Rosemarked Books in Order

The Rosemarked duology is a YA fantasy about a healer and a soldier forced to work together while an empire threatens both their peoples. Its world is shaped by war, occupation, and a plague that leaves some survivors marked and contagious. The story keeps its focus close to two characters who carry very different kinds of damage.

Zivah is a healer from the Dara people. When she contracts the rose plague, she expects her future to be brief and isolated, cut off from the work that has defined her life. Yet a threat to her village gives her a reason to keep moving, even when illness and quarantine make every decision more dangerous.

Dineas has survived the plague too, but in a different way.

He is an umbertouched Shidadi warrior who escaped torture by the Amparan Empire and wants revenge for what was done to his people. Dineas is willing to take risks that Zivah finds hard to accept. She is bound by a healer's commitment to preserve life, while he has learned to see violence as a possible path to freedom.

In Rosemarked, the two are sent undercover to the Amparan capital to search for a weakness in the empire. The mission puts them in close quarters and asks them to rely on each other despite clashing values, old prejudices, and the constant risk of being exposed. Their growing attraction is quiet and complicated, never separate from the choices they are making for their communities.

Umbertouched picks up after that mission leaves them with knowledge they cannot easily use and a difficult route home. As Dara and Shidadi forces prepare for war, Zivah and Dineas have to reckon with what they did in the capital, what their people expect from them, and how much each of them has changed. Zivah's illness remains an urgent part of the stakes.

The setting is broad enough for imperial politics and military conflict, but the series stays rooted in moral pressure. Can a healer break her vows for the greater good? Can a warrior return from fighting beside the enemy and still belong at home? Neither character gets to avoid the question.

Expect a slower-burn fantasy than a pure quest adventure, with espionage, divided loyalties, romance, and hard choices at every turn. Start with Rosemarked, then move straight to Umbertouched for the conclusion.