Joanna Bourne Books in Order: The Spymasters Reading Guide

All six Spymasters novels are standalone romances — one couple, one arc, one happily ever after per book. But the same web of spies threads through every story, so a hero in one book is a shadowy mentor in another, and a villain you meet early gets a redemption arc later. That interconnection is exactly why fans obsess over reading order. The short version: read them in publication order. Bourne has said that is how she built the characters, and it delivers the big emotional reveals the way she intended.

The Spymasters series in publication order

This is the recommended reading order for a first-timer.

1. The Spymaster's Lady (2008) — French spy Annique Villiers and British spymaster Robert Grey, on the run and constantly outmanoeuvring each other. The fan favourite and the perfect on-ramp to the whole world.
2. My Lord and Spymaster (2008) — a merchant's daughter hunting the traitor who ruined her father collides with the very spymaster hunting her. Prickly, clever, and full of London river-trade texture.
3. The Forbidden Rose (2010) — set earlier in the timeline during the French Revolution: an aristocrat in hiding and the spy sent into the chaos. This is where several beloved recurring characters get their origins.
4. The Black Hawk (2011) — the one long-time readers wait for: the decades-spanning love-and-rivalry of Justine and Adrian, two spies on opposite sides. Best read after you already know them.
5. Rogue Spy (2014) — a planted child-spy grown up and walking back into the fold to confess, and the woman who must decide whether to trust him.
6. Beauty Like the Night (2017) — a former intelligence agent turned lady of independent means takes on a case that drags her back into the game, closing out the series.

A note for completists: an early Bourne title, Her Ladyship's Companion (1983), is sometimes listed alongside the series in chronological guides. It is out of print and hard to find, and it is not needed to enjoy the Spymasters books at all — feel free to skip it.

Chronological (story timeline) order

Once you have read them and know the cast, some readers enjoy a re-read in the order events actually occur:

1. The Forbidden Rose
2. The Spymaster's Lady
3. Rogue Spy
4. My Lord and Spymaster
5. The Black Hawk
6. Beauty Like the Night

It is a lovely way to watch the timeline snap into place — but as a first read it spoils some of the character reveals that hit hardest in publication order. Save it for round two.

Where to start

Start with The Spymaster's Lady. It is the book that made Bourne's name, it stands completely on its own, and it sets the tone — witty, tense, and swoony — for everything that follows. From there, simply keep going in publication order. If you only ever read one, make it that first one; if you finish and want the emotional gut-punch the fandom is built on, The Black Hawk is your reward for sticking around.