Author Guide · Romantasy & Romance
Books Written by
In its first week on sale in January 2025, Onyx Storm sold more than 2.7 million copies, which the New York Times reported as the fastest start for an adult novel in twenty years. Its author had been publishing for almost a decade before that. Rebecca Yarros, born in Washington, D.C., in 1981, began writing while her husband was deployed to Afghanistan, and her early romances are full of soldiers, pilots and military families. Then in 2023 came Fourth Wing, a dragon-rider fantasy set in a brutal war college, whose heroine, like Yarros, lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. This guide covers her nine key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 key books · 2019–2026 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Rebecca Yarros has written more than twenty novels. She is best known for the Empyrean series: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025), with a story collection, Threshing Day (2026). Her other key books are the romances The Last Letter (2019), The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021), In the Likely Event (2023) and Variation (2024). Start with Fourth Wing; for her contemporary work, start with The Things We Leave Unfinished.
Where to Start with Rebecca Yarros
If you want the book everyone talks about
→ Fourth Wing (2023) — the first Empyrean novel.
If you want a dual-timeline love story
→ The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021) — a present-day romance wrapped around a Second World War one.
If you want military romance
→ The Last Letter (2019) — the novel that Kirkus named one of the best books of 2019.
If you want her newest contemporary novel
→ Variation (2024) — a ballerina, a rescue swimmer and a family secret.
9 Rebecca Yarros Books, in Order
The Last Letter
Before he dies, the soldier Ryan writes a letter asking his best friend Beckett to leave the army and go to Telluride, Colorado, to look after his sister Ella, who is raising twins on her own and has already lost her grandmother and parents. Beckett narrates. Published by Entangled, it was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ best books of 2019.
Great and Precious Things
Camden Daniels comes home from war without his younger brother. The town of Alba, Colorado, and above all his father, will not forgive him, so he leaves. Years later a message from his father brings him back, to Willow, the woman he loves and cannot have, and to secrets the town would rather keep buried.
The Things We Leave Unfinished
Georgia Stanton wants to see her late grandmother Scarlett’s last novel finished, and has to work with Noah Harrison, a bestselling author she dislikes on sight. Through Scarlett’s papers they uncover her own love story with Jameson, a pilot in the Second World War, which may not end happily. The novel moves between the present day and the war years.
Fourth Wing
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail has trained to be a scribe, but her mother, the commanding general, orders her into the riders’ quadrant of Basgiath War College, where cadets bond with dragons or die trying. Among her enemies is Xaden Riorson, son of an executed rebel leader. Violet’s chronic illness draws on Yarros’s own Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Published by Entangled’s new Red Tower Books imprint, it won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for romantasy and the 2024 Alex Award, and had spent 65 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list by August 2024.
In the Likely Event
Izzy Astor and Nate Phelan meet on a crowded holiday flight home; ninety seconds after takeoff the plane goes down in the Missouri River. Over the following years, as she goes into politics and he into the military, they keep crossing paths at the wrong moment, until Nate is assigned to protect Izzy in Afghanistan. Published by Montlake, it was nominated for the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for romance.
Iron Flame
The sequel to Fourth Wing, published six months later: Violet’s second year at Basgiath, after the discoveries at the end of the first book have changed what she knows about Navarre and the war. It won the 2024 Dragon Award for fantasy and was shortlisted for Fiction Book of the Year at the 2024 British Book Awards; Waterstones’ special edition sold out in seven hours.
Variation
Allie Rousseau is an elite ballerina whose career is put at risk by an injury. She goes back to her family’s summer home to recover, under the eye of a mother who expects perfection, and runs into Hudson Ellis, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer from her past whose niece is searching for her birth mother. Family secrets connect them. Published by Montlake.
Onyx Storm
The third Empyrean novel, in which the war Violet and her friends uncovered at Basgiath widens beyond Navarre and its neighbour. It sold more than 2.7 million copies in its first week, which the New York Times called the fastest start for an adult novel in twenty years, and won the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for romantasy.
Threshing Day
Thirteen stories set on Threshing Day, when Basgiath cadets bond with their dragons for life, told by characters other than Violet; one is Xaden’s. It is a companion collection, not the fourth novel, which Yarros says she is still writing. The deluxe first edition has sixteen colour illustrations by Joe Requeza.
In What Order to Read Rebecca Yarros
The Empyrean books must be read in order: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), Onyx Storm (2025). Yarros has said the series will run to five novels. Threshing Day (2026) is a companion collection; you can read it any time after Fourth Wing, and you do not need it for the next novel.
Her contemporary novels since 2019 are standalones and can be read in any order. Her earlier books come in short series, such as Flight & Glory and the Renegades, which are best read from the first volume.
A reading path
1. Fourth Wing (2023)
2. Iron Flame (2023)
3. Onyx Storm (2025)
4. The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021)
5. The Last Letter (2019)
Everything Else Rebecca Yarros Published
Beyond the 9 key books: 16 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Flight & Glory
5
5 books · 2014–2020
- 2014Full Measuresher debut; nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for debut author
- 2014Eyes Turned Skyward
- 2015Beyond What Is Given
- 2016Hallowed Ground
- 2020The Reality of Everything
Other novels
8
8 books · 2016–2022
- 2016Point of Origin
- 2016Ignite
- 2016Against All Oddspart of the multi-author Love in the ’80s series
- 2019Girl in Luvwith Jay Crownover
- 2019Boy in Luvwith Jay Crownover
- 2020Muses & Melodiespart of the Hush Note trilogy
- 2022A Little Too Closepart of the Madigan Mountain series
- 2022Reason to Believe
The years · 1981–2026
Quick facts about Rebecca Yarros
- Known for
- The Empyrean series of dragon-rider fantasy romances, beginning with Fourth Wing (2023), which made her one of the best-selling novelists of the decade.
- 1981
- Born in Washington, D.C.
- 2023
- Fourth Wing
- 2026
- Threshing Day
- Born
- 13 April 1981, Washington, D.C., United States
- Education
- Troy University (European history and English)
- Publishers
- Entangled and its Red Tower Books imprint; Montlake
- Honours
- Goodreads Choice Award for romantasy (2023, 2025); Alex Award (2024); British Book Awards Page-turner of the Year (2024)
- Family
- Married to Jason; six children, four sons and an adopted daughter among them
- Nonprofit
- Co-founded OneOctober (2019), for children in foster care
The red mark is 2023: Fourth Wing, the first Empyrean novel.
How Rebecca Yarros Writes: Soldiers, Dragons and Bodies That Break
Yarros’s fiction keeps returning to the military. She began writing while her husband was deployed to Afghanistan, and her romances are full of soldiers, pilots and the people who wait for them: a letter from a dead soldier in The Last Letter, a veteran coming home in Great and Precious Things, a Second World War pilot in The Things We Leave Unfinished, a security posting in Afghanistan in In the Likely Event. Fourth Wing moves that world into fantasy: a war college with a death rate, a chain of command, and a war the cadets are not told the truth about.
Her heroines are often physically vulnerable. Violet Sorrengail has a condition modelled on Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which Yarros and her sons have; in Variation an injury threatens a ballerina’s career. Yarros has said she wanted to write a chronically ill heroine because you rarely see one on the bestseller lists, and in the Empyrean books the illness shapes how Violet trains, fights and gets through each day.
The books are built on romance tropes and cliffhangers. In an NPR conversation at the 2024 National Book Festival she said she set out to plot an enemies-to-lovers story when she started Fourth Wing; each Empyrean volume ends on a reveal that sets up the next. Her contemporary novels often use two timelines or a long gap, so that a love story is told across years rather than weeks.
Watch
Rebecca Yarros in conversation with NPR
At the 2024 National Book Festival, NPR’s Emily Kwong talks with Yarros about tropes, writing with chronic illness and Fourth Wing.
Frequently asked questions about Rebecca Yarros’s books
How many books has Rebecca Yarros written?
More than twenty novels: about twenty contemporary and military romances published since 2014, three Empyrean novels and the companion collection Threshing Day (2026). Nine are the key books on this page.
What are Rebecca Yarros’s books in order?
The key books are The Last Letter (2019), Great and Precious Things (2020), The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021), Fourth Wing (2023), In the Likely Event (2023), Iron Flame (2023), Variation (2024), Onyx Storm (2025) and Threshing Day (2026). Her first novel was Full Measures (2014).
Where should I start with Rebecca Yarros?
With Fourth Wing (2023), the first Empyrean novel. If you prefer contemporary romance without dragons, start with The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021) or The Last Letter (2019).
What is Rebecca Yarros’s most famous book?
Fourth Wing (2023). It won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for romantasy and had spent 65 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list by August 2024. Its sequel Onyx Storm sold more than 2.7 million copies in its first week.
What order should I read the Empyrean series in?
Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), then Onyx Storm (2025). Threshing Day (2026) is a collection of thirteen stories that can be read after Fourth Wing. Yarros has said the series will have five novels; the fourth has no title or date yet.
Is Violet’s illness in Fourth Wing based on Rebecca Yarros’s own?
Yes. Yarros has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of inherited disorders of the connective tissue, and so do her sons. She has said she wanted to write such a heroine because readers rarely see one on the bestseller lists.
Is Fourth Wing being made into a TV series?
Yes, in development. In October 2023 Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan’s company Outlier Society acquired the rights to adapt the series for television, with Yarros as a non-writing executive producer.
What is romantasy?
A mix of fantasy and romance in which the love story carries as much weight as the quest or the war. The Goodreads Choice Awards have a romantasy category, which Fourth Wing won in 2023 and Onyx Storm in 2025.
Has Rebecca Yarros been accused of plagiarism?
In January 2025 the sisters Lesley and Lindsey Aldrich, who write as Liz Ald, filed a copyright lawsuit against Yarros in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. They alleged that the Empyrean series took the basis, themes and material of five novels they had posted on Wattpad. A lawsuit is an allegation, not a ruling.
Who publishes Rebecca Yarros?
The Empyrean books are published by Red Tower Books, a romantic fantasy and science fiction imprint that Entangled Publishing announced in 2022; Fourth Wing was among its first titles in 2023. In the Likely Event and Variation were published by Montlake, Amazon’s romance imprint; most of her earlier romances came out with Entangled.
Footnotes
- Rebecca Yarros — Wikipedia
- Wattpad writers accuse Empyrean author of copying their novels — Bloomberg Law
- New Fourth Wing Book Announced — Book Riot
- Rebecca Yarros says it’s been ‘comforting’ to see readers relate to chronic illness representation — People via AOL
- Heartbreaking romances from Rebecca Yarros — Penguin
- Rebecca Yarros on literary tropes, chronic illness and ‘Fourth Wing’ — NPR Book of the Day (WKNO)
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“It was something I felt strongly about, and you don’t see a lot of heroines with chronic illness on the bestseller lists.”
— Rebecca Yarros on Open Book with Jenna, March 2025, as quoted in People
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations