Which Princes of Avce Book to Read First?
If you have been hunting for a royal romance series to binge and you keep landing on the same two or three titles everyone recommends, I want to point you somewhere different — somewhere with twelve books, a fully realized fictional kingdom, and a different flavor of forbidden love in every single installment. The Princes of Avce series is one of the most complete royal romance worlds you can sink into right now, and the question I hear most is simple: where do I actually start? The honest answer depends entirely on which trope makes your heart race first.
This guide does not cover every plot point of every book — the full Princes of Avce series page does that beautifully and is the best place to browse all twelve covers and blurbs in one place. What this post does instead is walk you through the reading entry points by trope, so you can start exactly where you are most likely to fall completely in love and never stop reading.
What Makes This Royal Romance Series to Binge Different?
Most royal romance series are set in real European countries with lightly fictionalized court politics. The Princes of Avce series is built around a completely fictional kingdom called Avce — and that choice matters more than it might seem at first glance. Because the author invented every rule of succession, every political alliance, and every court scandal from scratch, the romantic stakes in each book are genuinely unpredictable. You cannot google Avce’s history and know where the plot is going. That freshness is part of what makes this one of the most bingeable royal romance series available across all retailers right now.
Every prince in Avce enters his story carrying something impossible — a throne he did not plan for, a secret that could fracture his family, or a political arrangement he cannot escape. And every heroine arrives knowing exactly what the deal is supposed to be. The tension comes from watching two intelligent, stubborn people try to honor the terms of an arrangement that stops feeling like an arrangement somewhere around chapter six.
Start Here if You Love Grumpy Hero and Sunshine Heroine
Your entry point is Forbidden Crown, and it is free on every retailer. This is the book that establishes the kingdom, the political climate, and the tone of the entire series — but more importantly, it delivers the grumpy/sunshine dynamic in one of its most satisfying forms.
The prince in Forbidden Crown is not cold because he is arrogant. He is cold because he has learned that warmth is something people in his position cannot afford. And then the heroine shows up and refuses to match his temperature. She is not naive — she sees exactly what he is doing and simply declines to participate. Watching him try to maintain his walls while she is just genuinely, unself-consciously herself is the entire engine of this book and it works on every single page.
Because Forbidden Crown is free, it is the natural starting point for readers new to the series. But here is what I want you to know going in: this book ends in a way that makes you immediately want book two. Clear your reading schedule.
What to Read After Forbidden Crown
After Forbidden Crown, move to Forbidden Prince, which deepens the family saga and introduces a forbidden love element that carries real consequences inside the Avce court. Then Forbidden Royal offers a second chance romance that recontextualizes some of what you learned in the first two books — in the best possible way.
Start Here if You Love Enemies-to-Lovers With Forced Proximity
Jump to Forbidden Earl. This book is the enemies-to-lovers entry point for the Princes of Avce world and it delivers the trope in three layers simultaneously: enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, and forced proximity. The hero and heroine start out with a genuine ideological conflict — this is not manufactured bickering, it is two people who actually see the world differently and have to share the same suffocating space while pretending to be something they are not.
The forced proximity element here is not a snowstorm or a stuck elevator. It is political. They have to be seen together, have to perform a relationship for an audience that cannot know the truth, and have to maintain that performance in close quarters over an extended period of time. If you have ever read a fake dating book and wished the ‘stuck together’ portion lasted longer and had higher stakes, Forbidden Earl is the book you have been looking for.
You can read Forbidden Earl without having read books one through three — each Princes of Avce installment is designed to work as a standalone entry point while rewarding readers who have followed the series from the beginning. That said, readers who start here frequently go back to Forbidden Crown immediately after. The kingdom feels too rich to experience in only one direction.
Start Here if Fake Marriage is Your Trope
This is where I have to talk about Rossie and Stefano, because Forbidden Marquis is the book that gets mentioned most in reader messages and I completely understand why. The setup is genuinely heartbreaking before the romance even begins: Rossie was abandoned at the altar. She fled to Paris. And Stefano — an Italian marchese with court obligations she is only beginning to understand — needs a wife for reasons that are entirely political and entirely complicated.
So they make a deal. A contract. Something designed to be transactional and remain that way. And for a while, it does. What is done brilliantly in this book is let the fake-ness of the arrangement hold for long enough that you believe both characters believe it — and then introduces the moment where Stefano looks at Rossie in a way that is not contractual at all, and Rossie notices, and everything quietly breaks open.
Forbidden Marquis is available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more. It can be read as a standalone but hits significantly harder if you have read Forbidden Crown first — certain court dynamics in Rossie’s story land differently when you already know the kingdom’s history.
For more fake marriage royal romance across the full catalog, the fake relationship romance series page covers multiple series where this trope gets full treatment.
Start Here if You Want Billionaire Royal Romance
Several books in the Princes of Avce series layer the billionaire dynamic directly onto the royal romance foundation, which creates a very specific kind of hero: someone with both inherited power and earned wealth who is still trying to figure out which one actually defines him. Forbidden Duke and Forbidden King are the two books where this combination is most pronounced.
Forbidden King in particular does something genuinely interesting in the billionaire royal space: the power dynamic inverts. The hero is both royal and wealthy but the heroine’s position — as his employee — gives her a specific kind of leverage that he does not expect and cannot fully navigate. Add a fake marriage to that already complicated dynamic and you have a book that earns its slow burn in every chapter.
Both work as standalone entry points for readers who prefer billionaire romance as their primary draw and are discovering the royal element as a bonus.
What If You Want to Read the Whole Royal Romance Series in Order?
If you are the kind of reader who needs to start at book one and experience the entire arc as it was designed — welcome, you are my people. The Princes of Avce reading order is: Forbidden Crown, Forbidden Prince, Forbidden Royal, Forbidden Duke, Forbidden Earl, Forbidden Monsieur, Forbidden Marquis, Forbidden Count, Forbidden King, Forbidden Bastard, Forbidden Noble, Forbidden Lord.
Reading in order gives you the full family saga experience. You watch the Avce court shift and change as different princes make different choices. You see consequences carry across books. Characters who appear briefly in early installments become central later, and moments that seemed like background detail turn out to matter significantly. For readers who love an interconnected romance book series where the world feels genuinely lived-in, reading Princes of Avce in order is the highest-reward experience the series offers.
Box Sets and Reading Order Bundles
The Princes of Avce series is available in grouped bundles across retailers: books one through three, books four through six, books seven through nine, and books ten through twelve. Each bundle is available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more.
How Does Princes of Avce Compare to Other Royal Romance?
Royal romance across multiple series means Avce readers who finish all twelve books have somewhere to go next. The comparison that comes up most often is the Brothers in Revenge series, where the Bentley family — displaced royals from the kingdom of Hoskell — fight to reclaim a stolen throne while falling for the people who were sent to stop them. If you loved the political stakes in Princes of Avce, the Brothers in Revenge series takes that energy and adds counter-espionage, safe rooms, and brothers who are simultaneously trying to save a throne and avoid falling completely in love. Irresistibly Lost is the free prequel entry point.
For readers whose draw to Princes of Avce was primarily the grumpy/sunshine billionaire dynamic rather than the political world-building, the House of Morgan series offers twenty books of Miami billionaire family saga with the same intensity of emotional stakes in a contemporary American setting. Secret Crush, book one, is permanently free across all retailers.
A Personal Note From Victoria on Writing the Avce World
I started writing the Princes of Avce series because I kept reading royal romance and wanting to change the rules. Real monarchies come with a lot of historical weight — specific expectations about how succession works, what marriages look like, what women in court can and cannot do. When I invented Avce, I could decide all of that myself. I could put a woman in a position of real negotiating power inside a royal arrangement and have it make sense within the world’s logic. I could let the princes be genuinely complicated without needing to map them onto historical figures.
The book that surprised me most in this series was Forbidden Marquis. I thought I knew exactly how Rossie and Stefano’s story would go when I started it — abandoned bride, Paris escape, practical arrangement, slow realization. And then somewhere in the middle of writing it Stefano did something I had not planned and I had to stop and figure out what it meant for both of them. Those are my favorite moments as a writer. When a character makes a choice and you have to catch up to them. Rossie and Stefano have a lot of those moments and I think that is why readers keep talking about that book in particular.
If you want to explore the full royal romance catalog — Princes of Avce plus everything else — the royal romance series page is the best place to start. Forbidden Crown is waiting there for you, and it is free.
Start Your Royal Romance Binge Today
Here is the quick version of everything above, organized so you can start exactly where you want to:
| Your Favorite Trope | Best Entry Point | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Grumpy hero / sunshine heroine | Forbidden Crown (Book 1) | FREE on all retailers |
| Enemies to lovers / forced proximity | Forbidden Earl | All major retailers |
| Fake marriage | Forbidden Marquis | All major retailers |
| Billionaire royal / boss-employee | Forbidden King | All major retailers |
| Full series in order | Start with Forbidden Crown | Box sets available |
Comment AVCE on any social post and you will get the complete Princes of Avce reading guide sent directly to you. Or grab Forbidden Crown free right now at the link below — no commitment, no risk, just twelve books waiting for you in a kingdom where nobody manages to keep their feelings where they belong.
Get Forbidden Crown FREE on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Princes of Avce reading order?
The Princes of Avce reading order is: Forbidden Crown (free), Forbidden Prince, Forbidden Royal, Forbidden Duke, Forbidden Earl, Forbidden Monsieur, Forbidden Marquis, Forbidden Count, Forbidden King, Forbidden Bastard, Forbidden Noble, and Forbidden Lord. Each book follows a different prince and can be read as a standalone, but reading in order gives the fullest experience of the family saga and the kingdom of Avce.
Is Forbidden Crown really free?
Yes. Forbidden Crown, book one of the Princes of Avce series, is permanently free on all major retailers including Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Google Play. It is the grumpy/sunshine royal romance entry point for the series and a complete story — no cliffhanger — with all twelve books available to continue the series immediately after.
Can I read Princes of Avce books out of order?
Yes. Every Princes of Avce book is written to work as a standalone romance with a complete HEA. Each book follows a different prince and heroine, so you can jump in at any title based on your favorite trope. Readers who begin with Forbidden Earl (enemies-to-lovers) or Forbidden Marquis (fake marriage) and then go back to book one frequently say the earlier books hit differently once they already know the kingdom.
Which Princes of Avce book has the best fake marriage trope?
Forbidden Marquis is the Princes of Avce book most recommended for readers whose primary draw is the fake marriage trope. Rossie was abandoned at the altar and flees to Paris, where she enters a political contract marriage with Stefano, an Italian marchese. The arrangement is designed to stay transactional. It does not. Forbidden Lord and Forbidden King also feature fake marriage dynamics with high emotional stakes for readers who want more after Forbidden Marquis.
What other royal romance series should I read after Princes of Avce?
After finishing Princes of Avce, the most natural next series is Brothers in Revenge — a displaced royal family (the Bentleys, rightful heirs to the throne of Hoskell) fight back against the conspiracy that assassinated their father the King. Seven brothers, counter-espionage, and heroines who were sent to stop them and stayed to save them instead. Irresistibly Lost is the free prequel entry point, available on all retailers.
Are Princes of Avce books available on or other subscription services?
Books are available across all major retailers and platforms — Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more. Check the individual book pages at victoriapinder.com for current availability and the most up-to-date retailer links for each title in the Princes of Avce series.
Which Princes of Avce book is best for readers who love billionaire romance?
Forbidden King and Forbidden Duke are the strongest entry points for readers whose primary draw is billionaire romance layered onto a royal setting. Forbidden King in particular features a boss-employee power dynamic within the royal arrangement, with a fake marriage that puts both characters in an increasingly impossible situation. Both books are available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more.
