Beatriz Williams Books in Order: Schuyler Sisters, Wicked City, and Winthrop Island
Beatriz Williams is best known for richly detailed historical fiction that moves between different decades and generations. Her novels often combine romance, family secrets, suspense, and major historical events, with recurring characters and families linking seemingly separate stories. Her official bibliography currently includes novels set during the First World War, the Jazz Age, World War II, the Cold War, and contemporary periods.
There is no single mandatory reading order for Williams’s entire bibliography. The author herself says that most of her books are written to stand alone, although she recommends sequence for the Schuyler sister novels and says the Prohibition-era Wicked City series should be read from the beginning.
Beatriz Williams Books by Series and Connected World
Schuyler Sister Novels
The three Schuyler sister novels form the clearest character-connected sequence in Williams’s bibliography. They follow three sisters from the same prominent New York family, with each book focusing on a different sister and period of her life.
Williams specifically recommends reading these three novels in order because later books can reveal details that spoil earlier stories.
1. The Secret Life of Violet Grant
Published: 2014
In 1964 Manhattan, Vivian Schuyler is trying to establish herself as a young magazine writer when she discovers a mysterious old photograph and begins investigating the disappearance of her great-aunt Violet.
The story moves between Vivian’s New York in the 1960s and Violet’s life in Europe during World War I. Violet is a brilliant physicist whose relationship with an Englishman and involvement with the war pull her into a dangerous mystery. The novel introduces the Schuyler family and lays the groundwork for the two books that follow.
2. Tiny Little Thing
Published: 2015
Christina “Tiny” Schuyler is the glamorous middle sister, seemingly destined for the perfect marriage and an enviable life. But in the summer of 1966, her carefully controlled world begins to collapse when a devastating secret threatens her marriage, her family, and her future.
The novel continues the Schuyler family story while revealing more about the relationships and events that were introduced in The Secret Life of Violet Grant.
3. Along the Infinite Sea
Published: 2015
Pepper Schuyler, the youngest of the three sisters, is pregnant and unmarried in 1966. She has inherited a rare vintage Mercedes and hopes selling it will give her enough money to build a future for herself and her unborn child.
Instead, the car leads her into a dangerous mystery involving a legendary married politician, a missing woman, and secrets stretching back to wartime Europe. It completes the central Schuyler sister trilogy while continuing Williams’s pattern of connecting different generations and historical periods.
Wicked City Books in Order
The Wicked City novels are Williams’s Prohibition-era series. They move between two generations of women connected to a Greenwich Village apartment and the dangerous world of bootlegging, organized crime, wealth, and romance.
This is the series Williams explicitly says should be read in order.
1. The Wicked City
Published: 2017
In 1998 Manhattan, Ella Durrand is trying to rebuild her life after a difficult divorce when she discovers a mysterious connection to a Greenwich Village apartment and the woman who lived there decades earlier.
That earlier story belongs to Gin Kelly, a fearless young woman living through Prohibition-era New York. The novel establishes the two timelines and introduces the family connections that become increasingly important in the next two books.
2. The Wicked Redhead
Published: 2019
Gin Kelly returns in another Jazz Age adventure involving rumrunners, double-crosses, danger, and romance.
The story continues directly from the world established in The Wicked City, expanding Gin’s relationship with Anson Marshall and the complicated Marshall family.
3. The Wicked Widow
Published: 2021
Gin Kelly is preparing to trade her adventurous life for marriage to Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall when the head of a major East Coast rum-running operation is murdered.
The killing destroys the couple’s brief period of happiness and sends Anson undercover, while Gin becomes increasingly involved in the secrets surrounding America’s wealthiest families. The novel brings the Prohibition trilogy to its conclusion.
Winthrop Island Novels
Williams’s Winthrop Island books form one of the most interesting parts of her shared fictional universe. They are not a strict numbered series, and each novel can be read independently, but characters and families recur across the books. Williams’s official site maintains a Winthrop Island family tree specifically because of these connections.
A Hundred Summers
Published: 2013
Lily Dane returns to Seaview, Rhode Island, in 1938 expecting another quiet summer among old friends and familiar traditions. Instead, the arrival of the Greenwald family threatens to reopen painful memories and long-buried romantic tensions.
The novel is an early foundation for Williams’s interconnected New England world and introduces families and relationships that echo through later books.
The Summer Wives
Published: 2018
Miranda Schuyler first arrives on Winthrop Island in 1951 as a schoolgirl from the edges of high society. Nearly two decades later, she returns as a successful actress carrying a painful secret.
Joseph Vargas, the man she once loved, has escaped from prison after serving eighteen years for murder. Miranda begins searching for the truth about what happened in the past, forcing the island’s powerful families to confront secrets they have spent years protecting.
The Beach at Summerly
Published: 2023
Set on Winthrop Island during the Cold War, this novel follows Emilia Winthrop, a young woman whose privileged world is disrupted by espionage and political danger.
The story shifts Williams’s familiar New England setting into the tense atmosphere of midcentury America, combining a summer-island story with Cold War intrigue.
Husbands and Lovers
Published: 2024
This Winthrop Island novel connects the present with the complicated history of the island’s families.
The story explores lost love, family secrets, marriage, and the ways old relationships continue to influence later generations. It expands the Winthrop Island world rather than continuing one protagonist’s story from the previous books.
Under the Stars
Published: 2025
Audrey Fisher has spent her life trying to escape the shadow of her famous mother, actress Meredith Fisher. When mother and daughter return to Winthrop Island, Audrey discovers a collection of paintings hidden among her estranged father’s belongings.
The story moves between modern-day New England and 1846, when Providence Dare boards the steamship Atlantic while fleeing Boston. A maritime disaster and a mysterious painter eventually connect the two timelines and reveal the deeper history of the Fisher family.
When You Loved Me
Published: 2026
Lucy Cooper returns to her family’s deteriorating Winthrop Island estate after her father’s death, only to discover that the property is buried in debt and that her old love, Ben Ressler, has unexpectedly returned.
Lucy begins investigating her father’s obsession with the legend of pirate treasure hidden on the island. The story moves between the present, Lucy and Ben’s teenage years in 2012, and 1717, when a wounded pirate arrives on Winthrop Island.
Published June 23, 2026, When You Loved Me is currently Williams’s newest novel.
Jazz Age Novels
These novels are connected to Williams’s broader historical universe and share characters and settings with some of her other books.
A Certain Age
Published: 2016
Theresa Marshall is a wealthy New York socialite in the Jazz Age, accustomed to a privileged world of parties, wealth, and carefully maintained appearances. Her life changes when she falls in love with the much younger Captain Octavian Rofrano, an aviator and World War I hero.
The novel explores love, class, reputation, and the restrictions placed on women during the 1920s. Octavian also becomes an important connecting character in Williams’s broader fictional universe.
Cocoa Beach
Published: 2017
Virginia Fortescue travels to Florida after the death of her father and becomes entangled in a dangerous mystery involving the family business, organized crime, and Prohibition-era violence.
The novel connects directly to A Certain Age: Williams notes that the protagonist of Cocoa Beach first appears as a secondary character in that earlier novel, while the ending also leads into The Wicked City.
Midcentury Novels
Williams’s Midcentury Novels explore women caught in the political and social upheavals of the 1930s through the Cold War.
The Golden Hour
Published: 2019
In 1941, newly widowed magazine writer Lulu Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who have been sent to the Bahamas during World War II.
What begins as a society assignment turns into an espionage story involving political intrigue, dangerous secrets, and the shadowy world surrounding the royal couple.
Her Last Flight
Published: 2020
A young woman travels to a remote island while investigating the disappearance of a famous female pilot. The story connects the lost aviator’s wartime history with a modern search for answers.
The novel combines aviation history, romance, mystery, and the difficult choices made by women whose lives were constrained by their era.
Our Woman in Moscow
Published: 2021
Set partly during the Cold War, this novel follows a woman who becomes entangled in the dangerous world of espionage after her family is pulled into a story inspired by the Cambridge spy ring.
The novel focuses as much on family loyalty and personal sacrifice as it does on espionage, asking what happens when political allegiance threatens the people closest to you.
Other Beatriz Williams Novels
Overseas
Published: 2012
Williams’s debut novel moves between New York in 2007 and France during World War I.
Modern Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson unexpectedly falls in love with Julian Laurence, a British billionaire who seems strangely connected to a man named Julian Ashford living in the trenches in 1916. The novel establishes Williams’s interest in dual timelines, historical romance, and the mysterious ways the past can reach into the present.
Beatriz Williams Books in Publication Order
For readers who want to experience Williams’s career from the beginning, this is the publication order for her novels and major collaborations under the Beatriz Williams name:
- Overseas (2012)
- A Hundred Summers (2013)
- The Secret Life of Violet Grant (2014)
- Tiny Little Thing (2015)
- Along the Infinite Sea (2015)
- The Forgotten Room (2016, with Karen White and Lauren Willig)
- A Certain Age (2016)
- The Wicked City (2017)
- Cocoa Beach (2017)
- The Summer Wives (2018)
- The Glass Ocean (2018, with Karen White and Lauren Willig)
- The Golden Hour (2019)
- The Wicked Redhead (2019)
- All the Ways We Said Goodbye (2020, with Karen White and Lauren Willig)
- Her Last Flight (2020)
- Our Woman in Moscow (2021)
- The Wicked Widow (2021)
- The Lost Summers of Newport (2022, with Karen White and Lauren Willig)
- The Beach at Summerly (2023)
- Husbands and Lovers (2024)
- The Author’s Guide to Murder (2024, with Karen White and Lauren Willig)
- Under the Stars (2025)
- When You Loved Me (2026)
This publication list follows Williams’s official backlist and books page, with the current 2026 release added from the publisher’s listing.
Beatriz Williams Collaborative Novels
Williams has also written five novels with Karen White and Lauren Willig. These are sometimes listed separately from her individual bibliography, but they are important parts of her career.
The Forgotten Room
Published: 2016
Three women from different generations become connected to a mysterious room inside a New York mansion. Their stories unfold across the 1890s, 1940s, and 1950s, gradually revealing how the women and the house are connected.
The Glass Ocean
Published: 2018
Three women, separated by time, become connected to the doomed RMS Lusitania. The novel combines historical mystery, romance, and the tragedy surrounding the ship’s sinking.
All the Ways We Said Goodbye
Published: 2020
Three women find refuge at the Ritz Paris across three different periods: World War I, World War II, and the 1960s.
Their stories eventually converge around the famous hotel and the complicated history of the women who passed through it.
The Lost Summers of Newport
Published: 2022
The three authors return to the world of wealthy New England families, moving between different periods of Newport’s history and the secrets connecting its generations.
The Author’s Guide to Murder
Published: 2024
Williams, White, and Willig reunite for a murder mystery that turns the world of bestselling authors, literary friendships, and glamorous settings into the backdrop for a crime.
Williams’s official site lists all five collaborative novels together in her bibliography.
Which Beatriz Williams Book Should You Read First?
Start with The Secret Life of Violet Grant for the Schuyler family
If you want the strongest sense of Williams’s interconnected family storytelling, begin with The Secret Life of Violet Grant and continue through Tiny Little Thing and Along the Infinite Sea.
This is also the sequence Williams herself recommends for readers who want to avoid spoilers.
Start with The Wicked City for Prohibition-era fiction
For 1920s New York, bootlegging, romance, and organized crime, begin with The Wicked City. Unlike most of Williams’s books, this series has a clear continuing storyline that should be read in order.
Start with The Summer Wives for Winthrop Island
If you prefer wealthy New England families, island summers, old romances, and long-buried secrets, The Summer Wives is an excellent entry point into the Winthrop Island world.
You can then continue with The Beach at Summerly, Husbands and Lovers, Under the Stars, and When You Loved Me. Williams says the Winthrop Island books can stand alone, even though their characters and families overlap.
Start with Overseas for a dual-timeline romance
Overseas is the natural choice if you like stories that move between the present and World War I, particularly romance mixed with mystery and historical detail.
Start with The Golden Hour for World War II
Choose The Golden Hour if your preference is wartime historical fiction with espionage, royalty, journalism, and a glamorous tropical setting.
Do Beatriz Williams Books Need to Be Read in Order?
Can Beatriz Williams books be read as standalones?
Yes. Williams specifically says that, with the exception of the Prohibition series, she writes her novels so they can be enjoyed independently. However, recurring characters and family connections mean that publication order can reveal additional layers of the shared universe.
What order should I read the Schuyler sister books?
Read them as:
- The Secret Life of Violet Grant
- Tiny Little Thing
- Along the Infinite Sea
Williams recommends this order because later books can contain spoilers for earlier ones.
What order should I read the Wicked City books?
Read:
- The Wicked City
- The Wicked Redhead
- The Wicked Widow
This is the series where reading order matters most because the later books continue the story directly.
Are the Winthrop Island books a series?
They are better described as a connected group of novels rather than a conventional numbered series. The books share families, locations, and historical connections, but Williams says each can be read on its own.
Is When You Loved Me part of the Winthrop Island books?
Yes. When You Loved Me is set on Winthrop Island and continues Williams’s interconnected New England world. It follows Lucy Cooper, her daughter, Ben Ressler, and a historical mystery involving a pirate’s treasure.
What is the latest Beatriz Williams book?
The latest published novel is When You Loved Me, released June 23, 2026, by Ballantine Books.
How many Beatriz Williams books are there?
Williams has 18 novels under her own name through 2026, plus five collaborative novels with Karen White and Lauren Willig. Counting every work can vary depending on whether collaborations and shorter works are included, which is why some databases report a different total.
Does Beatriz Williams write under another name?
Yes. Williams also writes historical romance and mystery under the pseudonym Juliana Gray. Those books are a separate bibliography and are not included in the Beatriz Williams reading order above.
Final Verdict
Beatriz Williams is an author whose books reward readers who enjoy historical fiction with connections hiding beneath the surface. You do not need to read her entire bibliography chronologically, but the Schuyler sister novels and Wicked City trilogy are much more satisfying in order, while the Winthrop Island books offer a larger shared world that becomes richer as you move between generations.
For a first book, The Secret Life of Violet Grant is the strongest starting point if you want Williams’s signature blend of history, mystery, romance, and family secrets. If you prefer Prohibition-era suspense, start with The Wicked City; for the Winthrop Island world, try The Summer Wives. And for her newest work, When You Loved Me brings the familiar New England setting together with a pirate legend, three timelines, and a second-chance love story.
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