Therefore, it’s unnecessary to read the After the End books in order.[2-9] However, readers who prefer a set sequence can follow the order in which the publisher lists the books, as follows:[1]
| Order | Cover | Title | First published | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
First | 2025[1] | A healer’s interrupted wedding draws her into a political struggle. |
| 2 |  |
Bait | 2025[1] | A librarian expelled from her bunker encounters survivors and a different social order. |
| 3 |  |
Skyn | 2025[1] | A mine worker’s marriage to a cybernetic researcher connects her to a ruling industrial family. |
| 4 |  |
M.A.Y.A. | 2025[1] | A cybernetically altered escapee crosses into a wolf-shifter dimension. |
| 5 |  |
Brood | 2025[1] | An imposed marriage develops under a bunker’s restrictive reproductive and family policies. |
| 6 |  |
Taken | 2025[1] | An artist wakes prematurely from cryogenic sleep and encounters a transformed surface civilization. |
| 7 |  |
Trade | 2025[1] | A divorced agricultural specialist negotiates a new relationship after being sent outside her bunker. |
| 8 |  |
Prima | 2025[1] | An amnesiac voyager encounters an envoy who knows more about his past than he does. |
Works in sequence
First is the default starting point for exploring the series, while Bait shifts to a bunker exile discovering life on the surface, Skyn centers on marriage and conflict in a cybernetic society, and M.A.Y.A. follows an escapee entering a wolf-shifter dimension. Each introduces its own protagonists, relationship, setting, and central conflict, so none requires knowledge of the books before it.[2-5]
Brood focuses on an imposed marriage under a bunker’s reproductive rules, Taken follows an artist awakening from cryogenic sleep on a transformed Earth, Trade centers on a woman sent outside her bunker after divorce, and Prima follows an amnesiac voyager confronting a forgotten past. These four books can likewise be understood independently, allowing readers to choose among all eight titles by premise rather than follow a required sequence.[6-9]
1. First
First (2025)[1] follows healer Sofia Kuznetsov after General Gabriel Agard interrupts her wedding by invoking a law granting him authority over her wedding night. Their encounter draws her into a struggle between military leadership and a noble family inside a submerged stronghold.[2]
Its complete romance and introduction to a society divided into Alphas, Betas, and Omegas make it a practical entry point to the series.[2]
2. Bait
Bait (2025)[1] follows Alma Corvado, a librarian punished after she is caught helping women evade her bunker’s reproductive controls. Forced onto the surface, she encounters Torch and Candela and begins questioning the authorities’ account of life outside.[3]
Its three-person romance presents a separate cast and conflict centered on bunker exile and surface communities.[3]
3. Skyn
Skyn (2025)[1] follows Fawl, an unmodified mine worker who accepts an aboveground marriage contract after her fiancé abandons her. Her husband, cybernetic researcher Ben Iku, belongs to a powerful industrial family, and their arrangement draws her into disputes over technology, status, and corporate control.[4]
The marriage plot and corporate investigation develop together within a self-contained story of this cybernetic society.[4]
4. M.A.Y.A.
M.A.Y.A. (2025)[1] follows a cybernetically altered escapee who crosses from a war-damaged reality into a dimension inhabited by wolf shifters. There, Alpha Isaiah Star recognizes her as his mate, while the forces she fled threaten the pack’s territory.[5]
This installment introduces the pack, its mating rules, and the conflict between dimensions in a self-contained story.[5]
5. Brood
Brood (2025)[1] follows Cadence, a kitchen worker whose bunker authorities replace her planned marriage with a match chosen for genetic compatibility. As she and Will build a relationship, rules governing reproduction and family life increasingly shape their choices.[6]
The progression from an assigned marriage to parenthood forms a complete narrative arc within the book.[6]
6. Taken
Taken (2025)[1] follows Rhen, an artist who wakes from cryogenic preservation thousands of years earlier than planned and ventures onto a transformed Earth. Her encounter with Lacchus, a shifter among the nomadic Vironai, places her between surface life and responsibilities to the people still asleep underground.[7]
The cryogenic premise makes Rhen’s encounter with a changed civilization the foundation of a self-contained survival romance.[7]
7. Trade
Trade (2025)[1] follows agricultural specialist Gloria after her divorce exposes her to a bunker lottery that sends unmarried women outside. Her encounter with Dalton, a younger surface survivor, develops into a negotiated relationship that challenges her expectations of life beyond confinement.[8]
This book revisits the contrast between bunker authority and surface life through a new, independently developed relationship. Its mention of the Mill does not establish a chronological position relative to Brood.[8]
8. Prima
Prima (2025)[1] follows Ren, a former prince with severe memory loss, whose voyage through disputed waters brings him into contact with an envoy named Sun. Political dangers complicate their encounter, especially because Sun seems to know a past Ren cannot remember.[9]
Its alternating past and present supply the history behind their relationship within the same volume, making the maritime romance independent of the other books.[9]
References
- After the End: A Dystopian Romance Collection by Adriana Herrera. Kickstarter.
- First. Ali Hazelwood. ISBN: 9798259001534.
- Bait. Adriana Herrera. ISBN: 9798259001534.
- Skyn. Nikki Payne. ISBN: 9798259001534.
- M.A.Y.A. Nina Saxena. ISBN: 9798259001534.
- Brood. Claire Kent. ISBN: 9798259010109.
- Taken. Elizabeth Stephens. ISBN: 9798259010109.
- Trade. Cate C. Wells. ISBN: 9798259010109.
- Prima. Sherry Thomas. ISBN: 9798259010109.