm, owned by James Huxley, her brother’s steady, rule following best friend. Madison sees the job as a last chance to rebuild her confidence, while James has quietly been in love with her for years. Launching the restaurant on a tight timeline, managing a complicated sibling feud in the Huxley family, and facing Madison’s perfectionism create a simmering backdrop for their friends to lovers romance.

Across the series Rome, Kentucky, is more than a postcard backdrop. The meddling townsfolk, church potlucks, school events, and shared history give every book the feeling of coming home, even when the characters are running from something. Adams keeps the steam off the page but lets longing, banter, and emotional honesty do the heavy lifting. Readers who start with When in Rome and move through Practice Makes Perfect, Beg, Borrow, or Steal, and In Your Dreams will watch the Walkers grow up, fall in love, and keep choosing their little town, and each other, again and again.