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Series · dark romance

Wicked Villains

by Katee Robert

The Wicked Villains series by Katee Robert has 7 known books (7 published). It is best read in publication order, starting with Desperate Measures (2019). Queen Takes Rose is the latest book with a fully recorded publication date.

Books
7 known books (6 novels + 1 collection)
Published
7
First published
2019
Status
completed
Shelved under
Romance
Start here: Desperate Measures (2019) — then read straight through in publication order.
Book one
Cover of Desperate Measures
Desperate Measures (2019)

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. Desperate Measures

    Novel
    Desperate Measures launches Katee Robert's Wicked Villains in Carver City on May 28, 2019, pairing a reimagined Jafar with a partner navigating kink, power exchange, and consent-forward BDSM dynamics for the first time. It runs 228 pages and set the template Robert would later scale up into Dark Olympus.
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  2. Learn My Lesson

    Novel
    Learn My Lesson followed five months later, October 29, 2019, growing to 320 pages as Wicked Villains' second standalone-but-interconnected pairing set in the same Carver City criminal underworld.
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  3. A Worthy Opponent

    Novel
    A Worthy Opponent came out February 10, 2020, matching Learn My Lesson's length exactly at 320 pages, continuing Robert's run of reimagined-villain romances built around Carver City's recurring cast.
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  4. The Beast

    Novel
    The Beast followed two months later, April 13, 2020, giving the fourth reimagined antagonist -- a Beast archetype stripped of moralizing -- a partner of his own. It runs 296 pages.
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  5. The Sea Witch

    Novel
    The Sea Witch arrived September 7, 2020, running 286 pages as Wicked Villains' fifth entry, continuing the series' loose criminal-underworld setting and recurring secondary characters.
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  6. Queen Takes Rose

    Novel
    Queen Takes Rose closed out Wicked Villains' concentrated 2019-2020 run on November 10, 2020, pairing a reimagined Red Queen with a partner in the same closed Carver City universe. At 264 pages, it was the shortest book in the series until 2025's Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention.
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  7. Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention

    Collection
    Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention departs from the pattern of the six novels before it: published in 2025, five years after Queen Takes Rose, it's a 496-page collection co-credited to Robert and R.M. Virtues.
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Key facts about the Wicked Villains series

Our list has 7 books in the Wicked Villains series. Since all 7 are out now, you can read the whole list today. 6 are novels, while the rest is a collection.

Start with Desperate Measures, since it opens the publication order in 2019. Learn My Lesson is book 2, from 2019. A Worthy Opponent is book 3, from 2020.

The Beast is book 4, from 2020. The Sea Witch is book 5, from 2020. Queen Takes Rose is book 6, from 2020. Wicked Pursuit and Divine Intervention is book 7, from 2025.

The list keeps the books in date order, while each title links to its own page. Each book page shows its dates and editions.

Queen Takes Rose is the latest book with a full release date, out on 10 November 2020. Since the catalogue marks the series as complete, we list no next book.

The books came out between 2019 and 2025, while their length runs from 228 to 496 pages. That is a run of 6 years.

Katee Robert has 66 books on our list. Additionally, they write Come Undone, The O'Malleys and Foolproof Love, plus 11 more series. We shelve the books under dark romance.

About the Wicked Villains series

Wicked Villains is Katee Robert's first big dark-romance hit, and the template she'd later scale up into Dark Olympus: take familiar fairy-tale and Disney-adjacent archetypes, strip away the moralizing, and hand the story to the "villain" instead of the hero. Set in the fictional Carver City, each standalone-but-interconnected book pairs a reimagined antagonist — Jafar, Captain Hook, the Beast, the Sea Witch, the Red Queen — with a partner navigating kink, power exchange, and consent-forward BDSM dynamics for the first time. The books share a loose criminal-underworld setting and recurring secondary characters, but each is written to be read alone.

Published in a concentrated burst across 2019 and 2020, Wicked Villains built the readership and reputation that let Robert later launch Dark Olympus at a much larger scale. It's darker and more explicitly kink-focused than her O'Malleys mafia romances, closer in tone and structure to Dark Olympus than to her earlier category-romance work.

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in the Wicked Villains series?

Six: Desperate Measures (2019), Learn My Lesson (2019), A Worthy Opponent (2020), The Beast (2020), The Sea Witch (2020), and Queen Takes Rose (2020). The series is complete.

What order should I read Wicked Villains in?

Publication order — Desperate Measures, Learn My Lesson, A Worthy Opponent, The Beast, The Sea Witch, Queen Takes Rose. Each book stands alone with its own couple, so you can also jump to whichever villain interests you most.

Is Wicked Villains connected to Katee Robert's Dark Olympus series?

No shared characters — Wicked Villains is set in Carver City and reimagines fairy-tale villains, while Dark Olympus reimagines Greek mythology in a modern Olympus. They share a tone and explicit BDSM content but are separate universes.

What kind of heat level does Wicked Villains have?

Very explicit. The series centers consent-forward BDSM and power-exchange dynamics and is one of Robert's spicier series, comparable to Dark Olympus.

Is Wicked Villains finished?

Yes — all six books were published between 2019 and 2020 and the series is complete.

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