I love this series. I had read this book on my kindle but was offered this audio version and couldn’t resist listening to it. I enjoyed the narrator Joel Froomkin very much. His voice is wonderful for bringing this series to life. This is the first in the series of books. But as I have read this series out of order I think you can read it too. Yes, the books do follow events in the life of both John Picket and Lady Julia and their lives as they come together but I didn’t find it at all confusing to read them out of order.