Border Chronicles Books In Order

Publication Order of The Border Chronicles Books

“The Border Chronicles” is a series that was written by Bertrice Small, an author of historical romance and erotica, that has appeared on many different best seller lists in her long career. She is also considered the queen of historical fiction, and writes with an erotica and earthy style. The series takes place in the English and Scottish borderlands before and during the Tudors period. The main character of the first book is Adair Radcliffe, stubborn, beautiful, the bastard daughter of Edward IV and countess of Stanton. The second book is about Ellen MacArthur, and so on. The series uses certain scenes told multiple times through multiple viewpoints. Each book focuses on a different main character, and is set in a different time period. They all feature sharp, strong, and beautiful heroines, and heroes that are able to handle them. And vice versa.

“A Dangerous Love” was the first book in “The Border Chronicles” series. During the War of the Roses, Adair’s parents die when she is six. Adair is taken in by King Edward (who is her real father, and takes her in to honor his promise that he made to her mother) and raised in the royal nursery. She leaves the estate at the very young age of sixteen to avoid marrying someone she does not want to marry. The man she was being forced to marry, a fourteen year old and someone who would align King Edward with the Tudors, is wed to her anyway by Edward by proxy, this enrages her and she does not accept him as a husband. He gets killed by some Scottish raiders, allowing her to marry the man she actually wants to marry, her neighbor named Andrew Lynbridge. This is her second husband. He served Edward’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester Richard. He winds up dead as well, along with a few other people; while she is named a traitor and stripped of her title. She is betrayed by her half-sister. A slave owner, Conal Bruce, buys her to be added to his stable of slaves, and to warm his bed. He realizes that under her dirty disheveled appearance, is a feisty woman who cannot be tamed. Little does she know that she will fall in love with this man, and he with her. They both have something they need to teach each other, and they both have something they need to learn.

This book was praised for Small’s ability to weave in romance into the historical aspect. Fans of the book found themselves rooting for Adair, the heroine, as she faces all of her difficult problems. They found the book action packed and erotic, and it brings to life the atmosphere during the War of the Roses in fifteenth century England. Fans of the book liked that the novel did not just feature minor plot and weak characters to connect the sexual scenes to one another, but actually left the reader swept off their feet while feeling like they actually learned something. The series focuses on a time and place telling a story about the common folk, as well as the noble people. Some readers found that the book was much too long, that one hundred pages could have been cut from it without the reader missing a single thing, and that parts were simply plain boring. Readers also did not like the fact that for a romance book, it was rather dark. Complaints were made about this book’s over telling of the same thing to different characters, adding fluff to the book, making it thicker than it normally should have been. Readers were critical too of the fact that the book uses a lot of historical parts, but not a whole lot of the book is spent talking about the romantic part. Almost as though the romantic aspect was an afterthought to coax certain people into reading it who normally would not have.

“The Border Lord’s Bride” was the second book in “The Border Chronicles” series. Ellen MacArthur goes to King James’s court to wait out a crisis that involves her grandfather Ewan’s estate. While there, she befriends the King and his aunt, and when she returns home, is given border lord Duncan Armstrong as an escort back home. When they get back to her home, Balgair, who was involved in said inheritance talks, kills her fiance and Ewan to make her miserable. Duncan must pay back the favor that he asks for by marrying someone he does not love, the very thing that he said he would not ever do. He realizes that he must choose between the woman he must marry and the one he wants to marry.

Readers have found this book a little slower, and a little lighter on the romance they had hoped it would be, but some liked that it was quite the history lesson for them. Fans liked that the book covered a period that is not often covered about the Tudor era, and Scottish/English borders. This is the first book some people have read that discussed the lowlands as well as border politics. They enjoyed the first-rate plot, graphic sex scenes found in the book, and the vivid characters make it worthwhile. Although some found the romantic scenes in the book to make a joke of romantic love, they did not have a build up, they just happen without much excitement. They also did not like the change in Ellen, going from likable to shrewish and aggressive, they did not like the pairing of Duncan and Ellen either, as they did not see that the two were very good together and not very in love with each other. A lot of people found that this book spent too much time lecturing about history and not enough time on the romance aspect, which they did not like. They did not like the over use of the f word either, or that Small’s novels have used more talkiness and factgasming for the last ten years, this one included.

No word as to whether or not this series will see its way on to the screen, either big or silver, as of yet. That remains to be seen.