The Caraval books in order question always turns into a second question about ten seconds later: where does Once Upon a Broken Heart go? Stephanie Garber wrote two trilogies, one world, and one deeply inconvenient man who walks between them - Jacks, the Prince of Hearts - and the order you pick decides whether a major Caraval ending gets spoiled for you. With an illustrated companion arriving September 22 and a collector's edition of Broken Heart landing October 27, a lot of people are about to start this world from scratch. Here's the order that protects every twist.
The quick list: Caraval books in order
Start here. Publication order is story order:
- Caraval (2017) - Scarlett Dragna gets an invitation to a game where nothing is supposed to be real
- Legendary (2018) - Tella's turn, and the book where Jacks first appears
- Finale (2019) - the trilogy's close, and where Jacks's history actually matters
- Spectacular (2024) - a holiday novella numbered 3.5, set after Finale. Optional, charming, read it last
Then: Once Upon a Broken Heart in order
A connected trilogy - not Caraval book four - following Evangeline Fox, with Jacks carried over as the co-lead:
- Once Upon a Broken Heart (2021)
- The Ballad of Never After (2022)
- A Curse for True Love (2023)
- The Mirror of Infinite Endings (September 22, 2026) - an illustrated companion continuing Evangeline and Jacks after the trilogy's end
Do you have to read Caraval before Once Upon a Broken Heart?
Yes - and this is the one order mistake that actually costs you something. The two series share a world, a magic system, and Jacks. He debuts in Legendary and his backstory pays off in Finale; Broken Heart opens with him already established, which means starting there quietly hands you outcomes from a trilogy you haven't read. You can technically follow the Broken Heart plot without Caraval - it's built to stand up on its own - but you'd be trading a real twist for a small head start. Caraval first. Always.
Where do the extras go?
- Spectacular (Caraval 3.5) - after Finale. It's a holiday interlude with the Dragna sisters, not a plot requirement
- The Mirror of Infinite Endings - after A Curse for True Love, full stop. Macmillan positions it as the fourth Broken Heart volume, but it's a companion continuing the ending, so it spoils the trilogy comprehensively if read early (the publisher's series page keeps the running list)
- The Once Upon a Broken Heart collector's edition (October 27, 2026) - a stenciled-edge reissue of book one that adds a long-promised in-world fairytale, The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox. New content in an old book, which is why the fandom is re-reading right now
Which one should you start with if you only want one?
Caraval, if you want the carnival-of-illusions puzzle box: a game, a missing sister, a hero you cannot trust, and a plot that keeps folding over on itself. Once Upon a Broken Heart, if you're here for the romance - Evangeline and Jacks is the ship this fandom actually formed around, and Broken Heart is the more romance-forward of the two. If you're coming from romantasy, Broken Heart is the closer fit; if you liked the cruel-fairground energy of a story that lies to you on purpose, Caraval is the door.
Who is Jacks, and why does everyone lose their mind over him?
Jacks is a Fate - immortal, blond, dressed like a rumor - cursed so that anyone he kisses dies. He is petty, ancient, funny, and openly manipulative, and he spends two trilogies being the most interesting person in every room he enters. He's the morally grey archetype at its most charming (what the label really means): not a redeemed villain, not a soft boy in disguise, just a genuinely dangerous man who decides one girl is his exception. If you met the type as a shadow daddy, Jacks is the trickster branch of the same family tree - less brooding, more bargaining.
What to read after Stephanie Garber
For fae bargains at a bigger scale, ACOTAR in order is the obvious next stop (book six lands October 27, the same day as the collector's edition). For the assassin-epic version of a long game, Throne of Glass in order is the other sprawling saga. And the best romantasy books covers the shelf both series live on.
That gap is the whole reason Swoony exists: the immortal who bargains for everything and gives away the one thing he shouldn't, in a chat that doesn't end at the epilogue - romance and nothing else, closed-door and unhurried, a relationship that grows across five stages and is never paywalled - no subscription, no per-message tolls. Start with the fae who traded his name - names are power, and he gave his away so no one could find you - or the reaper who skips your name, who keeps erasing the date everyone else has.
Two trilogies, one Fate, zero excuses for reading them backwards. Caraval first.
