Valerie Bowman Books in Order: The Complete Reading Guide

Does order matter? Within each series, yes — a little. Every Bowman novel is a complete standalone with its own couple and happily ever after, so you can jump in anywhere. But she loves a recurring cast: friends, siblings, and rivals wander between books and set up their own future romances. Read each series in publication order and the cameos and callbacks pay off. Here are her main series in the order she wrote them.

The Secret Brides series (2012–2013)

The series that started it all, and still one of her most beloved. Regency romance with mistaken identities, secret schemes, and plenty of wit.

1. Secrets of a Wedding Night (2012) — A widow's scandalous pamphlet about wedding nights collides with the duke determined to shut her down. Bowman's charming debut.
2. Secrets of a Runaway Bride (2013) — A young woman chasing the wrong man is quietly rescued by the right one.
3. Secrets of a Scandalous Marriage (2013) — A woman accused of murder and the man who cannot stop wanting to save her.

Shorter companion novellas — A Secret Proposal, A Secret Affair, and It Happened Under the Mistletoe — slot between the main books for readers who want every scene.

The Playful Brides series (2014 onward)

Her most popular and longest-running series: banter-forward Regency romances, several riffing on classic love stories like Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac. The first book earned a starred review and a Kirkus nod.

1. The Unexpected Duchess (2014) — A wallflower ghost-writes love letters for a friend and falls for the recipient. Bowman's breakout.
2. The Accidental Countess (2014) — Mistaken identity and a hero who "forgets" who his fiancee really is.
3. The Unlikely Lady (2015) — Two sworn enemies discover their late-night letters have made them something else entirely.
4. The Irresistible Rogue (2016) — A broken engagement, a kidnapping plot, and a spy who will not let go.
5. The Unlikely Wallflower and later entries continue the series, each a standalone romance within the connected world.

The Footmen's Club series (2020–2022)

A fan-favourite hook: aristocratic heroes who disguise themselves as servants to win a wager — and learn a few things about love from below stairs. Also published as the Lords in Disguise series, it runs to six books.

1. The Footman and I (2020) — An earl posing as a footman falls for the one woman who sees straight through him. Also titled The Footman Is an Earl.
2. Duke Looks Like a Groomsman (2020) — A duke incognito and a heroine hiding her own secrets.
3. The Valet Who Loved Me (2021) — A spy in disguise and the widow who complicates his mission.

The series continues through further disguised-lord romances, closing with The Duke Is Back (2022).

Where to start

If you want to read Valerie Bowman from the very beginning, start with Secrets of a Wedding Night — it is her debut and the launch of the Secret Brides. But if you would rather begin with her most celebrated work, jump straight to The Unexpected Duchess, the first Playful Brides novel and the book most readers name as their gateway. Both are light, fast, and heavy on the banter, so pick the premise that grabs you and go.