Into The Crooked Place Books in Order

The Into the Crooked Place books are a two-book YA fantasy series set in Creije, a city built on deals, debts, and illegal magic. Instead of one chosen hero, Alexandra Christo gives you four young people who are already deep in trouble when the story begins: Tavia, Wesley, Karam, and Saxony. Each of them knows a different corner of the city, and each has a different reason to keep moving.

Creije matters. It is a place of markets, clubs, fighting rings, rail lines, and back-alley bargains, where magic is both trade and trap. Tavia sells dark-magic wares and dreams of getting out. Wesley has clawed his way up from the streets and wants power. Karam works as a fierce guard and fighter. Saxony is hiding in plain sight while holding on to her anger against the people who destroyed her family.

Nobody here gets to be simple.

The series kicks off in Into the Crooked Place, when Tavia passes along a vial of dark magic without knowing what it really is. That one mistake cracks open a much bigger conflict and forces the four of them together. The pleasure of the book is not that they instantly become a perfect team. It is the opposite. They lie, circle each other, protect old grudges, and keep private plans tucked away. Trust has to be earned scene by scene.

That makes the tone feel closer to a gangster story or a fantasy heist than to a clean quest. There are schemes, debts, power plays, and people who have learned to survive by keeping one hand on a weapon and the other on a secret. The magic has that same rough edge. It is sold, hidden, abused, and weaponized, and Christo uses it to show how uneven power can be in a city like this. Romance is there, but it never pushes aside the sharper questions about loyalty, class, revenge, and what it costs to stay alive.

City of Spells takes that setup and widens it. After the fallout of the first book, the group is split, hurting, and running out of options. Tavia, Saxony, and Karam try to rebuild a rebellion, while Wesley fights the Kingpin's dark influence from inside the enemy's grip. The stakes move beyond street survival into open war, but the books never lose sight of the friendships and betrayals at the center.

If you like ensemble fantasy, morally gray characters, and worlds that feel a little dirty under the fingernails, this duology is an easy fit. The appeal is not polished heroism. It is watching damaged, stubborn people decide whether they can become more than the roles their city handed them. Start with Into the Crooked Place and go straight into City of Spells, because the second book is very much about the fallout.