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Ally Carter Books in Order

Browse all Ally Carter books in order, with series reading guides, summaries, and tips on where to start with her YA spies, heists, middle-grade mysteries, and adult rom-com thrillers.

Last updated: January 14, 2026

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25 books

The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold

by Ally Carter

2025

Ten years after joining the CIA and five years after falling in love, rival spies Alex and Michael are no longer speaking. Then they wake up bloody, bruised, and handcuffed together in the dark, forced to trust each other again to stay alive on their most dangerous mission.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

by Ally Carter

2024

Mystery author Maggie Chase travels to a snowbound English estate to meet her reclusive literary idol, only to find the famous hostess missing from a locked room. Trapped by a blizzard with rival writer Ethan Wyatt and a house full of suspects, Maggie must solve the case by Christmas.

The Blonde Identity

by Ally Carter

2023

A woman wakes up under the Eiffel Tower with no memory and killers on her trail. Told she is the twin of a rogue spy, she teams up with her sister’s grouchy ex-partner, posing as honeymooners on a frantic dash across Europe to survive and clear a name.

Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery

by Ally Carter

2021

Life at Winterborne House should feel safe now that billionaire Gabriel Winterborne has taken the orphans in. But when a second masked Sentinel breaks in and Gabriel vanishes, April and her friends race through booby-trapped mansions and old scandals to keep their found family together.

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor

by Ally Carter

2020

Orphan April Raven has only a mysterious key from her missing mother, until a museum fire lands her in the care of the Winterborne Foundation. At sprawling Winterborne House, she and four other kids uncover hidden tunnels, a masked vigilante, and secrets that may be tied to her past.

Dear Ally, How Do You Write a Book

by Ally Carter

2019

Aimed at teen writers, this friendly guide answers real questions about how to plan, draft, and revise a novel. Ally Carter shares her own process alongside advice from other YA authors, offering practical tips, encouragement, and a clear look at how books get made.

The Spies That Bind

by Ally Carter

2018

Set during Cammie Morgan’s first year at the Gallagher Academy, this prequel follows her arrival at spy school. Between secret passages, explosive science experiments, and new friends Liz and Bex, Cammie discovers that surviving seventh grade may be harder than any mission.

Not If I Save You First

by Ally Carter

2018

Years after a botched kidnapping separates Secret Service daughter Maddie from her best friend Logan, the president’s son, he shows up at her remote Alaskan cabin. When a new attacker drags Logan into the wilderness, Maddie has to brave ice, cliffs, and enemies to track him down.

The Grift of the Magi

by Ally Carter

2016

When a rare Fabergé egg vanishes from a children’s charity auction just before Christmas, teen thief Kat Bishop is the only one Interpol trusts to steal it back. To save the Magi Miracle Network’s reputation, Kat and her crew plan their most festive heist yet.

Take the Key and Lock Her Up

by Ally Carter

2016

Grace Blakely has learned that the blood of a long-lost princess runs in her family, a truth powerful people are willing to kill to keep buried. On the run with the few allies she trusts, Grace must decide how far she will go to protect her brother and reshape Adria’s future.

See How They Run

by Ally Carter

2015

Still reeling from what she has learned about her mother, Grace tries to keep a low profile on Embassy Row. When her brother’s visit sparks an international incident and a new death, she uncovers darker truths about Adria that make her an even bigger target.

Before the Fall: Arrival

by Ally Carter

2015

This short story introduces Grace Blakely, who is sure her mother was murdered even though everyone calls it an accident. Sent to live on Embassy Row with her ambassador grandfather, she watches every shadow for the scarred man she remembers from that night.

All Fall Down

by Ally Carter

2015

Sixteen-year-old Grace Blakely moves back to Adria to live with her grandfather, the U.S. ambassador, on Embassy Row. Haunted by her mother’s death and a scarred man she swears she saw at the scene, Grace digs into the city’s secrets until danger closes in.

United We Spy

by Ally Carter

2013

In her final semester at Gallagher Academy, Cammie finally understands why the Circle of Cavan has hunted her for so long. She, her friends, and Zach race across the globe to track down the group’s leaders before their plan can ignite a new kind of war.

Perfect Scoundrels

by Ally Carter

2013

When Hale unexpectedly inherits his family’s billion-dollar company, Kat Bishop senses a con. Investigating the will pulls her crew into a dangerous job against powerful adults, and Kat has to risk both the team and her relationship to uncover the truth.

Double Crossed

by Ally Carter

2013

At a glittering charity gala, spy-in-training Macey McHenry and billionaire thief W.W. Hale V end up trapped in a hostage situation. With no backup, they must blend Gallagher-level spy craft and Heist Society cons to outsmart armed criminals and keep everyone alive.

Out of Sight, Out of Time

by Ally Carter

2012

Months after vanishing to protect the people she loves, Cammie wakes up in a remote convent with no memory of the summer. Back at Gallagher Academy, she and her friends follow a trail of bruises and half-memories across Europe to learn what she did and why the Circle still hunts her.

Uncommon Criminals

by Ally Carter

2011

Fresh off one famous job, Kat Bishop is hired to steal the legendary Cleopatra Emerald and return it to its rightful owner. When the heist goes wrong and she is conned herself, Kat must outmaneuver a master thief and decide what kind of criminal she wants to be.

Only the Good Spy Young

by Ally Carter

2010

Under constant guard because a terrorist group wants her dead, Cammie no longer knows which of her teachers or classmates she can trust. A risky trip to rival school Blackthorne forces her to face buried secrets about her family, her mentor, and Zach.

Heist Society

by Ally Carter

2010

Teen thief Katarina Bishop tries to leave her family’s world of heists behind for boarding school, until her father is framed for stealing a mobster’s art. To save him, Kat pulls together a crew of teenage criminals for an impossible museum robbery.

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

by Ally Carter

2009

Cammie travels to Boston to support her roommate Macey on the vice-presidential campaign trail, only to fight off a shocking kidnapping attempt. As the girls turn bodyguard, every rally hides new dangers, and Cammie starts to suspect the attackers are really after her.

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

by Ally Carter

2007

Back for spring semester, Cammie thinks life at the Gallagher Academy might finally feel normal, until a mysterious class of boy spies moves in. When a security breach is pinned on her, she and her friends must uncover the real culprit to save their school.

Learning to Play Gin

by Ally Carter

2006

Julia James is no longer the face of happy singledom; she is dating rising movie star Lance Collins and watching her career wobble. Between Hollywood premieres and her quiet Oklahoma hometown, she must learn how to stay herself while building a life with someone else.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

by Ally Carter

2006

Cammie Morgan attends the Gallagher Academy, an elite boarding school that secretly trains girl spies. When she falls for an ordinary boy who can never know the truth, her first real mission becomes keeping her double life and her heart safe.

Cheating at Solitaire

by Ally Carter

2005

Self-help guru Julia James has built a career on celebrating single life, so a staged tabloid romance with struggling actor Lance Collins threatens everything. As the fake relationship spirals into real attraction, Julia has to decide whether her old rules still fit the person she is becoming.

Where should I start?

If you love YA spy school stories: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill YouCross My Heart and Hope to SpyDon't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
If you want slick teen heist capers: Heist SocietyUncommon CriminalsPerfect ScoundrelsDouble Crossed
If political thrillers are your thing: Before the Fall: ArrivalAll Fall DownSee How They RunTake the Key and Lock Her UpNot If I Save You First
If you're buying for middle-grade readers (~9–12): Winterborne Home for Vengeance and ValorWinterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery
If you want adult rom-coms with spies: The Blonde IdentityThe Blonde Who Came In from the ColdThe Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Author bio

Ally Carter grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a teacher and a farmer-rancher, and spent her childhood surrounded by fields, library books, and big family stories. Reading The Outsiders as a teen showed her that a girl from Oklahoma could publish a novel too.

She studied agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, then earned a graduate degree at Cornell. For several years she worked in agriculture by day and wrote at night, slowly teaching herself how to build stories scene by scene.

Her first published books were adult romantic comedies, starting with Cheating at Solitaire and its sequel Learning to Play Gin. Those early novels follow Julia James, a self-help expert whose life gets tangled up with Hollywood gossip, and they let Carter explore fame, identity, and how messy love can be.

Before long, her imagination drifted back toward teenagers and the books she had loved growing up. The idea that stuck was simple and hard to shake, a secret boarding school that trains girls to be spies. That became I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You and the Gallagher Girls series, which balances code-breaking classes and rooftop chases with crushes, best friends, and the slow realization that the world is more dangerous than it first appears.

After spy school came art thieves. With the Heist Society novels, Carter introduced Kat Bishop and her crew of teenage criminals who steal back stolen paintings, asking what it means to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Later, the Embassy Row trilogy beginning with All Fall Down moved the action to a Mediterranean capital where embassies share a single street and one traumatized girl believes her mother was murdered.

Along the way she has written stand-alone adventures too. Not If I Save You First strands a former Secret Service kid and the president's son in the Alaskan wilderness, while Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor and its sequel bring younger readers into a crumbling mansion full of orphans, secret passages, and a masked vigilante.

More recently, Carter has circled back to adult readers with the fast, funny thrillers in the Blonde Identity universe, and with a holiday locked-room mystery in The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year. She also wrote Dear Ally, How Do You Write a Book, an honest, practical guide for teens who want to tell their own stories.

Across all of these projects, certain patterns repeat. Her heroines are usually girls standing just to one side of power, using languages, gadgets, and good friends instead of magic to survive. The books move quickly, mix danger with jokes, and treat feelings as seriously as conspiracies.

Today Carter lives within an easy drive of her family farm in Oklahoma, close to the place that first made her dream of writing. She spends her days drafting new capers, answering questions from young writers, and occasionally pausing to enjoy the fact that stories she once wrote on the side are now read in dozens of countries around the world.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 25 Ally Carter Books in Order (Complete List 2026)