If you’ve ever come across even just one BookTok video, then chances are you have heard the name Sarah J. Maas or that of one of the characters from her incredibly popular books. And if you’re a permanent resident of the bookish side of TikTok, well, then the author who undeniably rules supreme over it and the whole romantasy genre is definitely well known to you.
Still, let’s have a quick rundown anyway. Sarah J. Maas is an American author who has published more than fifteen books spanning three very beloved series—who are all interconnected in what has become known as the “Maasiverse”. While all firmly within the romantasy literary genre—that is books with a fantasy setting that still mainly revolve around a romance—each one of Maas’s three series has its own subcategory, with Throne of Glass being more in the vein of high fantasy, A Court of Thorns and Roses being the most “purely” romantasy one and Crescent City veering into urban fantasy.
As a longtime fantasy reader, I of course picked up Maas’ books too—and after having read all of them, I can safely say that while they are undoubtedly entertaining and incredible page-turners, they’re not exactly my cup of tea. But that is my opinion and you should definitely form yours, which is where this handy guide comes in.
Diving into such an established fandom as the Maasiverse and with so much canon material to catch up on might seem disorienting at first, so here’s a reading guide to best start your journey across the courts of Prythian, the lands of Erilea and Wendlyn, and the neighborhoods of Lunathion.
A final note before we start—this guide includes all books of the Maasiverse but leaves out Maas’s 2018 novel Catwoman: Soulstealer, which is part of the DC Icons series, as well as the various companion books to the three series’s main novels.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
The A Court of Thorns and Roses series, currently consisting of four main novels and one novella, is probably the most popular of Maas’ series—and let’s be honest, there are probably three impossibly handsome bat boys to credit for it. If you know, you know.
The story follows Feyre Archeron, a nineteen-year-old human girl who gets swept away to the fae lands of Prythian, divided into courts ruled by high lords who are all under a terrible curse by the time the story starts. The plot expands book after book, including new characters and new locations, beyond the initial antagonist of A Court of Thorns and Roses. The first three novels in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, and A Court of Wings and Ruin all have one over-arching plot, with the novella A Court of Frost and Starlight coming in as a sort of coda to the events of those three books.
The last novel to be published, A Court of Silver Flames, actually begins a whole new storyline and follows Feyre’s eldest sister Nesta—and considering there’s also a middle sister, Elain, it’s safe to say that she will get her own book sooner or later.
The ACOTAR books are probably the easiest ones to start with, especially if you’re not usually a fantasy reader. While the setting is fantasy—no doubt about that—the story mostly focuses on the characters and their relationships rather than the honestly very easy-to-follow war plot. Plus, if you enjoy some explicit content in your romance novels then ACOTAR is the perfect example of Maas-typical spice—so much so that one of the chapters where it happens has become a meme unto itself.
Throne of Glass
Now, if you are already used to reading fantasy novels then you might also want to start from the Throne of Glass series—even though the worldbuilding isn’t particularly complicated and you’ll definitely start to get your bearings after you’re a few chapters into the first novel.
The Throne of Glass series consists of seven books—Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn, and Kingdom of Ash—plus one collection of novellas, The Assassin’s Blade. The story follows the eighteen-year-old assassin with a mysterious past Celaena Sardothien, who is later revealed to actually be Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, aka a pretty key figure for the future of the continent of Erilea—which is currently threatened by a horde of otherworldly demons that are very close to completely sweeping it with darkness.
TOG was the first series that Maas ever published, and so it’s the one that established a lot of tropes that have by now become staples of her novels. It’s also what solidified her writing style, which has left its mark in the romantasy genre as a whole. Still, seven books might look a bit daunting at first so by coming to TOG after ACOTAR you’ll already be familiar with Mass’ style of writing and the way her books flow, and you might find some familiar landmarks even in such a long series. But you might also want to alternate between the two if you feel like switching up between genres, which is also what happened for those who read both series as they were coming out.
It’s also important to note that, without spoiling too much, Kingdom of Ash is where you start getting an inkling that the books might all be connected to one another across different series. So if you decide to alternate between the two series I would recommend planning it in a way so that you hit Kingdom of Ash by the time you’ve already read A Court of Frost and Starlight—and maybe even A Court of Silver Flames.
Then again, Kingdom of Ash came out almost three years before A Court of Silver Flames so you’ll definitely still enjoy both books even if you prefer to read each series from start to finish before moving on to the next one.
Crescent City
The latest series that Maas has published is Crescent City, which currently consists of three novels—House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, and House of Flame and Shadow—the latest of which came out at the beginning of 2024.
Veering off from what she did in both TOG and ACOTAR, Maas gave the novels of the Crescent City series a distinct urban fantasy flavor—the characters are still fae and mermaids and witches and all kinds of fantastical creatures, but they live in a modern metropolis where they order takeaway pizza, go clubbing at night, and exchange texts on their smartphones.
The main character of this new series is Bryce Quinlan, who is half-human and half-fae, as she embarks on an investigation to find out who caused the gruesome death of her best friend, werewolf Danika Fender. She does so by partnering up with Hunt, a centuries-old warrior angel. As their investigation continues they become more and more entangled with their world’s secrets—discovering the cruel nature of their rulers and the plans for rebellion that are of course already in place.
Perhaps most importantly, though, they also slowly but surely become closer and closer—nothing like a good buddy cop moment to inspire romance. While TOG had its spice moments it wasn’t nearly as explicit as ACOTAR, Crescent City brings it all back with a vengeance so that’s also something to keep in mind as you pick up these books.
Without spoiling too much, you definitely need to have read ACOTAR to fully enjoy all three novels of Crescent City. While I’m obviously not in her head, I would suppose that Maas kind of relies on Crescent City readers being already familiar with the world and characters of ACOTAR as they start reading the story of Bryce, Hunt, and friends.
It’s not as necessary to have also read Throne of Glass, I would say, at least as of now—even though several ACOTAR and Crescent City readers embarked on a reading marathon of the seven TOG novels plus one in the months between House of Sky and Breath and House of Flame and Shadow to have all their bases covered before the release of the next installment of the Maasiverse. I still think it’s better to have read both ACOTAR and TOG before picking up Crescent City—mostly because it’s very nice to see that first tiny clue in Kingdom of Ash come to full fruition and spark the birth of the Maasiverse through Bryce’s eyes.
You can, of course, also read Maas’s books in the order they were published:
- Throne of Glass (2012)
- Crown of Midnight (2013)
- The Assassin’s Blade (2014)
- Heir of Fire (2014)
- A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015)
- Queen of Shadows (2015)
- A Court of Mist and Fury (2016)
- Empire of Storms (2016)
- A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017)
- Tower of Dawn (2017)
- A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018)
- Kingdom of Ash (2018)
- House of Earth and Blood (2020)
- A Court of Silver Flames (2021)
- House of Sky and Breath (2022)
- House of Flame and Shadow (2024)
(featured image: Bloomsbury)
