House Of Night Reading Order

The House of Night series is messy if you don't get the order right

I picked up these books in high school without really thinking about it. Bought the wrong ones first, got confused midway, ended up rereading sections because the timeline didn't make sense. You'll probably do the same thing if you just grab whatever paperback is cheapest at a thrift store. Here's the actual reading order for the main series, which is what matters most:

House Of Night Reading Order

1. Blessed (2007) 2. Betrayed (2007) 3. Chased (2008)

4. Hunted (2008) 5. Tempted (2009) 6. Hidden (2009)

7. Untamed (2010) 8. Unbroken (2010) 9. Unmade (2011)

10. Unleashed (2012) That's the core Neve Stark arc. Ten books, straightforward chronological progression. What people don't always catch is that there are additional titles that aren't part of this sequence but exist in the same universe. The companion novels that come after the main series are Exiled, Awakened, and Revealed. These focus on different characters — primarily Kalona and Nyx's storyline. They're optional but they fill in gaps that bother people who finish the main ten and immediately want more.

There are also the Talon novella collection and the Marked short story anthologies. These are scattered inserts. The Talon one works best read after Unmade. The short stories are fine whenever but some reference events from specific main-series books, so reading them out of order creates confusion about which character perspective you're getting. Here's where it gets tricky. A lot of readers try to start with Marked because it's the prequel novella that shows Zoey's early days. It was written before Blessed and literally comes first chronologically in-universe. But it's written from a different POV, with a different tone, and it doesn't set up the world the way Blessed does. I skipped it at first and started with Blessed. Came back to Marked later and it actually enhanced my understanding of certain plot beats. If you're new to the series, just start with Blessed. Don't overthink it. The edge case nobody warns you about: Lost. This was supposed to be the eleventh book in the main series but it was cancelled mid-production. It's not available. Don't waste time looking for it. There are rumors online about it being found or published independently, but those are all false. The main series simply ends at Unleashed, and then you move into the companion books.

Another practical note: the books were originally published with different cover art across regions. The US editions and UK editions look completely different. Don't confuse the two. Some UK releases renamed books slightly or combined editions. Check the publication year, not the cover. The series isn't great literary fiction. The prose is functional, the romantic subplots drag, and the worldbuilding is thin. But it's consistent enough that finishing all ten books in order gives you a coherent arc. Reading them out of order breaks that. Character relationships that develop slowly across multiple books feel unearned if you jump in at book six. If you want to know where each book stands on availability: Blessed through Unleashed are all in print and widely available in paperback. The companion novels have had inconsistent reprints — Exiled is easy to find, Awakened and Revealed sometimes go out of stock. Used copies work fine for these. The content doesn't change between editions.