Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Captain’s Lady | 1984 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 2 | Violet Fire | 1987 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 3 | Scarlet Lies | 1988 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 4 | Sweet Fire | 1991 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 5 | The Price Of Desire | 2008 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 6 | Kissing Comfort | 2011 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 7 | A Place Called Home | 2011 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 8 | Stages of the Heart | 2020 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
| 9 | Ramsey Rules | 2020 | Jo Goodman | Buy |
Jo Goodman’s standalone novels trace the evolution of her career from the mid-1980s to 2020. The Captain’s Lady, published in 1984, was her first published novel. Over the following decades, her standalones moved through different historical periods — from colonial settings to Regency England to the American West.
Her more recent standalones, like A Place Called Home and Stages of the Heart, reflect her mature focus on Western settings and complex, deeply human characters. Kissing Comfort, set in San Francisco, shows her ability to build romance in an urban historical setting. Across all of them, Goodman’s hallmark is the slow-burning relationship where trust is earned page by page.