Meredith Duran Books in Order: All 14 Titles
Meredith Duran is an American historical romance novelist who published fourteen books with Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, between 2008 and 2018. Her debut, The Duke of Shadows, opens in India during the 1857 uprising and has been translated into more than a dozen languages; it and her second book, Bound by Your Touch, both placed in the 2010 All About Romance poll of the top 100 romances of all time. She is a USA Today bestselling author and won the 2015 RITA Award for Historical Romance: Long with Fool Me Twice. Most of her novels are set in late-Victorian Britain rather than the Regency, which is unusual for the subgenre and is part of what her readers single out. She has published no new fiction since The Sins of Lord Lockwood in 2018.
Do you have to read Meredith Duran in order?
There is no wrong place to start. Her first six books were published as unconnected standalones and her own website lists all fourteen titles in a single flat publication order with no series labels at all. Only Rules for the Reckless benefits from being read in order, and even there each book resolves its own romance; Your Wicked Heart is a short prequel novella that is genuinely optional. The one pairing worth reading together is Bound by Your Touch and then Written on Your Skin: the heroes are friends, and one scene appears in both books from two different points of view.
Genres and eras: Historical romance only, with no work in any other genre. The settings are unusually varied for the subgenre: The Duke of Shadows moves between British India in 1857 and London, At Your Pleasure is set during the Jacobite rising of 1715, and almost everything else is late-Victorian, roughly 1880 to 1890, rather than Regency.
Pen names: Meredith Duran — A pen name, but the only name she publishes fiction under. No other body of work needs separating out of this bibliography.
Rules for the Reckless in order (2012-2018)
Her only true series: seven linked late-Victorian books, opened by a novella. The connections are through overlapping social circles and recurring secondary characters rather than a single family, and every book is a self-contained romance.
| Book | Title | First published |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | Your Wicked Heart novella | 2012 |
| 1 | That Scandalous Summer | 2013 |
| 2 | Fool Me Twice | 2014 |
| 3 | Lady Be Good | 2015 |
| 4 | Luck Be a Lady | 2015 |
| 5 | A Lady's Code of Misconduct | 2017 |
| 6 | The Sins of Lord Lockwood | 2018 |
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Meredith Duran: books outside the series
These sit outside the numbered series and can be read in any order.
| Title | First published | |
|---|---|---|
| — | The Duke of Shadows | 2008 |
| — | Bound by Your Touch | 2009 |
| — | Written on Your Skin | 2009 |
| — | Wicked Becomes You | 2010 |
| — | A Lady's Lesson in Scandal | 2011 |
| — | At Your Pleasure | 2012 |
| — | Sweetest Regret novella | 2015 |
Where to start with Meredith Duran
The Duke of Shadows
Her debut and still the book most often named as her best, and completely standalone.
That Scandalous Summer
The proper opening of Rules for the Reckless if you would rather start a series than a one-off.
Fool Me Twice
Her RITA winner and the most reliably recommended single book for readers who want to test her voice.
Frequently asked questions
Do Meredith Duran's books need to be read in order?
No. Her first six novels are unconnected standalones, and her own website lists all fourteen books in one flat publication order without series labels. Only the seven Rules for the Reckless titles are linked, and each of those still resolves its own romance.
What is the Rules for the Reckless reading order?
Your Wicked Heart (2012, novella prequel, often numbered 0.5), then That Scandalous Summer (2013), Fool Me Twice (2014), Lady Be Good (2015), Luck Be a Lady (2015), A Lady's Code of Misconduct (2017) and The Sins of Lord Lockwood (2018).
How many books has Meredith Duran written?
Fourteen: twelve novels and two novellas, published between 2008 and 2018. Her own website lists exactly those fourteen titles.
Is Meredith Duran still writing?
She has not published new fiction since The Sins of Lord Lockwood in April 2018. Her website is still live and lists the same fourteen books, with no announced new title as of September 2026.
Are Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin connected?
Yes, loosely. Viscount Sanburne, the hero of Bound by Your Touch, is a friend of Phineas Granville, the hero of Written on Your Skin, and Sanburne appears in the later book; one scene is shown from both men's perspectives across the two novels. Neither is a sequel to the other and either can be read first.
Which Meredith Duran book won the RITA?
Fool Me Twice won the 2015 RITA Award for Historical Romance: Long. It is the second full-length book in the Rules for the Reckless series.
Are Meredith Duran's books Regency romances?
Mostly not. Most of her novels are set in the late Victorian period, roughly the 1880s. The Duke of Shadows is set partly in India in 1857 and At Your Pleasure is set during the 1715 Jacobite rising, so the collection spans a much wider period than the usual Regency window.
How this list was counted
This guide lists 14 titles — 7 across 1 series and 7 outside them. 14 works of original fiction: 12 full-length novels and 2 novellas, first published between 2008 and 2018. This matches the count on the author's own website, which lists exactly these 14 titles. Sweetest Regret is counted once, at its 2015 first publication inside the anthology What Happens Under the Mistletoe, not again for the 2016 standalone e-book edition. Multi-author anthologies themselves are not counted as titles.
The author's own website lists fourteen titles and gives no series names, so the Rules for the Reckless grouping and its numbering come from Goodreads, Simon & Schuster and the book databases rather than from her. Sweetest Regret was first published in November 2015 inside the four-author anthology What Happens Under the Mistletoe and released as a standalone e-book in 2016; it is counted once, at its 2015 first publication, and the anthology itself is not counted as a Duran title. Some aggregator pages list What Happens Under the Mistletoe as a separate Duran book, which double-counts the same novella. Your Wicked Heart is numbered 0.5 in the series on Goodreads and 1 on some retailer listings; it is a prequel novella either way. No pen names, co-written books, self-published titles or non-romance work were found for this author. Every title in this file appears both on the author's own site and in at least one independent database.