Structures of Historical Romance Series
Binge Readers' Dream
Historical romance books are usually either standalone novels (not related to any other novels) or in series. Usually the summaries of books from a series will state that each book can be read as a standalone novel and you do not need to read other books in the series to understand it. Each book tells a complete story of a single couple with a clear conclusion and happily ever after. It’s rare to see a cliffhanger associated with the relationship status of the main characters of the story that requires you to read the next book. And since the main conclusion of a romance is that the couple ends up happily together, it’s not really a big surprise what happens to previous couples in previous books if you read the books out of order.
However, my personal preference is to read the books in order. The timeline usually goes in order and the characters that will become future main characters will show up as friends and family members and give you some backstory to their personalities. I like to have fun guessing who the next main characters will be based on the hints the authors provide within earlier books. I also enjoy seeing how the relationships of previous books continue to endure later on in the series. In some cases, books later in a series may give away major plot points from previous books (above and beyond the previous couple getting together). When I write book reviews, I try to note this as much as possible so that you won’t spoil yourself by accident. If you’re worried about spoilers though, you really can’t go wrong with just reading in order. Another tip if you’re worried about spoilers: don’t read the summaries of future books in the series. I’ve done this before where I’ve read a summary and realized someone who was married in an early book becomes a widow along the way and has a new romance later in the series.
Series Group Examples
So if each book is a complete story on its own, what makes a series a series? Often the series will be grouped around a central theme or a group of acquaintances. Of the books I’ve read, they’re usually either a family group or a friend group.
One popular example of a family group is the Bridgertons Series by Julia Quinn; there are eight siblings and there are eight books to showcase each sibling’s romance. Julia Quinn also does this with the Smythe-Smith Quartet and the Rokesbys Series.
Another common grouping is based on friend group. Either a group of men who went to school together, a group of women who went to school together, childhood friends, or newfound friends in adulthood. A popular example here is the Wallflowers Series by Lisa Kleypas, where four women with poor marriage prospects repeatedly meet at balls and form a pact to assist each other in finding husbands.
Multi-Series Universes
In some cases, authors will connect more than one series together and they are really within the same universe. Characters will reappear in future books or deal with the next generation. For example, Sarah MacLean integrates all her books in the same universe with time moving forward from one series to the next and the major settings (like casinos or modistes) remain consistent. Another example is Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflowers Series which introduces some beloved characters and then the offspring of those couples come back in the Ravenels Series. When I first started reading historical romance, I did not realize that authors sometimes connect series together and now that I do, I try to read author backlists chronologically based on publication date. You’ll notice in my book reviews that I will put the year of publication next to the title of the book to help with that.
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How to Find the Series Order
New historical romance books are being released constantly and sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s part of a series. I like to refer to a few different sources to check the order of books within a series or even just the publication dates for older books. First, the author’s website is a great resource, especially since they’re the one who wrote the books in the first place. If anyone should give a recommendation on the order to read some books, the author is that person. Second, when you’re shopping for books on Amazon or looking at book reviews on Goodreads, they will often link to other books within that series or give an overall series summary page. Third, if you’re borrowing ebooks from the library, the Libby app will often state the series listing order. I’ve found this to be spotty, so I tend not to trust this source as much. My favorite resource for finding the reading order for series is the website Fantastic Fiction. I will use this site to look up an author’s name and find their entire backlist. The books are grouped and numbered by series and each individual book listing will give you the summary and links to purchase (and you can use the library extension plugin on this page to find the book at your library). This site definitely helps to keep me organized and knowing the order in which whole series are published and the order of books within each series.
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