Cindi Madsen writes contemporary romance, romantic comedy, young adult fiction, paranormal romance, sports romance, and small-town stories. Her bibliography includes several completed series, a number of independent novels, and a few books written for shared publishing worlds.
There is no single continuity connecting every Cindi Madsen book. Accidentally in Love, Taking Shots, Hope Springs, Getting Hitched in Dixie, and her other series each have their own casts and starting points.
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Readers can therefore choose a series by genre rather than beginning with her earliest release. Within each series, publication order remains the safest choice because friends, relatives, teammates, and previous couples often return.
Cindi Madsen Reading Order in One Minute
Choose your first book according to the kind of story you want:
- Contemporary romantic comedy: Falling for Her Fiancé
- College hockey romance: Getting Lucky Number Seven
- Small-town cowboy romance: Second Chance Ranch
- Boxing romance: Until You’re Mine
- Southern friendship romance: Just One of the Groomsmen
- Professional football romance: The Wedding Deal
- Paranormal romance: Moonlighting with the Werewolf
- Young adult science fiction: Cipher
- Standalone romantic comedy: Cinderella Screwed Me Over
- Women’s fiction with romance: Wreck My Plans
None of these starting points requires knowledge of another Cindi Madsen series.
The Adult Romance Shelf
Madsen’s adult books can be divided into sports romances, small-town series, romantic comedies, paranormal stories, and standalones. The following sections keep those continuities separate.
Accidentally in Love Books in Order
The Accidentally in Love series follows connected couples whose relationships begin through fake dating, performance, family complications, and unexpected attraction.
The three novels should be read in publication order. The novella can be placed after Resisting the Hero because it follows a character connected to the earlier books.
- Falling for Her Fiancé (2013): Dani asks her longtime friend Wes to pose as her fiancé during a family visit, only for their convincing performance to expose feelings that friendship had allowed them to avoid.
- Act Like You Love Me (2013): Brynn must work with Sawyer, her former high-school crush, while a theatrical production turns old embarrassment and present attraction into a difficult second chance.
- Resisting the Hero (2014): Faith distrusts police officers and charming men, but her brother’s best friend Connor challenges both rules while trying to prove that he is more dependable than she assumes.
- An Officer and a Rebel (2014): Rebellious Kelsey becomes stranded with police officer Nate during the holidays, placing two apparent opposites inside a shorter romance connected to the Accidentally in Love cast.
Best Accidentally in Love Order
Read the three full-length novels first, then finish with An Officer and a Rebel.
The novella is understandable on its own, but its character connection is clearer after the main sequence.
Taking Shots Books in Order
Taking Shots is a four-book new adult sports-romance series set around college athletes. Hockey is central to the first, third, and fourth books, while the second follows a football player.
The couples change, but the campus friendships and athletic social circle continue across the series.
- Getting Lucky Number Seven (2015): Hockey player Beck agrees to help shy chemistry student Lyla complete a confidence-building list, but their lessons in dating and attraction begin to change their friendship.
- Anatomy of a Player (2016): Journalism student Whitney plans to expose the truth about college athletes and becomes involved with football player Hudson, whose reputation does not fully match the person she discovers.
- Crazy Pucking Love (2016): Megan tries to avoid hockey players after a damaging relationship, but Dane’s persistence makes it difficult to keep attraction separate from the sport she no longer trusts.
- Confessions of a Former Puck Bunny (2017): Lindsay wants to leave her history with hockey players behind, while Ryder sees beyond her old reputation and refuses to accept that she cannot change.
A Note About Taking Shots Numbering
Some catalog pages have listed Anatomy of a Player ahead of Getting Lucky Number Seven, usually because of inconsistent edition data.
The established story order begins with Getting Lucky Number Seven, followed by Anatomy of a Player, Crazy Pucking Love, and Confessions of a Former Puck Bunny.
Hope Springs Books in Order
Hope Springs is a small-town romance series centered on ranches, family responsibilities, old relationships, and people rebuilding their lives.
Each book has a different couple. Town and family connections make publication order preferable.
- Second Chance Ranch (2014): Jemma returns to the ranch and community she left behind, where seeing Eli again forces both of them to confront the relationship and future they once lost.
- Crazy for the Competition (2015): Quinn faces a professional and personal rival while a small-town competition turns conflict, ambition, and unwanted attraction into a romance neither side planned.
- The Bad Boy’s Baby (2016): A former bad boy discovers that responsibility, family, and an unexpected child may require him to become someone the heroine can finally trust.
Hope Springs Continuity
The books are connected standalones rather than one continuous plot.
Begin with Second Chance Ranch for the town’s foundation, then continue in publication order to preserve returning-character appearances.
Fighting for Her Books in Order
Fighting for Her combines romance with boxing, training, physical danger, and emotionally guarded characters.
The two books share a sporting environment and supporting cast.
- Until You’re Mine (2018): Shane wants to concentrate on preparing fighters, but champion boxer Brooklyn brings attraction and professional conflict into a gym where neither can afford distraction.
- Until We’re More (2018): Chelsea reunites with her close friend Liam, a fighter whose career and protective instincts make their transition from friendship to romance increasingly complicated.
Read Until You’re Mine before Until We’re More. The second couple has stronger context after the gym and its relationships have been established.
Getting Hitched in Dixie Books in Order
Getting Hitched in Dixie follows a group of friends in the Southern town of Uncertainty, Alabama. Weddings connect the titles, but each book centers on a new couple.
Friendship is the series’ main continuity thread. Earlier couples return, so the three novels are best kept together.
- Just One of the Groomsmen (2019): Addison has always been treated as one of the guys, but the return of her longtime friend Tucker complicates the wedding events surrounding their close-knit group.
- Always a Bridesmaid (2020): Violet repeatedly supports other people’s weddings while her own romantic life remains uncertain, until a relationship within the same community changes what she expects from love.
- Catch and Release Groom (2023): A wedding photographer and a reluctant groom become entangled in a romance that returns readers to Uncertainty and its established circle of friends.
Why Order Matters in Getting Hitched in Dixie
The central romances have separate conclusions, but the friendship group develops across all three books.
Starting with Catch and Release Groom would reveal earlier relationship outcomes and weaken the town’s gradual introduction.
Heart in the Game Books in Order
Heart in the Game moves into professional football. Both novels mix sports with a relationship arrangement that creates forced proximity.
- The Wedding Deal (2019): After a football team changes ownership, a coach and the new owner’s daughter enter a marriage-related arrangement while trying to protect their careers and the team.
- The Mistletoe Trap (2020): A holiday visit places longtime friends in a fake relationship, where family expectations and years of suppressed attraction make the arrangement difficult to end.
These books share a football world but focus on different couples. Read them in publication order for returning characters and team context.
Turn Around Ranch Books in Order
Turn Around Ranch follows people connected to a Colorado ranch that gives troubled teenagers structure, work, and a chance to rebuild.
The ranch and its mission matter as much as the individual romances.
- A Cowboy Never Quits (2019): A determined woman arrives at Turn Around Ranch and clashes with a cowboy whose loyalty to the program makes him wary of outsiders and their proposed changes.
- Hope on the Range (2021): A cowboy and the woman challenging his expectations become involved while the ranch’s young residents and uncertain future raise the stakes of their relationship.
Hope on the Range has also appeared under the alternate title A Cowboy Always Wins. These are alternate editions of the same story, not two separate books.
Meet-Cute Books in Order
The Meet-Cute books are romantic comedies connected more by style and branding than by a continuous storyline. They feature awkward introductions, workplace complications, technology, friendship arrangements, pets, and identity confusion.
They can be read independently, although publication order provides the simplest route.
- Big Dick Energy (2021): A woman trying to adopt the confidence rewarded in her male coworkers meets an infuriatingly self-assured man who becomes both an obstacle and an example she cannot ignore.
- Love’s a Glitch (2021): A technology-related mistake disrupts the heroine’s romantic plans and brings her into repeated contact with the man most capable of complicating the solution.
- Bang! Buddies with Benefits (2021): Two friends attempt to add physical benefits to their relationship without changing anything else, then discover that intimacy rarely respects carefully negotiated rules.
- Matchmaking: Doggy-Style (2024): A woman believes her attractive British neighbor has written to ask her out, only to learn that he wants to borrow her badly behaved dog, who soon becomes their enthusiastic matchmaker.
- Dopplebanger (2024): A woman encounters a man who strongly resembles someone already occupying an uncomfortable place in her life, creating mistaken assumptions, inconvenient attraction, and identity-driven romantic chaos.
Are the Meet-Cute Books Connected?
They are marketed as one romantic-comedy series, but there is no required overarching plot.
A reader can begin with whichever premise is most appealing. Publication order is useful for cataloging rather than essential for continuity.
Billionaires of Boston Books in Order
Billionaires of Boston is a two-book contemporary-romance series featuring wealthy men, workplace tension, verbal sparring, and women unwilling to surrender control of their own careers.
- Foreplay with the Boss (2024): Workplace attraction puts an employee in conflict with a powerful boss whose professional authority makes every personal decision more complicated.
- Master Debater (2024): A sharp-tongued heroine meets a man capable of matching her in every argument, turning competition and verbal conflict into an increasingly personal contest.
These books are connected by their Boston billionaire setting. Read them in order for the cleanest introduction, although each romance is complete.
Bridgewater Pack Books in Order
Bridgewater Pack marks Madsen’s move into adult paranormal romance. The series combines supernatural politics, pack loyalty, mystery, and romantic comedy.
- Moonlighting with the Werewolf (2024): A veterinarian treating a wolf wounded with silver bullets watches him transform into pack alpha Conall, then becomes involved in a supernatural crisis when his people lose their ability to heal.
- My Hexed Honeymoon (2025): A honeymoon complicated by magic, curses, and supernatural danger forces its couple to deal with threats that ordinary newlyweds never expect to face.
Read Moonlighting with the Werewolf first. It establishes Bridgewater’s supernatural community and the rules surrounding its werewolves before the second adventure expands the world.
Granny Panties Books in Order
Wreck My Plans
Wreck My Plans (2026): Publicist Mia Andrews loses her career after a viral scandal and retreats to her grandmother’s Florida retirement community, where meddling residents, two possible love interests, and unfinished dreams force her to reassess her life.
The book is identified as the first Granny Panties novel. It combines women’s fiction and romantic comedy, with Mia’s personal recovery and relationships with the older women forming the central story.
As of August 4, 2026, no second Granny Panties title has been reliably confirmed.
Country and Cowboy Shared-World Books
These titles involve cowboys and rural communities but do not all belong to the same private Cindi Madsen continuity.
Country Hearts
Country Hearts (2020): A woman searching for a new direction becomes involved with a country musician and the community around him, where professional ambition conflicts with the possibility of a steadier life.
This book belongs to the multi-author Country and Cowboys project. It can be read independently of Turn Around Ranch and Hope Springs.
Sailing at Sunset
Sailing at Sunset (2020): A trip on the water creates close quarters for two people carrying different expectations, turning a temporary escape into a romance with consequences beyond the journey.
This is a standalone contemporary romance rather than a numbered series installment.
Cindi Madsen Standalone Adult Novels
These books do not require earlier series reading.
To Keep or Not to Keep
To Keep or Not to Keep (2006): An early Cindi Madsen romance places a couple at a decisive point where commitment, independence, and the future of their relationship can no longer remain unresolved.
This title is not currently emphasized on the author’s main bookshelf, and edition availability is inconsistent. It is best treated as an early separate work.
Cinderella Screwed Me Over
Cinderella Screwed Me Over (2013): Darby uses lessons from fairy tales and failed relationships to argue against happily-ever-after endings, until meeting Jake forces her to test the rules she created for emotional survival.
The book is a complete romantic comedy and one of Madsen’s strongest standalone starting points.
Just Jilted
Just Jilted (2014): A bride abandoned near her wedding must deal with humiliation, disrupted plans, and the unexpected possibility that losing the wrong man may create room for the right one.
This is a shorter standalone romance with no series requirements.
12 Steps to Mr. Right
12 Steps to Mr. Right (2016): Dating coach Savannah believes she can identify every romantic mistake, but a man from her past challenges the system she uses to protect herself from making one of her own.
The novel stands alone and suits readers looking for dating advice turned into romantic conflict.
Taking Care of the Target
Taking Care of the Target (2017): A woman connected to an investigation becomes involved with the man assigned to watch or protect her, complicating the line between professional responsibility and attraction.
The book is independent of Fighting for Her despite sharing danger and protective-romance elements.
Nailed It
Nailed It (2017): A commitment-averse home renovator works on a family property with the man who challenges her belief that relationships always become another unfinished project.
This standalone combines home improvement, family history, and romantic comedy.
Counterfeit Boyfriend
Counterfeit Boyfriend (2019): A woman uses a fake relationship to solve a personal problem, only to discover that her counterfeit boyfriend is becoming difficult to separate from the future she actually wants.
The story is a self-contained fake-dating romance.
Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas
Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas (2025): A holiday encounter involving a seemingly homeless man develops into a romance complicated by concealed wealth, mistaken identity, and an unexpected marriage connection.
This title was released as a ReelShort Original Story. It is separate from Billionaires of Boston.
Cindi Madsen Young Adult Books
Madsen’s young adult bibliography includes contemporary romance, science fiction, paranormal fantasy, suspense, and stories involving memory, identity, and school life.
The Cipher trilogy is the only major continuing YA sequence. The other books are separate stories.
Cipher Books in Order
Cipher follows a teenage heroine whose unusual mental ability pulls her into danger, secrets, and a conflict larger than the life she understands.
- Cipher (2013): Summer can read numbers that reveal when people will die, and her attempt to prevent a predicted death draws her toward danger and a boy whose future may be connected to her ability.
- Rift (2013): The consequences of Summer’s power deepen as new threats, fractured trust, and unanswered questions widen the conspiracy surrounding her.
- Resolution (2014): Summer reaches the final stage of the conflict, where controlling her ability and protecting the people she loves require decisions that resolve the trilogy’s central mystery.
The three books form one continuing story and should not be read out of order.
Tactics in Flirting Books
Operation Prom Date
Operation Prom Date (2017): Kate enlists Cooper to help her attract another boy before prom, but their strategic flirting lessons gradually reveal that her ideal match may be the person running the operation.
The novel is listed as the first Tactics in Flirting book. No second published installment has been reliably established, so it currently functions as a standalone.
Other Young Adult Novels
All the Broken Pieces
All the Broken Pieces (2012): Liv wakes after a serious accident with gaps in her memory and begins questioning whether the people around her are hiding the truth about her identity and past.
The book is a standalone young adult mystery with speculative and psychological elements.
Demons of the Sun
Demons of the Sun (2012): Persephone belongs to a group charged with fighting demons, but loss, forbidden attraction, and questions about her role threaten the certainty behind her mission.
This is a standalone young adult paranormal fantasy.
Losing Romeo
Losing Romeo (2014): A teenage girl faces the emotional consequences of love, separation, and choices that challenge the romantic story she believed she was living.
The novel is separate from the Cipher trilogy and requires no prior reading.
Hell High
Hell High (2020): A girl trapped in a school with dangerous supernatural forces must survive classmates, secrets, and a growing threat that turns ordinary high-school problems into a fight for survival.
This is a standalone young adult supernatural novel.
Verity Sloane
Verity Sloane (2021): A young woman’s identity and unusual circumstances place her at the center of a mystery where appearances, memory, and trust cannot be taken at face value.
Current catalog records list the title as a separate novel. It is not identified as another Cipher installment.
Novellas and Shorter Works
Lights, Cowboy, Action
Lights, Cowboy, Action (2016): A cowboy-themed production or public performance brings two people together where staged expectations and real attraction begin to overlap.
This shorter work is separate from Turn Around Ranch and Hope Springs.
Runaway Christmas Bride
Runaway Christmas Bride (2019): A bride fleeing a failed holiday wedding encounters a new romantic possibility while trying to decide what should replace the future she abandoned.
This novella is independent of Getting Hitched in Dixie.
Anthologies and Collections
Multi-author collections contain Cindi Madsen material but should not be counted as new full-length novels in her series.
Stranded with a Hero
Stranded with a Hero (2013): This multi-author anthology collects romances in which isolation and danger force heroines into close proximity with protective heroes.
Only Madsen’s contribution belongs to her personal bibliography.
Curl Up with a Cowboy
Curl Up with a Cowboy (2016): This collection gathers cowboy romances by several authors, including a shorter Cindi Madsen work.
The collection is optional for readers who already own the included story separately.
Christmas with You
Christmas with You (2018): A group of authors contributes holiday romances centered on reunions, seasonal wishes, and relationships tested by Christmas expectations.
It is a collection rather than another Accidentally in Love or Heart in the Game installment.
Alternate Titles and Catalog Problems
Cindi Madsen’s bibliography contains a few records that can lead to accidental duplication.
Hope on the Range and A Cowboy Always Wins are alternate titles for the same Turn Around Ranch novel.
Bang! Buddies with Benefits may appear in stores without the exclamation mark or with slightly different punctuation. These listings refer to the same Meet-Cute book.
Matchmaking: Doggy-Style may be shortened in some catalogs, but it remains the fourth Meet-Cute title.
The Taking Shots sequence should begin with Getting Lucky Number Seven, even when a retailer’s metadata places Anatomy of a Player first.
Does Cindi Madsen Have One Overall Chronological Order?
No.
The Cipher books require strict order because they tell a continuing young adult story. Most of the adult series are connected standalones, so publication order protects supporting-character developments without creating one continuous plot.
A single master chronology would mix unrelated college athletes, cowboys, police officers, football teams, paranormal packs, teenagers, and standalone romantic comedies. Reading one series at a time is clearer.
Recommended Cindi Madsen Reading Plan
A practical reading route is to group the books by mood rather than by total publication date.
For Romantic Comedy
- Falling for Her Fiancé
- Act Like You Love Me
- Resisting the Hero
- An Officer and a Rebel
- The Meet-Cute novels
- Cinderella Screwed Me Over
- 12 Steps to Mr. Right
- Nailed It
For Sports Romance
- The four Taking Shots books
- Until You’re Mine
- Until We’re More
- The Wedding Deal
- The Mistletoe Trap
For Small-Town and Cowboy Romance
- The three Hope Springs books
- The two Turn Around Ranch books
- The three Getting Hitched in Dixie books
- Country Hearts
For Paranormal Stories
- Moonlighting with the Werewolf
- My Hexed Honeymoon
- Demons of the Sun
- Hell High
The adult paranormal books and young adult paranormal books belong to separate continuities.
Latest Cindi Madsen Book
Wreck My Plans (2026): After a viral public-relations disaster destroys Mia Andrews’s career, she moves into her grandmother’s Florida retirement community and finds herself surrounded by older women determined to rebuild both her plans and her love life.
It is Cindi Madsen’s latest verified release as of August 4, 2026.
The novel begins the Granny Panties series, although its central story has a complete personal and romantic arc.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Cindi Madsen’s First Book?
To Keep or Not to Keep (2006): An early romance about a relationship reaching the point where its future must finally be decided.
The title has limited current availability and is not prominently featured on the author’s active bookshelf.
What Is the Best Cindi Madsen Book to Start With?
Falling for Her Fiancé is the best entry for connected romantic comedy.
Getting Lucky Number Seven is the best entry for sports romance, while Cinderella Screwed Me Over is the simplest standalone starting point.
Are Cindi Madsen’s Series Connected?
Most are separate.
Characters recur within Accidentally in Love, Taking Shots, Hope Springs, Getting Hitched in Dixie, and the other individual series, but those groups do not form one shared universe.
Should Taking Shots Be Read in Order?
Yes.
The college athletes and their friends appear across the four books, and later stories reveal the outcomes of earlier relationships.
Which Book Comes First, Getting Lucky Number Seven or Anatomy of a Player?
Getting Lucky Number Seven comes first.
Anatomy of a Player is the second Taking Shots novel despite inconsistent numbering in some catalogs.
Is Hope on the Range the Same Book as A Cowboy Always Wins?
Yes.
They are alternate titles for the second Turn Around Ranch novel and should not be counted twice.
Is Operation Prom Date Part of a Series?
It is labeled as Tactics in Flirting Book 1.
No confirmed second book has followed it, so readers can treat it as a complete standalone.
Are the Bridgewater Pack Books Standalones?
They follow different supernatural conflicts but share the same paranormal community.
Begin with Moonlighting with the Werewolf before reading My Hexed Honeymoon.
Is Wreck My Plans a Romance?
It includes romance, but its central focus also covers Mia’s career collapse, personal recovery, and relationship with the women in her grandmother’s retirement community.
It is best classified as romantic women’s fiction rather than a conventional couple-only romance.
What Is Cindi Madsen’s Latest Series?
Granny Panties is her newest named series.
It begins with Wreck My Plans, published in 2026.
Conclusion
Cindi Madsen’s books are easiest to read as separate genre shelves rather than one enormous continuity.
Begin with Falling for Her Fiancé for Accidentally in Love, Getting Lucky Number Seven for Taking Shots, Second Chance Ranch for Hope Springs, and Just One of the Groomsmen for Getting Hitched in Dixie.
Readers interested in her newer work can begin with Moonlighting with the Werewolf for paranormal romance or Wreck My Plans for women’s fiction with a romantic thread. The Cipher trilogy is the only sequence that requires a strict three-book story order from beginning to end.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.