Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Books in Order: All 15 Titles
Kathleen Erin Woodiwiss (3 June 1939 - 6 July 2007) was an American novelist born in Alexandria, Louisiana, who worked as a fashion model in Tokyo before turning to fiction. Her 1972 debut The Flame and the Flower is generally credited with creating the modern historical romance: it was the first single-title romance published as an original paperback rather than a hardcover, and the first to follow its central couple past the bedroom door. She published thirteen novels over thirty-five years, with more than 36 million copies in print worldwide, and wrote nothing but historical romance. She lived in Princeton, Minnesota, and died there of cancer at 68; her last novel, Everlasting, appeared three months after her death.
Do you have to read Kathleen E. Woodiwiss in order?
Ten of her thirteen novels are complete standalones and can be read in any order at all. The only sequence that matters is the Birmingham family: read The Flame and the Flower first, then The Elusive Flame and A Season Beyond a Kiss in either order, since each closes its own romance. If you want the Birmingham story in internal chronological order rather than publication order, read The Flame and the Flower, then A Season Beyond a Kiss, then The Elusive Flame. The two novellas are optional; A Season Beyond a Kiss is the full-length version of the same couple's story.
Genres and eras: Historical romance only - no contemporary, no suspense, no other genre. The settings range widely: eleventh-century Norman England, Elizabethan England, Georgian and late-eighteenth-century England, seventeenth-century Russia, colonial and Federal-era America, and the American Civil War. She is the founding author of the 'erotic historical' or so-called bodice-ripper style, and her books are considerably longer and slower-paced than modern historical romance.
Birmingham Family Saga in order (1972-2000)
Her only true series. Listed here in publication order. Story chronology runs differently: The Flame and the Flower, then Jeff Birmingham's story (the two novellas, later expanded into A Season Beyond a Kiss), then The Elusive Flame, which follows Brandon and Heather's grown son Beau. Goodreads therefore numbers A Season Beyond a Kiss as book 2 and The Elusive Flame as book 3, the reverse of publication order.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Flame and the Flower | 1972 |
| 1.1 | The Kiss anthology-contribution | 1995 |
| 1.2 | Beyond the Kiss anthology-contribution | 1996 |
| 2 | The Elusive Flame | 1998 |
| 3 | A Season Beyond a Kiss | 2000 |
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Kathleen E. Woodiwiss: standalone novels
These sit outside the numbered series and can be read in any order.
| Title | First published | |
|---|---|---|
| — | The Wolf and the Dove | 1974 |
| — | Shanna | 1977 |
| — | Ashes in the Wind | 1979 |
| — | A Rose in Winter | 1982 |
| — | Come Love a Stranger | 1984 |
| — | So Worthy My Love | 1989 |
| — | Forever in Your Embrace | 1992 |
| — | Petals on the River | 1997 |
| — | The Reluctant Suitor | 2003 |
| — | Everlasting | 2007 |
Where to start with Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
The Flame and the Flower
The 1972 book that started modern historical romance, and the head of her only series.
The Wolf and the Dove
Her Norman-conquest medieval and the title most often named as her best by long-time romance readers.
Shanna
The biggest and most adventurous of her standalones, and a good test of whether her expansive 1970s style suits you.
Frequently asked questions
Do Kathleen Woodiwiss's books need to be read in order?
Almost never. Ten of her thirteen novels are standalones with no shared characters. Only the Birmingham books connect: start with The Flame and the Flower (1972), then read The Elusive Flame and A Season Beyond a Kiss in whichever order you like.
How many books did Kathleen Woodiwiss write?
Thirteen novels between 1972 and 2007, plus two short novellas published inside multi-author anthologies, making fifteen pieces of fiction in total. She wrote under her own name only and published no books under a pen name.
What was Kathleen Woodiwiss's first book?
The Flame and the Flower, published by Avon in April 1972. It is widely credited as the first modern historical romance: the first single-title romance issued as an original paperback rather than a hardcover, and the first to take its hero and heroine past the bedroom door.
What order do the Birmingham books go in?
Publication order is The Flame and the Flower (1972), the novellas The Kiss (1995) and Beyond the Kiss (1996), then The Elusive Flame (1998) and A Season Beyond a Kiss (2000). By internal chronology, A Season Beyond a Kiss comes before The Elusive Flame, because it tells Jeff Birmingham's story while The Elusive Flame follows Brandon and Heather's grown son Beau.
What was Kathleen Woodiwiss's last book?
Everlasting, a medieval romance set among Normans and Saxons in England, published by William Morrow in October 2007. Woodiwiss died of cancer on 6 July 2007, so it appeared posthumously about three months later.
Which Kathleen Woodiwiss book is the best one to start with?
The Flame and the Flower if you want the historically important one, or The Wolf and the Dove if you want the one long-time romance readers most often recommend. Both stand alone, so neither requires any prior reading.
Did Kathleen Woodiwiss write under any other names?
No. Every book she published carries her own name, usually as Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Some book-list sites file Lisa Kleypas's Gamblers novels under her, but that is an error caused by their shared 1995 anthology, Three Weddings and a Kiss.
How this list was counted
This guide lists 15 titles — 5 across 1 series and 10 outside them. 15 titles: 13 full-length novels published under Kathleen E. Woodiwiss between 1972 and 2007, plus 2 novellas that appeared only as contributions to multi-author anthologies (The Kiss, 1995, and Beyond the Kiss, 1996). The anthology volumes themselves (Three Weddings and a Kiss, Married at Midnight) are not counted as her books. She used no pen names, so nothing is excluded on that basis.
Two real source conflicts had to be resolved. First, the years of The Elusive Flame and A Season Beyond a Kiss are swapped on bookseriesinorder.com and orderofbooks.com, which give 1998 for A Season Beyond a Kiss and 2000 for The Elusive Flame. Open Library's edition record, the Wikipedia articles on Woodiwiss and on The Flame and the Flower, and Avon's own listings all place The Elusive Flame in 1998 and A Season Beyond a Kiss in 2000, which is what is recorded here. Second, the Birmingham series numbering differs by source: Goodreads numbers by story chronology (A Season Beyond a Kiss as 2, The Elusive Flame as 3) while publisher listings and the Wikipedia sequel list follow publication order; the pos values above are publication order and the discrepancy is documented in the series note. Wikipedia dates A Rose in Winter to 1981 and The Reluctant Suitor to 2002; Avon's 1982 and William Morrow's 2003 first editions are used instead. Wikipedia's line about 'twelve novels' predates Everlasting; the correct novel count is thirteen. bookseriesinorder.com and orderofbooks.com both attribute a 'Gamblers' series (Then Came You, Dreaming of You) to Woodiwiss - those are Lisa Kleypas novels and are deliberately excluded. Married at Midnight (1996) is described by Encyclopedia.com as a volume Woodiwiss both edited and contributed to; only her own novella, Beyond the Kiss, is counted.