Embraced Books in Order

The Embraced books move Kerrelyn Sparks into fantasy romance, but they keep a lot of what makes her other work readable. The world is bigger, the politics are messier, and the magic is built into the setting from the start. On Aerthlan, two moons eclipse each other twice a year. Children born on that night are gifted with supernatural powers and are called the Embraced. On the mainland, those gifts are often feared, so some children are hidden away for safety. That is how the series begins, with five girls raised together on the Isle of Moon, sheltered from the violent world they were born into.

Those five girls are the heart of the series. They grow up as sisters, even before they know who they really are or what roles they might play in the kingdoms beyond the island. The first three books focus on Luciana, Brigitta, and Gwennore. In How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days, Luciana is pulled from safety into an arranged marriage with the feared Lord Leo. In So I Married a Sorcerer, Brigitta becomes tied to pirate-sorcerer Rupert and a dangerous royal conflict. In Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, Gwennore finds herself in dragon territory with a general she has every reason to mistrust. Each book has its own romance, but together they lay out the larger map of Aerthlan.

The magic matters, but the sisterhood is the real glue.

What makes the setting work is that it is not just one court or one castle. Aerthlan has multiple kingdoms, different beliefs, and long-standing rivalries. The island world worships the twin moon goddesses, while powerful mainland rulers have tried to stamp out anything that threatens their control. That gives the series a steady undercurrent of religious pressure, succession problems, border fights, and secret alliances. Sparks uses all of that to keep the romantic plots from feeling sealed off. When two people fall in love here, kingdoms can move with them.

Even so, these are not dense, heavy fantasy novels that bury the reader in lore. Sparks keeps the storytelling forward and accessible. There are dragons, pirates, shifters, elves, prophecies, and magical gifts, but they are introduced through character conflict and action rather than pages of explanation. The tone stays lively, sometimes funny, and very romance-forward. If you want fantasy politics with a lighter touch and strong relationship arcs, this series hits that balance well.

The original Embraced sequence is where you should go if you want the foundation of Aerthlan. These books introduce the rules of the world, the main families, and the emotional center that later books keep building on. Start with How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days, then continue in order. The later continuation under the Embraced by Magic label makes a lot more sense once you have spent time with these first sisters and seen how the world opens around them.