Colleen Gleason Books in Order (Updated April 22, 2026)

Colleen Gleason is one of those authors who looks more complicated than she really is. The key is not to force everything into one giant reading order. Instead, split her work into shelves: the Gardella books, Stoker & Holmes, The New Vegas Chronicles, Wicks Hollow, Three Tomes Bookshop, The Draculia Vampire Trilogy, and Castle Garden Romance.

She also publishes under other names, but those are best treated as separate identities rather than mixed into a Colleen Gleason reading order.

The easiest way to start

• If you want the classic Colleen Gleason experience, start with The Rest Falls Away. That is the opening Gardella novel and still the most foundational place to begin.
• If you want her strongest YA steampunk lane, start with The Clockwork Scarab.
• If you want her post-apocalyptic paranormal world, start with Beyond the Night.
• If you want her newer cozy-paranormal lane, start with Tomes, Scones and Crones.

What belongs together

Read together

• The Gardella Vampire Hunters
• Macey Gardella & Max Denton

Those two belong to the same broader Gardella world, so the second series works best after the first.

Separate continuity

• Stoker & Holmes
• The New Vegas Chronicles
• Wicks Hollow
• Three Tomes Bookshop
• The Draculia Vampire Trilogy
• Castle Garden Romance

That means there is no single all-series continuity order for Colleen Gleason. The best approach is to read within each series in publication order and only link the Gardella branches together.

Best reading routes

Route 1: Best for most readers

1. The Gardella Vampire Hunters
2. Macey Gardella & Max Denton
3. Stoker & Holmes

This route gives you her best-known paranormal-historical work first.

Route 2: Best if you want newer and lighter paranormal

1. Wicks Hollow
2. Three Tomes Bookshop
3. The Draculia Vampire Trilogy

This is the easier modern route if you do not want to begin in the mid-2000s.

Route 3: Best if you want darker worldbuilding

1. The New Vegas Chronicles
2. The Draculia Vampire Trilogy
3. The Gardella Vampire Hunters

This path leans harder into vampires, danger, and a more dramatic paranormal tone.

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The Gardella Vampire Hunters books in order

This is the series most people mean when they talk about Colleen Gleason. Start here if you want her signature blend of historical setting, vampire action, and romance.

1. The Rest Falls Away (2007): Victoria Gardella is called to hunt vampires on the eve of her debut into London society, opening the series with its signature mix of Regency expectations and supernatural danger.
2. Rises the Night (2008): Victoria’s role as Venator grows heavier as the vampire threat widens and her emotional conflicts become harder to keep separate from the mission.
3. The Bleeding Dusk (2009): The series deepens its mythology and pushes Victoria into more complicated loyalties than the first two books suggest.
4. When Twilight Burns (2010): The balance between hunter duty, personal cost, and the wider vampire war becomes even more unstable.
5. As Shadows Fade (2011): The original Victoria arc moves toward its payoff, making this a culmination book rather than a place to begin.
6. Max Stops the Presses (short story): A Gardella short work best treated as bonus reading after the five main novels rather than part of the core entry path.

Macey Gardella & Max Denton books in order

This is the follow-on Gardella branch. Read it after Victoria’s series, because the official site itself points readers back to the original Gardella books first.

1. Roaring Midnight (2013): The Gardella world moves into the Roaring Twenties with Macey Gardella and Max Denton taking the series into a jazz-age vampire-hunting era.
2. Raging Dawn (2013): Continues the same duo and setting, building directly on the first book’s danger and partnership.
3. Roaring Shadows (2014): Expands the 1920s Gardella branch with more pressure on both the hunt and the central relationship.
4. Raging Winter (2017): Revives the series after a gap and works best once the earlier Macey books are already in place.
5. Roaring Dawn (2024): The latest listed Macey Gardella & Max Denton title on the official printable booklist, extending this branch well beyond its original run.

Stoker & Holmes books in order

This is Gleason’s YA steampunk series, and one of the cleanest places to start if you want mystery first and romance second.

1. The Clockwork Scarab (2014): Mina Holmes and Evaline Stoker join forces in an alternate Victorian world of clockwork tech, mystery, and family legacy.
2. The Spiritglass Charade (2015): Builds directly on the first book’s partnership and keeps the mystery-solving team structure intact.
3. The Chess Queen Enigma (2015): Expands the series’ conspiracy side and pushes the steampunk world into a bigger strategic game.
4. The Carnelian Crow (2017): Returns to the same duo with a darker and more artifact-driven case.
5. The Zeppelin Deception (2019): The latest Stoker & Holmes novel, continuing the series’ mix of inheritance, adventure, and gadget-driven suspense.

Wicks Hollow books in order

Wicks Hollow is a small-town supernatural suspense series. Each book has its own romantic center, but the town and tone are consistent enough that publication order is still the best route.

1. Sinister Summer (2017): Opens Wicks Hollow with the town’s cozy-but-off atmosphere, where romance, ghosts, and danger all arrive at once.
2. Sinister Secrets (2018): Deepens the town’s hidden side and shows that Wicks Hollow’s strange events are not isolated accidents.
3. Sinister Shadows (2018): Keeps the same blend of mystery and supernatural menace while expanding the recurring town web.
4. Sinister Sanctuary (2018): Pushes the series toward a stronger refuge-versus-threat dynamic inside the same eerie setting.
5. Sinister Stage (2020): Returns to the town after a gap and uses the familiar setting to stage another suspense-heavy romance.
6. Sinister Lang Syne (2020): The latest Wicks Hollow entry, positioned as book six and best saved until the earlier town relationships and mysteries are familiar.

Three Tomes Bookshop books in order

This is one of Gleason’s most inviting newer paranormal lines, with bookish magic and a lighter paranormal-women’s-fiction feel.

1. Tomes, Scones and Crones (2021): Opens the series with a magical bookshop setup that makes this one of the easiest modern entry points in the catalog.
2. Purses, Curses, and Hearses (2022): Builds on the first book’s witchy-bookish world and keeps the blend of humor, mystery, and magic.
3. Stakes, Cakes and Mandrakes (2022): Adds more supernatural mayhem while staying loyal to the cozy-magical tone of the series.
4. Hexes, Exes and Codexes (2024): The latest listed Three Tomes book, continuing the same bookshop-centered paranormal mystery lane.

The New Vegas Chronicles books in order

This is Colleen Gleason’s darker post-apocalyptic paranormal fantasy line. It is the least “cozy” shelf in her catalog and a good fit for readers who want bigger-world stakes.

1. Beyond the Night (2010): Opens a ruined-world paranormal fantasy where a handful of survivors become humanity’s best chance in a world already broken.
2. Embrace the Night (2011): Continues the same devastated setting and confirms that the first book’s threat was only the beginning.
3. Abandon the Night (2011): Pushes the survivors further into the wider consequences of the fallen world.
4. Night Beckons (2014): Revives the series after a gap and works best once the original trilogy is already in place.
5. Night Forbidden (2017): Continues the later-era expansion of the New Vegas world rather than acting as a reset.
6. Night Resurrected (2020): The current endpoint of the series, rewarding readers who have stayed with the long arc.

The Draculia Vampire Trilogy books in order

This is a shorter, more romance-forward vampire line. It is a strong alternative if you want vampires without the longer Gardella commitment.

1. Dark Rogue: The Vampire Voss (2016): Opens the trilogy with a more sensual vampire-romance focus than the hunter-centered Gardella books.
2. Dark Saint: The Vampire Dimitri (2016): Continues the same world with another aristocratic vampire lead and a similarly gothic-romantic tone.
3. Dark Vixen: The Vampire Narcise (2016): Completes the trilogy and works best once the first two vampire stories are already in place.
4. Vampire of the Caribbean: A related Tales of Lord Raine St. Albans & Captain Arial Bonny entry best treated as optional bonus reading after the trilogy.

Castle Garden Romance books in order

This is the cleanest non-paranormal Colleen Gleason shelf: historical romance, separate from the vampire and mystery lines.

1. Lavender Vows (2020): Opens the medieval romance quartet with an herb-garden setting and a more traditional historical-romance focus.
2. A Whisper of Rosemary (2020): Continues the same medieval-romance frame with another couple in the shared setting.
3. Sanctuary of Roses (2020): Deepens the series’ emotional and historical texture while staying squarely romance-first.
4. A Lily on the Heath (2020): Closes the quartet and works best as the final stop in the Castle Garden sequence.

What not to mix into this article

Colleen Gleason’s website also lists books published as Colleen Cambridge, C.M. Gleason, and Alex Mandon. Those are real parts of her overall bibliography, but they are better handled as separate pen-name reading-order pages rather than folded into a Colleen Gleason order.

Publication order by main series era

If you want the broadest sense of how the Colleen Gleason bibliography developed, this is the cleanest route:

1. The Gardella Vampire Hunters
2. The New Vegas Chronicles
3. Macey Gardella & Max Denton
4. Stoker & Holmes
5. The Draculia Vampire Trilogy
6. Wicks Hollow
7. Three Tomes Bookshop
8. Castle Garden Romance

That is not a continuity order. It is simply the clearest publication-era path.

Latest release status

For books published as Colleen Gleason, the newest title I could verify on her official Colleen booklist is Hexes, Exes and Codexes in Three Tomes Bookshop. Her site also lists a newer Roaring Dawn in the Macey Gardella & Max Denton line, so the Gardella world appears to still be active as well.

FAQs

Where should I start with Colleen Gleason?

Start with The Rest Falls Away if you want her best-known vampire-hunter series, or The Clockwork Scarab if you want YA steampunk mystery.

Do I need to read Macey Gardella after the original Gardella books?

Yes. That is the safer choice, because the second series belongs to the same broader world and the official site points readers back to Victoria’s books first.

Is Stoker & Holmes connected to Gardella?

Not in a way that requires one shared reading order. It is best treated as a separate series.

What is the easiest modern Colleen Gleason series to start?

Three Tomes Bookshop is probably the easiest current-feeling entry point if you want lighter paranormal reading.

Are Colleen Cambridge books part of this order?

No. They are by the same author, but published under a different pen name and should be handled separately.

Final recommendation

If you want one decisive answer, begin with The Rest Falls Away (2007). If you want a shorter, cleaner modern alternative, begin with Tomes, Scones and Crones (2021). If you want the broadest vampire continuity, read the Gardella books first and then continue into Macey Gardella & Max Denton.