Where to Start with Cleo Scornavacca
For readers diving into Cleo Scornavacca's steamy, suspense-filled contemporary romance, the clear and recommended starting point is her debut novel, Miss Taken. This book launches the Miss Taken Identity trilogy, which serves as the core foundation of her writing universe. Because the trilogy follows a continuous, serialized storyline focusing on the same set of characters, reading the books in order is highly recommended to fully appreciate the complex relationships, emotional character arcs, and suspenseful plot developments.
Once you finish the trilogy, you can easily transition to her spin-off work, Within Six Months, which carries over secondary characters into a new, standalone romance narrative. Starting anywhere else will spoil major plot points of the original trilogy.
Miss Taken Identity Series Reading Order
The Miss Taken Identity trilogy is a high-stakes romantic suspense series set against the backdrop of family drama, legal intrigue, and accidental captivity. The narrative centers on identical twin sisters Rain and Raven Medici. While Raven has followed in their father's footsteps as a lawyer at the firm Kane & Medici, Rain has built a successful independent career as a professional photographer. The plot kicks off when Dominick Kane, seeking vengeance against his father, orchestrates a kidnapping targeting Raven—but mistakenly abducts Rain instead.
The trilogy must be read in its chronological publication order:
- Miss Taken (2013) – The first book introduces the mistaken identity abduction. As Rain is held by Dominick, the initial hostility and fear between the captor and the captive slowly give way to an intense, complicated, and forbidden bond.
- Identity (2014) – The second installment deals with the direct fallout of the kidnapping. It explores the deep secrets surrounding the Medici and Kane families, testing Rain and Dominick’s fragile connection as danger closes in.
- The Ties That Bind (2016) – The final novel in the trilogy wraps up the overarching suspense plot, bringing resolution to the family conflicts and concluding the emotional redemption arc for Rain and Dominick.
The Wild Roses Spin-Off Series
After completing the main trilogy, readers can progress to the Wild Roses series. This series was designed as a collection of standalone novels focusing on secondary characters introduced during the events of the Miss Taken Identity books. The setting shifts to the scenic New Jersey shore, blending local flavor with heartfelt romance.
- Within Six Months (2018) – This novel focuses on Tommy Conte, a photographer who moves to the beach to renovate an old shore house and start his life anew, setting a personal goal to find the woman he will marry within six months. He crosses paths with his cautious neighbor, Jade Stanton. When circumstances force them into a fake dating arrangement, their simulated relationship quickly sparks genuine feelings. The novel won the 2019 Wisconsin Romance Writers Award.
Other Works and Upcoming Projects
Beyond her primary series, Cleo Scornavacca has worked on several standalone titles and collaborative efforts. These titles are often listed in author biographies and book databases, though they have limited commercial distribution compared to her main novels:
- This Beautiful Escape (2015) – A multi-author charity anthology to which Scornavacca contributed a romance story, with proceeds benefiting Ataxia Awareness in Canada.
- The House on Leighton Avenue – A standalone project listed in databases, exploring romance and mysterious house histories.
- Club Paradise – An upcoming or work-in-progress contemporary romance project announced during her early career.
- The Ghost Writer – A standalone fiction title credited to the author in literary databases.
What to Know Before You Start
Cleo Scornavacca's books are known for their high heat levels, emotional intensity, and heavy use of popular romance tropes, including identical twins, mistaken identity, forced proximity, and fake dating. Her writing balances raw, sometimes dark, emotional struggles with the ultimate hope of healing and redemption. Readers who enjoy gritty contemporary romance with a strong dose of suspense and a New Jersey setting will find her catalog highly engaging.