Celia Rees Books in Order (Updated March 10, 2026)

Celia Rees has written historical YA, supernatural thrillers, contemporary novels, a middle-grade time-slip trilogy, and one adult historical novel. Her books do not all belong to one shared continuity, so the useful answer is not “read everything in one giant line.” The useful answer is: read the few true series in order, then treat the rest as standalones.

For most readers, the clearest place to begin is Witch Child. It opens her best-known sequence, and it is the only major series line in her YA historical fiction. If you want a later standalone instead, Pirates!, Sovay, and The Fool’s Girl are all separate entry points.

The short version

Read these in order only where the books are actually connected:

Witch Child sequence

1. Witch Child
2. Sorceress

Trap in Time trilogy

1. A Trap in Time
2. City of Shadows
3. The Host Rides Out

Everything else is either standalone, a loose anthology contribution, or a separate adult novel.

The books that truly connect

Witch Child books

1. Witch Child (2000): Mary Newbury escapes seventeenth-century witch persecution in England and carries her secret into a Puritan settlement in America, beginning Rees’s best-known historical storyline with a diary format that makes the danger feel immediate.
2. Sorceress (2003): This sequel links modern-day Agnes Herne back to Mary Newbury more than three hundred years later, continuing Mary’s story while widening the series into inheritance, memory, and survival across generations.

Trap in Time trilogy

1. A Trap in Time (2001): Davey Williams discovers his psychic gift after a ghost walk goes wrong, setting up the trilogy’s time-slip and supernatural conflict.
2. City of Shadows (2002): The battle with the forces around Davey continues, so this works as a true middle volume rather than a detachable side adventure.
3. The Host Rides Out (2002): The year-long struggle reaches its payoff here, making this the proper finish to the trilogy rather than a standalone ghost story.

The major standalones

Historical fiction

1. Pirates! (2003): Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe cross class and race boundaries to take to the sea together, making this one of Rees’s strongest self-contained adventures about freedom, friendship, and reinvention.
2. Sovay (2008): Set against the French Revolution’s effect on Britain, this follows a young woman whose life as a highway robber turns into a larger story of political intrigue, family danger, and moral cost.
3. The Fool’s Girl (2010): Violetta and Feste move through a Shakespeare-linked quest to recover a stolen treasure, so this reads as a post-Twelfth Night historical adventure rather than part of Rees’s other historical novels.

Speculative and supernatural fiction

1. Blood Sinister (1996): Ellen Forrest’s illness and a set of Victorian diaries pull the book toward vampire horror, giving Rees an early Gothic standalone built around family history and dread.
2. The Cunning Man (2000): Finn’s fears around the Salt House and the dangerous coast at Westwater Bay turn old legends into a present threat, making this a standalone supernatural suspense novel.
3. The Vanished (1997): School legends, hauntings, and disappearances shift from rumor into investigation, making this another self-contained supernatural thriller.
4. The Stone Testament (2007): Ancient texts, looming catastrophe, and an apocalyptic clock give this a larger end-times fantasy-thriller structure than Rees’s smaller-scale ghost stories.
5. Glass Town Wars (2019): Inspired by the Brontës’ juvenile imaginary world, this turns literary invention into a fantasy conflict with battles, romance, and a teenage protagonist at the center.

Contemporary fiction

1. The Wish House (2005): Set during the summer of 1976, this is a self-contained coming-of-age novel about a familiar holiday that finally changes everything.
2. This Is Not Forgiveness (2012): Jamie’s obsession with Caro pulls him into a darker contemporary story about desire, rumor, politics, injury, and escalating emotional danger.

Adult fiction

Miss Graham’s War / Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook (2020): Edith Graham goes to postwar Germany under the cover of recipes while secretly hunting Nazis, making this Rees’s adult historical novel and a completely separate entry from her YA work.

Older early titles

These appear on the official site as earlier works, but the current site does not provide the same level of detail for all of them, so they are best treated as older standalones rather than books that need careful continuity placement:

1. Every Step You Take (1993): An early standalone and the first title listed among Rees’s older books on her official site.
2. The Bailey Game (1994): Another early standalone from the older-books section.
3. Colour Her Dead (1994): Listed as an early title, separate from the later historical and supernatural books.
4. Midnight Hour (1997): An older standalone title from the site’s backlist section.
5. Ghost Chamber (1997): Another backlist title, separate from the major series.
6. Soul Taker (1998): Listed among the older books and not presented as part of a larger sequence.
7. Truth or Dare (2000): Also listed in the older-books section without a connected-series label.

Recommended reading order

Here is the most practical way through Celia Rees’s books if you want clarity more than strict publication history:

1. Witch Child (2000): Start here if you want the best-known Celia Rees book and the cleanest entry into her historical fiction.
2. Sorceress (2003): Read second, because it is the direct sequel and depends on the emotional and historical groundwork of Witch Child.
3. Pirates! (2003): Move here if you want another historical novel, but with a completely separate cast and no continuity baggage.
4. Sovay (2008): Another good historical standalone once you know whether Rees’s historical voice works for you.
5. The Fool’s Girl (2010): Best after the earlier historical novels if you want the Shakespeare-inflected one next.
6. Glass Town Wars (2019): Read later if you want the literary fantasy branch rather than the straight historical books.
7. Miss Graham’s War (2020): Save this for when you want her adult fiction, since it is a full shift in audience and setting.

If you specifically want the supernatural side first, read:

1. Blood Sinister (1996)
2. The Cunning Man (2000)
3. The Vanished (1997)
4. The Stone Testament (2007)

If you specifically want the middle-grade trilogy, read:

1. A Trap in Time (2001)
2. City of Shadows (2002)
3. The Host Rides Out (2002)

Do any of the standalones connect?

No broad shared universe is established across Pirates!, Sovay, The Fool’s Girl, Glass Town Wars, The Wish House, This Is Not Forgiveness, and Miss Graham’s War. The continuity-sensitive parts of the bibliography are basically just the Witch Child pair and the Trap in Time trilogy.

Latest release status

The most recent Celia Rees novel I confirmed on her official site is Miss Graham’s War, published in 2020, with the UK paperback noted in 2021 under the retitled edition. I did not find a later fiction title on the official site that would change the reading order above.

FAQ

What is the best Celia Rees book to start with?

Witch Child is the safest starting point. It is one of her best-known books and opens her clearest two-book sequence.

Do I need to read Sorceress after Witch Child?

Yes. Sorceress is explicitly presented as the sequel to Witch Child, so it belongs second.

Is Pirates! part of a series?

No. It is presented on the official site as its own historical novel, not as part of the Witch Child books.

Is Miss Graham’s War YA?

No. Rees’s official site places it under her adult books and describes it as her first novel for adults.

What is the newest Celia Rees book?

From the sources I checked, it is Miss Graham’s War in 2020, with the paperback edition following in 2021.