Castle Hill Academy Books in Order

Castle Hill Academy is Emma Scott's return to coming-of-age romance, but with a prep school backdrop that adds a lot of pressure. These books live in a world of wealth, competition, family legacy, and carefully managed appearances, while still staying focused on what teenagers are feeling underneath all that polish. The result is emotional YA romance with a strong sense of place and class tension.

The setting is the coastal town of Castle Hill, Rhode Island, where old money and local history carry real weight. In Little Pieces of Light, that world is filtered through Emery Wallace and Xander Ford. Emery looks like the girl who has everything, popular, rich, and perfectly put together. Xander is brilliant, more isolated, and carrying responsibilities well beyond his age. Their history goes back to childhood, lost letters, and a connection that never really went away.

That first book makes the series' interests obvious. Scott is not especially interested in shiny prep school fantasy for its own sake. She uses the academy setting to talk about control, grief, illness, expectation, and the way class difference shapes even the most private parts of a young relationship. Rowing teams, tutoring sessions, family homes, and summer traditions all add texture, but the real focus is emotional survival.

The second book, Everything We Couldn't Say, stays in the same world while shifting to Harper Bennett and Orion Mercer. Harper is fighting for her future, her brother, and any kind of stability she can build. Orion comes from one of Castle Hill's most powerful families and looks every bit the effortless golden boy. Put them together around an academic prize, late nights in the lab, and a growing connection neither one expected, and the series moves into rivalries, ambition, and the cost of winning.

For all the money and polish, these books are interested in what hurts underneath.

That is why the series works. The academy gives Scott a natural pressure cooker. Students are expected to excel, parents are often overbearing, and the social divide between privilege and scarcity never disappears. But the books still make room for tenderness, humor, creative interests, and the intensity of being young and convinced that every choice might change your whole life.

Castle Hill Academy is a strong fit for readers who like angsty YA romance with real emotional weight. The books share a world, not one continuous romance, so you can read them as standalones, but together they build a fuller picture of the school, the town, and the teens trying to become themselves inside a system built to tell them who they should be. If you like class contrast, academic rivalry, first love, and a little coastal New England atmosphere, this series has plenty to work with.