Rebecca Yarros was a successful contemporary romance author for nearly a decade before Fourth Wing made her a household name. If you discovered her through the Empyrean series and are wondering what else she's written — she has a substantial backlist of contemporary romance, including some of the most emotionally devastating military and small-town romances in the genre. Here's every Rebecca Yarros book in reading order, organised by series.
The Empyrean Series (Romantasy)
Also known as the Fourth Wing series. This is the one you actually want the reading order for. The books must be read in publication order — each ends on a cliffhanger that matters for the next.
1. Fourth Wing (2023)
Violet Sorrengail was raised to enter the quiet Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath War College — but her mother, the commanding general, orders her into the Riders Quadrant instead, where cadets who aren't chosen by dragons die. She crosses paths with Xaden Riorson, a third-year wingleader and the son of the executed rebellion leader her mother put down. Enemies-to-lovers with dragons. The book that launched the modern romantasy wave.
2. Iron Flame (2023)
Immediate sequel, released November 2023. Violet and Xaden deal with the consequences of the first book's ending. Pacing is slower; the book is deliberately denser. Divisive among fans, but essential to understanding the series.
3. Onyx Storm (2025)
The third book. Released January 2025 and sold more than 2.7 million copies in its first week according to The New York Times — one of the fastest-selling adult novels in recent memory. Course-corrected the pacing issues from Iron Flame and broadened the world's politics significantly.
4. Book 4 (expected)
Yarros has said the series will be five books total. Book 4 is expected after Onyx Storm, though no firm release date has been confirmed at the time of writing.
Rebecca Yarros's Contemporary Romance Catalog
Before Empyrean, Yarros built her reputation on contemporary romance — and she's quietly continued writing it. Her contemporary catalog spans military romance, small-town firefighter romance, extreme-sports new adult, grief-and-second-chance standalones, and co-authored series with Sarina Bowen and Devney Perry. If you came in through the dragons and want to see what else she does, this is the through-line:
- Military romance — the Flight & Glory series (5 books, starting with Full Measures). Army aviators, Apache helicopters, deployment, grief.
- Extreme sports / new adult — the Renegades series (3 books). BASE jumping, motocross, adrenaline-junkie love stories.
- Small-town firefighter romance — the Legacy series. Hotshot wildland firefighters returning home to rebuild the elite crew their fathers died for. 1 novel plus 2 prequel novellas.
- Grief and second-chance standalones — The Last Letter, Great and Precious Things, and The Things We Leave Unfinished. This is where Yarros's emotional work peaks outside Empyrean.
- Co-authored trilogies — Hush Note (rock-star romance, 2020) and Madigan Mountain (ski-resort romance, 2022), both with Sarina Bowen and Devney Perry, where each author writes one book about a different character.
- Recent contemporary — Variation (2024) and In the Likely Event (2023) are her latest standalones, proving she's still writing contemporary at full strength.
If you specifically want her contemporary work and don't know where to start: The Last Letter is the most-recommended entry point — it was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2019. Variation is the most recent. Full Measures is the first published.
Flight & Glory Series (Military Romance)
Her earliest major series and the one that established her reputation. Contemporary military romance — US Army aviators training to fly Apache helicopters. Each book can be read as a standalone, but the emotional weight compounds across the series.
1. Full Measures (2014)
Ember Howard's father is killed in Afghanistan. Josh Walker — connected to her family through the military — becomes part of her life as she copes with the loss. A grief-and-found-love novel. This is the book that introduced Yarros's signature emotional tone.
2. Eyes Turned Skyward (2014)
Paisley Donovan — daughter of the commanding general of the Army flight school — has the same heart condition that killed her sister. She's determined to finish her sister's bucket list before time runs out, and Jagger Bateman, a reckless flight student who has no idea about her condition, becomes part of that journey. Won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence.
3. Beyond What is Given (2015)
Lieutenant Grayson Masters is grinding through the Apache helicopter course when his new roommate Samantha Fitzgerald upends his focus. Single-parent angle and serious emotional stakes.
4. Hallowed Ground (2016)
The fourth Flight & Glory novel, continuing the series' aviator-and-family-aftermath through-line.
5. The Reality of Everything (2020)
The fifth and final book in the Flight & Glory series, focused on Jackson and Morgan. Self-published after the original publisher chapter closed.
The Renegades Series (New Adult / Extreme Sports Romance)
Contemporary new adult romance about a group of friends working in extreme sports — BASE jumping, motocross, freestyle. Three books, no novellas. Heart-on-sleeve emotional stakes paired with adrenaline.
1. Wilder (2016)
The book that opens the series. Critical praise from Kirkus: "Intelligent and fun, this fast-paced tale delivers kaleidoscopic settings and an adventurous love story."
2. Nova (2017)
Landon "Nova" Rhodes — twenty-two, tattooed, adrenaline-driven — is the next Renegade to fall.
3. Rebel (2017)
Penna Carstairs — "Rebel" — is FMX-treme Magazine's sexiest female athlete of the year. Closes out the trilogy.
Legacy Series (Hotshot Firefighter Romance)
Small-town contemporary romance set in the fictional town of Legacy, Colorado, where the adult children of a hotshot wildland firefighter crew — wiped out in a single catastrophic wildfire — return home to rebuild the elite team their fathers died for. Two prequel novellas plus one full-length novel so far; Yarros has hinted at more Legacy books but none have been confirmed since Reason to Believe.
0.5. Point of Origin (2016, novella)
A standalone prequel novella set in the Legacy world. Doesn't need to be read before the main series, but adds emotional context.
0.75. Ignite (2016, novella)
A friends-to-lovers prequel novella. Avery Claire and her best friend, a Legacy-born firefighter following his father's footsteps. Also standalone — read before or after Reason to Believe.
1. Reason To Believe (2022)
The first and (so far) only full-length Legacy novel. Harper takes in two foster brothers on short notice and ends up moving into the house of Knox Daniels — her older brother's best friend, who she's been silently in love with since they were kids. Knox is back in Legacy with the rest of the hotshot crew to rebuild what their fathers built. Brother's-best-friend trope, fake-relationship complications, small-town stakes.
Hush Note Trilogy (Rock-Star Romance, with Sarina Bowen and Devney Perry)
A 2020 multi-author trilogy where each author writes one book about a different member of the rock band Hush Note. Each book is a standalone but they share the band as a connecting thread. Yarros wrote book 3.
1. Lies and Lullabies (Amazon) (Sarina Bowen, 2020)
Hidden-pregnancy second-chance romance. Kira meets Jonas — secretly a rock star — for one summer; five years later his tour bus pulls into her small town in Maine and he meets the daughter he didn't know existed.
2. Rifts and Refrains: A Small Town Second Chance Romance (Amazon) (Devney Perry, 2020)
Quinn Montgomery, Hush Note's drummer, returns home to Montana for a family tragedy and runs back into Graham Hayes, the boy she left behind without saying goodbye.
3. Muses and Melodies (Rebecca Yarros, 2020)
Zoe is the band's assistant manager, tasked with keeping lead guitarist Nixon Winters sober and functional for six months after rehab — if she can, she gets her own band to manage. Yarros's contribution to the trilogy. Emotional weight typical of her catalog: addiction, family wounds, and a deeply-earned epilogue.
Madigan Mountain Trilogy (Ski-Resort Romance, with Sarina Bowen and Devney Perry)
A 2022 follow-up to Hush Note — same three-author format, this time set at a family-owned ski resort in Colorado. Each book is about one of the three Madigan brothers. Yarros wrote book 2.
2. A Little Too Close (Rebecca Yarros, 2022)
Yarros's entry in the trilogy. Nine years ago, Weston Madigan saved a heartbroken, pregnant runaway by giving her a job at his family's resort — then left town the next day and never came back. Now she's living in employee housing at Madigan Mountain, raising her son, when Weston returns. Small-town single-parent romance with a hidden-baby angle.
Standalones
The Last Letter (2019)
Beckett receives a letter from his fallen brother-in-arms with one request: get out of the army, go to Telluride, and look after his little sister Ella, who's raising her brother's twin children after she lost her grandmother, her parents, and now him. Single-POV grief romance. Kirkus named it one of the best books of 2019. The most-cried-over book in Yarros's backlist.
Great And Precious Things (2020)
Six years ago, Camden Daniels came back from war without his younger brother — and no one in the small town of Alba, Colorado, would forgive him, especially his father. He swore he'd never return. When he receives a desperate message from his father, he comes home. And home is where Willow, the one woman he can never have, has been waiting. Single-POV from Camden's perspective, emotionally heavy, arguably her most literary standalone.
The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021)
Dual-timeline historical romance. Georgia Stanton inherits her late great-grandmother Scarlett's estate in Colorado after a brutal divorce, only to come face-to-face with Noah Harrison — the bestselling romance author her publisher has chosen to finish Scarlett's unfinished final novel. The contemporary timeline interweaves with Scarlett's own WWII love story with an American pilot. Won Yarros significant critical attention and is widely considered her strongest pre-Empyrean work.
In the Likely Event (2023)
Izzy Astor and Nate Phelan meet on a holiday flight. Ninety seconds after takeoff, the plane goes down in the Missouri River. They survive — and over the years their paths keep crossing, never at the right moment. Nate becomes a soldier; Izzy goes into politics. They finally collide again in Afghanistan, where Nate is assigned to protect her. Sweeping, dual-timeline-adjacent, military-political romance.
Variation: A Novel (2024)
Her most recent standalone. Allie is a celebrated ballerina who returns home one summer and unearths years of family secrets — and faces the Coast Guard rescue swimmer she never forgot. A return to her contemporary strengths after the Empyrean phenomenon.
How to Choose Your Starting Point
If you want the dragons: Fourth Wing. Obviously.
If you want her contemporary work specifically: The Last Letter is the most-recommended starting point — single-POV, devastating, Kirkus Best Book of 2019, and a true gateway into her pre-Empyrean voice. Variation (2024) is the most recent if you want something newer.
If you want to be devastated in the best way: The Last Letter. Have tissues ready.
If you want her most recent non-Empyrean work: Variation. Proof she still writes beautiful contemporary when she wants to.
If you want military romance done right: Full Measures (book 1 of Flight & Glory).
If you loved the emotional weight and dual-timeline structure of Empyrean: read The Things We Leave Unfinished. It shares DNA with Yarros's best character work and has the same generational, heart-wrenching scope.
If you want firefighters and small-town stakes: Start with Ignite or jump straight to Reason to Believe (Legacy series).
What ties Rebecca Yarros's entire catalogue together — across romantasy, military romance, contemporary, small-town firefighter, and rock-star — is a willingness to put her characters through genuine grief. She's not afraid of heavy. That's why Fourth Wing hit the way it did; the dragons are great, but the emotional stakes are what make the series work.