Eileen Putman

Eileen Putman writes historical romance that combines Regency settings with mystery, mistaken identities, and characters negotiating the rules of rank. King of Hearts opens the Maitland's Rogues series, establishing a connected group whose loyalties and reputations continue across later books. Putman's wider bibliography includes reformulations of fairy-tale patterns, Christmas stories, and stand-alone romances alongside her recurring Regency characters. Her plots often give central women practical problems that cannot be solved by social position alone, while the heroes must reconsider the privileges or assumptions attached to their titles. King of Hearts introduces that approach through courtship complicated by secrecy and competing obligations. As the first Maitland's Rogues novel, it also creates relationships that support the sequence beyond one couple's story. Putman uses period conventions as sources of conflict, allowing questions of inheritance, public reputation, and family duty to shape the choices her characters can make.