Zodiac Academy Reading Order: Every Book, Novella & What’s Next (2026)
Zodiac Academy reading order is the question every new reader asks about ten chapters into The Awakening, because Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti never stopped at nine books. There are prequel novellas, an alternate-POV retelling, a companion volume meant to be read in tandem with book eight, a bonus-story collection, three spin-off series set in the same world and, this November, an illustrated Christmas book that picks up after the finale. Below is every Zodiac Academy book in order with a spoiler-free hook, two reading paths (straight through, or the full Solaria timeline), the heat curve, where the why-choose spin-offs fit and what’s coming in 2026 and 2027.
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Zodiac Academy Reading Order: Where to Start
Start with Zodiac Academy: The Awakening. Skip the prequel novella on a first read; it lands harder once you know the Heirs. Twins Tory and Darcy Vega grow up as mortals with no idea they are Fae, the lost daughters of the Savage King and the rightful heirs to the throne of Solaria. They are shipped to Zodiac Academy, where your star sign decides your elemental magic, vampires bite weaker students in the hallways, werewolves hold full-moon gatherings in the Wailing Wood and the four Celestial Heirs, led by dragon shifter Darius Acrux, have been raised to rule in their place and intend to make the twins’ lives miserable until they leave. Darcy’s Cardinal Magic teacher, Lance Orion, is the other problem.
Two things to know before you commit. First, this is a bully romance with real teeth: the Heirs are cruel on purpose for a long stretch, the detentions are traumatic and the series stays dark. Second, the main series is not why choose. Each twin gets one love interest. The reverse-harem books are the spin-offs, Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac and Darkmore Penitentiary, and they are covered below. If bully dynamics are your thing, our books like Bully list is the natural next shelf.
The Zodiac Academy Main Series in Order
- The Awakening (2019, Book 1): the twins learn what they are, enroll at the academy and meet the Heirs. Tension, hazing and a teacher who should be off limits. Mild heat: one hookup, no full scene yet.
- Ruthless Fae (2019, Book 2): the Heirs escalate, the twins start fighting back and the politics of Solaria get a face: Lionel Acrux, Darius’s father. This is also where the first full on-page scene lands.
- The Reckoning (Book 3): the book where the hate starts to crack. Longer, darker and the first real turn toward romance for both twins.
- Shadow Princess (2020, Book 4): the shadows arrive, the stakes go from school to kingdom and the heat reaches its full level.
- Cursed Fates (2020, Book 5): fate, the actual force, starts taking sides, and the twins learn what it costs to want someone the stars disagree with.
- Fated Throne (2020, Book 6): the fight for the throne becomes a war, and the cliffhanger is one of the most infamous in the genre.
- Heartless Sky (2021, Book 7): the fallout book, with the cast scattered after Fated Throne’s cliffhanger and the romance tested hardest here.
- Sorrow and Starlight (2022, Book 8): a doorstopper that sets up the ending, designed to be read in tandem with Beyond The Veil (below).
- Restless Stars (2024, Book 9): the finale. Every bargain, prophecy and Heir pays off.
Expect cliffhangers on nearly every book, multiple POVs (the twins plus the Heirs and Orion as the series goes on) and page counts that climb well past 800 by the end. Heat builds gradually: mild in The Awakening, a first full scene in Ruthless Fae, more open in The Reckoning and 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ explicit from Shadow Princess onward, with possessive Fae instincts and very little fade to black. Our Zodiac Academy spicy chapters guide breaks the heat down book by book.
The Novellas, Companions and Bonus Books
- Origins of an Academy Bully (Book 0.5): a prequel novella about the Heirs before the twins arrive. Best read after Shadow Princess, when you have met everyone it is about.
- The Awakening As Told By The Boys (2021, Book 1.5): the first book retold from the Heirs’ point of view. It recontextualizes a lot of the cruelty, and it is spicier than the original.
- The Big A.S.S. Party (2020, Book 5.5): a party novella slotted between Cursed Fates and Fated Throne. Pure fan service, and the fans are right.
- Beyond The Veil (2023, Book 8.5): the companion volume to Sorrow and Starlight, covering what happens on the other side of the veil while book eight unfolds. Fan guides provide a chapter-by-chapter tandem order; reading both together is the intended experience.
- Live and Let Lionel (2024, Book 8.6): a collection of bonus stories and shorts. Most of the scattered extras from over the years (Seth on the Moon and the other shorts) live here now, so you do not need to hunt them down individually.
- On the Cursed Day of Christmas (November 10, 2026, Book 10): a fully illustrated hardback advent-calendar book set after Restless Stars. A box of hexed ornaments turns up in Solaria over the holidays, each one sealing a malicious entity a Vega monarch locked away centuries ago, and the 24 chapters sit behind perforated pages, one to open each day before Christmas. Illustrated endpapers, character art and mock social-media posts round it out.
Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac in Order (Prequel, Why Choose)
Set five years before the twins arrive, at Aurora Academy, this is the reverse-harem corner of Solaria: Elise Callisto, a vampire, and the four dark shifter boys who run her school. It is the series to read if you came to Zodiac Academy from the why-choose shelf, and most reading guides slot it after The Reckoning. It stands alone if you would rather not interrupt the twins. All five were published between 2019 and 2021, and new print editions of the first three are scheduled for November 2026 and January 2027.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ explicit, with group scenes. Our why choose and RH romantasy guide has more in this lane.
Darkmore Penitentiary in Order (Sequel, Why Choose)
Five years after the main series, Rosalie Oscura is sent to Darkmore Penitentiary, the prison for Solaria’s most dangerous Fae, and ends up at the center of a pack of alpha wolves. It is a reverse harem, it is the darkest of the spin-offs in tone and it contains spoilers for the main series, so finish Restless Stars first.
- Caged Wolf (2020)
- Alpha Wolf (2020)
- Feral Wolf (2021)
- Wild Wolf (2024)
Sins of the Zodiac in Order (New Cast, Same World)
The current series. Same world, new cast, and a much more brutal setup: the Fae are divided into four warring elemental nations, every Fae must attend Never Keep at twenty-one to awaken their power, the dragons have gone missing and the Reapers hold too much of it. Everest Arcadia, an outcast water Fae, and Vesper, a feared weapon, are the leads, and the romance is enemies to lovers in the hardest sense. It is pitched as a standalone entry point, so you can start here without the nine-book commitment, though long-time readers will catch the references.
- Never Keep (2024)
- Echo Fort (2025): a burning sky, Reapers with secrets and vampires in the wastes, as the heroine starts to suspect the war is not about winning.
- Cinder Vale (March 31, 2026): she has the destiny she wanted and is starting to doubt it, and the man she should hate is still in the way.
- Oracle Bay (2027): book four, listed for 2027 and available to pre-order.
Two Ways to Read Zodiac Academy
The straight path (first-time readers): The Awakening, Ruthless Fae, The Reckoning, Shadow Princess, Origins of an Academy Bully, The Awakening As Told By The Boys, Cursed Fates, The Big A.S.S. Party, Fated Throne, Heartless Sky, Sorrow and Starlight with Beyond The Veil in tandem, Live and Let Lionel, Restless Stars, then On the Cursed Day of Christmas. Spin-offs afterward.
The full Solaria timeline (re-readers and completists): The Awakening, Ruthless Fae, The Reckoning, then all five Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac books, then Zodiac Academy 4 through 9 with the novellas in place, then Darkmore Penitentiary 1 through 4, then Sins of the Zodiac. Most fan reading guides land on roughly this order. The one rule everyone agrees on: do not mix Sins of the Zodiac into a first read.
All Zodiac Academy Books in Publication Order
- The Awakening (2019)
- Ruthless Fae (2019)
- The Reckoning
- Dark Fae, Savage Fae, Vicious Fae, Broken Fae, Warrior Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, 2019 to 2021)
- Shadow Princess (2020)
- Origins of an Academy Bully (2020, novella)
- Cursed Fates (2020)
- The Big A.S.S. Party (2020, novella)
- Caged Wolf and Alpha Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary, 2020)
- Fated Throne (2020)
- The Awakening As Told By The Boys (2021)
- Feral Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary, 2021)
- Heartless Sky (2021)
- Sorrow and Starlight (2022)
- Beyond The Veil (2023)
- Restless Stars (2024)
- Live and Let Lionel (2024)
- Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary, 2024)
- Never Keep (Sins of the Zodiac, 2024)
- Echo Fort (Sins of the Zodiac, 2025)
- Cinder Vale (Sins of the Zodiac, 2026)
- On the Cursed Day of Christmas (November 2026)
- Oracle Bay (Sins of the Zodiac, 2027)
What’s Next for Zodiac Academy
The 2026 calendar is full. Cinder Vale landed in March, On the Cursed Day of Christmas ships November 10 as a 388-page illustrated hardback, new print editions of Dark Fae and Savage Fae follow in late November and Oracle Bay is set for 2027. Peckham and Valenti have also launched a separate dark romantasy line, Crown of Hearts and Chaos, which opened with Hollow in November 2025 and continues with Lightwing in 2026; the publisher does not tie it to Solaria, so treat it as a new world rather than a spin-off. As of October 2026 we could find no announced film or TV adaptation of Zodiac Academy. If you are between books, our Sarah J. Maas reading order and Rebecca Yarros reading order cover the other two series this fandom lives in.
See On the Cursed Day of Christmas on Amazon →
Read Next: Hotter Picks From Fractal Enigma
Zodiac Academy readers want the forbidden teacher, the pack that shares, the heroine who refuses to be broken and a world with magic in it. These Fractal Enigma reads hit those notes at full Inferno heat.
Breaking Ground — Isla Wilde
Elena Vance is forty-six, freshly divorced and standing in a house that was always her ex-husband’s. She hires three men, Jackson, Tank and Leo, to tear out his rose garden, and they take the rest of her careful life apart with it. A reverse harem for readers who came to Solaria for the Ruthless Boys and want the she-keeps-them-all ending with none of the fade to black. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Reverse Harem, Age Gap (Older Woman), Blue Collar Heroes, Praise Kink, Power Exchange, Revenge Romance
Start reading Breaking Ground →
Office Hours, After Dark — Jace Wilder
Aiden Cho is a first-year PhD student with an anonymous praise-kink blog and a growing obsession with his new professor. Dr. Marcus Hale is the most demanding man on campus, and he recognizes himself in every post. The Darcy-and-Orion forbidden-teacher dynamic with the door wide open, in a dark academia MM romance built on consent, a safeword and a red pen.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Professor x Student, Age Gap, Dark Academia, Praise Kink, D/s Dynamic, Forbidden Romance, Secret Relationship
Start reading Office Hours, After Dark →
Room for Three — Isla Wilde
Lena Hart is thirty-one, broke and nine days from homeless when her college crush Beckett offers her the spare room in his Brooklyn apartment. The catch is his roommate Andre, quiet and impossibly steady, who makes her feel things she was not prepared to negotiate. An MFM why choose where both men fall first, for readers who want the Darkmore pack energy in a contemporary apartment with one bed.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Why Choose, Roommates to Lovers, Forced Proximity, One Bed, He Falls First, Found Family
Start reading Room for Three →
The Coven’s Last Human — Maeve Hollow
Every thirty years, a too-kind Vermont town keeps one woman. This year it chose Anya Serrano, an investigative reporter hunting a missing friend with a recorder that never stops running, and the witch who has ruled the town for 390 years has been waiting a long time to be asked. A sapphic paranormal romance with real magic and a heroine who does not scare, for readers who liked Solaria’s witches more than its dragons.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Witch x Reporter, Immortal x Mortal, Ice Queen, Gothic, Forced Proximity, Power Exchange
Start reading The Coven’s Last Human →
FAQ: Zodiac Academy Reading Order
Do you need to read Zodiac Academy in order?
Yes. The nine main books are one continuous story with cliffhangers between nearly every volume, and the novellas assume you know the cast. The spin-offs are the exception: Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac and Sins of the Zodiac can each be read on their own, while Darkmore Penitentiary spoils the main series and should wait.
Which Zodiac Academy book should I read first?
The Awakening. Save Origins of an Academy Bully until after Shadow Princess, and read The Awakening As Told By The Boys once you have met the Heirs properly.
How spicy is Zodiac Academy?
It builds. The Awakening is mild, Ruthless Fae has the first full explicit scene, The Reckoning opens things up and the series runs 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ from Shadow Princess on, with the Boys retelling and the two reverse-harem spin-offs hotter still. Our romance spice levels guide explains the scale; every Fractal Enigma pick above is Inferno.
Is Zodiac Academy why choose?
The main series is not; each twin has one love interest. Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac (one heroine, four shifters) and Darkmore Penitentiary (one heroine, a wolf pack) are the why-choose series in the same world.
Is there a Zodiac Academy TV show or movie?
Not that has been announced. As of October 2026 the news is all on the page: Cinder Vale, the Christmas book in November and Oracle Bay in 2027.
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