Scarlett Books in Order

The Scarlett series takes Ivy Smoak's connected universe into YA territory, but it still keeps a lot of the same emotional habits. There is longing, secrecy, texting, jealousy, and a heroine who wants more from life than the people around her expect. The difference is that the stakes here are high school stakes, firsts, crushes, identity, and figuring out what kind of love is real before adulthood locks anything in.

Scarlett is James and Penny's daughter.

That detail matters, but you do not need to know all of their history to enjoy her books. What it mostly adds is extra texture. Scarlett is growing up with parents who have their own complicated past, and she has to figure out who she is outside of that legacy. In Scarlett and the Kiss Thief, she heads into senior year still carrying the kind of romantic hopes that feel huge at that age, especially around first kisses and best-friend crushes.

Then the series starts playing with masks and mixed signals. A stolen kiss from a mystery boy sets off the first book, and the football-team angle gives the story that classic high school social map, popular boys, hidden motives, people seeing only what they expect to see. The next books widen the triangle, especially once fake dating enters the picture and Scarlett has to sort out the difference between the person she thinks she wants and the person who is actually showing up for her.

That is the real hook.

The tone is lighter than Smoak's adult work, but it is not weightless. Scarlett's story still cares about insecurity, visibility, and the awkward gap between the role you have been assigned and the one you want to claim for yourself. The romance is built around anticipation more than danger, and that shift gives the series a sweeter, more openhearted feel.

It also helps that Scarlett is not a blank YA heroine. She has opinions. She gets embarrassed. She makes impulsive choices. She romanticizes things and then has to deal with the fallout when real people refuse to stay inside the fantasy. That makes her easy to root for, especially as the series moves from mystery-kiss energy into deeper questions about loyalty and growing up.

If you want an Ivy Smoak series that keeps the tension but lowers the age and brightens the mood, Scarlett is a fun lane to try. Start with Scarlett and the Kiss Thief and let the football-field mystery do its work.