Lucy Parker Books in Order (Updated March 14, 2026)

Lucy Parker’s bibliography is compact, which makes the right reading order refreshingly clear. She has two main connected contemporary-romance series, London Celebrities and Palace Insiders, plus two standalones currently listed on her official site.

The safest approach is to read the two series in order, then pick up the standalones whenever the premise appeals.

The shape of the catalog

If you want backstage London romance with actors, directors, critics, presenters, and creative-industry tension, start with London Celebrities.

If you want royal-adjacent romance with bakers, assistants, bodyguards, and palace-world crossover, read Palace Insiders.

If you want books that stand apart from those continuities, read Artistic License and Misdirected separately. Artistic License was published under the name Elle Pierson, which catalog sources and reader databases connect to Lucy Parker.

Recommended reading path

For most readers, the cleanest path is:

1. Act Like It
2. Continue through all five London Celebrities novels
3. Read the three short London bonus pieces if you want more time with those couples
4. Read Battle Royal and Codename Charming
5. Add The Seven Dials Question after Battle Royal
6. Read Artistic License or Misdirected anytime as standalones

That order preserves the recurring friend-group and professional-world connections in London Celebrities, then keeps the shorter Palace Insiders pair together.

London Celebrities in order

This is Lucy Parker’s core series for many readers: a run of loosely connected romances set around London theatre and media. Each book follows a new couple, but the shared cast and accumulated familiarity make publication order the better experience.

1. Act Like It (2015): West End bad-boy Richard Troy and steady, sharp Elaine Graham fake a public relationship, only for the performance to become more emotionally dangerous than either expected. It is the real entry point to Parker’s theatre-world voice and the best place to begin.
2. Pretty Face (2017): Actress Lily Lamprey lands a career-changing role under formidable director Luc Savage, and their attraction threatens both her reputation and his professional standing. This is the series at its most director-and-actress, power-balance, backstage-romance.
3. Making Up (2018): Former circus performer Trix Lane is pushed back into the spotlight and forced into close quarters with special-effects artist Leo Magasiva, an old enemy with very inconvenient chemistry. This one broadens the performing-arts setting while staying rooted in the same London world.
4. The Austen Playbook (2019): Veteran actress Freddy Carlton joins an Austen-inspired interactive production at a country estate and clashes with theatre critic Griff Ford-Griffin, whose family history complicates everything. It is one of the series’ richest “performance plus inherited baggage” books.
5. Headliners (2020): Two feuding TV presenters are forced to co-host a live morning show, turning professional hostility into a very public romantic problem. This shifts from theatre into broadcast media, but it still feels like a natural capstone to the London Celebrities network.

London Celebrities extras

These are bonus pieces, not essential main novels, but they fit best in sequence rather than at random.

6. Too Wise to Woo Peaceably (2018): A short follow-up to Act Like It, set after the epilogues of both Act Like It and Pretty Face, so it works best once you have already read those two novels.
7. A Pretty Face Valentine (2018): A Luc-and-Lily bonus story that functions as extra time with the couple, not a new continuity starting point. Read it after Pretty Face.
8. Words (2019): A Making Up short story set between the final chapter and the epilogue, so it belongs immediately after Making Up if you want the fullest version of that couple’s arc.

Palace Insiders in order

This is the royal-adjacent branch: the leads are not royals themselves, but their jobs intersect with the royal family’s orbit. It is shorter and easier to binge than London Celebrities.

1. Battle Royal (2021): Baker Sylvie Fairchild and star pastry chef Dominic De Vere, old rivals from a televised baking competition, go head-to-head for a royal wedding cake contract. It is a food-world enemies-to-lovers romance with a palace backdrop, and the natural starting point for this side of Parker’s catalog.
2. The Seven Dials Question (2021): A Battle Royal bonus novelette and second epilogue that revisits Dominic and Sylvie after the novel’s ending. Read it after Battle Royal, not before.
3. Codename Charming (2023): Petunia De Vere, assistant to a lovable prince-adjacent employer, finds herself tangled with Matthias, the intimidating royal bodyguard whose gruffness hides deeper damage. This keeps the same royal-periphery appeal but swaps the baking rivalry for grumpy/sunshine and fake-dating energy.

Standalones

These do not require any series reading first.

1. Artistic License (2013): Originally published as Elle Pierson, this New Zealand-set romance follows shy art student Sophy James, who becomes fascinated by the unusual face of a silent security guard during a major art exhibition in Queenstown. It stands apart from the London books and is the clearest choice if you want Parker without the industry ensemble setup.
2. Misdirected (2025): An Audible Original about actress Hattie Murton and her antagonistic co-star Anthony Rafe, whose scripted on-screen affair starts to blur into real life on the set of a hit romantic drama. It is another performance-world romance, but it is currently presented as a standalone rather than a new series opener.

Publication order

If you want the full Lucy Parker bibliography in publication order, this is the clean version:

1. Artistic License (2013)
2. Act Like It (2015)
3. Pretty Face (2017)
4. Making Up (2018)
5. Too Wise to Woo Peaceably (2018)
6. A Pretty Face Valentine (2018)
7. The Austen Playbook (2019)
8. Words (2019)
9. Headliners (2020)
10. Battle Royal (2021)
11. The Seven Dials Question (2021)
12. Codename Charming (2023)
13. Misdirected (2025)

What order matters most?

For Lucy Parker, order matters most inside London Celebrities. The books are companion romances, but the returning cast, theatre-world relationships, and cumulative emotional background make them better in sequence.

Palace Insiders matters less strictly, but Battle Royal should still come before Codename Charming, and the Seven Dials bonus piece belongs after Battle Royal. The two standalones can be read whenever you like.

Latest release status

The newest book currently listed on Lucy Parker’s official site is Misdirected, and the site still presents Battle Royal and Codename Charming as the only two Palace Insiders novels. In an author Q&A, Parker said Palace Insiders would probably remain a duology, with possible extras, and that she intended to return to London Celebrities, but there is no newer titled release listed on the official books page at the time of checking.

Best starting point

If you want the classic Lucy Parker experience, start with Act Like It.

If you want the most accessible one-book test of her later style, start with Battle Royal.

If you want a true standalone and do not mind stepping outside the London/royal framework, start with Artistic License or Misdirected, depending on whether you want New Zealand art-world romance or actors-on-set romance.