The Evermore Chronicles Books in Order

The Evermore Chronicles is the most overtly adventurous of Emily R. King's series. It opens with Everley Donovan, the lone survivor of her family's murder, staying alive only because her uncle built her a clockwork heart. That detail tells you a lot about the books right away. This is fantasy, but it has gears in it. It also has grief, obsession, and a heroine who knows her borrowed time is always ticking.

In Before the Broken Star, Everley wants one thing: to expose Killian Markham, the man who shattered her life and left her for dead. Her search pulls her out of familiar ground and into a world of cursed islands, forced bargains, uneasy allies, and hidden histories. Lieutenant Jamison Callahan becomes one of the key people in that journey, but the books never let romance smooth away the danger. Everley is stubborn, wounded, and often running on nerve alone.

Time is not just a theme here. It is a deadline.

As the trilogy moves through Into the Hourglass and Everafter Song, the scope widens fast. Everley's revenge quest turns into a race across the seven worlds, with stolen relics, dangerous crossings, and increasingly strange realms standing between her and the truth. She travels through places like the Land Under the Wave and the Silver-Clouded Plain, chasing Killian while trying to stop damage that could reach far beyond her own life. By the final book, she is not only hunting a prince. She is fighting to prove her innocence and keep whole worlds from coming apart.

The appeal of this series is the mix. It has a steampunk edge because of Everley's heart and the machinery around it, but it also leans into portal fantasy, sea adventure, romance, pirates, old gods, and a steady sense of wonder. King likes to move Everley into places that feel risky and a little uncanny, then make her improvise her way through them. The books stay readable because Everley's voice and purpose are always clear, even when the world around her gets weirder.

Under all the action, the trilogy keeps circling a few big questions. What do you do when revenge has shaped your whole life? How much of yourself can you give away before you stop recognizing who you are? And can love or loyalty survive when time itself feels broken? Everley's clock heart makes those questions literal, but they would still matter without the fantasy machinery.

If you like YA fantasy that keeps its feet moving, this is probably the Emily R. King series to try first. It starts with one girl and one wound, then opens into a much bigger story without losing the personal pressure that made the first book work. Even at its largest, The Evermore Chronicles stays close to Everley's fear, grit, and refusal to quit.