Mary Balogh

Mary Balogh penned her first historical romance in 1983. That book, A Masked Deception, was published by Signet in 1985 and won a Romantic Times Award for Regency Best New Writer. Since then, she has written over 100 novels and numerous novellas, with her most famous being the New York Times bestselling Slightly Series, which follows the always intriguing Bedwyn siblings; and the Simply Series, which follows four teachers at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath, England.

The best place to start is the Waite series, the earliest of Mary Balogh's multi-book series: it opens with The Trysting Place (1986) and runs to 3 books across 1986–1992, ending with A Counterfeit Betrothal (1992). Mary Balogh's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Mary Balogh has 138 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1981 and 2026. 76 of them belong to 17 named series — the largest being the Westcott series with 10 books — and 62 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Mary Balogh's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Denning-Mainwaring (1985–1987, 2 books), Waite (1986–1992, 3 books) and The First Snowdrop (1986–1994, 2 books), plus 14 more.

This guide splits Mary Balogh's 138 books into 17 named series and 62 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Westcott (10 books, 2016–2021); Bedwyn Family (9 books, 1999–2016); Survivor's Club (8 books, 2012–2016); Dark Angel (7 books, 1991–1997); Ravenswood (6 books, 2022–2026), plus 12 further series.