Below is the complete list of Sarah Adams’ Rome, Kentucky books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Rome, Kentucky Books
About Rome, Kentucky
Sarah Adams’s Rome, Kentucky series is a four-book contemporary romance sequence built around the Walker siblings and the close-knit fictional town they call home. Beginning with When in Rome and concluding with In Your Dreams, the series moves from one couple to another while allowing relationships, weddings, businesses, friendships, and family dynamics to continue developing in the background. Rome itself becomes almost as important as the individual romances, with its independent shops, meddling neighbors, family traditions, and near-total absence of privacy providing a warm small-town framework for the series.
When in Rome introduces Amelia Rose, better known publicly as pop star Rae Rose. Exhausted by the demands of celebrity, Amelia takes inspiration from Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday and impulsively drives to Rome—not Italy, but Rome, Kentucky. When her car breaks down outside Noah Walker’s house, she finds herself temporarily stranded with a man unimpressed by fame.
Noah runs the pie shop inherited from his grandmother and has little interest in becoming involved with someone destined to leave. Their forced proximity nevertheless allows Amelia to experience an ordinary community life largely absent from her carefully managed career. Noah’s sisters and Rome’s residents quickly become part of her world, establishing the family and town that carry the series forward.
Practice Makes Perfect turns to Noah’s younger sister Annie Walker, a florist whose quiet personality has convinced her that she may be too boring to attract the kind of husband she imagines. After an unsuccessful date reinforces those fears, she asks Will Griffin to teach her how to become more confident at dating.
Will, Amelia’s tattooed bodyguard, considers himself emotionally unsuitable for lasting relationships and intends to avoid becoming attached to Rome. His supposedly practical lessons with Annie gradually undermine that plan. Their romance plays with opposites-attract and dating-coach conventions while allowing Annie to question whether she truly needs to change herself at all.
Beg, Borrow, or Steal centers on another Walker sister, Emily, and Jack Bennett. Both are second-grade teachers, longtime rivals, and experts at provoking each other. Emily is pleased when Jack leaves town, only for him to return after ending his engagement—and move in next door.
Their competition becomes more complicated when Emily, who secretly writes romance novels, accidentally risks exposing her literary career to their school principal. Jack, himself secretly a bestselling mystery author, becomes an unlikely accomplice. Their hostile games gradually give way to a partnership in which each understands the other’s hidden ambitions better than expected.
In Your Dreams completes the series with Madison Walker, who returns home after her attempt to build a culinary career in New York damages her confidence. She is offered the position of head chef at a new farm-to-table restaurant being developed by James Huxley, owner of Huxley Farm and an old family friend.
James has quietly loved Madison for years, while Madison has historically viewed him very differently. Working together to open the restaurant forces them into sustained proximity as both confront professional insecurity, complicated family relationships, and expectations formed long before either was ready to examine them honestly.
The four novels are structured as complete romances, but publication order gives the Walker family arc considerably more weight. Couples from earlier books remain part of Rome, major life events continue across installments, and siblings who initially occupy supporting roles eventually receive their own stories. By the time Madison returns in In Your Dreams, the town introduced through Amelia’s accidental arrival has become a fully established community, bringing the Walker family’s interconnected romantic arc to a natural conclusion.