Calhoun Chronicles Books In Order

Publication Order of Calhoun Chronicles Books

The Calhoun Chronicles series is a series of historical romance novels written by the New York Times Bestselling writer and the award winning novelist, Susan Wiggs. The series comprises of 5 romance novels published between the years 1999 and 2003. All the novels of the series are based on the contemporary and historical romances between unconventional men and women who try to learn the art of loving one another. Every novel of the series features a different set of characters and depicts their romantic relationships amidst the difficulties of life. The first novel of the series was published in the year 1999 by the Mira Books publishing house. The novel was titled ‘The Charm School’, which revolves around the life of the main characters, Isadora Peabody and Ryan Calhoun. The setting of the plot of the novel is done by the author in Boston and Massachusetts in the United States and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The opening sequence of the novel depicts Isadora Peabody as an awkward misfit in a prestigious and accomplished Boston family. Being considered a disgrace by the family, Isadora wishes to escape from social isolation from her family. She becomes successful in sneaking and getting out of her family house.

Isadora boards the Silver Swan, which is bound for Rio de Janeiro and escapes the clutches of her family’s boundaries and leaves everything from her past life in Boston. On the other hand, Ryan Calhoun is also depicted as a member of a reputed family. But, he had purposely left the luxuries of his family and walked away from all the things that he got through his family name. Ryan Calhoun is described as a fiery and temperamental captain of a sea ship, who does not allow the meek and young woman aboard his ship. He is often driven by a quest to set right an old wrong. On-board the Silver Swan, the crew members feel that there is a sense of attraction between Ryan and Isadora. The crew members try to teach the charms and grace of a lady to Isadora and also help her to build her confidence in so that she can get the attention of Ryan as well as a place in his heart. As everyone is aware of the fact that the greatest charms of life do not just belong to a formal lady, rather it lies in the possibilities of a new world built with love and care. The readers liked the shipboard romance described by author Susan Wiggs in the novel. Many readers regarded it as an excellent read and as an interesting romance novel that should be read by everyone for at least once in a lifetime.

The critics and the fellow authors praised Susan Wiggs for her efforts in writing down the wonderful love story of Ryan Calhoun and Isadora Peabody. The feelings of hope and freedom along with the love dreams are described quite beautifully in the novel. The novel went on to become a huge success all over the world. It even sold a number of copies throughout the world and was also translated into a number of languages such as Japanese, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Latvian, etc. Author Susan Wiggs received a lot of motivation from the success of the first novel of the series. This encouraged her to write other romantic novels of the series as well as the novels in a few other series’. The readers also appreciated the refreshing approach of the historical romance between the main characters of the novel while on a journey on-board a ship. Overall, the novel is a great effort from author Susan Wiggs for its likeable characters and brilliant love story. Even the secondary characters on the ship are very well described by the author. This shows her excellence in writing romance novels.

The second novel of the Calhoun Chronicles series was published under the title ‘The Horsemaster’s Daughter’. This novel was published by the Mira Books publishing house in the year 1999. The second novel deals with the love life of the central characters, Eliza Fylte and Hunter Calhoun. The opening plot of the novel shows Hunter Calhoun as trying to help a prized stallion, who had arrived from Ireland. The beast was unridable and crazed. On the other hand, Eliza Flyte is shown as deprived of the social and wealthy privileges of the world and living her life by inheriting the famed gift from her father for gentling horses. When Eliza meets Hunter, who arrived along with his steed, she seemed to be attracted towards him. Her healing spirits seemed to have reached further. In the meanwhile, she was constantly getting attracted towards Hunter’s shattered family. Eliza also seemed to be quite interested in the intense and bitter personality of Hunter Calhoun and seemed to be in need of him, just like he did. Hunter Calhoun has been depicted in the novel as an owner of the Southern plantation. He also has a horse farm in Virginia and seems to gamble its success for an Irish stallion. To his bad luck, the stallion turns out to be crazy and unridable because of the long and tiring journey of the sea crossing filled with storms.

Desperate to control the behavior of the stallion, Hunter turns to Eliza Flyte, who is the horsemaster’s daughter. She has perfectly inherited the gift of gentling horses from her father. Her compassion and wisdom is capable of healing the wounded spirits amazingly. Seeing her abilities Hunter tries to convince her to leave the isolated island and move along with him to his home. Her gift of compassion and love seems to be working on the bitter personality of Hunter Calhoun as he thinks of her as the perfect lady to take care of his motherless children. However, Eliza Flyte fears that she could not have a better future with Hunter Calhoun as she was raised alone by her father and had only the animals, sea and a few books as her companions. On the hand, Hunter Calhoun was raised in a rich and upper-class family in the South. Eliza feels that she could not fit into the world of Hunter just like he could not leave behind his luxurious life for the world of Eliza. For Eliza and Hunter to get back together and live and happy life after being mismatched lovers, it would take some miracle make this happen.