Below is the complete list of Sarah Adams’ It Happened in Charleston books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of It Happened in Charleston Books
About It Happened in Charleston
Sarah Adams’s It Happened in Charleston series is a two-book contemporary romance sequence built around the Broaden family and a close circle of characters in Charleston, South Carolina. The series begins with The Match and continues with The Enemy. Each novel follows a different couple and tells a complete romantic story, but the family connection between Jacob and June Broaden ties the books together. Both were originally published independently in 2020 and were later released in expanded editions with additional material.
The Match centers on Evie Jones, a young woman with epilepsy who works for Southern Service Paws, an organization that matches people with trained service dogs. Evie understands the importance of that work personally because her own service dog, Charlie, has given her independence that epilepsy once made difficult to maintain. Unfortunately, the organization is struggling financially, leaving Evie and her mentor searching for ways to keep it operating.
Her next prospective client is ten-year-old Sam Broaden, who has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. There is one complication: Sam arranged the consultation herself without telling her father.
Jacob Broaden arrives understandably irritated by the situation, creating an abrasive first meeting with Evie. He is a devoted single father trying to adjust to his daughter’s diagnosis and initially questions whether a service dog is necessary. As Evie helps Sam find the right dog—a golden retriever named Daisy—Jacob begins to understand both the practical value of the match and the woman responsible for making it possible.
The romance develops through Evie’s increasing involvement with Jacob and Sam. Evie has spent much of her life without the kind of dependable family environment she desires, so becoming attached to both father and daughter carries risks beyond ordinary attraction. Jacob, meanwhile, must decide whether protecting the stability he has built for Sam means resisting a new relationship or allowing someone else into their family.
The Enemy shifts the focus to Jacob’s sister, June Broaden, whose romantic problem has been developing for much longer. June owns a successful gourmet donut shop and has built a satisfying adult life, but she has never entirely forgotten Ryan Henderson, her high-school rival and secret crush.
Twelve years earlier, Ryan almost kissed June at graduation before pulling away, leaving her humiliated and giving their already competitive relationship another grievance to preserve. When he returns to Charleston for the wedding of June’s best friend, she finally has an opportunity to demonstrate just how little she cares about him.
Ryan complicates that plan by returning as a highly successful chef. Their old competitiveness reappears almost immediately, expressed through teasing, culinary rivalry, and attempts to gain the upper hand. Beneath the antagonism, however, both must confront the fact that the feelings they experienced as teenagers were never quite as one-sided—or as hostile—as either chose to believe.
The two books use different romantic dynamics. The Match combines single-parent romance, service-dog advocacy, and a gradual found-family story, while The Enemy leans into childhood rivalry, second chances, food, and enemies-to-lovers comedy. Adams nevertheless gives them a recognizable shared tone: emotionally guarded characters, affectionate family relationships, playful banter, and romance driven more by longing and vulnerability than explicit content.
Publication order is the natural way to read the series. Jacob’s story establishes the Broaden family before June takes center stage, allowing the second book’s family connections to carry more weight. Together, The Match and The Enemy form a compact early example of the warm, character-focused romantic comedy style Adams later developed across her larger interconnected series.