Serafina Books in Order

Set around the Biltmore Estate in Asheville at the end of the nineteenth century, the Serafina books blend historical adventure, spooky mystery, and mountain magic. The series begins with Serafina, a brave, unusual girl who has been living in secret in the estate's basement with her pa, the maintenance man. By day she stays out of sight. By night she slips through hidden corridors and shadowy rooms as the estate's self-appointed Chief Rat Catcher.

That hidden life gets blown open in Serafina and the Black Cloak, when children begin disappearing from Biltmore. Serafina is the one who sees what others miss, and her search for the truth pulls her into locked rooms, secret passageways, and the dark forest beyond the estate. Along the way she teams up with Braeden Vanderbilt, a thoughtful boy from the family that owns Biltmore, and their friendship becomes one of the steady anchors of the series.

She belongs to Biltmore, but never quite fits there.

That in-between feeling powers the whole series. Serafina is torn between the polished world upstairs and the wilder world beyond the house, between human expectations and the strange gifts that make her different. As the books move from Serafina and the Twisted Staff to Serafina and the Splintered Heart and Serafina and the Seven Stars, the dangers widen from a single frightening mystery to larger threats facing both the estate and the surrounding Blue Ridge wilderness. The story keeps circling back to identity, loyalty, courage, and what it means to protect a home.

The tone is spooky, but not gloomy for the sake of it. There are monsters, storms, hunts, strange visitors, and plenty of tense chases through hallways and moonlit woods, yet the books also have warmth. Serafina's bond with her pa matters. So does her care for the living world around Biltmore, from the house itself to the animals and forests beyond it. Biltmore feels like more than a backdrop. It is part mansion puzzle, part sanctuary, and part battleground.

What readers usually get from this series is a strong sense of movement. Each book pushes Serafina farther out of hiding and asks more of her, while still keeping the pleasures that make the first novel work so well: a vivid setting, a capable heroine, a good mystery, and real emotional stakes. If you like middle grade fantasy with a creepy edge, a historical backdrop, and a heroine who learns to use what makes her different, Serafina is an easy series to sink into.