If you’ve been looking forward to reading Alex Aster’s Lightlark series in order, here’s a guide to help you through it!
You know a series is special when fans continue to discuss it months or even years after finishing the last page. That’s the kind of staying power Alex Aster’s Lightlark Saga has built!
The author burst into the young adult fantasy scene with her viral TikTok pitch for Lightlark, and the rest—like that island—somehow felt inevitable. By pairing regal world-building with dark romance and lavishly dangerous magic, she captured hearts fast. Aster’s debut Lightlark arrived in 2022 with a massive first print run and rocketed onto the bestseller list.
Sequels followed each year, with Nightbane in 2023 and Skyshade in 2024. The saga is only getting bigger, with Crowntide on track for a December 2025 release.
The series has become so popular that its movie adaptation has also been announced. While it’s in early stages of production, it’s currently in development, and there’s hope that we will see the books come to life on the big screen!
While the author is primarily known for her YA fantasy series, she has also written other books. She released her adult debut, Summer in the City, in March 2025, and it debuted on the NYT’s Best Seller charts for both print and ebook. Aster’s versatility from YA fantasy to swoony romances is part of what keeps her fans glued to her next move.
But in this article, we are going to stick to her Lightlark series and see exactly how you can read them in proper order to get the most out of the story!
Lightlark Books Reading Order:
Alex Aster’s Lightlark series is straightforward, with the correct order to read the books also being the publication order.
Alex Aster’s Lightlark Series in Order:
1. Lightlark (2022)
Welcome to the Centennial.
Every hundred years, the island of Lightlark appears for only 100 days to host a deadly game, where the rulers of six realms fight to break their curses and win unparalleled power. Each ruler has something to hide. Each curse is uniquely wicked. To break them—and save themselves and their realms—one ruler must die.
To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, and betray even as love complicates everything!
2. Nightbane (2023)
Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers.
Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself struggling to win respect as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned.
As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart.
3. Skyshade (2024)
Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future—and the fate of the world—now hinges on a heart split in two.
Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king.
As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy and change her heartrending fate. But a storm is coming. And with it, a long-buried evil greater than anything the realms have faced before.
With the clock ticking on her destiny and the survival of two warring kingdoms hinging on her own shattered heart, Isla Crown will either save the world—or destroy it.
3.5. Grim and Oro (September 2025)
This edition contains brand-new romantasy novellas bound into one deluxe, novel-length volume written from the perspectives of Grim and Oro.
The first novella is told from Grim’s point of view. It provides readers with insight into his past, including the motivations and events that shaped his fate as Isla’s eventual love interest.
The second is narrated by Oro and offers a window into his complex identity: that of a king torn between desire for justice and passion for the woman he loves more than anything.
4. Crowntide (December 2025)
Isla Crown has charted a new destiny and leapt into the unknown, determined to defeat her insidious ancestor, Lark, no matter the cost. But Skyshade is nothing like she anticipated, and she’ll have to use all of her skills to survive, let alone end Lark for good.
Meanwhile, Grim and Oro would sooner set fire to their own kingdoms than leave Isla stranded on a path toward certain death. But getting her back will involve forging an alliance—if they can find a way to forgive their long history of betrayals.
The key to Isla’s return—and the fate of the realms—lies close to her heart. But in the face of her most powerful enemy yet, will Isla be able to reconcile her past in order to carve a future of her own making?
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