Emily (Katie MacAlister) Books in Order

The Emily books are Katie MacAlister's young adult travel comedies, and they know exactly how embarrassing teenage life can become once you add foreign trips, family expectations, and the possibility of making a fool of yourself in more than one country. Emily is the kind of heroine who keeps getting dropped into situations that should be manageable and then watching them become absolutely not manageable.

That is the series engine.

These books follow her through a string of adventures that blend culture clash, crushes, friendship strain, and comic self-consciousness. London, Scotland, France, and other away-from-home settings give the stories their movement, but the real appeal is Emily's perspective. She notices the wrong thing, worries about the right thing, and has the particular intensity that makes teen problems feel both hilarious and completely life-ending.

MacAlister writes the series in a bright, readable way. The humor is not there to mock Emily. It comes from the gap between how she wants events to go and how spectacularly they refuse to cooperate. That keeps the books warm even when the mortification level is high.

There is also a nice loose continuity to the series. Emily grows, relationships shift, and the books feel linked by her voice as much as by plot. You can watch her get a little older without losing the basic promise of the stories, which is that another trip, another scheme, or another attractive disaster is always waiting just ahead.

If you want YA that is funny, breezy, and built around teen chaos rather than heavy angst, Emily is a very easy recommendation. These books are about growing up, but they are also about surviving the long stretch of time when every conversation feels like it might become a story you never live down.