Mary Waterford Books in Order (Updated July 24, 2026)

Mary Waterford is the pen name of Australian sisters Susan and Kate, who write steamy contemporary romance together. Their books feature small towns, close families, emotional second chances, wealthy heroes, holiday competitions, and couples learning to make room for love.

The bibliography is compact, but one part needs careful handling. The Yearbook stories originally appeared as four shorter Esperance novellas in 2022. The authors later rebuilt the concept as an expanded series, added a new first book, changed the numbering, and scheduled a fifth novel.

Readers should therefore use the current Yearbook order rather than relying on the numbers attached to the original editions.

The Fastest Way to Choose a First Book

1. Start with Birthday Gift for a quiet Australian beach town and Mary Waterford’s earliest interconnected series.
2. Choose Finding Zara for the Esperance Valley romances, which follow four women rebuilding their lives in a rural Australian community.
3. Begin with Her Valiant Heart for billionaire brothers, higher heat, family obligations, and romances that move between Esperance and the United States.
4. Pick Most Likely to Fear Love for the revised Yearbook series. It is the correct opening book even though several related stories were first published years earlier.
5. The Mistletoe Duet begins with Chasing the Mistletoe and follows one couple across a televised holiday race. Those two books must be read together.

Mary Waterford’s Fictional Worlds

The books fall into five practical groups:

1. Blessed Inlet
2. The Mistletoe Duet
3. Esperance Valley
4. The Rivers Brothers
5. The Yearbook Series

Blessed Inlet has its own beachside cast.

Esperance Valley and the Yearbook books share the Australian town of Esperance and contain overlapping social connections. The Rivers Brothers books also connect to characters from Esperance, especially through the women who become involved with the Rivers family.

The Mistletoe Duet is best treated as a separate two-part romance.

Blessed Inlet Books in Order

Blessed Inlet is a four-book small-town romance series set in an Australian coastal community. Each book follows a new couple, but friendships and earlier relationships continue in the background.

1. Birthday Gift

Birthday Gift (2021): A birthday surprise becomes the starting point for an unexpected romance in Blessed Inlet, introducing the seaside town and the connected group at the center of the series.

2. Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl (2021): Another woman in the Blessed Inlet circle faces a personal turning point around her birthday, where attraction and changing expectations push her toward a life she had not planned.

3. Birthday Song

Birthday Song (2022): Music and emotional history shape the third romance as the central couple must decide whether their connection belongs to the past or deserves a future.

4. Birthday Portrait

Birthday Portrait (2022): Art, appearances, and personal vulnerability come together in the final Blessed Inlet romance, completing the four-couple coastal sequence.

How Closely Connected Is Blessed Inlet?

The books are interconnected standalones. Each central relationship reaches its own conclusion, but the setting and friendship group carry forward.

Reading from Birthday Gift preserves introductions and prevents later books from revealing earlier couples too soon.

Recommended status: Read in order.

The Mistletoe Duet Books in Order

The Mistletoe Duet follows the same central couple through a reality television competition. Unlike Mary Waterford’s other series, it is not a collection of separate standalone romances.

1. Chasing the Mistletoe

Chasing the Mistletoe (2022): A woman who needs prize money for her sister’s surgery is paired with cowboy Noah Lockwood on a Christmas reality race, forcing two hostile strangers to travel across America together.

2. Catching the Mistletoe

Catching the Mistletoe (2023): Noah and his partner face the emotional and practical consequences of the race as their competition-born attraction must survive beyond the circumstances that brought them together.

Can Chasing the Mistletoe Be Read Alone?

It is not the best stopping point.

The first book establishes the race, the financial stakes, and the couple’s relationship. Catching the Mistletoe completes their story.

Classification: Both books included.

Esperance Valley Books in Order

Esperance Valley follows four women whose lives and romances are connected to the Australian town of Esperance. Each novel focuses on a separate couple, but friends and earlier romantic leads continue appearing.

1. Finding Zara

Finding Zara (2023): Zara tries to find stability and a place where she belongs, but a new relationship in Esperance forces her to confront the experiences that made trust difficult.

2. Keeping Lucy

Keeping Lucy (2023): Lucy’s romance develops around the question of whether love can provide security without taking away the independence she has fought to maintain.

3. Claiming Ally

Claiming Ally (2023): Ally becomes involved with a man who wants a permanent place in her life, creating a romance shaped by possessive devotion, personal boundaries, and the complications of their connected community.

4. Loving Emma

Loving Emma (2023): Emma returns to Esperance after ten years away to care for her father and must face Jake Walker, the man connected to the unfinished relationship she left behind.

Is Esperance Valley Complete?

Yes. The central sequence contains four books:

1. Finding Zara
2. Keeping Lucy
3. Claiming Ally
4. Loving Emma

Later Mary Waterford books revisit Esperance and related characters, but they belong to separately named series.

Where Should the Yearbook Books Be Read?

The Yearbook romances also involve former classmates from Esperance. Readers may encounter familiar names and relationships from Esperance Valley.

The safest broad route is:

1. Read Esperance Valley.
2. Read The Rivers Brothers.
3. Read the revised Yearbook Series.

The individual romances remain understandable without following that entire path. This order simply gives recurring characters and community relationships their fullest context.

The Rivers Brothers Books in Order

The Rivers Brothers trilogy follows three wealthy brothers and the women who challenge their carefully controlled lives. These books contain stronger billionaire-romance elements than the earlier Australian small-town stories.

1. Her Valiant Heart

Her Valiant Heart (2023): Esme balances responsibility for her four younger siblings with an intense attraction to older billionaire Wolfe Rivers, whose private Raleigh world offers escape but carries complications of its own.

2. Her Vagabond Heart

Her Vagabond Heart (2024): A fiery punk-rock heroine clashes with a brooding billionaire music mogul, creating a romance shaped by music, ambition, sharp differences, and reluctant emotional dependence.

3. Her Vibrant Heart

Her Vibrant Heart (2024): An environmental lawyer opposes an arrogant property developer, turning a professional battle into an enemies-to-lovers relationship with personal and community consequences.

Do the Rivers Brothers Books Stand Alone?

Each book follows a different Rivers brother and gives its couple a complete romance.

The brothers remain closely connected, and earlier couples appear after their own books. Reading in order provides the clearest family progression.

Recommended status: Interconnected standalones.

The Current Yearbook Series Books in Order

The Yearbook Series follows former classmates whose high-school predictions about love continue influencing their adult lives.

The current sequence is not the same as the original 2022 novella order. Use the following arrangement for all new reading.

1. Most Likely to Fear Love

Most Likely to Fear Love (2025): A woman determined to become a mother hires rugged handyman Harle Robson as a sperm donor, but their practical arrangement becomes personal when conception plans and forced proximity bring them closer.

This was written as the new opening novel for the expanded series.

2. Most Likely to Deny Love

Most Likely to Deny Love (revised edition, 2025): Mia Emerson, once voted most likely to deny love, finds that prediction increasingly difficult to maintain when an adult relationship challenges her resistance to commitment.

The original shorter version was published in 2022. The current second edition was substantially revised and expanded.

3. Most Likely to Doubt Love

Most Likely to Doubt Love (revised edition, 2026): A former beauty queen carrying trauma grows close to Cam Rockford, the grumpy single father next door whose daughters bring her into his family life.

The current edition expands the original 2022 novella and assigns the story the third position.

4. Most Likely to Tempt Love

Most Likely to Tempt Love (revised edition, 2026): Maya pursues Nate, her brother’s guarded best friend, but her playful campaign becomes serious when she recognizes the pain behind his belief that he does not deserve a future with her.

This substantially expanded edition replaced the shorter 2022 version while keeping the fourth position.

5. Most Likely to Claim Love

Most Likely to Claim Love (scheduled for 2027): Poppy and Zack move from friendship into fake dating, where pretending to be a couple threatens to expose feelings that were already real.

The fifth book is currently scheduled for April 17, 2027. Its publication date may change.

What Happened to Most Likely to Resist Love?

Most Likely to Resist Love (2022): Librarian Annie McLellan, once voted most likely to resist love, becomes attracted to a brooding bestselling romance author who challenges the quiet life she uses as protection.

This story was originally the third installment of Esperance: The Yearbook. It does not currently hold a numbered position in the revised five-book Yearbook sequence.

The book remains available in some formats and catalogs, but the present series order moves directly from Most Likely to Doubt Love to Most Likely to Tempt Love.

Classification: Optional legacy edition.

It can be read after Most Likely to Doubt Love when exploring the original Yearbook novellas. It should not be inserted as the current book four, since that position belongs to Most Likely to Tempt Love.

Original Yearbook Order Versus Revised Yearbook Order

The original 2022 novella sequence was:

1. Most Likely to Deny Love
2. Most Likely to Doubt Love
3. Most Likely to Resist Love
4. Most Likely to Tempt Love

The revised sequence is:

1. Most Likely to Fear Love
2. Most Likely to Deny Love
3. Most Likely to Doubt Love
4. Most Likely to Tempt Love
5. Most Likely to Claim Love

New readers should follow the revised order.

Readers who own the original novellas can still read them as a four-story set, but those editions are shorter and do not reflect every development added during the relaunch.

Do You Need Both Editions of the Yearbook Books?

No.

The current editions of Most Likely to Deny Love, Most Likely to Doubt Love, and Most Likely to Tempt Love are not merely new covers. They were revised and substantially expanded from their original novella versions.

For the fullest continuity, choose the current editions and begin with Most Likely to Fear Love.

The original versions are now best viewed as legacy editions for collectors or readers interested in comparing how the stories changed.

Mary Waterford Books in Publication Order

This list follows the original English-language publication history. Revised Yearbook editions are listed separately because they contain substantial new material.

1. Birthday Gift (2021): A birthday surprise begins the first romance in the beachside Blessed Inlet community.
2. Birthday Girl (2021): A personal milestone pushes another Blessed Inlet heroine toward an unexpected relationship.
3. Birthday Song (2022): Music and emotional history drive the third coastal romance.
4. Most Likely to Deny Love (original novella, 2022): Mia attempts to live up to her high-school reputation for rejecting love.
5. Most Likely to Doubt Love (original novella, 2022): A woman who doubts lasting love begins reconsidering that belief through an adult Esperance romance.
6. Most Likely to Resist Love (2022): Librarian Annie becomes involved with a withdrawn romance writer despite her determination to avoid emotional risk.
7. Most Likely to Tempt Love (original novella, 2022): Maya sets her sights on Nate, her brother’s best friend, and finds more vulnerability beneath his resistance than expected.
8. Birthday Portrait (2022): Art and personal vulnerability close the Blessed Inlet sequence.
9. Chasing the Mistletoe (2022): Two mismatched contestants race across America for a Christmas reality television prize.
10. Catching the Mistletoe (2023): The holiday-race couple must determine whether their relationship can continue after the competition.
11. Finding Zara (2023): Zara seeks belonging and safety while an Esperance romance challenges her defenses.
12. Keeping Lucy (2023): Lucy weighs independence against the possibility of accepting lasting love.
13. Claiming Ally (2023): Ally confronts a relationship with a man determined to claim a permanent place beside her.
14. Loving Emma (2023): Emma’s return to Esperance reunites her with Jake after ten unresolved years.
15. Her Valiant Heart (2023): Esme’s family responsibilities collide with her attraction to billionaire Wolfe Rivers.
16. Her Vagabond Heart (2024): A punk-rock heroine challenges a cold billionaire music executive.
17. Her Vibrant Heart (2024): An environmental lawyer clashes with a developer whose plans she opposes.
18. Most Likely to Fear Love (2025): A clinical plan for motherhood becomes an intimate relationship with a rugged handyman.
19. Most Likely to Deny Love (expanded edition, 2025): Mia’s original novella becomes a longer second book in the rebuilt Yearbook sequence.
20. Most Likely to Doubt Love (expanded edition, 2026): A traumatized former beauty queen finds support from a grumpy single father and his family.
21. Most Likely to Tempt Love (expanded edition, 2026): Maya and Nate’s brother’s-best-friend romance receives a substantially longer treatment.
22. Most Likely to Claim Love (scheduled for 2027): Friends Poppy and Zack enter a fake relationship that brings genuine feelings into the open.

Is There a Chronological Reading Order?

No separate timeline order is necessary.

Within every series, the published sequence already preserves introductions and relationship developments. Moving the original Yearbook novellas around by their first publication dates would create confusion because the revised series now has a different opening and numbering system.

For the connected Esperance books, the cleanest continuity route is:

1. Esperance Valley
2. The Rivers Brothers
3. The revised Yearbook Series

This order is recommended for context, not because the central romances cannot be understood separately.

A Complete Mary Waterford Reading Plan

Readers who want the full bibliography without switching constantly between communities can use four stages.

Stage One: Blessed Inlet

1. Birthday Gift
2. Birthday Girl
3. Birthday Song
4. Birthday Portrait

Stage Two: The Holiday Duet

5. Chasing the Mistletoe
6. Catching the Mistletoe

Stage Three: Esperance and the Rivers Family

7. Finding Zara
8. Keeping Lucy
9. Claiming Ally
10. Loving Emma
11. Her Valiant Heart
12. Her Vagabond Heart
13. Her Vibrant Heart

Stage Four: The Revised Yearbook Series

14. Most Likely to Fear Love
15. Most Likely to Deny Love
16. Most Likely to Doubt Love
17. Most Likely to Tempt Love
18. Most Likely to Claim Love

Read Most Likely to Resist Love separately after book three when you want the complete original Yearbook material.

Novellas and Shorter Editions

Mary Waterford’s principal novella issue concerns the original Yearbook releases.

Original Yearbook Novellas

Most Likely to Deny Love (2022): The shorter original version of Mia’s romance later became the basis for the expanded second edition.

Most Likely to Doubt Love (2022): The initial shorter story was extensively rebuilt as the current third Yearbook novel.

Most Likely to Resist Love (2022): Annie and the romance novelist retain their own story, but the book currently sits outside the revised numbering.

Most Likely to Tempt Love (2022): Maya and Nate’s original novella was expanded into the current fourth novel.

Classification: Legacy editions.

The expanded editions should be used for the current series order.

Boxed Sets and Translations

Series bundles may combine previously published books. A boxed set does not represent an additional story unless its contents explicitly identify exclusive material.

The Yearbook books have also appeared in translated editions. Foreign-language numbering may reflect either the original four-novella series or the newer expanded arrangement.

Check the English title and central couple rather than relying only on the number printed on a translated edition.

Latest Mary Waterford Book

As of July 24, 2026, Mary Waterford’s latest published novel is the expanded edition of Most Likely to Tempt Love, Yearbook book four, released in April 2026.

The next confirmed book is Most Likely to Claim Love, the fifth Yearbook romance, currently scheduled for April 17, 2027.

No later series or sixth Yearbook book has been reliably confirmed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Mary Waterford?

Mary Waterford is the joint pen name of sisters Susan and Kate.

They are Australian and began publishing together in 2021. Their fiction focuses on steamy contemporary romance, small towns, family connections, and guaranteed romantic conclusions.

What is Mary Waterford’s first book?

Birthday Gift was their first published novel, released in October 2021.

It begins the four-book Blessed Inlet series.

What Mary Waterford book should I read first?

Start with Birthday Gift when reading from the beginning.

Start with Finding Zara for Esperance Valley, Her Valiant Heart for billionaire romance, or Most Likely to Fear Love for the current Yearbook series.

Are Mary Waterford’s books standalones?

Most are interconnected standalones.

Each Blessed Inlet, Esperance Valley, Rivers Brothers, and Yearbook book follows a central couple and provides a romantic conclusion. Recurring characters make series order preferable.

The Mistletoe Duet is different because the same couple’s story continues across both books.

Is Esperance Valley connected to the Yearbook Series?

Yes.

Both involve characters and relationships associated with Esperance. New readers can understand the Yearbook romances alone, but completing Esperance Valley first provides more community background.

Is The Rivers Brothers connected to Esperance Valley?

Yes, through characters and relationships that link the Australian community with the Rivers family.

The trilogy still has its own numbering and should be read from Her Valiant Heart through Her Vibrant Heart.

What is the correct Yearbook order?

The current order is:

1. Most Likely to Fear Love
2. Most Likely to Deny Love
3. Most Likely to Doubt Love
4. Most Likely to Tempt Love
5. Most Likely to Claim Love

This supersedes the original four-novella arrangement.

Why was Most Likely to Fear Love published after the original Yearbook books?

It was created as the new first book when Mary Waterford expanded and relaunched the series.

Publication date therefore differs from story order.

Is Most Likely to Resist Love still part of the series?

It was part of the original Esperance: The Yearbook sequence.

It is not currently numbered among the five expanded Yearbook novels, so it should be treated as optional legacy material.

Are the new Yearbook editions the same as the 2022 novellas?

They share the same central couples and premises, but the new editions were extensively revised and expanded.

Readers should not count the original and expanded versions as separate events in the timeline.

Can I begin with Most Likely to Doubt Love?

The central romance is understandable alone, but it is now officially book three.

Begin with Most Likely to Fear Love to meet the revised series in its intended sequence and avoid background spoilers.

Does Chasing the Mistletoe end on its own?

The romance continues into Catching the Mistletoe.

Read both books for the complete outcome of the reality-race story.

Is Blessed Inlet connected to Esperance?

No strong continuity connection is required.

Blessed Inlet has its own coastal setting and cast, so readers can complete it separately from the Esperance books.

What comes after Her Vibrant Heart?

Her Vibrant Heart is the third and currently final Rivers Brothers book.

Readers wanting more connected Esperance romances should move to Most Likely to Fear Love and the revised Yearbook series.

What comes after Most Likely to Tempt Love?

Most Likely to Claim Love is Yearbook book five.

It follows Poppy and Zack in a friends-to-lovers, fake-dating romance and is scheduled for April 2027.

The Best Reading Decision

Begin with Birthday Gift when reading Mary Waterford’s books from the start. The four Blessed Inlet romances provide a self-contained introduction to the authors’ small-town style.

For the broader Esperance network, begin with Finding Zara, continue through Esperance Valley and The Rivers Brothers, then use the revised Yearbook order beginning with Most Likely to Fear Love.

Do not begin the current Yearbook sequence with the original 2022 numbering. Those shorter editions belong to an earlier version of the series, and Most Likely to Resist Love should now be treated as optional legacy material rather than a numbered current installment.