Wildwood Dancing Books in Order

The Wildwood books follow the daughters of a Transylvanian merchant family in the early sixteenth century, weaving together fairytale motifs, family drama and vivid historical settings. They begin in an ivy covered castle in the Carpathian mountains and later travel downriver to the markets and mansions of Ottoman Istanbul.

In Wildwood Dancing, fifteen year old Jena is the practical second sister in a household of five girls. Every full moon she and her sisters slip through a secret portal in their bedchamber to the Other Kingdom, a realm of dancing, strange creatures and ancient bargains. When their widowed father falls gravely ill and must leave for the coast to recover, he trusts Jena and her older sister Tati to manage the estate. Their cousin Cezar moves in, determined to take control of the house and the surrounding forest, and his resentment of the Other Kingdom threatens the balance between the two worlds.

As winter closes in, Tati falls in love with Sorrow, a mysterious figure bound to the Night People, and begins to fade under the weight of an impossible romance. Jena, with only her wits and the counsel of her unusual frog companion Gogu, has to fend off Cezar's tightening grip, protect the forest they both depend on and decide how much she is willing to risk for her sister's happiness. The story draws on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Frog Prince and local witch lore, but the heart of it is loyalty, responsibility and learning when to trust.

Cybele's Secret shifts the focus to Paula, the scholarly sister whose idea of heaven is a good library. At seventeen she travels with her merchant father to Istanbul to bid on an ancient statue linked to the goddess Cybele. The city is a maze of competing traders, secretive cultists and shifting alliances, and Paula quickly realises she has stepped into a magical test as well as a business deal. With the help of Stoyan, a quiet bodyguard with his own past, and Duarte, a charming but unreliable sea captain, she must decipher riddles, navigate politics and decide what she is willing to sacrifice to keep a dangerous artefact from the wrong hands.

Across both books you can expect moonlit dances, river journeys, clever puzzles and careful attention to everyday life, from market bargaining to household management. The tone is warm and accessible, aimed at teen readers but rich enough for adults, and always anchored in the bonds between sisters and the pull between duty and desire.

If you like your fairy tales grounded in real places and cultures, with heroines who solve problems using thought as much as magic, the Wildwood series is a welcoming place to start.