Courtney Milan Books in Order: All 29 Titles
Courtney Milan is the pen name of Heidi Bond, an American historical romance novelist and former lawyer. She clerked for US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy and taught contracts and intellectual property at Seattle University School of Law before writing full time. Her first novel, Proof by Seduction, was published by Harlequin's HQN imprint in January 2010; she moved to self-publishing with the Turner series in 2011 and has published independently ever since. She writes mainly Victorian-set historical romance - the Brothers Sinister, the Worth Saga and the Wedgeford Trials - plus one contemporary series, Cyclone, and is known for centring characters usually left out of the subgenre, including scientists, suffragists, and Chinese and Chinese-British characters. She won the 2017 RITA Award for the novella Her Every Wish and an RWA Service Award in 2019, and has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.
Do you have to read Courtney Milan in order?
Her series are independent of one another, so you can start anywhere; the one soft link is that the Turner brothers' world sits alongside the Brothers Sinister world and a few characters cross over. Within a series, read in the numbered order on her own site rather than in publication order, because the novellas are not optional extras - The Governess Affair sets up the whole Brothers Sinister backstory, and A Kiss for Midwinter follows directly on from The Duchess War. In the Worth Saga, publication order and series order differ: The Pursuit Of... was published in 2017 but is numbered 2.5, so it should be read after After the Wedding. Everything else can be read in the order it was released.
Genres and eras: Overwhelmingly Victorian-set historical romance, roughly 1830s-1890s England, across the Carhart, Turner, Brothers Sinister, Worth Saga and Wedgeford Trials series. The Worth Saga travels further afield, to Hong Kong and the American west. The one exception is Cyclone, a present-day contemporary romance series set around a Silicon Valley technology company. Twenty-six of the twenty-nine titles counted here are historical.
Pen names: Courtney Milan — Pen name of Heidi Bond. All of her fiction is published as Courtney Milan and all of it is included here.; Heidi Bond — Her legal name, used for legal and non-fiction writing. Nothing published under it is romance fiction, so nothing under it is counted here. Her 2021 Michigan Law Review essay 'Pride and Predators' appears in some book listings as if it were a Courtney Milan title; it is an academic essay about Pride and Prejudice, not a novel, and is excluded.
The Carhart Series in order (2009-2010)
Her Harlequin HQN books and the only ones not self-published. They no longer appear on her own website's books page but remain in print. This Wicked Gift is a prequel novella that first appeared in the multi-author anthology The Heart of Christmas (2009) and was later sold separately.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | This Wicked Gift novella | 2009 |
| 1 | Proof by Seduction | 2010 |
| 2 | Trial by Desire | 2010 |
The Turner Series in order (2011)
Positions taken from the author's own reading-order page. The three Turner brothers - Ash, Mark and Smite - get a book each; Unlocked is a novella about a secondary character. All four appeared in 2011.
More on the The Turner Series series →
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unveiled | 2011 |
| 1.5 | Unlocked novella | 2011 |
| 2 | Unclaimed | 2011 |
| 3 | Unraveled | 2011 |
The Brothers Sinister in order (2012-2014)
Her best-known series and the one with the most tightly woven novellas. Positions are exactly as given on her own site, which numbers The Governess Affair as a half-book prequel and A Kiss for Midwinter and Talk Sweetly to Me as half-book novellas. Four novels and three novellas.
More on the The Brothers Sinister series →
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | The Governess Affair novella | 2012 |
| 1 | The Duchess War | 2012 |
| 1.5 | A Kiss for Midwinter novella | 2012 |
| 2 | The Heiress Effect | 2013 |
| 3 | The Countess Conspiracy | 2013 |
| 4 | The Suffragette Scandal | 2014 |
| 4.5 | Talk Sweetly to Me novella | 2014 |
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Cyclone in order (2015-2016)
Her only contemporary series, set around a Silicon Valley technology company and its founder Adam Reynolds. Two further books, Find Me (book 3) and What Lies Between Me and You, are listed on her website but have not been published; they are not counted.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trade Me | 2015 |
| 2 | Hold Me | 2016 |
| 2.5 | The Year of the Crocodile novella | 2016 |
The Worth Saga in order (2015-2021)
Positions are exactly as given on her own site, which numbers Her Every Wish as book 1.5, The Pursuit Of... as 2.5 and Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure as 2.75. The Pursuit Of... first appeared in the 2017 multi-author anthology Hamilton's Battalion and was sold separately in 2018, which is why many listings date it 2018. A fourth novel, The Return of the Scoundrel, is announced but unpublished and is not counted.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Once Upon a Marquess | 2015 |
| 1.5 | Her Every Wish novella | 2016 |
| 2 | After the Wedding | 2018 |
| 2.5 | The Pursuit Of... novella | 2017 |
| 2.75 | Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure novella | 2019 |
| 3 | The Devil Comes Courting | 2021 |
The Wedgeford Trials in order (2020-2024)
Set in the fictional Victorian village of Wedgeford, with a largely Chinese-British cast. Her most recent historical series.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Duke Who Didn't | 2020 |
| 2 | The Marquis Who Mustn't | 2023 |
| 3 | The Earl Who Isn't | 2024 |
Courtney Milan: books outside the series
These sit outside the numbered series and can be read in any order.
| Title | First published | |
|---|---|---|
| — | The Lady Always Wins novella | 2012 |
| — | What Happened at Midnight novella | 2012 |
| — | A Right Honorable Gentleman novella | 2016 |
Where to start with Courtney Milan
The Governess Affair
The free-to-cheap novella prequel to The Brothers Sinister and the fastest way to find out whether her voice suits you.
The Duchess War
The first full-length Brothers Sinister novel and the book most readers name as her breakout.
The Duke Who Didn't
The best entry point to her later work: a warm, self-contained Victorian romance with no earlier reading required.
Frequently asked questions
Do Courtney Milan's books need to be read in order?
Across her whole catalogue, no - her six series are independent and you can start with any of them. Within a series, order matters more than with most historical romance authors, because her novellas carry plot rather than sitting to one side. The Brothers Sinister and Worth Saga in particular are best read in the numbered order given on her own website.
What order should I read The Brothers Sinister in?
The Governess Affair (novella, 0.5), The Duchess War (1), A Kiss for Midwinter (novella, 1.5), The Heiress Effect (2), The Countess Conspiracy (3), The Suffragette Scandal (4), Talk Sweetly to Me (novella, 4.5). That is both publication order and the order Courtney Milan lists on her site. A Kiss for Midwinter should be read straight after The Duchess War.
Where do Courtney Milan's novellas fit into her series?
They are numbered with decimals and belong in sequence rather than at the end. The Brothers Sinister has three: The Governess Affair (0.5), A Kiss for Midwinter (1.5) and Talk Sweetly to Me (4.5). The Turner series has Unlocked (1.5). The Worth Saga has Her Every Wish (1.5), The Pursuit Of... (2.5) and Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure (2.75). Cyclone has The Year of the Crocodile (2.5).
How many books has Courtney Milan written?
Twenty-nine works of fiction between 2009 and 2026: seventeen full-length novels and twelve novellas and long short stories, spread across six series plus three standalone novellas. That count excludes box sets, the free short stories on her website, and three announced books that have not been published.
Is Courtney Milan a pen name?
Yes. Courtney Milan is the pen name of Heidi Bond, a former lawyer who clerked for US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy and taught law at Seattle University. All her fiction appears as Courtney Milan; her legal name is used for legal and non-fiction writing.
Does Courtney Milan write contemporary romance?
Yes, one series. Cyclone - Trade Me, Hold Me and the novella The Year of the Crocodile - is a present-day contemporary romance series set around a Silicon Valley technology company. Everything else she has written is Victorian-set historical romance.
Will there be more Worth Saga or Cyclone books?
Both series are unfinished. Her website lists The Return of the Scoundrel as a fourth Worth Saga book and Find Me and What Lies Between Me and You as further Cyclone titles, and states there will be more Worth Saga books than those currently listed. None of the three had been published as of September 2026.
How this list was counted
This guide lists 29 titles — 26 across 6 series and 3 outside them. Novels, novellas and long short stories published as Courtney Milan from 2009 to September 2026, each counted once at its first publication. Excluded: box sets and collections that reprint work already counted (The Brothers Sinister boxed set, the Worth Saga box sets, A Compendium of Ever-Increasing Mayhem, A Novella Collection, and the multi-author Seductive Starts set); the eight free short stories and epilogues given away on her website; the three announced but unpublished books (Find Me and What Lies Between Me and You in the Cyclone series, The Return of the Scoundrel in the Worth Saga); and 'Pride and Predators', which is a law review essay, not fiction.
Deliberately omitted and why. (1) Three announced but unpublished titles: Find Me and What Lies Between Me and You (Cyclone) and The Return of the Scoundrel (Worth Saga). All three appear on her own website's series pages, and Find Me has had a Goodreads listing since 2015, but no publication date could be verified and neither orderofbooks nor bookseriesinorder lists them as released. (2) 'Pride and Predators' (2021), which several book databases list as a Courtney Milan title. It is a Michigan Law Review essay by Heidi Bond analysing Pride and Prejudice, not fiction. (3) Eight free short stories and epilogues on her website - Unclaimed Epilogue, Bank Notes, Better Together, Birthday Gift, Out of the Frying Pan, Dark Horizon, In Which Madame Esmerelda Makes Predictions for the New Year and In Which Adam Reynolds Meets Frederica Marshall-Clark - which appear in some databases as separate titles. They are real but are giveaway extras rather than published works, and her website's own series pages do not number them. (4) Collections and box sets: A Compendium of Ever-Increasing Mayhem (four previously published novellas), A Novella Collection, the Brothers Sinister and Worth Saga box sets, and Seductive Starts (a multi-author set containing The Governess Affair). Source disagreements found and resolved: Wikipedia dates A Kiss for Midwinter to 2013, while orderofbooks, bookseriesinorder and Goodreads all say 2012 - 2012 is used. Wikipedia dates Proof by Seduction to 2010 and orderofbooks to 2009; the HQN first edition is January 2010, so 2010 is used. Most listings date The Pursuit Of... to 2018 and What Happened at Midnight to 2013, but both first appeared inside anthologies a year earlier - Hamilton's Battalion in October 2017 and Midnight Scandals in 2012 - and this file records first publication, so 2017 and 2012 are used. Fantastic Fiction and FictionDB both refuse automated fetches and could not be used as cross-checks.