Addie Thorley Books in Order

Addie Thorley grew up in Utah, where her early interests already pointed in a few different directions. She played soccer, rode horses, and filled time with stories of her own. Those pieces still fit together in the books she writes now, which tend to bring danger, motion, magic, and young people facing difficult choices.

She studied journalism at the University of Utah. It gave her training in reporting and clear storytelling, but she eventually decided hard news left out two things she wanted more of: magic and kissing. Fiction was the better fit.

That turn led to An Affair of Poisons, her debut novel. Set in an alternate version of seventeenth-century France, it follows a young alchemist caught up in a poisoning plot after the death of King Louis XIV. The book draws on the real Affair of the Poisons scandal, then takes the history in a new direction with alchemy, political unrest, and an uneasy partnership between Mirabelle Monvoisin and Josse de Bourbon.

Thorley likes worlds where loyalty is never simple.

With Night Spinner, she moved into a colder, war-torn fantasy setting. Enebish, a fallen warrior who can command darkness, has been blamed for a massacre and sent away from the life she knew. Her search for a path back forces her to question the empire, the people she loves, and the story she has been told about herself. Sky Breaker continues that story as Enebish and her former allies face war, hunger, old grudges, and a threat larger than the borders of either country.

The two Night Spinner books make a good match for readers who enjoy a dark fantasy journey with military conflict, complicated friendships, and a heroine trying to separate guilt from truth. The series also leaves room for tenderness and humor, especially in Enebish’s connection with her friend Serik, without losing sight of the bigger dangers around them.

Her later novel, Burn the Kingdom Down, returns to royal politics and revenge. Princess Indira enters an arranged marriage in an enemy nation after her sister dies under suspicious circumstances. What begins as a plan to find a killer becomes a harder question about power, family secrets, and what she is willing to destroy for justice.

Across these books, Thorley often writes characters who have been underestimated, misled, or made to carry blame that does not fully belong to them. Her settings may include courts, monasteries, snowy tundra, or magical kingdoms, but the pressure is personal: whom can you trust, what do you owe the people you love, and what happens when the official version of events falls apart?

She also keeps a little everyday texture close at hand. Thorley lives in San Diego with her family and wolfdogs. When she is not writing, she enjoys walking her dog and crocheting tiny plushies.

It is a nice contrast to the high-stakes problems on the page.