Evelyn Skye Books in Order

Evelyn Skye writes young adult, middle grade, and adult fiction, but her books tend to share a few things: a strong hook, big feelings, and a touch of magic. She is the author of eleven novels, including the duologies The Crown's Game and Circle of Shadows, plus standalones like Damsel, The Hundred Loves of Juliet, and The Incredible Kindness of Paper. She lives in California with her husband and daughter.

She grew up in Southern California and was a serious reader long before she became a published author. In high school, reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov sparked a lasting fascination with Russian history and literature. She has also said that, as a teenager, she wrote poems and a very bad Hamlet-with-vampires story just for fun.

That interest took her to Stanford, where she studied Russian literature and history, and then to Harvard Law School. Before writing full time, Skye spent six years practicing law, mainly in mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property licensing. She has said she was good at the work, but it was not the thing she loved most. The real turn came during maternity leave, when she fell back in love with reading and decided to try writing seriously. With help from her parents, she worked on an early manuscript in the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library while they watched her daughter.

That was the beginning.

Success took time. She wrote eight complete manuscripts before selling her ninth. That book became The Crown's Game, her 2016 debut, a romantic fantasy set in an alternate Imperial Russia where two young enchanters must duel for a single place beside the tsar. It went on to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

A lot of her fiction starts with a pressure-cooker premise.

In Circle of Shadows and Cloak of Night, she shifts into a more martial kind of fantasy, with bonded warriors, spies, and political danger in the island kingdom of Kichona. Damsel flips the princess-and-dragon setup on its head, while Princess Private Eye shows a lighter, playful side, following a foster kid who learns she's a princess and immediately has a mystery to solve.

Her adult books keep the pace but widen the emotional lens. The Hundred Loves of Juliet imagines Romeo and Juliet across lifetimes, One Year Ago in Spain mixes romance with the uncanny when a woman's boyfriend lies in a coma while his soul wanders, and The Incredible Kindness of Paper builds a love story out of paper roses, missed chances, and the quiet force of kindness. Even when the setup is fantastical, Skye tends to write about recognizable things: longing, second chances, loneliness, loyalty, and the way love can rearrange a life.

She has also worked on collaborative projects with Netflix and Disney, which fits her range. Her stories move easily between lush YA fantasy, contemporary romance with a magical edge, and younger adventures built around mystery and heart.

These days, alongside her fiction, she runs a storytelling-centered Substack and podcast. She still lives in California, still reads a lot, and has admitted to an obsession with beautiful cakes. That mix feels about right for her books, serious heart, playful surfaces, and a belief that wonder is worth making time for.