Elizabeth Hoyt Books in Order: All 29 Titles
Elizabeth Hoyt is the pen name of American novelist Nancy M. Finney, who was born in New Orleans and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She debuted in 2006 with The Raven Prince and writes sensual Georgian-era historical romance, most of it set in eighteenth-century London rather than the Regency period. She is a New York Times bestselling author, best known for the twelve-book Maiden Lane series set in the slum district of St. Giles. She has also published three contemporary romances under the additional pen name Julia Harper. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Do you have to read Elizabeth Hoyt in order?
Start with Maiden Lane if you want her best-known work; the twelve novels are self-contained romances, so you can dip in, but reading from Wicked Intentions forward pays off because the Ghost of St. Giles storyline and the foundling-home cast build over the series. Legend of the Four Soldiers is the exception that really does need to be read 1 to 4, because the traitor mystery is a single arc. The Princes Trilogy and Greycourt can each be read in any order. The three contemporaries written as Julia Harper are unrelated to everything else.
Genres and eras: Almost entirely Georgian historical romance - the Maiden Lane books are set in 1730s London, and the Princes, Four Soldiers and Greycourt books in the 1760s. Nothing she writes as Elizabeth Hoyt is Regency, despite frequently being shelved that way. The only non-historical work is the three contemporary novels written as Julia Harper.
Pen names: Elizabeth Hoyt — Itself a pen name; her legal name is Nancy M. Finney. All historical romance appears under Elizabeth Hoyt and is included below.; Julia Harper — Contemporary romantic comedy / romantic suspense: Hot (2008), For the Love of Pete (2009) and Once and Always (2015). Not historical romance. Listed below under standalones and flagged, because later editions are branded 'Elizabeth Hoyt writing as Julia Harper' and readers do search for them together.
The Princes Trilogy in order (2006-2010)
Her debut sequence. Georgian England; three loosely linked romances plus a later novella. Each novel stands alone.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Raven Prince | 2006 |
| 2 | The Leopard Prince | 2007 |
| 3 | The Serpent Prince | 2007 |
| 3.5 | The Ice Princess novella | 2010 |
Legend of the Four Soldiers in order (2008-2009)
The one Hoyt series that genuinely must be read in order. Four survivors of the fictional Spinner's Falls massacre hunt the aristocrat who betrayed their regiment; the traitor plot runs across all four books and resolves only in To Desire a Devil.
More on the Legend of the Four Soldiers series →
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To Taste Temptation | 2008 |
| 2 | To Seduce a Sinner | 2008 |
| 3 | To Beguile a Beast | 2009 |
| 4 | To Desire a Devil | 2009 |
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Maiden Lane in order (2010-2017)
Her best-known series: twelve novels and three novellas set in and around the St. Giles rookery of 1730s London, linked by the foundling home on Maiden Lane and by the masked vigilante known as the Ghost of St. Giles. Each romance is self-contained but recurring characters build across the run.
More on the Maiden Lane series →
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wicked Intentions | 2010 |
| 2 | Notorious Pleasures | 2011 |
| 3 | Scandalous Desires | 2011 |
| 4 | Thief of Shadows | 2012 |
| 5 | Lord of Darkness | 2013 |
| 6 | Duke of Midnight | 2013 |
| 7 | Darling Beast | 2014 |
| 8 | Dearest Rogue | 2015 |
| 9 | Sweetest Scoundrel | 2015 |
| 10 | Duke of Sin | 2016 |
| 10.5 | Once Upon a Moonlit Night novella | 2016 |
| 10.7 | Once Upon a Christmas Eve novella | 2017 |
| 11 | Duke of Pleasure | 2016 |
| 12 | Duke of Desire | 2017 |
| 12.5 | Once Upon a Maiden Lane novella | 2017 |
Greycourt in order (2018-2024)
Georgian romances opening at an English house party in 1760, following two families still divided by an old scandal. A separate world from Maiden Lane, with no shared characters.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not the Duke's Darling | 2018 |
| 2 | When a Rogue Meets His Match | 2020 |
| 3 | No Ordinary Duchess | 2024 |
Elizabeth Hoyt: standalone novels
These sit outside the numbered series and can be read in any order.
| Title | First published | |
|---|---|---|
| — | Hot | 2008 |
| — | For the Love of Pete | 2009 |
| — | Once and Always | 2015 |
Where to start with Elizabeth Hoyt
Wicked Intentions
Book one of Maiden Lane and the natural front door to her most popular series and its 1730s St. Giles setting.
The Raven Prince
Her debut and a self-contained Georgian romance; a good short test of whether her voice suits you.
Duke of Sin
Frequently named her single best book, and readable without the earlier Maiden Lane volumes if you want the strongest sample first.
To Taste Temptation
The correct entry point if you want the Four Soldiers arc, which must be read in order.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to read the Maiden Lane series in order?
Not strictly. Each of the twelve novels closes its own romance, so a newcomer can start almost anywhere. Reading in publication order is still better, because the Ghost of St. Giles thread and the foundling-home characters carry over from book to book and later volumes spoil earlier couples.
How many books are in the Maiden Lane series?
Fifteen in total: twelve full-length novels from Wicked Intentions (2010) to Duke of Desire (2017), plus three novellas - Once Upon a Moonlit Night, Once Upon a Christmas Eve and Once Upon a Maiden Lane. The series is complete; Hoyt ended it in 2017.
What order should I read Elizabeth Hoyt's books in?
By series rather than strictly by date. The Princes Trilogy (2006-2010) came first, then Legend of the Four Soldiers (2008-2009), then Maiden Lane (2010-2017), then Greycourt (2018-2024). Only Legend of the Four Soldiers has to be read in sequence.
Is the Greycourt series connected to Maiden Lane?
No. Greycourt is a separate Georgian world, opening at a 1760 house party and following two families split by an old scandal, and it shares no characters with the 1730s Maiden Lane books. You can read either series without the other.
Are Elizabeth Hoyt's books Regency romance?
No, they are Georgian. Maiden Lane is set in the 1730s and the Princes, Four Soldiers and Greycourt books in the 1760s, all decades before the Regency proper (1811-1820). Retailers often shelve them as Regency anyway.
Does Elizabeth Hoyt write under another name?
Yes. Elizabeth Hoyt is itself a pen name for Nancy M. Finney, and she published three contemporary romances as Julia Harper: Hot (2008), For the Love of Pete (2009) and Once and Always (2015). Reissues are labelled 'Elizabeth Hoyt writing as Julia Harper'.
Where do the Maiden Lane novellas fit in the series?
Once Upon a Moonlit Night falls after Duke of Sin, Once Upon a Christmas Eve after that but before Duke of Pleasure, and Once Upon a Maiden Lane after Duke of Desire. All three are optional side stories; skipping them will not leave a gap in the main sequence.
How this list was counted
This guide lists 29 titles — 26 across 4 series and 3 outside them. 29 commercially published titles: 22 historical romance novels and 4 historical novellas as Elizabeth Hoyt, plus 3 contemporary novels as Julia Harper. Excludes three free promotional short stories given away on her website and to newsletter subscribers (Clever John, A Maiden Lane Christmas Special and Once Upon a Missive), and excludes One Scandalous Season (2021), a multi-author anthology that reprints the already-counted novella Once Upon a Christmas Eve.
Sources disagree on the position of the Maiden Lane novellas. The author's own site simply lists them as 'Maiden Lane Novellas' 1-3 in the order Moonlit Night, Maiden Lane, Christmas Eve; Goodreads assigns 10.5, 10.7 and 12.5, and Fantastic Fiction numbers Christmas Eve as novella 2. The decimals recorded here follow Goodreads. Note that Once Upon a Christmas Eve was originally scheduled for late 2016, which is why it sits at 10.7 despite its confirmed Hachette on-sale date of 5 December 2017 - that is also why it appears out of year order in the list above. bookseriesinorder.com dates No Ordinary Duchess to 2023; Wikipedia, the author's site and retailer listings all give December 2024, which is what is recorded. Three free short stories connected to Maiden Lane are deliberately omitted because they were never sold as books: Clever John (2011), A Maiden Lane Christmas Special (2013, free on the author's website) and Once Upon a Missive (a newsletter-only serial about Joseph Tinbox and Peach). One Scandalous Season: Four Holiday Novellas (2021) is also omitted from the count: it is a four-author anthology with Grace Burrowes, Jennifer Haymore and Christina Britton, and Hoyt's contribution to it is a reprint of Once Upon a Christmas Eve, not new work. Julia Harper's Hot is dated January 2008 by Wikipedia; bookseriesinorder lists 2015, which is a reissue year.