Four linked Rome, Kentucky novels and the two-book Los Angeles Sharks branch form different parts of Sarah Adams’s bibliography. Rome moves between Amelia and Noah, Annie and Will, Emily and Jack, then Madison and James. The Sharks move from Bree and Nathan to Nora and Derek. When in Rome begins the town sequence; The Cheat Sheet begins the Sharks duology. In both branches, a new title changes the central couple rather than adding another volume to the first couple’s courtship.
The earlier pairs named after cities need their own identification: The Match belongs with Charleston, while The Off-Limits Rule begins Nashville. The lists below keep those pairs distinct and show where the Regency novels sit beside them. They also resolve a publication-date puzzle: a 2026 edition of When in Rome still contains the first Rome story. The publication and announcement checks here are dated 25 October 2026.
The main routes at a glance
For Rome, Kentucky, follow this sequence, also listed in the publisher’s When in Rome edition description:
- When in Rome
- Practice Makes Perfect
- Beg, Borrow, or Steal
- In Your Dreams
For the Los Angeles Sharks, the publisher numbers The Cheat Sheet first and The Rule Book second.
For It Happened in Charleston, begin with The Match, then The Enemy. For It Happened in Nashville, begin with The Off-Limits Rule, then The Temporary Roomie. Headline’s official title-information catalog distinguishes those two pairs. Keep their titles together when searching: similar city-based series labels can obscure which books belong on your list.
These routes organize different couples and introductions. Following the sequence is the straightforward choice if you dislike meeting an earlier couple through a later book’s description. Choosing one branch does not oblige you to collect the others before continuing.
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When in Rome: begin with the visitor’s perspective
The author’s When in Rome page introduces Amelia, a pop star taking refuge in Kentucky, and Noah, a local baker. The town in this title is not the Italian capital. That is worth settling before choosing it for a travel-reading mood: the appeal is a change in scale, from a public life to a smaller social world.
For a first encounter with Adams, this is a useful setup because arriving somewhere new creates a natural reader’s doorway. You can be curious about the place alongside a newcomer rather than feeling that you have walked into somebody else’s reunion. The central choice is whether you want the pleasure of a visit that starts to feel personally consequential. Celebrity is part of the contrast, but you need not be looking for a glamorous setting.
Consider what you enjoy about an outsider-and-local pairing. Perhaps it is one person noticing ordinary things the other takes for granted. Perhaps it is the question of whether a welcome can become more than temporary hospitality. Those are reasons to try this premise; they are not promises about every scene or the way the ending handles practical decisions.
If you mainly want an intimate community, choose the Rome route before the football books. If you mainly want two people who already share years of history, the Sharks starting point below is closer to that request. The difference concerns how familiarity begins, not which series is inherently warmer.
Practice Makes Perfect: choose the pleasure of rehearsal
The official Practice Makes Perfect description pairs florist Annie with bodyguard Will through dating practice. It is the second Rome book, so continuing here after the first keeps the town’s introductions in sequence.
This premise offers a different kind of anticipation from a stranded visitor. Rehearsal gives attraction an excuse to happen without immediately naming it. For a reader, a practice interaction can carry two simultaneous questions: what is supposedly being learned, and what is becoming personal? You might enjoy that gap more than a public fake relationship, where other people’s belief is part of the arrangement from the start.
Annie’s and Will’s occupations also make this a useful mood comparison with the opening book. You are moving from a visitor’s interruption of local routine toward a courtship idea that can make familiar surroundings feel different. That does not mean you need to like every dating-lesson story. If makeover narratives tend to frustrate you, read the description and opening for how you respond to this particular voice rather than assuming the trope will solve that hesitation.
Choose this entry on your Rome reading list when you want the question of confidence and attraction to sit close together. Keep it in its second position if preserving the first couple’s discoveries matters to you. Wanting this premise most is a preference; it is not evidence that earlier relationship information disappears from a connected book.
Beg, Borrow, or Steal: rivalry with creative work in the background
On Adams’s Beg, Borrow, or Steal page, Emily and Jack are rival teachers and neighbors, with writing also part of their lives. This is the third Rome novel.
That combination makes it a good comparison point for readers deciding between friendly familiarity and argumentative familiarity. Knowing someone well enough to anticipate a reaction can support affection, irritation, or both. If you enjoy a romance in which two people already have opinions about each other, investigate this premise rather than choosing solely because a cover resembles the earlier books.
The creative element gives you another useful preference to consider. Do you like characters having a private interest or ambition that complicates how other people see them? That is a different request from wanting the whole romance to take place in a publishing office. A school-based connection and a writing interest can coexist without making this a general guide to workplace romances about authors.
For a satisfying reading plan, keep the third book attached to its actual title. It is easy to remember only “the teacher one” and mistake an edition with different artwork for something else. Write the title next to Emily and Jack if those are the details that stick. That small identification note is more useful than trying to memorize every publication format.
In Your Dreams: a homecoming built around work
The author’s In Your Dreams page introduces Madison, a returning chef, and James, whose farm is connected to a restaurant project. It follows the other three Rome novels in the publisher’s sequence.
The reader’s attraction here can be a homecoming that includes a concrete job, rather than a return undertaken only to revisit an old social life. If you like competence and shared effort in a romance, a venture that needs people’s time and decisions gives you a specific premise to investigate. That is an invitation to sample the book, not a claim that its business details function as a practical restaurant manual.
Compare this with the first Rome doorway. A visitor asks what it would mean to stay; a returning person can make you curious about what it would mean to belong again. Both can appeal to readers who enjoy a recognizable community, but the emotional starting positions differ. Choosing by that distinction can be more helpful than ranking all four books by an abstract promise of coziness.
The new couple is also a reminder of why a series list and a couple’s story are different things. Follow the four-book route if you want to encounter the town in sequence. You do not have to treat every book as another volume about Amelia and Noah. The names on the individual descriptions help you recognize when the romantic focus changes.
The Sharks: friendship first, then a reunion with professional stakes
The author’s The Cheat Sheet description identifies Bree and Nathan as best friends drawn into public pretend dating. This is the Sharks starting point for readers who especially like the risk of changing an established friendship. You are choosing an existing bond with a new interpretation, rather than the pleasure of two strangers discovering common ground.
A public arrangement can make small gestures interesting for a particular reason: the reader wonders what they mean to the people performing them. That is a different source of anticipation from Annie’s dating practice. One setup invites you to consider the boundary between rehearsal and experience; the other adds the question of an audience. Choose the one whose central uncertainty you want to spend time with.
In the companion The Rule Book, Nora is a sports agent and Derek is her client and former boyfriend. Here the premise gives you a prior romantic relationship and a professional connection. If friends-to-lovers is not your usual preference but a difficult reunion is, that distinction explains why the second book may attract you more.
Reading the first Sharks book before the second is the clearest way to meet this branch in order. The important point is that a companion title brings a different central couple; it is not simply the next installment of Bree and Nathan’s courtship. You can enjoy the team connection without confusing the two relationship promises.
Charleston and Nashville: two compact contemporary choices
For Charleston, The Match introduces Evie and single father Jacob through service-dog work. The follow-up The Enemy introduces June and Ryan through an old rivalry and a wedding return. Those brief premises offer a meaningful choice: are you drawn toward a new connection that touches family life, or toward the charged reappearance of somebody already remembered?
For Nashville, The Off-Limits Rule pairs Lucy with her brother’s friend Cooper. The Temporary Roomie pairs Jessie and Drew through temporary shared housing and a pretend relationship. Family proximity and a housing arrangement create different reasons for people to keep encountering each other. Choose the first pair when the Charleston premises appeal more, and the second when the Nashville premises do; neither is preliminary homework for Rome.
These shorter lists are useful if you want to try a connected branch without planning four novels immediately. Their shared author does not make the cities interchangeable, and a two-book route is not a promise that every content preference is identical between the titles. Check the specific description when a pregnancy, family situation, or other premise detail affects your reading choice.
Keep the historical branch separate
The author also presents To Con a Gentleman, with Rose and Carver, and To Catch a Suitor, with Elizabeth and Oliver, in her Regency branch. These are useful alternatives when historical courtship is what attracts you. They are not prerequisites for following a modern Kentucky town or a football team.
As a simple first exploration, start with the former and then investigate the latter. That is a practical proposed route through the two catalogued novels, not a claim that every short work associated with the author has been assigned a compulsory position here. If you encounter a novella in another list, check that work’s own placement information before inserting it between novels.
The change of period also changes the question to bring to a sample. You might be curious about manners, social expectations, or the balance between dialogue and historical surroundings. Liking the contemporary books is a reason to be interested in the author’s other work, but it does not require you to want the same reading experience in a historical setting.
Expanded editions do not add new rungs to the series
The publisher describes a 2026 special edition of When in Rome with a bonus chapter. Treat it as an edition of the first story, not a fifth Rome novel. A collector may enjoy owning it after another edition; a first-time reader needs to know which story the book contains before deciding whether the additional material matters.
Similarly, the publisher’s The Match page describes an expanded edition. A later date on that edition does not place the underlying story after every book released earlier in a different branch. Sorting a store’s results newest first is useful for shopping, but it is a poor substitute for the series lists above.
The When in Rome record makes the difference visible: it lists the original paperback on 20 September 2022 and the special edition on 5 May 2026. Meanwhile, the publisher dates In Your Dreams to 30 December 2025. Sorting those products by date would put a new copy of the first Rome story after the fourth novel. For this specific choice, identify Amelia and Noah’s story before treating the 2026 date as a further step beyond Madison and James.
Announced stories belong on a separate future list
As of 25 October 2026, Adams’s official Soulmates page announces a standalone for 4 May 2027. Brilliance’s Just for the Camera audio listing gives 10 November 2026 for that holiday short story. Both dates are later than this guide’s check date. Neither belongs in a list of books already released on that date, and a collection label should not turn a short story into an additional Rome or Sharks novel.
You can note an upcoming title without delaying the branch you already want to read. Recheck the relevant publisher when the date approaches, particularly for a different country, language, or format. An announcement is enough to plan interest; it is not proof that your preferred edition can already be borrowed or purchased.
Find the right next book when the titles sound alike
The easiest wrong turn is between The Rule Book and The Off-Limits Rule. They share a word, not a place in the same sequence. If you have read Bree and Nathan in The Cheat Sheet and want the next Sharks couple, choose Nora and Derek in The Rule Book. The Off-Limits Rule instead begins Lucy and Cooper’s Nashville branch. It is not the next chapter of the football connection.
A second useful distinction is between Practice Makes Perfect and The Temporary Roomie. Both advertised premises contain an arrangement that can make attraction complicated, but their predecessors differ. Continue from When in Rome to Annie and Will in Practice Makes Perfect. Continue from The Off-Limits Rule to Jessie and Drew in The Temporary Roomie. Remembering the prior title is more reliable here than remembering that someone was pretending or practising.
For Rome specifically, the four central pairings are Amelia and Noah, Annie and Will, Emily and Jack, then Madison and James. That short sequence helps you recognize the intended next novel even if a different cover or translated title catches your eye. Our series reading-order guide explains the separate question of how much earlier information a connected story may reveal.
If Kentucky is what attracted you rather than a particular pair, the small-town and cozy romance comparison helps distinguish the town setting from a promised mood. For other settings after your selected Adams branch, browse the romance catalog.
