Sara Raasch Books in Order

Sara Raasch was born in Ohio and grew up among cornfields, the sort of place where imagination has plenty of room to wander. She studied Organizational Leadership at Wright State University, but the writing part of her life started long before college.

When she was five, her friends had a lemonade stand and she showed up with hand-drawn picture books to sell. It is one of those early stories that explains a lot. She was already making worlds and trying to put them in readers' hands.

Books were clearly the plan.

Her debut, Snow Like Ashes, brought her to a wide YA fantasy readership. The series follows Meira, a refugee determined to reclaim the Kingdom of Winter, and readers connected with the mix of wintry magic, court politics, and a heroine who has to grow into power instead of instantly owning it. The first book reached the New York Times list, and Ice Like Fire later climbed even higher.

Raasch kept working in that high-stakes fantasy space, but she did not keep repeating herself. These Rebel Waves and These Divided Shores trade ice and kingdoms for botanical magic, pirates, religion, and postwar politics. Her collaboration with Kristen Simmons on Set Fire to the Gods leans into elemental gods, arena combat, and enemies who cannot stop getting pulled back toward each other.

She likes big systems, messy loyalties, and characters who have to choose who they are under pressure.

In recent years she has moved into adult fantasy romance without losing her love of elaborate premises. The Nightmare Before Kissmas and Go Luck Yourself turn holiday royalty into queer romantic chaos, while The Entanglement of Rival Wizards brings that same quick wit to rival grad students in a magical university setting. Readers who pick up a Raasch novel often come for the hook, but stay for the banter, yearning, and the sense that the fantasy world has rules, history, and a pulse.

She has also written darker historical romantasy with Beth Revis. In Night of the Witch and The Fate of Magic, witches and hunters move through a world shaped by fear, faith, and violence. In The Crimson Throne, the setting shifts to the court of Mary Queen of Scots, with spies, fae politics, and danger closing in from every side.

That range makes sense when you look at the rest of her work life. Raasch has spent more than a decade in publishing and has also worked as a copyeditor and copywriter, which may help explain why her books tend to feel both carefully built and easy to move through.

She now lives in southeastern Virginia. Even with bestselling series, new genres, and a growing backlist, there is still something endearingly consistent about the picture: a writer who started out making little books by hand and never really stopped.