Everything Sarah J. Maas Has Said About A Court of Splintered Harmony

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Sarah J. Maas Reveals 2 New ACOTAR Titles in Major Double Book Announcement

Thank the Mother—it’s finally time to return to Prythian.

Over five years after the fifth installment of Sarah J. Maas’ bestselling A Court of Thorns Roses series, A Court of Silver Flames, was released, the sixth book, A Court of Splintered Harmony, will be hitting bookshelves Oct. 27.

Following years of anticipation from the readers who look at the stars and wish, Maas officially announced in March not one, but two ACOTAR books were on their way, later revealed to be titled A Court of Splintered Harmony and A Court of Forgotten Melody, respectively.

And praise the Cauldron—as the New York Times bestselling author emphasized that she didn’t want readers to have to wait too long for the seventh book, which will come out less than three months after Splintered Harmony on Jan. 12.

But the reason wasn’t just written by fate. After all, Maas shared that since both installments are closely connected, she’s releasing them “within a very short span.”

"It's just the story that was finally ready to come out of me was big—really, really, really big," she shared during a March 4 appearance on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast. "And as I started writing this in, like, Montana, like energy vortex, it came out of me in a way that surprised me. I like to do parts—like, part one, part two, part three—by the time I got to the end of part one, it was like 400 pages long."

Deciding to forgo the “traditional format of a book,” Mass shared the one Middengard Wyrm-sized tale will be told in four parts—the sixth book will cover part one, the seventh will include two and three, and the yet-to-be-written ACOTAR 8 will encompass the fourth and final part.

Maas described the first three parts as “really f--king long”—and Mor doesn’t need to weigh in to show her words ring true. Indeed, A Court of Splintered Harmony is 352 pages in its hardback, while A Court of Forgotten Melody has a length of a whopping 896 pages.

And the overall four-part, three-book spectacle has a name of its own: The Valkyrie Cycle, with each part described as a “movement.” Therefore, the sixth book’s full title is A Court of Splintered Harmony: The Valkyrie Cycle, Movement I.

eiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

As for what story ACOTAR 6, specifically, will be telling? Maas has kept mum on who may be finding love next following Feyre and Rhysand's fated tale and Nesta and Cassian’s spicy romance. 

However, when revealing the book’s title and pink-and-yellow gradient cover on Instagram in August, Maas shared the teaser, “What was broken will be remade.”

The thought-provoking line was later confirmed to be the first of the Splintered Harmony’s full description, which teases that Prythian will face the “insidious threat” of Koschei the Deathless.

“The Night Court will not stand idly by while innocents are attacked,” the description adds. “But with Prythian still piecing itself together in the wake of the devastating Hybern War, the task of uniting is proving more difficult by the day.”

With the Night Court also “reeling with recent betrayals and revealed truths,” they “must find a way to repair the splintered harmony all around them” in order to survive.

Bloomsbury Publishing

And unlike the previous full-length novels in the series, Maas and her publisher confirmed ACOSH will feature multiple point of views, similar to A Court of Frost and Starlight, along with Maas’ other series Throne of Glass and Crescent City.

Among the POVs who will featured in A Court of Splintered Harmony are Feyre, Nesta, Lucien and Cassian. 

Additionally, Bloomsbury announced Splintered Harmony will feature all previously published bonus chapters, including Nesta and Cassian’s bonus chapter from A Court of Mist and Fury, along with two Silver Flames bonus chapters: one featuring Feyre and Rhys, and another—a much-debated chapter—from Azriel’s POV.

Speaking of Silver Flames, the last full-length ACOTAR book left us off with an epic conclusion as main protagonist Nesta triumphantly completed the Blood Rite alongside her fellow Valkyries, Gwyn and Emerie, and defeated the evil queen Briallyn.

Then, Nesta, using the Dread Trove—the Mask, the Crown and the Harp—made a bargain with the Cauldron to save a dying Feyre (and by association, Rhys) during childbirth.

Bloomsbury Publishing/Instagram

While the book ended with Feyre giving birth to a healthy baby Nyx, and Nesta accepting her mating bond with Cassian, the threat of death god Koschei, tension between courts and an impending war are still at play. (To fully get you up to speed, click here for a refresher of the ACOTAR series so far.)

But there’s also the subsequent events in the third Crescent City book, House of Flame and Shadow, that went down before A Court of Splintered Harmony. But without getting into full-on spoiler territory, Maas confirmed her three series—ACOTAR, Crescent City and Throne of Glass—all exist in a multiverse and the worlds overlap.

With that in mind, Maas has more than just ACOTAR 8 and the fourth Crescent City book cooking in the Cauldron.

“There's one book that I'm going to be writing after this next ACOTAR book that I'm very excited about,” she teased during a Today interview in 2024. “I'm not going to say what world it's in. I'm not going to say anything. It's a story that's been brewing in the back of my mind for a long time. I think it's going to be a very emotional book for me to write, just in terms of the world I'll be writing and the characters that might pop up.”

To find more books to dive into while curling up in the House of Wind this fall, keep reading…

Atria Books

The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins

Release: September 1

Three generations under one roof is bound to be a place of love and a whole lot of fraught emotions. That is certainly the case with The Three Graces of Pearl Street, which follows three relatives—a 96-year-old Italian American matriarch, her newly-divorced daughter and college dropout granddaughter—living together in New York. Beautifully capturing the complicated dynamics loved ones often share, the novel is deeply empathetic, full of warmth and nuance as Graces explore what life has to offer and how it leads them back to each other.

G.P. Putnam's Sons

Under Story by Chloe Benjamin

Release: September 1

Scientist-turned-dishwasher Laurel self-exiled to a remote research station on Antarctica to escape her past, which catches up with her anyway when her ex-husband Eli arrives with a team of scientists to examine a mysterious light. Believing the captivating light may lead to an alternate existence, the pair set off on an adventure, which forces them to look back on the tragedy that shaped them and how they could possibly find a path forward together.

Scribner

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman

Release: September 8

This may be the season of Hoffman—and not just because her novel The Book of Magic has been transformed for the screen into Practical Magic 2. She’s also delivering a delightful blend of witchiness and dark academia in this McCarthy era-set novel following Ava and Lauren who are recruited into a society of witches during their first year at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

However, as members of the Lilith Society begin to go missing, the two are forced to reckon the state’s witch trial past—and whether it’s followed them into the present.

Doubleday Books

The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon

Release: September 8 

The legend of Grace O’Malley, the 16th century Irish heroine is well-documented, from James Joyce’s references in Finnegan’s Wake to Anne Chambers’ definitive 1979 biography, Gráinne Ní Mháille. (O’Malley is often referred to in Irish as Gráinne Mhaol.) Now, Lawhon is taking O’Malley’s life and rebellious legacy as inspiration into her new novel, an action-packed, epic reimagining of the woman often remembered as the Pirate Queen of Ireland.

Gallery Books/Scout press

Queenie Is Working on It by Candice Carty-Williams

Release: September 8

Eight years has gone by since Queenie’s extremely difficult year. Now 33, she’s thriving as the editorial director at a leading media network. But when unexpected news about her fertility is revealed, Queenie has to confront jarring questions about what she wants her future to look like—and who will be by her side during it. And she is doing so with her loving, if a bit overbearing friends and family at her side. Once again, Carty-Williams delivers a flawed, relatable main character navigating the confusing crossroads so many of her readers also face. Sure, Queenie is still working on it, and for that we are grateful.

Pamela Dorman Books

We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman

Release: September 15

Two years after introducing his Thursday Murder Club fans to another team of crime-solvers, this new trio—retired police officer Steve, his private security guard daughter-in-law Amy and beloved thriller writer Rosie—and their ever-broadening group of allies are back on the case. 

This time, they’re trying to find out why the life of a low-level criminal is being threatened. That is, until, the bodies begin piling up, sending them on a world-wide adventure that makes it clear there is more to this criminal enterprise than fake vitamins.

Flatiron Books

Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo

Release: September 15
Galaxy Stern has literally made it to hell and back, but her most dangerous battle may still lie on this side of the veil. Bardugo’s third and final edition in the Ninth House series, Dead Beat, will see Alex and her friends—including the newly demonically-enhanced Darlington—fight to reclaim Yale from the monsters that have been unleashed upon New Haven from Underworld.

After all, she was the one who left the door open. 

William Morrow Books

Call Off the Dark by Hallie Shepherd

Release: September 22

Yesteryear meets The Turn of the Screw in this spooky debut. Helen has sought refuge in isolation and in the arms of a new man after her husband Tyler is killed in a horrific murder. But while her secluded, simple life in the woods with her new husband Wade—whom she married impulsively in the wake of Tyler’s death—seems like Helen’s path towards healing, everything is turned upside down when Wade’s younger brother Isaac shows up one day.

The problem? Wade says Isaac has been dead for years. 

Riverhead

Ply by Hernan Diaz

Release: September 29
In a dystopian city centuries into the future, an orphan survives on stealing electricity on the black market, a dangerous job that ultimately leads her to a groundbreaking invention that may shape everything to come. It’s a high-concept story about resilience, trust in found family and the perils of putting too much faith in technology.

Cardinal Publishing

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

Release: September 29

Nearly a decade after her beloved, sweeping historical fiction novel Pachinko, Lee is back with another mesmerizing family saga. Following the Koh family—parents John and Helen and three kids Bo, DH and Mido—as they depart their native South Korea for Australia and later Southern California following a scandal and the 1997 financial crisis.

Tracking the Kohs throughout the ‘90s and into the late aughts, the novel explores the hagwon education system, price of ambition, and what it means to find success—and fulfillment—in life.

Crown

I Want to be Famous by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber

Release: September 29

The landscape of celebrity—and the criteria of what it means to be one—is ever-evolving, and at times perplexing. Luckily, Finger and Weber have spent the last decade breaking it down with their beloved podcast Who? Weekly, through their concept of Whos (the wannabe A-listers) and the Thems (the true stars).

Like their podcast, I Want to be Famous, is funny and engaging, but it’s also thoughtful in how it explores pop culture and how social media has changed the meaning of celebrity—plus its effect on the Who/Them binary. Though the book is just as excellent for non-listeners of their podcasts, the Wholigans can rest easy knowing the pair’s reverence for Rita Ora and all she is up to follows them onto the page. 

Harper

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver

Release: October 6

In 1989, Livia had fled the confines of her Tennessee farm for a prestigious music scholarship on her quest to become a concert pianist. Decades later, she’s back in her Tennessee hometown, married to a childhood friend and making a living teaching piano—her past firmly in the rearview. That is, until a fateful phone call from an ex brings it all back. Weaving between two timelines, the book retraces her coming of age and the incident that ended her musical ambitions—as her present-day self looks back on that pivotal period in her life. 

St. Martin's Press

Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson

Release: October 6

It starts with a bitter feud between a novelist and a critic. Parker Navarro blames Selina Chan for the failure of his book four years prior. With his new work set for release, she is once again ready to eviscerate it. Only this time around, between the blistering online barbs, it leads to a private reckoning that neither are prepared for.

HarperCollins

The Sixth Faction by Veronica Roth

Release: October 13
What happened if Tris Prior never joined Dauntless during Choosing Day? That’s been a key question since Roth released the first installment of the Divergent trilogy in 2011. And at last, she is answering the question by turning back the clock and revisiting Tris’ Choosing Day. Only in this story—the first in a duology–tragedy strikes, leading her to an underground rebellion, where she may just meet a fateful boy all over again.

Scribner

Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus

Release: October 13

The Pecks may just be the most ruthless editors you’ll ever meet. In Garmus’ sophomore outing, Batter Gray is aimlessly navigating post-grad life in ’82, until the poetry fiend earns a position at prestigious literary magazine Peck & Peck, where he soon becomes entangled with the warring brothers who lead the publication. Plus, he gets a front-row seat to the baffling lengths staffers will go to find the latest poetry great. 

Dvon

Wench by Erynne Rivers

Release: October 13

Wench takes the legend of Robin Hood you know and love and ages it up into a lush, magical and, we’ll say it, sexy new novel.

This time, Maid Marian is thrust into the arms of fate when her carriage—while whisking her towards Sheriff Nottingham, the evil despot to whom she’s been betrothed—is robbed by the Merry Men, a group of lethal fae. But while Marian has been taught to fear and revile the fae above all else, her time in Sherwood Forest (and alongside its mysterious yet inexplicably alluring leader Robin Hood) will challenge everything she thought she knew about good and evil and love.

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