Julia Justiss Books in Order: The Complete Series Reading Guide

Every Justiss novel gives you a full couple and a full happy ending inside one book, so you are never forced to commit to a whole series to feel satisfied. But her signature move is the friend-group series: a set of men bound by school, scandal, or shared purpose, each getting his own book while the others cheer, meddle, and quietly set up their own stories. Read in order, the cameos land and the world deepens.

The Ransleigh Rogues in order

Four Ransleigh cousins are branded by a single infamous scandal, and each must claw his way back to honour — and love. This is the series most readers name first.

1. The Rake to Ruin Her (2013) — the opener, introducing the cousins and the scandal that shadows them all. A charming, high-stakes marriage-of-necessity setup.
2. The Rake to Redeem Her (2013) — a hero drawn to a mysterious Frenchwoman with secrets of her own, in a story that pushes past the ballroom.
3. The Rake to Rescue Her (2014) — a second-chance romance heavy with old wounds and hard-won trust.
4. The Rake to Reveal Her (2015) — the finale, closing out the cousins' arcs with the series' most independent-minded heroine.

Hadley's Hellions in order

A quartet of reform-minded friends chasing political change in a restless post-Waterloo England — plus, of course, the women who upend their plans. Warmer politics, same big hearts.

1. Forbidden Nights with the Viscount (2016) — the series opener, pairing an idealistic reformer with a temptation he did not plan for.
2. Stolen Encounters with the Duchess (2016) — a slow-burning, aching romance between a commoner-born politician and a duchess he has loved from afar.
3. Convenient Proposal to the Lady (2016) — a marriage-of-convenience thread that turns into something neither party expected.
4. Secret Lessons with the Rake (2017) — the closer, letting the group's most roguish member finally meet his match.

Justiss has written many more Regency romances beyond these two series, including other connected sets and standalones across the Harlequin Historical line. Because each book resolves on its own, any of them is a safe first taste — but the two series above are the easiest way to binge her at her most addictive.

Where to start

For most readers, begin with The Rake to Ruin Her. It launches the Ransleigh Rogues, introduces the cousins you will follow across four books, and shows off Justiss's knack for high emotional stakes in a short page count. If you would rather have a meatier, more political backdrop, start with Forbidden Nights with the Viscount and read Hadley's Hellions in order. Either way you will get a complete love story in book one — and probably a to-be-read list three titles longer by the time you finish it.