Sarah J. Maas Books In Order: The Arguments, Settled
There are eighteen Sarah J. Maas books across three series, and almost every reading-order guide online gives you the same list without telling you the three things readers actually fight about.
Here is the truth: publication order works fine for all three series on their own. The only place order genuinely changes your experience is between two of them, and it is not the one people usually warn you about.
The Reader’s Truth: “A reading order is only worth arguing about when getting it wrong spoils something. For most of these books, it does not.”
Start here: what Maas says
Her own reading guide says you can start with the first book of any of the three series — “begin with whichever Sarah J. Maas series calls to you the most.”
So there is no official wrong door. What follows is about the order within and between the series.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
| # | Title | Published | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Court of Thorns and Roses | May 2015 | ~432 |
| 2 | A Court of Mist and Fury | May 2016 | ~640 |
| 3 | A Court of Wings and Ruin | May 2017 | ~720 |
| 4 | A Court of Frost and Starlight | May 2018 | ~240 |
| 5 | A Court of Silver Flames | February 2021 | ~768 |
| 6 | A Court of Splintered Harmony | 27 October 2026 | 352 |
| 7 | A Court of Forgotten Melody | 12 January 2027 | 896 |
Page counts vary by edition — treat them as a guide to size, not exact figures.
Books 1 to 3 are Feyre’s, in first person. Book 5 moves to Nesta and Cassian, in third person. Book 4 rotates between several characters.
Can you skip book four? This is the most common question about the series and the honest answer is: it is a short, plot-light bridge, and it sets up book five. At roughly 240 pages it is a fraction of the books on either side of it, and reviewers routinely describe it as an extended epilogue to book three rather than a novel in its own right. Bloomsbury does not officially label it a novella.
Skip it and you will follow book five perfectly well. Read it and the Nesta and Cassian shift in book five arrives with more under it. It is ninety minutes either way.
Books 6 and 7 have not been released yet. The point-of-view character for both is unannounced — ignore anyone who tells you otherwise. We have written up what is actually confirmed about them here, including why book 6 is less than half the length of book 7.
Throne of Glass
This is where the real arguments are.
| Publication order | Published |
|---|---|
| Throne of Glass | August 2012 |
| Crown of Midnight | August 2013 |
| The Assassin’s Blade (five novellas) | March 2014 |
| Heir of Fire | September 2014 |
| Queen of Shadows | September 2015 |
| Empire of Storms | September 2016 |
| Tower of Dawn | September 2017 |
| Kingdom of Ash | October 2018 |
Argument one: where does The Assassin’s Blade go?
It is a collection of five novellas set before book one. Maas’s own site calls it a prequel, which is why so many readers put it first.
But her site also lists the series in publication order with The Assassin’s Blade in third place. That is the order the author’s own website presents.
The case for reading it first: you meet Celaena at sixteen and watch events unfold rather than hearing about them.
The case for reading it third: book one is built as a mystery about her past. Read the prequel first and you have answered the question the novel is asking. It also starts slower, which is a hard way into an eight-book series.
Our view, for what it is worth: third, as the author’s site has it. Do not open a series with its own backstory.
Argument two: Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn.
These two books happen at the same time, on different continents, following different characters. Published a year apart, but concurrent in the story.
Three approaches exist:
- Publication order — Empire of Storms, then Tower of Dawn. Simple, and leaves one storyline running a year behind in your head.
- The tandem read — alternating chapters between the two according to a fan-made chart. There are several of these charts circulating and no official one.
- Tower of Dawn first — a minority position.
There is no endorsement from Maas or Bloomsbury for the tandem read. It is a reader invention, which does not make it bad — plenty of people swear by it — but you should know it is not canon.
If this is your first time through: publication order. Do the tandem read on a reread, when you already know where both threads are going and the fun is in watching them line up.
Crescent City
| Title | Published | Pages |
|---|---|---|
| House of Earth and Blood | March 2020 | ~816 |
| House of Sky and Breath | February 2022 | ~816 |
| House of Flame and Shadow | January 2024 | ~848 |
A fourth book is confirmed. No title and no date. Maas said around the 2024 release: “You will have to wait a bit… I know who the book’s about.”
Anyone printing a title for book four is printing a fan guess.
The one place order really matters
Here it is — the thing most guides bury.
Maas has confirmed that all her series share a universe. She told TIME:
“For years and years, I had sprinkled little hints throughout all of my books that they were part of a megaverse.”
The end of House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City 2, 2022) sets the crossover up. House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City 3, 2024) is where it pays off — a character from the Crescent City world spends real time in the ACOTAR world and meets people you will recognise.
What this means in practice: read ACOTAR before House of Flame and Shadow, or a long, deliberately emotional stretch of that book will land on you as a stranger meeting strangers.
It does not mean you need ACOTAR before starting Crescent City at all. Books one and two stand on their own.
And it does not affect Throne of Glass. Despite what you will read on some sites, Throne of Glass characters do not turn up in the crossover.
The whole thing, in order
If you want to read everything, publication order handles the crossover correctly by itself:
| Year | Book | Series |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Throne of Glass | ToG |
| 2013 | Crown of Midnight | ToG |
| 2014 | The Assassin’s Blade | ToG |
| 2014 | Heir of Fire | ToG |
| 2015 | A Court of Thorns and Roses | ACOTAR |
| 2015 | Queen of Shadows | ToG |
| 2016 | A Court of Mist and Fury | ACOTAR |
| 2016 | Empire of Storms | ToG |
| 2017 | A Court of Wings and Ruin | ACOTAR |
| 2017 | Tower of Dawn | ToG |
| 2018 | A Court of Frost and Starlight | ACOTAR |
| 2018 | Kingdom of Ash | ToG |
| 2020 | House of Earth and Blood | Crescent City |
| 2021 | A Court of Silver Flames | ACOTAR |
| 2022 | House of Sky and Breath | Crescent City |
| 2024 | House of Flame and Shadow | Crescent City |
| 2026 | A Court of Splintered Harmony | ACOTAR |
| 2027 | A Court of Forgotten Melody | ACOTAR |
Most people do not read like this, and they do not need to. Finish one series, start the next. The only rule worth keeping is the ACOTAR-before-House of Flame and Shadow one.
The short version
- Eighteen books, three series, all Bloomsbury
- Maas’s own guide: start with whichever series appeals; there is no wrong door
- ACOTAR: read in publication order. Book 4 is a short bridge you can skip without getting lost
- Throne of Glass: read The Assassin’s Blade third, as the author’s site lists it, not first
- Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn happen simultaneously. Publication order first time; tandem read on a reread. No official tandem chart exists
- Crescent City: three books out, a fourth confirmed with no title or date
- The one rule that matters: read ACOTAR before House of Flame and Shadow
- Throne of Glass is not part of the crossover, whatever you have read elsewhere
Which order did you actually read them in — and did anything get spoiled? The Assassin’s Blade question is the one I have changed my mind about twice.
Sources: Sarah J. Maas reading guide · Throne of Glass series on the author’s site · The Assassin’s Blade · A Court of Thorns and Roses — Wikipedia · Throne of Glass — Wikipedia · Crescent City — Wikipedia · Maas on the megaverse — TIME · Maas on Crescent City book four — TODAY · A Court of Splintered Harmony at Bookshop.org
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