Sarah MacLean Books in Order: All Five Series

Q: Do Sarah MacLean's series need to be read in order?

Each book stands alone, but MacLean's series share one continuous world — characters from earlier series appear in later ones, and the Bareknuckle Bastards and Hell's Belles overlap directly. Publication order (starting with Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake) gives you every cameo and callback.

Q: Where should I start with Sarah MacLean?

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is the classic entry point and still one of the genre's most beloved first lines of attack. If you prefer her darker, more intense later style, start with Wicked and the Wallflower, the first Bareknuckle Bastards book.

Q: Are the Bareknuckle Bastards and Hell's Belles connected?

Yes. Hell's Belles spins directly out of the Bareknuckle Bastards world — the Duchess of Trevescan appears in both, and characters cross between the series. You can start with Bombshell, but the Bastards books add a lot of context.

Updated for 2026 • Reading order guide

Sarah MacLean writes the historical romances people mean when they say "morally grey." Gambling hells, crime lords, scandal sheets, and heroines who burn the rulebook — her five series form one continuous world that gets darker and more dangerous as it goes. Here is the full map, in order.

Order matters more with MacLean than with most romance authors. Her London is a single connected universe: the gambling hell at the heart of one series casts its shadow over the next, side characters get promoted to leads years later, and the Hell's Belles books spin directly out of the Bareknuckle Bastards. Every novel delivers its own complete love story, but publication order is the difference between meeting a character and recognising them.

Love by Numbers

Where it all began: three siblings, one scandalous family, and MacLean's signature blend of wit and want.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (2010) — Spinster Callie makes a list of everything a lady must never do, then recruits London's most notorious rake to help her do it.
Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord (2010) — An isolated heiress running a secret refuge for runaway women meets the lord sent to find a statue on her land.
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (2011) — A scandal-prone Italian beauty and the coldest, most controlled duke in England. Sparks, obviously.

Rules of Scoundrels

Four ruined aristocrats run The Fallen Angel, London's most dangerous gaming hell. MacLean's most brooding, high-drama series — and many readers' favourite.

A Rogue by Any Other Name (2012) — A marquess who lost everything at cards marries his childhood friend for her land. She has conditions.
One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (2013) — A bespectacled scientist asks a scoundrel to "ruin her properly" before her wedding. He declines. Briefly.
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (2013) — A man exiled for a murder he cannot remember faces the woman who was supposed to be the victim.
Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover (2014) — The identity of the Angel's fourth founder is the series' best-kept secret, and this reveal pays off everything.

Scandal & Scoundrel

Regency scandal reimagined as celebrity tabloid culture — each book opens with a gossip-column headline you would absolutely click.

The Rogue Not Taken (2015) — The least scandalous of the infamous Talbot sisters flees London in a stolen footman's livery, straight into a jaded marquess's carriage.
A Scot in the Dark (2016) — A scandalous portrait, a ruined heroine, and the enormous Scottish duke who never wanted the title or the ward.
The Day of the Duchess (2017) — A duchess returns after years missing to demand a divorce from the husband who never stopped loving her. Second-chance angst at full power.

The Bareknuckle Bastards

Three siblings born on the wrong side of a duke's blanket rule Covent Garden's underworld. Darker, grittier, hotter.

Wicked and the Wallflower (2018) — Crime lord Devil offers a spinster a devil's bargain: ruin in exchange for a season's salvation.
Brazen and the Beast (2019) — Hattie finds an unconscious man in her carriage on the night she has sworn to claim her own future. He wakes up. It gets complicated.
Daring and the Duke (2020) — Grace, queen of the Garden, and the duke who was her first love and worst betrayal.

Hell's Belles

A crew of women operating outside society's rules, righting wrongs the ton would rather ignore — spun straight out of the Bastards' world.

Bombshell (2021) — Sesily Talbot, everyone's favourite scandalous side character, finally gets her story — and a hero who has been pining through two series.
Heartbreaker (2022) — Adelaide Frampton, pickpocket turned lady, on a cross-country mission with a duke who notices far too much.
Knockout (2023) — An explosives-obsessed lady and the straight-laced detective assigned to watch her. He is not remotely prepared.

The Belles' shadowy leader, the Duchess of Trevescan, has been promised her own reckoning — watch for the series' next instalment.

Where to start

Two good doors. For classic ballroom MacLean, start at the beginning: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, then read straight through in publication order. For the darker, BookTok-era MacLean, jump in at Wicked and the Wallflower and continue into Hell's Belles — just accept that the earlier series' cameos will spoil a few happy endings. Whatever you do, read Rules of Scoundrels in order; Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover is built on the series-long secret.

Frequently asked questions

Do Sarah MacLean's series need to be read in order?

Each book stands alone, but her series share one continuous world — characters from earlier series appear in later ones, and the Bareknuckle Bastards and Hell's Belles overlap directly. Publication order gives you every cameo and callback.

Where should I start with Sarah MacLean?

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is the classic entry point. If you prefer her darker, more intense later style, start with Wicked and the Wallflower.

Are the Bareknuckle Bastards and Hell's Belles connected?

Yes. Hell's Belles spins directly out of the Bastards' world — the Duchess of Trevescan appears in both, and characters cross between series. You can start with Bombshell, but the Bastards books add a lot of context.