Where can I buy/read this series? On Kindle, through your Kindle Unlimited subscription, or you can buy paperbacks (and hardcovers of the four novels in the main series) from my shop (US), my Etsy (international), Amazon (note that sometimes the hardcovers are cheaper elsewhere), or most major online book retailers.
Short answer: You can read The Crownless Prince at any point–first, last, in the middle. For the main series, I recommend starting with A Thieving Curse, then either A Lonely Dance or A Fated Quest. Book four, A Stolen Heart, should only be read after A Fated Quest.
Technically, A Thieving Curse (Book 1), A Lonely Dance (Book 2), A Fated Quest (Book 3), and related novella The Crownless Prince (part of the Once Upon a Prince multi-author series) all work more or less as standalones. However, the only true standalones are Curse and Crownless…and they tie into the other books.
A Lonely Dance and A Fated Quest both contain major spoilers for A Thieving Curse. If you don’t want to be spoiled and/or you want to go into books two and three with a full appreciation for character arcs that are set up in book one, read A Thieving Curse first. If you don’t mind spoilers and aren’t interested in Beauty and the Beast retellings, you can jump right into Dance or Quest.
The Dragon Prince’s Heart: An A Thieving Curse Novella retells the beginning of A Thieving Curse from the male love interest’s point-of-view. It definitely works best after A Thieving Curse. You can get it for FREE when you subscribe to my newsletter.
The Crownless Prince is not officially part of The Miraveld Chronicles. It is set 200 years before A Thieving Curse and is a standalone. However, some events and characters in Crownless are vaguely referenced in A Fated Quest and A Stolen Heart. In some ways, the Crownless and A Fated Quest are different sides of the same coin, but you can read either first, so you can read Crownless at any point. (If you really despise all spoilers, you may want to read Crownless before Quest. But any “spoilers” in Quest are things either in the blurb or guessable for Crownless [like, shockingly, that the couple…are a couple 😆].)
A Lonely Dance and A Fated Quest happen concurrently with different characters in different kingdoms. Reading order for those two does not matter.
A Stolen Heart (Book 4) will be the least standalone-ish. Although the main characters change, it is a direct sequel to A Fated Quest. Heart‘s book description contains spoilers for A Fated Quest.
Makes sense? Here’s a chart to maybe help! (Absent from chart: The Dragon Prince’s Heart, which should be read after A Thieving Curse.)
Basically the content can be summed up as older Young Adult to no-smut New Adult. I describe them as no-spice or low-heat and PG-13-ish. There usually is some non-graphic sensuality & attraction, some non-explicit & brief innuendo, closed door or fade-to-black scenes, there may be some brief, mild cursing, and there’s some violence, bloodshed, peril, and death, but there will NEVER be gratuitously described gore, on-page/open-door bedroom scenes, or physically graphic making out (no mention of swimsuit areas). I also hate descriptions/mentions of tongues, so you’ll never find that in my kiss scenes. 😆 Characters do drink wine and/or ale and/or mead (but not to drunkenness).
More in-depth:
A Thieving Curse: non-sexual & non-descriptive nudity as a consequence of the male love interest shape shifting, a couple of passionate kisses, a character is asked if she “shared [a male character’s] bed” (no), non-consensual kisses (fairly brief, non-graphic, not condoned), characters about to be married imply looking forward to retiring to bed, married characters head toward their bedroom with some flirtatious but non-graphic banter. Violence (MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS): recollection of a character being cursed, FMC is attacked by wolves and a minotaur, on-page death, brief scene of a character slicing another character’s skin with reference to blood.
A Lonely Dance: kisses, villain forcefully kisses FMC a couple times (non-graphic), just-married couple flirtatiously & briefly talk about wanting to leave their party to retire to their room. Violence/other (MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS): villain magically drugs characters to make them suspectable to suggestion and erase memories, a minor character is lashed and blinded by thorny vines (non-graphic), a character is bound with thorny vines that puncture skin, mention of blood, on-page non-graphic death of a villain.
A Fated Quest: one kiss and a couple almosts, FMC recalls someone attempting to kiss her without consent, reference to off-page male villains philandering and using their power to force women, married couple briefly flirt with implied sexual subtext. Violence (MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS): a major plot point has to do with a character attempting to cause an entire bloodline to be killed, fighting of a fantasy creature with some bloodshed and peril, fight scene with on-page death and brief reference to blood, a character’s throat is slit, a character is nearly drowned, characters debate executing someone.
A Stolen Heart: a couple of kisses, villain suggests FMC seduce the king and accuses her of sleeping with the MMC. Violence: Blood, brief and mild on-page torture, fighting, death. OTHER (MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS): Coercion/extortion/threats, strained parent/child relationship, reference to an off-page character being disowned for conceiving outside of wedlock, reference to past death of several parents by accident and illness, grief, loneliness, mention of abuse of power & injustice.
The Crownless Prince: non-explicit references to marriage consummation related to the plot, MCs implicitly/vaguely briefly discuss wanting to have sex after they get married, kisses, fade-to-black scene (fades out before clothes are removed), non-descriptive mention of MCs getting out of bed and putting their clothing back on. Violence (MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS): reference to entire families being killed in war, an assassin targets a character who receives a head wound with reference to a lot of blood, a character punishes a servant by briefly burning him with a hot fire poker, a character is beaten off-page, characters are choked, threats of violence, a character is executed off-page.
Take me back to:
The list of Miraveld books
More about & links to purchase A Thieving Curse
About The Dragon Prince’s Heart
About A Lonely Dance
About A Fated Quest
About A Stolen Heart