Kricket Books in Order

Kricket starts with a heroine who has spent most of her life trying not to be noticed. Kricket Hollowell is hiding in Chicago, staying one step ahead of the foster care system, when everything changes at once. Trey Allairis, a soldier from another world, finds her and reveals that Earth is not her real home. From there the series jumps to Ethar, and the scale opens wide.

Ethar is where the books really stretch out.

It is a distant world of rival houses, political grudges, prophecy, and war, and Kricket lands in the middle of all of it. She learns that her ability to see the future makes her incredibly valuable, not just as a person, but as a weapon. That is where the central pressure of the series comes from. Trey wants to protect her. Kyon Ensin wants to claim and control her. Powerful groups on every side think they know what Kricket should do, who she should belong to, and how her gift ought to be used.

The first three books, Under Different Stars, Sea of Stars, and Darken the Stars, keep building on that problem. Kricket is not just fighting for survival. She is fighting for the right to choose her own life in a setting where prophecy, bloodlines, and politics keep trying to decide it for her. Along the way there are family revelations, shifting alliances, secret agendas, and a steady question about whether seeing the future actually helps, or only makes every decision feel heavier.

The romance is a big part of the appeal. Kricket and Trey give the series its emotional center, especially as danger closes in and trust becomes harder to protect. But these books are not only about the love story. Bartol spends a lot of time on the push and pull between personal freedom and public duty, and on the ways people can become symbols long before they are ready. Kricket refuses that role whenever she can.

That stubborn streak is a large part of her charm.

In tone, the series sits somewhere between science fantasy, portal adventure, and star-crossed romance. Ethar matters because it feels both strange and lived in, and because its beauty never makes it safe. Readers who like strong heroines, fast pacing, and high emotion will probably feel at home here. Start with Under Different Stars and keep going in order, because the story is one long struggle over Kricket's future, and the best part is watching her push back against everyone who thinks they already know it.