The reading order for Sarah J. Maas's fantasy series is messier than it should be.
There are multiple series involved, and they don't all fit neatly into a single timeline. The main Throne of Glass series comes first, then there are spin-offs and sequels that complicate things. I've watched people get tripped up by this repeatedly because they assume it's just one line of books. Start with the main Throne of Glass series. These eight books need to be read in order: 1. Throne of Glass (2012)
2. Crown of Midnight (2013) 3. Heir of Fire (2014) 4. Queen of Shadows (2015)
5. Revolution (2016) 6. King of Thriving (2017) 7. Kingdom of Ash (2018)
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8. A Court of Wings and Ruin — actually this is ACOTAR, different series entirely Wait, I need to correct myself there. King of Midnight is book 6, not the last one. The final main series book is Kingdom of Ash. After that you have two standalone novellas called Assassin and the Desert King and The Tortured Prince and His Enemy, which work as epilogues to the main series but can be read immediately after. Then there's the Crescent City series, which is technically a separate universe but shares author and similar romantic fantasy tropes. If you want that too, read it separately: House of Earth and Blood comes first, then House of Sky and Breath, and the third book came out in 2024.
I once tried to read A Court of Thorns and Roses before Throne of Glass because I'd heard it was good. That was a mistake. The magic systems, tone, and protagonist voice are completely different. You'll feel disoriented. Stick with Throne of Glass first unless you specifically want ACOTAR as your entry point. Some people ask about cross-series connections. There aren't really any meaningful ones. Maas wrote Throne of Glass independently of ACOTAR, and Crescent City came later. Any thematic parallels are just because she writes the same way across projects. If you're watching for ebook or paperback editions, the numbering stays consistent across formats. The only tricky bit is that some international releases have different cover art and occasionally shifted subtitle phrasing, but the book order remains the same. Just check the series number printed on the spine or title page if you're confused about which edition is which.
