Brill Harper is the adult-romance pen name of Gwen Hayes. Under this name, she writes short, high-heat romance with possessive heroes, awkward or sweet heroines, blue-collar setups, small-town bad boys, holiday premises, monster romance, and why-choose romance.
The easiest place to begin is Bounced, the first Blue Collar Bad Boys book. That series establishes the “alphamallow” tone that appears across much of the Brill Harper catalogue: over-the-top heroes, fast attachment, and compact happily-ever-after stories.
Affiliate Disclosure
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This article may contain affiliate links. If you click one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Catalogue Notes Before You Start
Brill Harper’s books are not one shared timeline. Read by series.
A few listings use different formatting for the same title. All Together is also commonly listed as Altogether, especially on Goodreads.
The Trois episodes appear to be the serialized form or early version of the story later associated with All Together / Altogether. Treat them as optional serial material, not required reading if you already have the finished book.
Dirty Jobs is a Blue Collar Bad Boys sampler or collection, not a separate main novel.
Blue Collar Bad Boys Books in Order
The Blue Collar Bad Boys books are the core Brill Harper starting point. They are connected mostly by style and theme rather than one long plot, but publication order is still the cleanest way to read them.
- Bounced (2017): A possessive bouncer named Anvil steps into Sarah’s careful, planned life after one risky night at a roadhouse.
- Nailed (2017): A rough carpenter remodeling a client’s office becomes dangerously interested in the client’s shy, bookish daughter.
- Drilled (2017): An injured oil-rig worker returns home and stops playing distant guardian when the young woman housesitting for him asks for help with romance.
- Wrecked (2017): A mechanic and tow-truck hero meets Layna after her car goes off the road, then decides her trouble is now his to fix.
- Laid (2017): A bricklayer caring for his orphaned twin nieces becomes dependent on the sweet babysitter next door, blurring family help into romance.
- Tagged (2017): A military-flavored older-man romance with small-town pressure, an older brother’s best friend setup, and a heroine who is no longer easy to overlook.
- Plowed (2017): A wrongly convicted man returns home after prison and tries to reclaim the life he lost, only to find love tangled into that second chance.
- Bucked (2018): A cowboy entry in the Blue Collar Bad Boys line, carrying the series into ranch-style masculinity and another fast, possessive romance.
- Banged (2018): A higher-danger Blue Collar Bad Boys romance, often grouped with the late-series run of cowboy, bomb-technician, and bartender heroes.
- Tapped (2018): Bartender Anker Beck is saving for his brewery dream when quiet, bookish Annabelle begins showing up at the pub and becomes impossible to ignore.
Blue Collar Bad Boys Companion
- Good Girl (2019): Virginia Constance Kramer is the police sergeant’s sheltered daughter, while the hero has a record and a past that makes him the wrong man on paper.
It’s Complicated Books in Order
The It’s Complicated books are why-choose / ménage romances. They are best read in order because the first book establishes the series style.
- All Together / Altogether (2018): Nerdy college student Penelope moves in with her best friend’s older brother and his friend, then discovers they are willing to become her very adult study partners.
- All at Once (2019): Bliss Camden takes a live-in housekeeper job at Wylder Colt Ranch and becomes entangled with two dominant cowboy ranch owners.
Trois Serial in Order
The Trois episodes should be treated as optional serialized material. Read them only if you are collecting early or alternate versions of the All Together / Altogether story.
- Trois: Episode 1 (2018): Penelope moves in with her best friend’s older brother and his best friend after a dorm situation pushes her into their orbit.
- Trois: Episode 2 (2018): The roommate arrangement becomes more intimate as Penelope, Shane, and Fletch move from attraction into explicit lessons.
- Trois: Episode 3 (2018): The serial deepens the emotional conflict around boundaries, friendship, and whether the arrangement can stay casual.
- Trois: Episode 4 (2018): The final episode resolves the Penelope, Shane, and Fletch arc and brings the serial’s MMF romance to its endpoint.
Love in Brazen Bay Books in Order
The Love in Brazen Bay books are contemporary romances set around the same coastal romance space. They are standalones, but order keeps the series progression tidy.
- Wrong Number Text (2019): Grumpy firefighter Leo answers a wrong-number text from Dixie, and anonymous messages become much more intimate than either expects.
- The Right Stuff (2019): A poetry graduate loses her money to an ex and has to make a dive bar profitable while clashing with an attractive co-owner.
- So Wrong It’s Right (2019): Stella invents a boyfriend to manage family pressure, only for that fake-romance problem to become very real.
- Don’t Get Me Wrong (2019): Nick and Katie’s off-limits attraction intensifies after family responsibility and a baby on the doorstep push them closer together.
Dukes of Tempest Books in Order
The Dukes of Tempest books are small-town age-gap romances about the notorious Duke brothers returning to Tempest. Read these in order because the brothers’ return and the town conflict form a shared frame.
- Mad Max (2023): Max Duke rides back into Tempest to challenge a corrupt mayor, only to become the bad-boy hero of a woman who once crushed on him from afar.
- Dirty Dillon (2023): Dillon’s garage becomes the turning point for Cressida Hamilton, the mayor’s daughter, when she is cut off, stranded, and forced into his world.
- Wicked William (2024): William Duke looks like the controlled brother, but his story reveals the darker instincts and rigid routines beneath the “nice one” reputation.
Holiday Romance Books in Order
The Holiday Romance books are standalone seasonal romances. They do not need to be read for continuity, but publication order gives the neatest route through the set.
- The Demon’s Curvy Angel (2023): A Halloween party puts a curvy angel-costumed heroine in the path of a demon-costumed man who rescues her from an ex.
- All I Want for Christmas is My Dad’s Best Friend (2023): Holly comes home for Christmas and acts on her long-running crush on Mr. Pine, her father’s older best friend.
- Rockstar Valentine (2024): A bored rock star sees a nervous, out-of-place woman backstage and finds a point of stillness in the middle of his chaotic life.
- Just My Luck (2024): A disastrous St. Patrick’s Day, a little green dress, an ice storm, and a best friend’s older brother turn humiliation into forced-proximity romance.
Creature Bait Books in Order
The Creature Bait books are monster romances. They are short, separate entries, so order is less important than premise.
Some retailers show individual 2025 release dates in a different order than the series listing. For simple reader navigation, use the order below.
- Monster Bait (2025): Alison, a shy college student with secret monster-romance fantasies, finds herself much closer to the kind of creature story she has only imagined.
- Savage Orc Bait (2025): Selena’s mysterious illness leads her family toward an extreme monster-based remedy involving an orc.
- Werewolf Bait (2025): Paige dreams about the Wolf of Wallace Woods before the local legend becomes real and catches her in the forest.
Standalone Brill Harper Books
These can be read at any time. They are not required for the main series.
- Notch on His Bedpost (2018): A dating guru known as Mr. Virile has to fake-date Holly, a blogger who hates his alpha-male brand.
- Honeymoon With The Prince (2018): Prince Markellan Bran decides that American Violet Havisham is the woman he wants for his bride, turning a royal setup into a possessive romance.
Collections, Samplers, and Omnibus Editions
These are not new main-sequence novels unless you want the convenience of collected formats.
- Dirty Jobs: Blue Collar Bad Boys Books #1-6 Sampler (2017): A sampler tied to the early Blue Collar Bad Boys books, useful for previewing the series rather than continuing it.
- Blue Collar Bad Boys: Books 1-4 (2018): An omnibus collecting Bounced, Nailed, Drilled, and Wrecked.
- Blue Collar Bad Boys: Books 5-7 (2019): An omnibus collecting Laid, Tagged, and Plowed.
- Blue Collar Bad Boys: Books 8-10 (2019): An omnibus collecting Bucked, Banged, and Tapped.
- Love in Brazen Bay: The Complete Series Collection (2019): A collected edition of all four Brazen Bay books.
- The Monsters Are Coming (2024): A monster-romance collection built around werewolf, minotaur, and orc-style creature stories; check contents before buying alongside the later Creature Bait individual editions.
- Dukes of Tempest: The Complete Spicy Romance Series (2025): An omnibus collecting Mad Max, Dirty Dillon, and Wicked William.
Recommended Brill Harper Reading Order
For the clearest overall path, start with Blue Collar Bad Boys.
Read Bounced through Tapped, then add Good Girl as a companion. After that, move to It’s Complicated if you want why-choose romance, or Love in Brazen Bay if you want a slightly longer contemporary-romance series.
A smooth route looks like this:
- Blue Collar Bad Boys
- Good Girl
- It’s Complicated
- Love in Brazen Bay
- Dukes of Tempest
- Holiday Romance
- Creature Bait
- Notch on His Bedpost
- Honeymoon With The Prince
- Optional serials, samplers, and collections
This order preserves the author’s earliest and most recognizable style before moving into the newer small-town, holiday, and monster-romance material.
Chronological Order
There is no verified single chronological order across all Brill Harper books.
Use publication order inside each series. The books are mostly short standalones or small connected sets, so strict chronology is less important than reading the few series clusters in sequence.
- For Blue Collar Bad Boys, read the ten numbered books first, then Good Girl if you want the companion.
- For It’s Complicated, read All Together / Altogether before All at Once.
- For Dukes of Tempest, read the three Duke brothers in numbered order.
Latest Brill Harper Book
The latest confirmed individual Brill Harper release is Monster Bait, one of the Creature Bait monster-romance titles released in May 2025.
There are no reliably confirmed upcoming Brill Harper books with a fixed public release date at the time of this update.
FAQs
What is the first Brill Harper book?
The first main Brill Harper book is Bounced, published in 2017. It is also the first Blue Collar Bad Boys book.
What Brill Harper book should I read first?
Start with Bounced. It introduces the blue-collar, possessive-hero, sweet-and-filthy tone that defines much of Brill Harper’s catalogue.
Are Brill Harper’s books connected?
Only within small series. Blue Collar Bad Boys, Love in Brazen Bay, Dukes of Tempest, and It’s Complicated should be read as separate groups.
Is All Together the same as Altogether?
For reading-order purposes, yes. Public listings vary between All Together and Altogether, but both refer to book one of It’s Complicated.
Do I need to read the Trois episodes?
No. The Trois episodes are optional serial material. Read All Together / Altogether instead unless you specifically want the serialized version.
Is Dirty Jobs a Blue Collar Bad Boys novel?
No. Dirty Jobs is a sampler or collection tied to early Blue Collar Bad Boys material, not a separate numbered novel.
Is Good Girl part of Blue Collar Bad Boys?
Some catalogues place Good Girl near Blue Collar Bad Boys, while others treat it as a standalone. The safest placement is as a companion after the ten numbered Blue Collar books.
Are the Creature Bait books connected?
They are best treated as short monster-romance standalones. Read them in the listed series order, but continuity is not the main concern.
Should I buy The Monsters Are Coming or the Creature Bait books?
Check the contents first. The Monsters Are Coming is a collection of monster-romance stories, while the later Creature Bait titles are individual monster-romance releases and may overlap in theme or contents.
Does Brill Harper write under another name?
Yes. Brill Harper is a pseudonym used by Gwen Hayes.
Conclusion
Start with Bounced and read the Blue Collar Bad Boys books in order. That gives the clearest introduction to Brill Harper’s style.
After that, choose the lane you want: It’s Complicated for why-choose, Love in Brazen Bay for contemporary romance, Dukes of Tempest for returning small-town bad boys, Holiday Romance for seasonal shorts, and Creature Bait for monster romance.
Keep samplers, serial episodes, and omnibus editions separate from the main reading order.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.