
Poor Relation
historical romance
Series · historical romance
The Royal Agents series by Connie Brockway has 4 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Promise Me Heaven (1994).
Start here: Promise Me Heaven (1994) — then read straight through in publication order.
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
Royal Agents is Connie Brockway's Victorian-era spy-romance trilogy, following gentleman operatives working undercover in service of the Crown. Promise Me Heaven (1994) opens the series as a headstrong American heiress crosses paths with a British agent posing as a fortune hunter. All Through the Night (1997) follows a jewel thief recruited into espionage work who finds herself matched against -- and drawn to -- the agent sent to catch her. A Touch of Scandal, a novella published in 2013 as book 2.5, bridges the gap to No Place for a Dame (2013), which closes the series nearly two decades after it began, pairing an unconventional young woman with an agent hunting a vanished colleague through London's underworld.
The long real-world gap between books two and three -- sixteen years -- makes this an unusual series: Brockway effectively returned to a Victorian spy-romance premise she'd set aside since the late 1990s to give it a proper conclusion, rather than the trilogy being planned and written as one continuous project.
Four: Promise Me Heaven (1994), All Through the Night (1997), the novella A Touch of Scandal (2013, book 2.5), and No Place for a Dame (2013).
Connie Brockway wrote the first two novels in the 1990s and did not return to close out the series until 2013, when she published the bridging novella A Touch of Scandal and the concluding novel No Place for a Dame together.
It isn't strictly required, but the novella was published as book 2.5 to bridge the story going into the final novel, so reading it first is recommended.
No -- it's a standalone trilogy with its own cast of Crown operatives, unconnected to her McClairen's Isle, Rose Hunters, Bridal Stories or Braxton books.
None has been announced as of August 2026; No Place for a Dame appears to be the series' intended conclusion.
Reading order last verified .