The Golden Age of Magic Books in Order

The Golden Age of Magic series takes the fairy godmother idea and sets it loose in the late 1920s. First Hollywood, then New York. Smith uses that backdrop well, because both cities are built on reinvention, spectacle, ambition, and the uneasy gap between the life people sell and the one they actually live.

The main character is Celeste, a young woman hoping to earn full standing among the Fées Gardiennes, a centuries-old sisterhood of fairy godmothers. Her task is simple in theory and messy in practice: find a protégé and help guide that person toward the future meant for them. In The Golden Age of Magic, that mission leads her to Rose, a talented studio seamstress whose dreams reach far beyond the workroom.

Hollywood matters here.

This is not just a magical coat of paint over a period setting. The first book leans into the machinery of the silent film era, costume rooms, studio politics, gossip, false glamour, and the way whole identities can be built under bright lights. That makes it a smart place for a story about destiny and performance. As accidents mount on the lot and a murder puts Rose in real danger, Celeste has to grow up quickly and learn that helping someone toward their future can carry a real cost.

The second book, The Gilded City of Dreams, widens the map. Celeste heads into 1920s Manhattan with a sacred relic tied to the heart of her sisterhood, and the stakes move beyond one studio and one protégé. A theft, a disappearance, and deeper trouble inside the magical order turn the series into something larger, a story about responsibility, trust, and who gets to shape the future of an old power.

Celeste is an appealing guide through all of this because she begins with hope and has to learn judgment. She wants to help. She wants to believe in the sisterhood. She wants to do the right thing. The books keep testing what those wishes mean when jealousy, ambition, and dark magic get involved.

If you want historical fantasy with glamour, mystery, and a fresh spin on familiar fairy lore, this series is easy to recommend. Read it in order for the full arc of Celeste's growth and for the larger questions about what a fairy godmother is really meant to do.