Women of Worth Books in Order

Women of Worth is one of Stockton's early Regency series, and you can feel her interest in female friendship right from the start. The first books are tied together by a vow between friends who think they can outsmart marriage, only to discover that society, family, gossip, and their own hearts have other plans.

The series spends a lot of time in London Seasons, country house parties, and drawing rooms where private decisions never stay private for long. There is also a strong thread of women trying to keep hold of choice, even when money, inheritance, or reputation are pushing them toward a narrow path.

Love in the Bargain begins with Elsie and a wager-like arrangement with her mother, plus the added headache of gossip columns and an inconveniently appealing lord. Love for the Spinster follows Freya, who has more reason than most to keep romance at arm's length. Love at the House Party centers on a widow who needs security but finds herself drawn elsewhere. Love in the Wager turns an arranged marriage into a partnership under pressure when threatening notes appear. Love in the Ballroom rounds things out with a heroine who wants a London Season and a hero who needs a bride before he can claim his inheritance.

The books share more than a setting. They are interested in what women owe to family, what they owe to themselves, and how love can complicate both.

This series can be sampled almost anywhere, but it reads best in order because the early friendships and recurring social world give the later books extra warmth.